Poll: Are MU* video games?

Arkandel

Let's settle this, once and for all!

Apos

Pretty decently sized blind population that plays MUs through accessibility features. Can't think of a video game where that's true.

saosmash

I call it collaborative storytelling when asked to explain what my hobbies are by random humans.

Goldfish

@saosmash That's exactly the word I stole from here to use to talk to normals.

I would say no to it being video game because of the collaborative nature of the story and plot. I keep thinking of a story heavy, lo-ish fi video game like Fallout 1. And I think, how would the experience change if another person was on the other end of that NPC. A person with a countless ideas on how the conversation should go and you have no direct control over it.

Because, no matter the system, when you are in a scene, the other play can type back anything. You think you are chatting about pets over coffee when suddenly BOOM. They have blown your head off. To further my point, you don't get to step aside after making a bad choice in a video game and save to the NPC, "Hey, you know what...I shouldn't have said that. Let me try again?"

So. No. It's improv, to use a more common term.

EDIT: @Apos There is a video game out now, A Blind Legend that is aimed at the visually impaired. They are taking advance of high quality 3D audio. So, while it's just one game, there is innovation happening.

Arkandel

Y'all are wrong!

... But at least polls work correctly now, which is what this thread was an excuse to test.

Coin

@arkandel said in Poll: Are MU* video games?:

Y'all are wrong!

... But at least polls work correctly now, which is what this thread was an excuse to test.

It still gave me duplicate polls to choose from when I had to vote.

Three-Eyed Crow

My initial reaction is 'No' but it gets more complicated if you're grouping MUSHes in the same category as MUDs, some of which have graphical capabilities, or even something like Storium if you're ruling out non-narrative games. There's a Venn diagram that encompasses all these things and I don't think the straight-up MUSH circle overlaps with the straight-up video game circle, but they have overlapping cousins.

I also talk about them as interactive stories or something comparable to an online tabletop game when interfacing with the norms, though.

faraday

I voted "no", but it kind of depends on your definition:

A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. (Wikipedia)

Text is technically "visual feedback".

But compare that with various dictionary definitions:

an electronic game in which players control images on a video screen
any of various interactive games played using a specialized electronic gaming device or a computer or mobile device and a television or other display screen, along with a means to control graphic images.

There aren't really any "graphic images" being controlled here.

Mostly I just think that it's not what leaps to mind when people say 'video game'.

Kanye Qwest

No! Can't have no vidya games without a vidya

skew

@kanye-qwest said in Poll: Are MU* video games?:

No! Can't have no vidya games without a vidya

What she said. Needs more vidya.

insomniac7809

I voted 'no' b/c my MU* experience is the RP sort, where the game is typing words at people who type words back at me.

If the game is typing commands at a system to go through a map grinding MOBs for loot drops, that's a vidya game.

surreality

I'm another 'no'.

There are some very old text-based video games that some MUs may have similarities to, and there's little argument the roots of MUDs with a high level of automation likely flow from there.

The kind of games predominantly discussed here branched off from there, and took a decidedly different direction over time, with a few exceptions. We don't really get into the RPI and MUD style games here (in discussion; I'm sure plenty of people posting here play on them also), however, so the MUX/MUSH style games are fairly distinct at this point.

Some are closer to simulated tabletop RPGs, but those aren't video games. There are formats now to play tabletop games more directly online, but those are relatively newer than MUX/MUSH for the most part. Other MUs are completely freeform, and could arguably be played on IRC or anything else that allows people to throw text at a shared document or website, like a forum or email chain. And while these two far-end-of-the-scale approaches are possible in and by other means, the experience of them tends to be different in ways that people have discussed at some length. Most MUs are a hybrid of these things, anyway.

Are there more 'interactive fiction' style video games now? Sure. They're more along the lines of a 'choose your own adventure' format, for the most part, though, which is more or less like going back to the old old old text games of this kind and adding visuals to them.

So... pretty much no. In the same way that someone can RP on WoW or similar, it's not the point for which the game was primarily designed. Ultimately, that's where we are with MU.

Arkandel

I can't believe you people are all wrong!

Auspice

@apos said in Poll: Are MU* video games?:

Pretty decently sized blind population that plays MUs through accessibility features. Can't think of a video game where that's true.

https://youtu.be/LRhbcDzbGSU

Thenomain

@auspice

Are text adventures "video games"?

--

Here's my opinion:

The definition of "country music" has changed over the last three decades.
The definition of "R&B" has changed over the last three decades.
If we think any genre definition is solid, we're fooling ourselves.
Call it whatever you want; the key is if you're communicating effectively.

Ganymede

@thenomain said in Poll: Are MU* video games?:

Are text adventures "video games"?

That's what the people who liked Torment: Tides of Numenera tell me.

Paris

@apos This is actually false, a number of disabled folks play videogames through modified or special equipment, visual enhancements, etc. I am legally blind and play MMOs. I used to have a friend spot things for me when I played games like Katamari Damacy.

What I do is stack most of my information stuff on the left side of the screen, as I am fully blind on my right. I play with my head a few inches from the screen as I have no peripheral vision. I know a number of extremely visually impaired folks who play who use various mods, UI enhancements, or just positioning to play.

I also do the same when I MUSH: my window is on my left, and my font (I wish there were better fixed-width fonts for visually-impaired people) is big enough for me to easily read.

I would use e-readers but they read too slow. I learned to speed-read as a young child and my reading and writing 'voice' is extremely sped up. I also tend to create poses in a few fragments that I then refine, and having it be purely audio is a pain in my ass. I ALSO like to listen to music when I MUSH just to keep my energy up.

This reminds me, however, to go make some spawns to highlight my name, I get nervous in bigger scenes and worry that I will miss poses at me as large, fast-moving blocks of text are a pain even for me to plow through.

Thenomain

@ganymede said in Poll: Are MU* video games?:

@thenomain said in Poll: Are MU* video games?:

Are text adventures "video games"?

That's what the people who liked Torment: Tides of Numenera tell me.

Says someone who apparently never played Planescape Torment.

Misadventure

@arkandel You should differentiate play from game in your mind.

Also, you are objectively wrong.

I MIGHT accept a MUD as a "video game", especially a real time one. This brings into question whether any game, presented via a program, automatically is a "video game". It still carries the connotations of real time, reflex and accuracy based games, which may not be a solid guide.

Arkandel

@misadventure Plenty of video games are multiplayer only. Overwatch comes to mind.

Many Roguelikes are video games but not graphical in nature. NetHack comes to mind.

Of course MU* are video games!