Posts made by Thenomain

<Crow T. Robot>
Or, you know, don't.
</Crow>

For these I had to click on the links and more or less read whatever was on the other end of the pipe. My Sarcastro offerings:

http://optionalrealities.com/lowering-barriers-to-entry/

Quotes the infamous Richard Bartle from a book written back in the Iron Age of MMOs. Also quotes EVE Online as getting you up and running within 2 hours. Up and dead. I can't tell you how many times I died within the first two hours. I don't know what happened after that because I stopped playing. I know this game has a pretty strong following, and I understand why, but "engagement within the first two hours" is hardly what I'd credit to why.

They do point out that modern computer games have tutorials, and this is something we in the Mush world have dropped entirely. Coding a tutorial is not unlike coding a puzzle, and that's not our focus anymore so we, perhaps lamentably, have forgotten that people need taught. Wikis are starting to pick up the slack, but I think it's just starting.

Take part in discussion on the merits of player-driven and staff-driven approaches to storytelling!
http://optionalrealities.com/forums/index.php?topic=231.0

Man, who here is tired of the "PrP vs. SrP" threads? Fortunately for forums everywhere, there's no answer here.

Submit an entry for our July 2015 Character Concept contest!
http://optionalrealities.com/forums/index.php?topic=198.0

Bob, a midget barista.

Or get involved with community gaming!
http://optionalrealities.com/forums/index.php?topic=210.0

Unlike ... what ... Mushing/Mudding? If this isn't community gaming, we have seriously lost touch with the concept of "fun".

That is, I agree that we have seriously lost touch with the concept of "fun".

@EmmahSue said:

It's a question for the community at large, not just Admin to decide.

You take all the fun out of this, you know.

Without a sorting system, or a score-based ignore system, there's no more echo-chamber than a bunch of people posting "+1".

Also, hyperbole win.

@Glitch said:

Try downvoting my post? I wonder if I get a notification as an admin.

We do not.

Man, that's ugly.

@HelloRaptor said:

I didn't say we'd cross off 90% of stuff, thus leaving 10% behind, just that I'm only 90% sure we'd cross off 100% of everything anyone does on these games.

100% - 90% = 10%, duh.

(Joke with Raptor. It's super-effective.)

Yeah, I know what you meant, frat-boy.There was a game, Metro perhaps, which had a specific category for "Victim RP" where you could pull out an NPC just to be messed with and, well, victimized. It makes my skin crawl, but I can't deny that it was quite popular.

@HelloRaptor said:

I'm about 90% sure that the compiled list would pretty much cover everything people roleplay. Everything.

This means that in HR's world, we all have at least 10% in common.

@Tyche said:

@Thenomain said:

Here's my $5.

Sorry not enough. The Federal government is going to need about $10500 from each of us.
Would you prefer the installment plan or debtors prison?

(Man, when we get the briefest hint of "Return To WORA" it comes crashing back in waves, doesn't it.)

Here's my $5.

@Shebakoby said:

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

Oh, she's very real, and she's been in the game longer than my mother's been alive.

yeah but I mean, wouldn't that make a perfect South Park episode?

Only if you're ready for "pussy-pocket" and "jewel = clit" jokes. I admit, I grew tired of South Park about four years ago, but I enjoy other people liking South Park, because amusement is infectious. Likewise, I liked the Stick of Truth video game. It was way, way, way too long, but it was fun.

Savage Worlds would require a system where it's not difficult to drop in new traits. Each game is quite different that way.

@Tyche

Beautiful.

I'm pretty sure Islandia was a MUSH, as it had most of the building and coding commands of TinyTIM of the time. TinyTIM describes itself as "the first Mush" and I believe it.

edit: I was going to say something else about PernMUSH -> TinyMUSH 2, then I realize that the point of the diagram is well made, and I would be adding to it. Calling us all "Mushers" is wrought with organic messiness.

@Jeshin said:

1. I notice Safe Haven is an "invite only" game. Is this common or uncommon for MUSHes?

No.

What are the normal justifications for this

Normally when I see it, it's "so I don't become grossly overwhelmed with administrative nonsense".

2. http://www.byond.com/games/WritingANewOne/EterniaPrologue would you consider this to be a text-based game and/or a MUD?

It's a play-by-post. ("All posts made by players are looked over by administrators and awarded points based on quality.")

3. http://store.steampowered.com/app/270170/ would you consider this to be a text-based game and/or an interactive novel?

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

Are they the same thing or fundamentally different?

Considering the number of illustrated "interactive novels" out there, I don't know how you could call them "text-based". I suppose it depends on what you mean by "text-based".

Similar question: Is the original Ultima Online "Mud-based" or "Roguelike"? Pick one.

4. I was discussing MUSHes with someone who plays both MUSHes and MUDs and they were commenting that the majority of MUSHes do not use nWoD softcode but the majority of nWoD text-based games are MUSHes. Would that be accurate?

Let me get back to this.

5. If nWoD softcode isn't the most common MUSH overlay than what is? PennMUSH maybe?

TinyTIM, TinyMUSH, PennMUSH, TinyMUX, and RhostMUSH are, in chronological order, server code-bases. We call them "hardcode". They run a very similar inline interpreter that uses an inline object-based system.

What you seem to be doing is putting all Mushes together as a single codebase, which would be like putting all Muds together as a single codebase. You Mudders and your LPMuds, so wacky.

What Mushes do that Muds (that I know of) do not is have an in-line (on-game) interpretive language as well. We often call this "softcode" to differentiate it from the C/C++ code that runs the game itself ("hardcode").

Moo and Muck also have in-line/on-game code in what I am told is a much more intelligent manner than the five Mush codebases mentioned above. I believe there are two (one and a half?) Moo bases and one Muck base, but don't quote me on that.

It is safe to say that all these code-bases share the same origins: MUD, MUSH, MOO, MUCK.

Chime has a broader memory for this, if she wants to, ahhem, chime in. The point I'm making here, tho, is that questions 4 and 5 are not just "how do you see it" questions, but are how things are.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

You know, I have to say I like Eldritch more for the fact that you guys will play CAH. XD

So far as a cool-down from Don't Starve Together.

Lumberjacks are kickass.

@JaySherman said:

When is it appropriate to close a game?

When it cannot be supported.
or
When its story is done.

@Coin

Fixed.

Emmah is not a staffer everywhere she goes in the same way that I'm not a coder on every WoD Mux.

Current Staffer "Cards Against Humanity" win count:

@Coin: 4
@Eerie: 2
@EmmahSue: 1
@Thenomain: 1

I don't go to MUDs now because I'm afraid they're all just like MUSHes, that any one of us is just like any other, and I would have to go straight for someone's jugular.

@Jeshin said:

I don't want to clutter up the community with to many questions

What? This is a community of text-based multiplayer gamers, by text-based multiplayer gamers, for text-based multiplayer gamers. If you have questions regarding text-based multiplayer games, then ask.

@Jeshin said:

I do wonder if you guys think Depression Quest or other Interactive Novels qualify as Text-based games or if they're just a variant of choose your own adventure.

It's Text-Based, that's for certain. The question is whether or not it's a Game or a Toy. Here, I think the distinction is personal. Depression Quest certainly has a goal, though if that's what made a game then most RPGs would fail out of the box, most Mushes and most Muds. It fails to have a system or rules for play, but I cannot deny that this is a thing you play with, more interactive than a book or a roller-coaster.

I think it can be classified as "automated storytelling", a tool/toy that you play with in order to experience prepared ideas. It can cross into more game territory (the Lone Wolf solo-rpg game books, for example), but I don't see a need or reason to do so.

I also think that a lot of people are no longer reading this thread, so starting a new one for this question will probably get a more varied set of responses.