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Issue #2 -- December 2001 -- 44 Pages
[Click on article titles to see a summary]
Contents
COLUMNS
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By Melissa Cameron
Most of us have had, at some point in our careers as mud-aholics, a mentor
of some kind. Someone who took us by the hand and taught us some of the
finer points of the game. Even if it was only a crude, "Hey, idjit! Try at
least carrying a few healing potions if you are going to attack that mob
that is 20 levels too high for you", you grabbed on to every bit of advice
you could, and asked for more.
This article has some good advice to help you help newbies.
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By Tina Provo
Inter-organization activities are an excellent method to provide group
activity and boost organization pride and spirit. Inter-organization events
foster greater cooperation and camaraderie between the organizations.
Though sometimes pitting organization versus organization, more often than
not the events bring together the skills of each organiation into teams that
compete against each other. So how does one set up such events?
Find out how in this article.
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By Anthony Haslage (Ntanel Stormblade)
News and commentary from the MudWorld site.
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By Eric L. Rhea
In the online worlds of today, there are guilds, clans, and other social
classification that work together to accomplish objectives otherwise
unattainable by both the common and the casual player. These might range
from an undertaking as complicated as opening up a new region for
exploration to a campaign where the more dominating foe n the world state is
taken down.
It is within this world that the potential exists for players who cannot be
directly involved, either because of time or other select constraints, with
the larger guilds may have a voice, may reap the fruits of their labors, and
just as well suffer the consequences of actions poorly planned. Let us call
the method that activates this potential the Virtual Investment Strategy
(VIS).
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By Michelle Thompson (Neranz Laverani)
Static areas are a builder's bane. The areas on a lot of codebases do not
change with time. Players are good at learning areas much more quickly than
builders can build them. Once players learn all of the areas they begin to
feel unchallenged. They spend more time hanging about and less time
adventuring. If new areas are not introduced soon enough, these feelings
eventually drive experienced players to other MUDs. Short of adding a new
area, what can a builder do to combat feelings of tediousness? Builders can
introduce challenge into static areas by creating the illusion of the
passage of time...
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By Richard Woolcock
There are many styles of programming, and many opinions about how software
should be implemented. However most people agree that some sort of
consistent style should be adhered to. The intended purpose of this article
is to help you select such a style for yourself.
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By Derek Snider (Thoric)
"There is no such this as bug-free code".
Make sure to say this out loud a few times if you think your MUD is
completely bug-free.
Now that you've joined the rest of us who now that there are bugs in our
code, we can continue.
If you have a bunch of people working on a project, whether it is completely
custom code or working off of an existing code base, you are guaranteed to
make some mistakes here and there. Even the best of us make an oversight
now and then.
Find out common errors, methods of tracking down and eliminating bugs, as
well as a guide on using GDB.
FEATURES
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By Jim Neary
A fantasy story of the battle between a good and an evil brother.
The first four chapters.
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By Jacob Thomas
The first chapter in a fantasy adventure.
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By Michael Tresca
So you think you're ready to MUD, but there's a million to choose from.
Which is best for you?
This acticle helps you find the find the good MUDs from the sea of poorly
designed MUDs.
DEPARTMENTS
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By Derek Snider
I didn't realize what I was getting myself into when I started this
magazine.
Much like any other hobby (such as running a MUD), real life”can get in
the way. This fact is compounded when you have several people involved, and
gets even worse around the holiday season.
It was my full intention to have this issue out the door by the end of
November, in plenty of time for Christmas.
Some of the submissions were late, a couple didn't come in at all, and we
didn’t quite place all the advertising we had hoped.
Fortunately we got some unexpected submissions that will give you some
pleasurable and informative reading.
As support increases, things will improve and turn this magazine into what I
hope will become an important asset to the MUD community.
In fact, I have a feeling that this coming new year may breathe some new
life into the world of text gaming, and Internet communities as a whole.
Multiplayer interactivity brought a huge resurrection to the world of text
adventure games. If not for MUDs (and the multiplayer BBS text games of the
late 1980's), the art of completely text-based adventure games may have been
lost.
There is always a fear that the next big thing” will completely wipe out
the older technology that the radio would kill the publications market…
that the television would kill the radiobroadcasting industry…etc, etc…you
know the story.
Yes, new technologies may steal”some of your audience away from you, but
they never seem to eradicate all the needs the older technology fulfills –
you just can’t beat a book for being able to leisurely read at your own
pace, put it down and pick it back up whenever you choose… and you certainly
can’t watch a TV as safely and as easily as you can listen to the radio in
your car, or while walking down the street.
My prediction is that while the Internet provided people the ability to
burst out from the tight confines of their local BBS, limited to what their
SysOp provided them with, and set out to explore the seemingly infinite span
of websites, FTP sites, MUDs, chats, mailing lists and newsgroups, sometime
soon these people will want to reunite with their old friends because while
they were meeting all kinds of new people from across the globe, they lost
track of their old pals from home.
Sure your MUD lost a huge pile of players to one of the many MMORPGs that
popped up recently… but there’s a good chance that some of those players who
left will come back soon, and might just bring a crop of new players home.
See you in the spring.
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By Laura Ellis
Text MUDs are going the way of the dinosaur. At least, thats what some of my
friends try to tell me.
There was a group of us. I had been playing this MUD for a year and a half
and really enjoyed it, so I invited my friends to check it out. It seemed so
perfect for awhile. We played Dungeons and Dragons together on the weekends,
and played a mud during the week. We hung out, had barbeques, and our kids
got along great. Occasionally, we’d go on a bender and play Diablo or
Baldhurs Gate for awhile, but we always returned to the MUD. We ran the big
mobs, we all were in the same organization, life was good.
Funny things started happening though, they would disappear on me for days
at a time and look sheepish when I would say that I had missed them and ask
if everything was okay. They'd make excuses when I’d try and schedule a run,
looking at the floor and shuffling their feet while stammering out their
lies. I finally realized, they were cheating on me! I was broken hearted...
they had found Everquest.
I didn’t understand. Everyone knows that the movie is never as good as the
book. I remember seeing The Hobbit and how upset I was at it. It took years
to banish the images of the characters from my eyes after the cartoonists
got it all wrong. They were nothing like I had imagined them.
Tolkien had painted such a vivid world within my mind with his words, and
some shmuck with no soul attempted, and failed, to capture that with ink.
My friends conversations began to consist only of Everquest things, our D&D
sessions began to suffer, the DM grumpy that the players would keep
interrupting our attempts to save the world from the Huge Evil Bad Guy with
their discussions. I began to feel like an outsider, but I desperately clung
to my arguments and my MUD, feeling shocked and hurt that they could betray
me thus, but eventually, my friends drifted away.
A few months later, Doug, another good friend and coworker that I had been
trying to convert to MUDding began to exhibit strange symptoms. Dark shadows
under his eyes, a funny twitch when I would ask why I hadn't seen him
online. The shmuck had been playing that game as well! I couldn’t stand to
lose another. He taunted me, telling me to, “Put away the washboard and join
the twenty-first century”. He began to cajole me with visions of swimming in
water, chasing orcs, of seeing the sky overhead as you roamed about the
lands. Finally caving in to the peer pressure, I agreed to check it out.
He agreed to give me a tour. We logged in, and I was amazed. Trees, the sky,
and pools of water that you could look down into and even drown in.
Mana-suckers surrounded by spheres of light as they cast their spells. It
was really cool looking!
However, after five minutes, I was bored out of my mind. The graphics were
great, but they grew old after awhile. Where was the mental challenge? It
was mindless pap with no real substance. Oh look, it’s another tree. Yay,
another corpse. Whee, look at the other players casting spells. Yawn.
I argued with Doug. I didn't understand how someone as intelligent and
creative as he could be satisfied with such a shallow relationship. I felt
he had been suckered by the strumpets flashy looks, and as a friend, it was
obvious to me that he deserved so much more. He was adamant about it though,
and bitterly, I resigned myself to the fact that he had found another.
I buried myself in the MUD, consoling myself with the fact that I could
still talk to him at work, while I rebuilt and expanded an old area and
tried to make the MUD better. He agreed not to taunt me about my MUD and I
agreed not to nag at him that he had sold himself so cheaply.
Months passed, and I decided to write an article for The MUD Companion. I
thought perhaps it would be interesting to get different perspectives on
text and graphic based games. I gingerly broached the topic with Doug,
asking if he would be willing to give me his thoughts on the idea.
He replied with, “Oh that? I quit that about a month and a half after I
started. I rejoiced! It seems that he wasn’t challenged by it. He wanted
something more than just pretty looks and was indeed worthy of the high
esteem in which I held him.
Text MUDS going the way of the dinosaur? No, I don't think so. It’s possible
to be distracted by pretty looks and graphics, but as long as there are
intelligent people out there who are willing to use their minds and harness
their own creativity to share with others, the text MUD will live on.
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By Emile Néron & Jean-Francois Soucy
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