Responsiveness

Richard Bartle argues text-based online games are more responsive than graphically-based games: "Adding a new object doesn't mean adding a new texture map."

This page has been set up for discussion of how we can keep FaerieMUD responsive. Remember that more things can be added to FaerieMUD than just new objects.

Let's look at the ways various virtual worlds implement responsiveness. This is a table (1.3) from Bartle's book, Designing Virtual Worlds (the table has been altered a little by scotus), which compares the relative persistence of different kinds of things in various virtual worlds with the kinds of people who are allowed to change things:

This chart lists the things which persist through a reboot across the top. It lists the people allowed to change things down the side. Characters are assumed to persist in all virtual worlds.

		Maps	Properties	Classes	Objects*	World	Functionality
Only Coders		Shades					MUSHes
Trained Admins		MUD1	!DikuMUDs
Trusted Players				EverQuest	Asheron's Call	Ultima Online	MUDII
Experienced Players		MUD2				LPMUDs	MUCKs
Non-Newbies						!TinyMUDs
Anyone						!LambdaMOO	MOOs, FaerieMUD

*This means the object is persisted in its location.

All of these are approximations. There is a lot of nuance in here. What can be changed can vary as well as who can change it. A change that is persisted is far more meaningful than one which is not. And not everyone who is allowed to change things necessarily gets to change everything.

In FaerieMUD, anyone can tell a story which may be persisted if it's a good story. But not everyone can change the functionality of a class. The changes a particular player ("believer") is allowed is based on her immortal statistics, particularly divinity. So experience can impact the kinds of things you can change, but not all experience is equally persuasive. This is one of the ways we are trying to make FaerieMUD very responsive.

Some others are:

• Building the mechanisms for making changes into the story (and player-character actions) of the game itself.

See also

• Multi User Role Playing Environments

— Scotus - 17 Aug 2003