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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Dr. Cat" <<A HREF="mailto:cat#oldzoom,bga.com">cat#oldzoom,bga.com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:56:59 -0600 (CST)</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
Raph Koster wrote:
> It would be worth debating whether speech should need a command at all;
> just typing talks, and all other commands require a prefixed symbol
> instead.
Ok, let's say I'm re-inventing the telephone and I want to decide whether
my default action during a phone call should be to try to parse what I
say as a command to pick up a call waiting call or bring up a web page on
the phone's mini-screen or activate my toaster or something, and I need
to press the "talk" button before saying something to my red-headed
sweetie Olivia, or use a prefix command in my speech like "say Hi honey,
how was your day today?"
Or should I be able to talk and talk like now, and if I want to do
something *else* I have to press a button or mumble an arcane prefix?
I trust that for telephones, the answer is sufficiently obvious that it
requires no debate. I feel that it's the same for MUDs also. Certainly
in every chat system I ever used, talking was the default action, and
people would have been baffled if anyone suggested doing otherwise in an
interface design. To me MUDs are communications systems with "some other
stuff to do besides talking" added in. Though this particular list has a
strong bias towards combat and towards simulating immensely complex world
ecosystems, economies, and/or laws of physics, I think that what most MUD
players primarily want to do is talk to other people - and this will only
increase as a focus as the demographics of the Internet shift more and
more away from the early adopters, and towards the demographics of the
average human. (Or at least, for now, towards the demographics of the
average first-world human. The third world won't be ordering much from
amazon.com for a while yet.)
When the primary means for chatting is by voice, as it will be, the
question of default for text-mode input defaults might be in a somewhat
different light. But I think most command entry would be through mouse
or alt and control key combinations (I use control keys and cursor keys
in Furcadia right now), and typing to talk will still be a desirable
default for the people that prefer some text-chatting to voice chatting
for various reasons. Certainly a system that has a DOS style command
line interface for entering commands should still have an "enter talk
mode" command that would treat all further typing as speech until the
mode is exited. But I don't think command line interfaces will be
desired much by the general public in the MUD world, any more than they
want them as an alternative to Windows/MacOS/Xwindows in the OS world.
Most humans don't want a command line interface, they want a graphic
interface.
I have to go now. My toaster is ringing, I think it's a long distance call.
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*
Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions || Free alpha test:
*-------------------------------------------** <A HREF="http://www.bga.com/furcadia">http://www.bga.com/furcadia</A>
Furcadia - a new graphic mud for PCs! || Let your imagination soar!
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*
</PRE>
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<li><strong><A NAME="00325" HREF="msg00325.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> J C Lawrence <claw#kanga,nu></li></ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="00305" HREF="msg00305.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> "T. Alexander Popiel" <popiel#snugharbor,com></li></ul>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00131" HREF="msg00131.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Wed 13 Jan 1999, 15:51 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00136" HREF="msg00136.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Wed 13 Jan 1999, 18:42 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00144" HREF="msg00144.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Wed 13 Jan 1999, 23:16 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00158" HREF="msg00158.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
quzah [softhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Thu 14 Jan 1999, 03:12 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00291" HREF="msg00291.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
Dr. Cat <a href="mailto:cat#oldzoom,bga.com">cat#oldzoom,bga.com</a>, Tue 26 Jan 1999, 20:57 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00305" HREF="msg00305.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
T. Alexander Popiel <a href="mailto:popiel#snugharbor,com">popiel#snugharbor,com</a>, Wed 27 Jan 1999, 15:51 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00325" HREF="msg00325.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Sun 31 Jan 1999, 00:47 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00312" HREF="msg00312.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Wed 27 Jan 1999, 22:23 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00041" HREF="msg00041.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when.</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Mon 04 Jan 1999, 21:24 GMT
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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