19 Sep, 2008, Myra wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
With multiclassing, professions, classes, races, and an all original world, we have something for everyone. Please come check us out! :biggrin: We would love to see you!

escape.wolfpaw.net port 2020



http://escape.wolfpaw.net
20 Sep, 2008, Igabod wrote in the 2nd comment:
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might be a little more useful if you told us what codebase you're running and any special features if any. you're not likely to interest anybody with such a brief advertisement.
20 Sep, 2008, Conner wrote in the 3rd comment:
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Igabod said:
might be a little more useful if you told us what codebase you're running and any special features if any. you're not likely to interest anybody with such a brief advertisement.

Gee, and I had been thinking that, for an advertisement to attract players, it was pretty good. Not too long to hold someone's attention and still covers what he wanted to say. It happens to be a Smaug as far as the codebase goes, I know this because he posted as much on Top Smaug Muds. As for features, he did mention "multiclassing, professions, […] and an all original world", was he supposed to also include his changelog from day one? Personally, I really like his banner and have seen plenty of ads that only included a banner.. haven't you?
21 Sep, 2008, tphegley wrote in the 4th comment:
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This place is actually a really fun mud with a relaxed atmosphere. The imms are nice and the areas can be pretty well done. The profession system is good as well. It really enhances the game play.
21 Sep, 2008, Igabod wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Igabod said:
might be a little more useful if you told us what codebase you're running and any special features if any. you're not likely to interest anybody with such a brief advertisement.

Gee, and I had been thinking that, for an advertisement to attract players, it was pretty good. Not too long to hold someone's attention and still covers what he wanted to say. It happens to be a Smaug as far as the codebase goes, I know this because he posted as much on Top Smaug Muds. As for features, he did mention "multiclassing, professions, […] and an all original world", was he supposed to also include his changelog from day one? Personally, I really like his banner and have seen plenty of ads that only included a banner.. haven't you?

i have seen those that have only the banner too, but i didn't ever think those were entirely well done either. i guess what i meant by special features is something that makes it unique from most other muds, and classes and races just doesn't count due to the fact that the majority of all the muds most players see have those. the original worlds bit is the only thing in that advert that struck me as unique among muds. the profession system is probably unique too but for some reason that didn't stick out in the advert when i read it the first time. all in all it just looked like an advert that you could pin on any of a dozen and a half muds out there. i'm not saying the advert should be 15 pages long or anything, just needed a few more words here and there. nice banner though.
21 Sep, 2008, Conner wrote in the 6th comment:
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Igabod said:
i have seen those that have only the banner too, but i didn't ever think those were entirely well done either. i guess what i meant by special features is something that makes it unique from most other muds, and classes and races just doesn't count due to the fact that the majority of all the muds most players see have those. the original worlds bit is the only thing in that advert that struck me as unique among muds. the profession system is probably unique too but for some reason that didn't stick out in the advert when i read it the first time. all in all it just looked like an advert that you could pin on any of a dozen and a half muds out there. i'm not saying the advert should be 15 pages long or anything, just needed a few more words here and there. nice banner though.

Fair enough, and you're probably right. Certainly there are more than a handful of muds that also offer a unique world (even more that claim to do so) and professions and even multiclassing (even my mud has finally gone that route), but I thought your initial response to his post seemed more harsh than it needed to. No offense intended.

While a little more verbosity would have probably improved this ad, I figure most player advertisements are sort of like the advertisements one sees on TV and in print, or hears on the radio, the advertiser is going to point out what they feel are their products highlights and, unless they're mandated by law like drug companies, they're not likely to point out anything that can be seen negatively if they can help it.

But I do have to say that I wish I knew how to make banners like that, I usually have to stick with what I can get from CoolText because I truly suck at graphics. :lol:
21 Sep, 2008, Kayle wrote in the 7th comment:
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I might have to start selling my services making banners for people.. >.>

[Edit:] To remove banners because they're too big.
21 Sep, 2008, Conner wrote in the 8th comment:
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Kayle said:
I might have to start selling my services making banners for people.. >.>

While I might consider taking you up on such a prospective offer, Kayle, I have to confess that we've done quite the bang up job of derailing Myra's player advertisement thread here and thus offer my apologies to Myra for my contributions to that. Tphegley sounds like (s)he's visited Escape from Destiny and posted a nice, if somewhat brief, review though, maybe someone else should help further make up to Myra for this by doing likewise?
21 Sep, 2008, The_Fury wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
I actually liked the OP's advert. It is concise and to the point, it outlines various elements of the game that they feel are its selling points. I think there is a tendency for player adverts to become dissertations and I beleive this stems from the fact that when advertising for staff, we tend to include all sorts of somewhat relevant information in the hopes of catching the eye of a prospective team member.

A player advert should be short and sweet and quickly catch the attention of the reader. IMO the above ad does that well, about the only addition that i could see improving on it would be to have a brief paragraph that introduces some aspect of the games story/world or theme. The link to the website allows those interested to investigate the game further before taking the plunge and playing it for a few hours. The website, while looking a little dated, contains a wealth of information about the game for those wanting to know more.

Someone mentioned codebase earlier in this discussion. I think that these days, codebase is such a non issue and hardly worth mentioning. Players do not get hooked on a game because of the codebase it started from, they get hooked because you offer an experience that they enjoy. About the only people who care about codebases would be those who develop games and then its mostly about arguing the superiority of various features in the stock release. I usually steer clear of games that advertise themselves as "We are an EldhaMUD" unless your attempting to be a clone of X, then i would really prefer to play the original.
22 Sep, 2008, Myra wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Well, I'm actually glad to see some replies, if they are of a varied sort. :) I have to admit I was going for the very short and sweet. Sometimes I get tired of writing the same type of advertisements every few months. Though I try to check back in and write responses (if I can remember where I have posted… but this place seems to have alot of readers and posters which is great for any message board) I do appreciate the discussion as it helps me learn what people want to hear/see in an advertisement. I tend to try to go for the quick catch phrase but am never sure how much to put below that.

Our website is pretty detailed on the types of races/classes/professions offered but we are a modified Smaug MUD which tries to use DnD 2nd edition as our basis for many things. I think our strengths lie in the originality of our world and the attention to detail that we are trying for. People seem to like our atmosphere and the fact that our Imms are pretty helpful and try to at least reply to what the players request or find as they are playing. We have 100 levels and over 5000 rooms that continues to grow every week. We are also free and have been open for at least 8 + years. I think you'll find that we have an extensive help system, and try to be newbie friendly without overdoing it. There are original hometowns for all the races and as you gain levels and explore, you'll find that you can level just by exploring and without having to sit down and kill the same mob over and over and over for experience (although thats not to say that people don't do that sometimes but there are built in kill histories that discourage that behaviour eventually) We do encourage roleplaying, that is to say a evil goblin heretic should not be grouping with a good pixie paladin… you can choose to do this, but your inner self will eventually go crazy from the conflict within.. We also have built-in bonuses to experience and such for having a complete bio and description of yourself. So without giving away too much, I hope that this sounds interesting enough to at least give us a try. Our biggest downfall is our lack of a huge playerbase, although it seems to be getting bigger all the time. We have had more players in the past two weeks than in awhile so that is encouraging. It all can start with just a few! :) Any questions, I would be glad to answer them here, or in the game if you stop by. (I am Myra there too)

Glad to hear you like the banner. The fun of messing with Photoshop! :)
22 Sep, 2008, Fizban wrote in the 11th comment:
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Igabod said:
might be a little more useful if you told us what codebase you're running[…]


Why would codebase matter? I definitely think it matters if you're looking for staff because using OLC you're familiar with is like a safety blanket for many builders and coders having previous experience with the codebase means they don't have to lookup every macro they see when reading through code to be able to grasp what everything does. As a player though I don't much care myself what codebase a MUD is. And as an administrator I feel the goal should be to have it be actually difficult for your players to know what codebase you were when you started. Not literally of course, I'm not actually suggesting you strip credits and the like, simply that you vary enough off the 'stock' path that they don't log on and go yep this feels just like a stock <codebase>.
22 Sep, 2008, Chris Bailey wrote in the 12th comment:
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Codebase certainly matters to me. I don't play muds very often but when I do I tend to stay away from Rom/Rot and LP not to mention any moo/mush/mux's.
22 Sep, 2008, Kayle wrote in the 13th comment:
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I too also stay within the confines of a comfort zone for playing when I play. AvP is about the only one outside my comfort zone I've been able to play. My comfort zone is Smaug and it's derivatives, for those curious. (AFKMud, SWR, SWFotE, etc.)
22 Sep, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 14th comment:
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Perhaps codebase family is more important than the actual codebase. One thing that annoys me about specifying codebase is when people say things like "heavily modified SMAUG", which can mean pretty much anything you want it to mean and therefore provides very little information.
22 Sep, 2008, Fizban wrote in the 15th comment:
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Quote
"heavily modified SMAUG", which can mean pretty much anything you want it to mean and therefore provides very little information.


Agreed. AFKMUD is heavily modified SMAUG, yet so is an old MUD running 1.4 that's got very little stock code left. I have more respect for the latter, by far. I'm not insinuating 1.4 is better than AFKMUD, far from it, I just have more respect for the person who coded their own modifications than the one that is using a mostly stock codebase that just happens to be a heavily modified codebase.
22 Sep, 2008, Guest wrote in the 16th comment:
Votes: 0
Fizban said:
Agreed. AFKMUD is heavily modified SMAUG, yet so is an old MUD running 1.4 that's got very little stock code left. I have more respect for the latter, by far. I'm not insinuating 1.4 is better than AFKMUD, far from it, I just have more respect for the person who coded their own modifications than the one that is using a mostly stock codebase that just happens to be a heavily modified codebase.


That's kind of an odd opinion to have when you stop to think about it, isn't it? I mean, AFKMud didn't just appear one day. It began life as a Smaug 1.4 itself and through being built up over the years evolved into AFKMud. It only got that name when we decided to release our work after it became clear that Alsherok was more or less dead and wasn't likely to recover. I really don't see any problem at all with someone who uses a more modern codebase that's already had the work done rather than having to repeat the cycle and take 5 years to achieve the same thing. Having to reinvent the wheel over and over again just so people will respect you seems rather silly to me.
22 Sep, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 17th comment:
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Not agreeing or disagreeing, but I think the idea was that somebody who customized a base has more merit than somebody who pulled a stock-but-modernized codebase off the shelf. I.e., your merit is proportional to the work you did, not the work the author of your codebase did.
22 Sep, 2008, Zeno wrote in the 18th comment:
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Samson: I think he meant that a 3rd party person either takes Smaug 1.4 or AFKMUD and opens a MUD from those.
22 Sep, 2008, Guest wrote in the 19th comment:
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Yes, but I fail to see why it should matter if someone takes a codebase off the shelf and starts a MUD using it. Maybe I'm missing something here but I don't know why it's an automatic penalty if you choose not to spend your time turning Smaug 1.4 into another AFKMud. Or Circle into another tbaMUD. If the base already has the stuff you planned on adding anyway, why not use it?
22 Sep, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 20th comment:
Votes: 0
When it comes to judging somebody's merit as a programmer, should they not be judged for the code they wrote as opposed to the code they found somewhere else? Now, when it comes to judging how fun a game is, going for the codebase that has the features you actually want is probably smarter…
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