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<H1>RE: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: "'<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A>'" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: RE: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Caliban Tiresias Darklock <<A HREF="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 13:14:44 -0400</LI>
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<PRE>
On Thursday, October 09, 1997 5:16 AM, Broly
[SMTP:gunther#online1,magnus1.com] wrote:
>
> There is a fish swimming in a lake. You are hungry, so you whip out your
> Castmaster 2000 and attempt to catch the fish. Do you remain hungry? Or
> do you catch the fish? If you leave it up to the character, that fish
> doesn't stand a chance.
And what exactly does this add to the game? Aren't we all more or less in
agreement that eating and drinking and toilet habits are needless detail?
Add them if you want them (emote casts his line into the water, watching
the float intently.), leave them out if you don't want them. If you think
fishing is fun, you can fish for your own enjoyment. If you don't, you
never have to. Same with singing, musical instruments, etc.
I for one think it's fun to be really bad at something and think you're
good at it. On most MUDs, the more I go out and do something badly, the
better I get at it -- but I don't WANT to get better at it. I want to stay
bad at it, because there's just some fundamental part of the skill that my
character doesn't get. Golf is an excellent example. Don't we all know some
guy who just SUCKS at golf, and has been playing for years, but never quite
seems to *get* it? I like that. I think it's funny in games to have quirks
like that. If there's an actual skill attached to it, it's rather difficult
to maintain one. This is also entertaining to the other players...
> Simular arguments for scrollwork (can your
> character write a scroll, or will the magic in the words activate and
> crisp your character?)
No, I meant like carving scrollwork along the edges of a table for
decoration. No matter how well it's done, lots of people will think it's
ugly, and no matter how crappy it looks, someone will just love it. There's
no effective game mechanic that can represent that.
> So back to the 'singing' example...Say a character breaks out into song
in
> the middle of a battle. If the words inspire the singers allies (they
get
> bonuses on key dicerolls while the song is sung.) and strike fear into
the
> hearts of the enemy(thus causing them to rout), then there should be some
> game construct controlling the quality of the music.
That's not a function of how well you sing. Barbra Streisand and Celine
Dion both sing beautifully. Neither one is likely to be heard over the
sounds of battle, and neither one is likely to be very inspirational or
fearsome. (The vast majority of rough and ready battlemongers probably
wouldn't be caught dead listening to them anyway.)
Ozzy Osbourne isn't much of a *singer*, but he could certainly inspire the
troops and strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. Iron Maiden does some
crunching, grinding songs that just make you *want* to advance through
enemy lines and slaughter everything in your path.
They're not hard to sing or play.
They're not fantastic award winning performances.
But they just kick ass as inspirational war anthems. "War horse and war
machine/Curse the name of liberty/Marching on as if they should/Mix in the
dirt our brothers' blood". That would push me a lot harder than "This land
is your land, this land is my land/From California to the New York island".
I find the latter a much more beautiful and well written piece. But it
doesn't inspire me to battle. It doesn't piss me off and make me want to
split skulls (with the possible exception of the singer's after ten or
twelve choruses).
Even the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" doesn't have the tendency to spur me
into almost certain death the way Nine Inch Nails' "Last" would. If you
want non-electronic examples, I'd sooner march to Beethoven's ninth than to
one of Chopin's Nocturnes. If you know the difference, you can see why.
This sort of 'inspire the troops' effort is not a direct measure of musical
ability. Look at the conditioning we go through in the military. The horrid
doggerel that we use for calling cadence is vastly more inspirational than
some perfectly constructed mellifluous melody. Nobody marches to 'America
the Beautiful'. We have stupid, non-poetic, badly-written stuff like 'Mama
and papa were lying in bed/Mama rolled over to papa and said/gimme some, oh
yeah, gimme some, oh yeah'. And if anyone reading this was *in* the
military... you can hear it, can't you, in the back of your mind? Still
gets the blood pumping a little faster, doesn't it?
Why? It sucks. It's worse than "roses are red, violets are blue" ("...some
poems rhyme, this one doesn't"). It's bad poetry, bad singing, and has no
real meaning. But IT WORKS. (Unless you want a recording contract.) There's
just blatantly no effective game mechanic for it. It's too variable.
=+[caliban#darklock,com]=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=[<A HREF="http://www.darklock.com/]+=">http://www.darklock.com/]+=</A>
"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a
new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by
the preservation of the old institution, and merely lukewarm defenders in
those who would gain by the new one." -- Machiavelli
=+=+=+[We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams]+=+=+=+=
</PRE>
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<li><strong><A NAME="00102" HREF="msg00102.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> coder#ibm,net</li></ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="00099" HREF="msg00099.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Derrick Jones <gunther#online1,magnus1.com></li></ul>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00041" HREF="msg00041.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Sun 05 Oct 1997, 10:29 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00061" HREF="msg00061.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Mon 06 Oct 1997, 23:17 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00080" HREF="msg00080.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Broly <a href="mailto:gunther#online1,magnus1.com">gunther#online1,magnus1.com</a>, Thu 09 Oct 1997, 09:18 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00122" HREF="msg00122.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Sat 18 Oct 1997, 20:39 GMT
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<UL>
<li><Possible follow-up(s)><br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00083" HREF="msg00083.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Thu 09 Oct 1997, 17:12 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00099" HREF="msg00099.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Derrick Jones <a href="mailto:gunther#online1,magnus1.com">gunther#online1,magnus1.com</a>, Mon 13 Oct 1997, 18:59 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00138" HREF="msg00138.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Wed 22 Oct 1997, 05:55 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00154" HREF="msg00154.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
Derrick Jones <a href="mailto:gunther#online1,magnus1.com">gunther#online1,magnus1.com</a>, Sun 26 Oct 1997, 09:06 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00102" HREF="msg00102.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...</A></strong>,
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Tue 14 Oct 1997, 18:14 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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