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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud reviewing</H1>
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<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Mud reviewing</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: <<A HREF="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 13:16:55 -0800 (PST)</LI>
<LI><em>cc</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
On Tue, 26 Jan 1999, Andy Cink wrote:
> At 02:59 PM 1/26/99 -0800, matt(diablo#best,com) wrote:
> >> >Perhaps there should be some way of showcasing new, original muds, like
> >> >a mudlist in which an imp would submit her mud, and a volunteer would
> >> >evaluate the mud for uniqueness and non-stock-ness, and write a short
> >> >review containing his first impressions.
> >
> <snippage pertaining to mud reviewing>
> >
> >I think one problem with reviewing any non-stock mud is the time required
> >to get to know the game in any depth. Unless you play for at least a
> >couple hundred hours, your review is, imho, akin to reviewing a movie
> >without bothering to watch the whole thing.
>
> Most movies I know of are nowhere near 100 hours, let alone 200 hours :P
> Even the Godfather series isn't THAT long <g> You have to figure, with
> the number of muds out there, that there's virtually no reviewers who
> are going to have that kind of time to spend on a review. I would consider
> 4 hours a good amount of time to spend reviewing a mud. I guess it depends
> on what you consider non-stock, too, though. I don't see how people can
> discern between who deserves 4 hours, who deserves 12, and who deserves
> 100.
Sure, obviously I realize that, but the analogy still holds. You don't
review a movie without having seen the entire thing, regardless of whether
it is a 20 minute short or an 8 hour extravaganza. I don't even see how it
is possible to review anything as complex as a mud in 4 hours. What you
will end up doing is reviewing a very tiny portion of the mud and
extrapolating your review of that to the entire mud. This may be
efficient, but it does not constitute a review of the mud as a whole.
> Hopefully reviewers are going to review more than one mud, so I think it
> is reasonable to expect that they'll not stay for more than a few hours.
> I also think that supposing each reviewer does have biases, if people
> can read all of the reviews, hopefully one of the reviewers preferences
> match their own. If a person happens to like hack 'n slash, perhaps the
> review by the hack 'n slash liking reviewer would best tell that person
> if they'd enjoy playing on the mud or not. Just like real life, you can't
> really expect that everyone is going to like your game. Some people want
> a graphical game, some want text. Some want to kill mobs, some want to
> kill players, and some want nothing to do with killing at all. Keeping
> this in mind, having 2 or 3 of 4 liking your mud is actually pretty darn
> good.
It's not whether they liked them or not that concerns me. They're not my
customers and I haven't had any customers come tell me "I came to Achaea
because I read a positive review on X". I'm just putting the idea out
there that reviewing muds in 4 hours is like reviewing the entire sundance
film festival in 4 hours. It cannot be done without being such a shallow
review as to be useless.
--matt
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00302" HREF="msg00302.html">[MUD-Dev] Mud reviewing</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Andy Cink <ranthor#earthlink,net></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00289" HREF="msg00289.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Tue 26 Jan 1999, 18:15 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00292" HREF="msg00292.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
David Bennett <a href="mailto:ddt#discworld,imaginary.com">ddt#discworld,imaginary.com</a>, Tue 26 Jan 1999, 21:02 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00297" HREF="msg00297.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
diablo <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Tue 26 Jan 1999, 22:59 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00302" HREF="msg00302.html">[MUD-Dev] Mud reviewing</A></strong>,
Andy Cink <a href="mailto:ranthor#earthlink,net">ranthor#earthlink,net</a>, Wed 27 Jan 1999, 04:48 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00308" HREF="msg00308.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud reviewing</A></strong>,
diablo <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Wed 27 Jan 1999, 21:17 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00298" HREF="msg00298.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
Matthew D. Fuller <a href="mailto:fullermd#futuresouth,com">fullermd#futuresouth,com</a>, Wed 27 Jan 1999, 01:15 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00300" HREF="msg00300.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Wed 27 Jan 1999, 02:00 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00293" HREF="msg00293.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
Bruce Mitchener, Jr. <a href="mailto:bruce#puremagic,com">bruce#puremagic,com</a>, Tue 26 Jan 1999, 21:06 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00453" HREF="msg00453.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: list "peerage"</A></strong>,
Sayeed <a href="mailto:yu219121#YorkU,CA">yu219121#YorkU,CA</a>, Thu 18 Feb 1999, 18:07 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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