[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions

[J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com>]

On Mon, 28 Sep 1998 15:32:58 -0700 (PDT) 
Adam Wiggins<adam#angel,com> wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Sep 1998, Koster, Raph wrote:
>> From: Adam Wiggins [mailto:adam#angel,com] 

>>> Rather than walking through an interactive world, as I had been
>>> led to believe, I was actually walking between props much like
>>> those fake buildings they used in the old Hollywood westerns.

>> I had the same experience, of course. I imagine we all did. But I
>> would not call the goal of having a fully interactive environment
>> even necessarily contradictory to what I am discussing. You can
>> have a fully interactive environment that still imposes a
>> perspective or a worldview on the player, I would think.

> On this particular point I don't think I can agree.  In the end,
> if someone detonates a nuclear bomb inside your candy store it's
> still going to have the same roomdesc.  

Right, you need to have objects and locations built from defined
component materials with externally defined transformation paths to
get it done right.

> I don't think this sort of constructed world will ever be
> interactive in the way that I'm thinking; it will always be a
> sophisticated Zork spinoff, which is to say you only have the
> interactions which are coded by whoever created the area.

Bingo.

> Other than that, I agree with all your other points including the
> main one.  I could see a whole new genre of muds spinning off from
> this sort of thing, especially with free user creation
> (LegendMOO?).

Rhetorical question: _Now_ do you see why I'm such a fan of user
programming?

-- 
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw#null,net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder#ibm,net
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