Re: Backstory (was RE: [MUD-Dev] New poll)

["Tess Lowe" <tess#havensong,com>]

Matt Mihaly wrote:
> In any case, while the histories are very important to me, I really have
> no idea if they're important to the players or not, so these posts got me
> thinking.

While the Achaean histories are some of the best I've read, they do seem to
be rather disconnected from the mud itself, at least for me. I have 100% of
your backstory, incidentally. The history of Achaea's Modern age seems much
more relevant, especially when I realised I had met many of the characters
featured in it.

The thing I don't understand is why your history should not be all-pervasive
in Achaea when a much shorter (but more mystical and weird) history in a
world such as Temuair (of Dark Ages) should have been absolutely fundamental
to my experience in that game to the point where I would not initiate or
mentor anyone who did not have a grasp of that history far far greater than
my own current weak grasp of Achaean history.

A big difference for me was perhaps Dark Ages' encouragement of
player-written histories, literature and lore, which led me to immerse
myself in that world to an enormous extent before I'd even had a chance to
play in it - (I had 2 or 3 months to read and drool over Temuairan histories
repeatedly before the game went commercial and I could actually play it).

Another difference I suppose would be that when I first entered Temuair,
everyone I came into contact with had a huge understanding of the history
and religious mysticism of the place, whereas in Achaea, the need to know
the histories is apparently limited to the odd competition.

best wishes,
~Tess




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