a question for DMs

[Kampfer]

I'm working on a mud myself with Mrpicalo, from scratch, based on java and mysql, and one question came to my mind...

when you create a mud, a land.. areas.. items.. you gave them unique names.. and usually when you create those names you have no control on how player gonna "short" them, here i'm think about "hey! do you have some aaa or drops?" things like that

how do you feel to see what you created being modify by the players?

cause actually you have no control on how players will say items/creatures/areas. and its how a mud get a personality, from the players.. dms have alot do do with it as well like ambiance.. room descriptions.. but for everything else its totally to players.

[Ruan]

How do we feel about how the players treat our creations? Nice question. When I make areas, I tend to try and spy on the first few explorers and to me the reward for building the area is the reactions I see in those players. The occasional "wow" or messages to other players to come and look, or the laughing are what make the weeks of design, describing and coding worthwhile.

The downside is when people walk all over it, treating areas like a sequence labelled A, B, C rather than something with an atmosphere. It is bound to happen after a while -- people get familiar with an area or a "run" or a quest and they shove their character through the motions without feeling. I tend to get emotionally involved when I create areas and all the creatures have characters I was particularly fond of my cave trolls. In my imagination they are trolls, and when players treat them like ***xp -- like numbers, that is a downer.

That's about it really -- atmosphere *is* very much dependent on the players, however hard we try. We try to set up an alternate, consistent world rather than a game, but it's always possible for players to ruin that and simply focus on the numbers that are necessarily in the code supporting it all.

I'm sorry I've not been around much at all. A few things happened that put me off communicating with players for a while and I don't have any spare time to complete my building work. This wil change in the summer.

[Kampfer]

thx for the reply

and its true sometimes (often) we see stuff as xp/numbers rather than living things. for the Trolls its probably one of the area I almost know nothing about it cause Kampfer in that place gonna turn as blue as a paladin.. which is not good.. and I didn't had any high level to explore there so for me trolls are still atmosphere cause they are a treat to Kampfer's sanity (and I still believe the aura system should be cahnge for the dks )