RP mud naming restrictions going a bit too far
Mike
While this is not a flame, I would like to say one thing:
On many RP mud's, Imps have to deal with names like "FyreWind" and
"LordCheesetheDumbAss" all the time. I would not consider "Delver" an
appropriate name for an RP mud (Personally, I wouldn't name my kid
"Delver). While the name is nonethe less cool, i wouldn't allow it.
P.S. Try using H.P. Lovecraft names in MUD's. No one notices (those
morons. Dagon and Azazoth shall prevail!!)
Mike
That is pretty funny. But I would allow KaViR AND I would change the
login. See, aren't I just so special (please don't flame me for this.
I'm sick of being flamed.)
Richard Woolcock
Reminds me of a mud I tried about a month ago (I can't remember the
name, and I'm not posting this to start a flamewar anyway). When
I logged on, the imms started chatting a lot of stuff about newbies
not following instructions. Noticing I was the only newbie on, I
asked what the problem was. Apparently, the name 'KaVir' was an
'inappropriate roleplaying name for a medieval theme'. They said it
would be okay if I didn't have the uppercase 'V' in the middle.
Their choice, I suppose. I thought it was particularly funny when
they claimed that the uppercase 'V' would result in a corrupted
playerfile, and that they were too busy with other things to get
around to fixing it. I even told them that all they had to do
was capitalize(ch->name) on login, but they claimed their code
didn't have that command (???). I believe they now have a big
text message on the front screen saying something like "your name
should only have one capital letter, and that should be the first
one, the rest should be in lower case".
I'm not sure what is worse - a stockmud who's admin keep asking
stupid questions, or a stockmud who's admin never listen to advice.
Hmmm looks like I've turned this into a stockmud flame now ;) Ah
well, life goes on.
KaVir.
Brian Price
No, I am not a longtime mudder, I am, however, a long time rpg'er, Dungeon
Master, and wargamer. I have been using the name Delver in fantasy and sci-fi
rpg for over 22 years, since the first time I ever saw a copy of chainmail for
god's sake. In fact, I believe my use of that name pre-dates the relatively
obscure Delver short story (Zelazny?). How ironic that I'm denied the use of
that name on a number of rp muds by imms who were likely not out of diapers
when my first chars named Delver strode through lands of imagination similar
to those that inspired the first muds.
There is enough fiction out there, that if you dig hard enough and long
enough, there is a fair chance that any reasonable made up name has already
been used. What are the names then measured by, relative obscurity? I even
had one imm tell me that the name Delver was a descriptive word... pardon me?
Try using a dictionary.. delver is not a word. It is hilarious that Barabus
and Barnaby (I'll leave you to figure out what literature uses those names)
are allowable names on these same rp muds, yet a name which suggests adventure
is not. In fact, I'd be willing to wager that I could slip numerous names
from obscure literature past those same imms, how many would catch Marach,
Abindigo, Delacorte, or Wolke?
No don't bother flaming me, I fully realize that the imms and creators have
the right to do as they please. It is however sad that in order to eliminate
abusive and utterly unimaginative names, I am denied the use of an alias I
have lived through for so many years by those who erroneously believe they've
(re)invented or even defined roleplaying.
Mike
Here's an example of such an instance. On my MUD, there were and I
think there still are :( people with names like "Viper" "Beyondcool" and
"Funkmeister." I sent them all notes saying that they either had to
give me a new name within a day or they will have their pfile deleted.
They all changed their name.
I would allow Joseph for a midieval experience, as it PREDATES medieval
times. It was existent in 2000 BC. I would also allow Michael, which
exited in about 1000 BC (Hebrew finally pays off).
I wouldn't say if it sounds "cooler," but on many MUD's I would use the
IMM's names as a standard for naming your character on that MUD.
Just my 2 cents.
--Mike
Brian Price
In article <33F000...@ix.netcom.com>, Mike <fod...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>While this is not a flame, I would like to say one thing:
>
>On many RP mud's, Imps have to deal with names like "FyreWind" and
>"LordCheesetheDumbAss" all the time. I would not consider "Delver" an
>appropriate name for an RP mud (Personally, I wouldn't name my kid
>"Delver). While the name is nonethe less cool, i wouldn't allow it.
Ok, ya lost me. The measure of acceptability of a name is if you would name
your child that name? Umm... I thought that the point in choosing a name for
a role playing experience was to choose one that you not only liked for it's
look and sound but one that fit the milieu. Now unless I'm mistaken, the
milieu for most all fantasy roleplaying experiences (including MUDs) is drawn
from a mixture of pseudo-medieval-history and pure fantasy works of fiction.
Back to the point, using that basis, would you seriously name a child of yours
Bilbo or Conan? Alternatively, do you suggest that Fred or Joseph, or perhaps
even Michael would be an appropriate and acceptable name for a medieval
fantasy roleplaying experience?
>
>P.S. Try using H.P. Lovecraft names in MUD's. No one notices (those
>morons. Dagon and Azazoth shall prevail!!)
Hehe, my point exactly, and outside of the above child naming nitpick I agree
with your statements :) I'm afraid I'll have to develop a new rule of thumb
for so-called rp mud names, if it sounds 'cooler' than the names used by the
imms present it simply must go!
Nathan F. Yospe
nospam....@bedford.net (Brian Price) wrote:
:Hehe, my point exactly, and outside of the above child naming nitpick I agree
:with your statements :) I'm afraid I'll have to develop a new rule of thumb
:for so-called rp mud names, if it sounds 'cooler' than the names used by the
:imms present it simply must go!
On another note:
Why not code a name scanning facility into the creation engine? I even
go so far as to suggest alterations to proposed names that fit the
race and culture of a character...
I have a dozen or so races, many of them utterly alien. This makes for
some interesting naming conventions, especially as names are not given
immediately on encountering a player. One race has names that vary, in
proportion to how many components of the character are assembled. Most
easy to name, of course, are the humans, but even that is constrained.
The survivors of the human species are all members of the Sareiso-Holt
contingent, and use the gal-two standard for names: Three sylibics, in
japanese form, followed by a compound name of the first sylable of the
parents' names, followed by an occupational title, plus an informal, a
name that _must_ be one or two sylables. KenReKi Ra Yok ForeSeeker, to
friends, Paul. Other species have similar conventions. This allows the
players to establish IDs. They may, if they wish, ID themselves by any
other name when actually playing, but it will be treated as you would,
in a RP environ, expect. "DeathStalker" would get a lot of funny looks
when he introduced himself. Now, A remnant67 uses a key of numbers, in
exponential base, which gets a bit tough. If you create as a Remmie, a
number is assigned...
--
Nathan F. Yospe | There is nothing wrong with being a sociopath. Its
yo...@hawaii.edu | getting caught thats a problem. Be a mad scientist
UH Manoa Physics | Write poetry. Be an artist. Plot world domination.
Biomedical Phys. | Panthers make great pets. Muhahahahahahahahahaha!!
Hermonia
Brain Price wrote:
>How ironic that I'm denied the use of
>that name on a number of rp muds by imms who were likely not out of
diapers
>when my first chars named Delver strode through lands of imagination
similar
>to those that inspired the first muds.
I don't know if the age has anything to do with it, just the attitude.
I've played on Rp'ing Muds/Moos for awhile, most concentrating on Robert
Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. As an Imp on my own Mud, I find it hard
to imagine Rp'ing with people named "Ladydeath" and "Sunshine" in a
serious manner.
>There is enough fiction out there, that if you dig hard enough and long
>enough, there is a fair chance that any reasonable made up name has
already
>been used.
That is very true. Like many, I too get my names from books that I've read
in the past (though most of them now aren't very good..)
I too have a gripe of my own. As a player and former Immortal on a RJ Mud
(which will remain unnamed to protect the guilty) I was forced to Rp with
people named after guitar companies, cars and a few blatently ripped out
of Star Wars. Deciding to test this, a good friend came on named "Obiwan."
He was immediatly asked to change it. After pointing out more than 10
current players with names that were quite un Rpable he was ignored by the
other Imms and only talked to when asked to change his name. The other 10
players were allowed to keep their names, including a few ripped from Star
Wars. Needless to say, I left soon after that.
My point? It is all in the attitude when it comes to names. I personally
think all names should be Rp'able when it comes to a Roleplay Mud. That's
the law I enforce on my new Mud (or will once I write the policy)
Gina
Richard Woolcock
Mike wrote:
>
> Here's an example of such an instance. On my MUD, there were and I
> think there still are :( people with names like "Viper" "Beyondcool" and
> "Funkmeister." I sent them all notes saying that they either had to
> give me a new name within a day or they will have their pfile deleted.
> They all changed their name.
You don't allow names like 'Viper'? I generally assume that players
names on the mud are not always real names - they could be nicknames too.
Having an assassin nicknamed 'Viper' seems pretty in-character to me,
particularly if he specialised in poisoning his blade before backstabbing
people.
KaVir.
Kermit the Hog
I think that if a character wants a nick name, they should put it in
their title. Names are the CHARCATER'S RP names they were born with,
not the nick name that they use.
I was wondering, on a similar note, where I could get the "introduce"
code, or something like it. What it does is, instead of everybody's
name showing up as "Bob" and "Todd", it shows up as "a <user defined
adjective> <sex> <race>". And you "introduce me to <name>." Like here
is an example:
Bob's prompt> 'Hello. My name is Bob.
You say'Hello. My name is Bob.'
Bob's prompt>
Todd's prompt> introduce me to bob
Bob's prompt> introduce me to todd
That's the basic jist. I saw it on a heavy RP MUD. (HAHAH!!! CAPITALS
MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!).
Richard Woolcock
Kermit the Hog wrote:
>
> I think that if a character wants a nick name, they should put it in
> their title. Names are the CHARCATER'S RP names they were born with,
> not the nick name that they use.
Where does it say this? And if this IS the case, why do players only
have a first name, and why can two players not have the same name?
> I was wondering, on a similar note, where I could get the "introduce"
> code, or something like it. What it does is, instead of everybody's
Have you considered actually writing it *yourself*? Or is that too
stupid a question to ask?
KaVir.
Matt Chatterley
On Fri, 15 Aug 1997, Kermit the Hog wrote:
> I think that if a character wants a nick name, they should put it in
> their title. Names are the CHARCATER'S RP names they were born with,
> not the nick name that they use.
I had to read this a few times before it made sense (but that is likely
as much my fault as anyones, since I'm half asleep), but yes, I would say
you are absolutely right. Trouble is only likely to arise in the sort of
situation wherein you walk in on a complete stranger, and they assume
they can use your name since the game tells it to them (a good reason for
some sort of recog system). If you RP entirely using an 'in theme' name,
there is no reason on earth why you shouldn't be able to have a common
nickname which you like as your 'name' on any 'who' lists and so forth.
> I was wondering, on a similar note, where I could get the "introduce"
> code, or something like it. What it does is, instead of everybody's
> name showing up as "Bob" and "Todd", it shows up as "a <user defined
> adjective> <sex> <race>". And you "introduce me to <name>." Like here
> is an example:
[example snipped]
A better way to do this is probably to allow players to define their
personal 'names' for specific objects. For instance, if you have two
characters, called 'Mary' and 'Jane' -
Tall woman says, "Hi! I'm Sarah!"
] name tall woman as sarah
Short woman says, "Hi! I'm Lizzie!"
] name short woman as lizzie
Although these are not REALLY their names, it gives you the same control
you have in RL - to associate a name with a person. If you perpetually
refer to a waitress as 'Toots', you could rename her asuch for your
personal digestion.
> That's the basic jist. I saw it on a heavy RP MUD. (HAHAH!!! CAPITALS
> MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!).
Something amusing about an RP mud?
Regards,
-Matt Chatterley
http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Speak softly and carry a big stick." -Theodore Roosevelt
Kermit the Hog
I can't figure out these things about the introduce code:
1)Where I would put it
2)Everything I would need to change
3)The actual code writing
Kermit the Hog
No, it's just that Greg Munt doesn't like "MUD" capitalized, and he
doesn't like MU*.
On a MUSH I saw something like "name <desc> as <name>" but what if two
people wanted to be tall women? Uh-oh. You would need to work
something out. Perhaps that there would need to be 3 diff. adjectives
in the desc. Dunno.
Martin Keegan
Kermit the Hog wrote:
>
> No, it's just that Greg Munt doesn't like "MUD" capitalized, and he
> doesn't like MU*.
And for good reason. "MUD" capitalised causes too many arguments, and
"MU*" is confusing to newbies. Since it is mainly TinyMUD players
who use "MU*", some mudders think that "MU*" refers only to TinyMUDs!
Just use 'mud' uncapitalised, and everyone will know what you mean :)
Mk
-- "A Rock feels no pain ... and an Island never cries." - some song
http://cyburbia.net.au/~martin/cgi-bin/mud_tree.cgi
Matt Chatterley
On Sat, 16 Aug 1997, Kermit the Hog wrote:
> I can't figure out these things about the introduce code:
>
> 1)Where I would put it
This depends if you are using your own server, or one of the stock bases.
Be it the first, you should be able to work it out, being the latter, it
will vary.
> 2)Everything I would need to change
Anything which tells someone some[one|thing]'s name implicitly.
> 3)The actual code writing
I suggest getting a book, or other resource on the relevant language.
Matt Chatterley
On Sat, 16 Aug 1997, Kermit the Hog wrote:
> No, it's just that Greg Munt doesn't like "MUD" capitalized, and he
> doesn't like MU*.
Using 'MU*' has some inherent problems (not for current members of the
community, but for the newbies among us), and 'MUD' as an acronym is
outdated. We are flooded with acronyms, some of us wish it could all be
reduced to one term. It was actually The Keegan who started this, some
time ago.
> On a MUSH I saw something like "name <desc> as <name>" but what if two
> people wanted to be tall women? Uh-oh. You would need to work
> something out. Perhaps that there would need to be 3 diff. adjectives
> in the desc. Dunno.
Both MUSH servers that I am aware of (Tiny/Penn) allocate a unique DB
reference number to objects, thusly you can have any number of objects
which are completely identical, yet internally distinct.
This is also possible in LP, although I suspect trying to pick a
particular one may get a little more confusing (it can be done, without
too much trouble, though).
In terms of personalised introduction, you should have a brief summary of
the person, plus the long desc to go on, until you award them a name,
another example (simplified) might be:
You can see a tall figure in a trenchcoat here.
] look figure
You glance quickly at the figure, and see that it is about six feet tall,
and dressed in a long trenchcoat which nearly meets the floor. A battered
fedora atop it's head provides a shadowed nook to hide the features of
the face. From what you can make out, it appears to be male, and he is
paying no attention to you whatsoever. Under the left arm of the coat you
can barely make out a small bulge.
] name figure 'shady bloke'
Shady bloke reaches up to scratch the back of his neck with his right hand.
And so forth.
Mike Harrold
Kermit the Hog (dev...@reincarnate.com) wrote:
: I think that if a character wants a nick name, they should put it in
: their title. Names are the CHARCATER'S RP names they were born with,
: not the nick name that they use.
I'm not sure I agree with this. My name is Michael, but my nickname is
Mike. I go by Mike. I expect people to call me Mike. I tend to hit
people who call me Michael :P
Mages do not go by their given names. They go by a name they have chosen.
Someone who knows a mage's given name has the potential to control the
mage.
Thieves often go by nicknames, usually inherited through their actions,
character, or physical stature.
Thus, the question of whether someone would have the name "Bones" given
to them by their parents is irrelevant, if the character is a 6 foot,
90 pound, skinny, thief.
Having said that, admins have the right to draw the line where they see
fit. Remember too that we are often entertaining international players.
Recently we had a player start named "Kram". Perfectly good name as far as
I was concerned. In swedish, a kram is a hug. So effectively we had a
thief called 'Hug' wandering around. Appropriate? not to the half-dozen
swedes who were rolling on the floor laughing :P
/Miko
--
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Take the cheese to sickbay, the Doctor should take a look at it as soon |
| as possible. -- B'lanna Torres - Star Trek Voyager - 'Learning Curve'. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Dee J Mann
It could be possible that the name is being used as an NPC.
On my mud I will banish names used for NPCs. However it only applies to
the more important NPCs ie. great sages, kings, great dragons, gods, etc.
I also banish names that don't apply to the genre and as soon as another
shows up, I will warn the player to change his name. It may seem rash but
I don't think character names such as pkme or hello are appropriate. It
is very easy to come up with a name, even if it means using your own.
I'm not flaming you, just pointing out a logical reason. I know not their
reasons for banishing the name, and I do not care either.
Laterz!
Icebreaker
*******************************************************************************
Web Page: www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~deemann * 'And out come the wolves,
Old Realms: oldrealms.tander.com 6000 * their paws trampling the
******************************************** snow the alphabet. I stand on
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there * my head and watch it all go
happy people? * away' - Junkyman, Rancid
*******************************************************************************
Greg Munt
On Sat, 16 Aug 1997, Kermit the Hog wrote:
> No, it's just that Greg Munt doesn't like "MUD" capitalized, and he
> doesn't like MU*.
Your point seems to be as absent as any snippings from the post you are
replying to.
It amuses me that you attribute the anti-confusing-acronyms stance to
only me. My advice to you is to lurk for a while, and 'learn' about this
group.
Muds have produced several acronyms, such as MUD, MUSH, MOO, POO, MUCK and
MUX. Newbies see these acronyms as referring to different things, i.e. a
MUSH is a completely distinct entity from a MUD; MUSH != MUD. This is quite
obviously ridiculous.
So, it was suggested (not by myself, I might add) that the *word* 'mud'
be adopted, to refer to everything, instead of all of these confusing
acronyms. An example of the confusion that they present is 'MURPE'. This is
an acronym for Multi-User Role Playing Environment, and was apparently
used to obscure the lineage of the mud that adopted it.
I will leave you to ponder the confusing attributes of things like MU,
MU*, M** and MU(x).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I want to be imp on a MU*!!! Where do I get the code for CircleMUD???"
"I have great ideas for a new mud, but if I use stock code I'll be flamed."
These are the two extremes. Can the pro-scratchers go too far?
Scott Goehring
"Martin" == Martin Keegan <mar...@cam.sri.com> writes:
Martin> Just use 'mud' uncapitalised, and everyone will know what you
Martin> mean :)
It's been my experience that most people, who haven't been in the mud
arena since 1988, think that "mud" is generic for combat style games
and "mush" is generic for social style games. Most of the present
users have never heard of TinyMUD.
--
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of
being called an idea at all. -- Oscar Wilde
The ARSCC -- http://www.arscc.com/ -- We Don't Exist
Greg Munt
On 27 Aug 1997, Scott Goehring wrote:
> I wrote:
>
> >> It's been my experience that most people, who haven't been in the
> >> mud arena since 1988, think that "mud" is generic for combat style
> >> games and "mush" is generic for social style games. Most of the
> >> present users have never heard of TinyMUD.
>
> "Matt" == Matt Chatterley <ne...@itl.net> writes:
>
> Matt> This is 'sad but true' and a trend worth effort to reverse (are
> Matt> we that far gone?). At least for the newbies arriving in these
> Matt> groups, how we refer to things has an influence on how they will
> Matt> refer to them.
>
> Another thing I should add is that I have had MUSH-types get visibly
> agitated over the suggestion that their MUSH is a mud. I fear that
> the generic use of the term 'mud' is all but lost. Perhaps a new
> buzzphrase and appropriate acronym is called for.
No fucking way... Agitated over an acronym? That's like getting agitated
when your MURPE is called an LPMUD *koff*
If they don't like 'mud', let them use 'game'; anything else is
completely ridiculous. (I'd be interested in hearing how a mud is *not* a
Multi-User Shared Environment.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MORON n. Adult whose mental development corresponds to that of a normal
average child between the ages of 8 and 12; (colloq.) very stupid
person.
Martin Keegan
Greg Munt wrote:
> If they don't like 'mud', let them use 'game'; anything else is
> completely ridiculous. (I'd be interested in hearing how a mud is *not* a
> Multi-User Shared Environment.)
Not all muds are games.
Mk
-- "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you MAY." - some song
No wait - it was ME. "some song" is from a previous .sig
http://cyburbia.net.au/~martin/cgi-bin/mud_tree.cgi
Martin Keegan
Scott Goehring wrote:
> Matt> This is 'sad but true' and a trend worth effort to reverse (are
> Matt> we that far gone?). At least for the newbies arriving in these
> Matt> groups, how we refer to things has an influence on how they will
> Matt> refer to them.
>
> Another thing I should add is that I have had MUSH-types get visibly
> agitated over the suggestion that their MUSH is a mud. I fear that
What I'd seen was insane rants about MUSHes not being MUDs, as
opposed to muds. One of these culminated in the inflammatory assertion
that Unix is a MUSH. (To which I responded "Yeah, and it is necessary
for the spiritual salvation of every being to be subject to the
Roman pontiff", to outinflammatory them :) )
Dan Koepke and I have tried to popularise the use of the uncapitalised
word 'mud' (as opposed to MUD, which can be argued to be an acronym
for Multi USer Dungeon) as a catchall term. Regular posters on
r.g.m.ad seem largely to have adopted this practice.
> the generic use of the term 'mud' is all but lost. Perhaps a new
> buzzphrase and appropriate acronym is called for.
That's what 'mud' is - to replace 'MUD', 'MUSH', 'MOO' and the
incalculably bad 'MU*'.
Matt Chatterley
On 27 Aug 1997, Scott Goehring wrote:
> I wrote:
>
> >> It's been my experience that most people, who haven't been in the
> >> mud arena since 1988, think that "mud" is generic for combat style
> >> games and "mush" is generic for social style games. Most of the
> >> present users have never heard of TinyMUD.
>
> "Matt" == Matt Chatterley <ne...@itl.net> writes:
>
> Matt> This is 'sad but true' and a trend worth effort to reverse (are
> Matt> we that far gone?). At least for the newbies arriving in these
> Matt> groups, how we refer to things has an influence on how they will
> Matt> refer to them.
>
> Another thing I should add is that I have had MUSH-types get visibly
> agitated over the suggestion that their MUSH is a mud. I fear that
> the generic use of the term 'mud' is all but lost. Perhaps a new
> buzzphrase and appropriate acronym is called for.
This is the particularly worrying part which prompts this suggestion (at
least I think its part of what prompted it). "My MUSH isn't a MUD!!";
people will still continue with this statement after having the TinyMUD
ancestry explained to them.
The inherent problem with acronyms is that they can often be vague, and
someone will find a (half decent) reason not to use them (eg: I'm not
quite that, I have a cherry ontop!).
Scott Goehring
"Greg" == Greg Munt <gr...@uni-corn.demon.co.uk> writes:
Greg> If they don't like 'mud', let them use 'game'; anything else is
Greg> completely ridiculous. (I'd be interested in hearing how a mud
Greg> is *not* a Multi-User Shared Environment.)
To the best of my knowledge, MUSH doesn't stand for anything, except
perhaps "Multi-User Shared Hallucination". As I recall, the founders
of TinyMUSH called it that merely to distinguish it from TinyMUD,
without any expectation that their efforts would lead to the name
being common usage for an entire class of MUD. Much the same could be
said about MUCK, I suspect, which also does not stand for anything in
particular.
Alan Schwartz
Scott Goehring <sc...@poverty.bloomington.in.us> writes:
>
>Another thing I should add is that I have had MUSH-types get visibly
>agitated over the suggestion that their MUSH is a mud. I fear that
>the generic use of the term 'mud' is all but lost. Perhaps a new
>buzzphrase and appropriate acronym is called for.
I'll note that I (a developer of PennMUSH) and Amberyl (a developer
of TinyMUSH) both refer to mushes (as well as servers running mudos,
rom, moo, or whatever) as muds (capitalized however). So, there's at
least a few MUSH-types who agree with you, Scott!
- Alan
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Li Erh@Riverworld MUSH | Alan Schwartz
Paul@DuneMUSH | dune...@pennmush.tinymush.org
Javelin@Belgariad, and elsewhere | PennMUSH Server Maintainer
=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
PennMUSH God's Guide: http://pennmush.tinymush.org/~alansz/guide.html
PennMUSH Source: ftp://pennmush.tinymush.org/pub/PennMUSH/Source
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Scott Goehring
"Martin" == Martin Keegan <mar...@cam.sri.com> writes:
Martin> That's what 'mud' is - to replace 'MUD', 'MUSH', 'MOO' and the
Martin> incalculably bad 'MU*'.
I really doubt that the difference in capitalization will prove
significant to most people.
I do have to agree that "MU*" is a terribly bad term. I am trying to
remember who that can be blamed on; I think it was Jen Kleiman, but
I'm not certain.
Matt Chatterley
On 28 Aug 1997, Scott Goehring wrote:
> "Greg" == Greg Munt <gr...@uni-corn.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
> Greg> If they don't like 'mud', let them use 'game'; anything else is
> Greg> completely ridiculous. (I'd be interested in hearing how a mud
> Greg> is *not* a Multi-User Shared Environment.)
>
> To the best of my knowledge, MUSH doesn't stand for anything, except
> perhaps "Multi-User Shared Hallucination". As I recall, the founders
> of TinyMUSH called it that merely to distinguish it from TinyMUD,
> without any expectation that their efforts would lead to the name
> being common usage for an entire class of MUD. Much the same could be
> said about MUCK, I suspect, which also does not stand for anything in
> particular.
This is likely - although I believe Greg was referring to 'MUSE'
initially. Several meanings of MUSH and MUCK have been bounced around, but
the most common I have heard are SH = Shared Hallucination, and CK =
Carnal Knowledge. Heck knows what sort of impression that gives new
players. :)
Has anyone actually got a *complete* list of acronyms currently in
circulation?
MUD, MUSH, MUSE, MUG, MOO, MURPE, MUCK..
Matt Chatterley
On 28 Aug 1997, Scott Goehring wrote:
> "Martin" == Martin Keegan <mar...@cam.sri.com> writes:
>
> Martin> That's what 'mud' is - to replace 'MUD', 'MUSH', 'MOO' and the
> Martin> incalculably bad 'MU*'.
>
> I really doubt that the difference in capitalization will prove
> significant to most people.
>
> I do have to agree that "MU*" is a terribly bad term. I am trying to
> remember who that can be blamed on; I think it was Jen Kleiman, but
> I'm not certain.
Burn her/him! There are of course even more acronyms than Martin spieled
above (MUCK, MOO, MUSE, MUG, and so forth, I've even see MU* with a
varying number of stars, and been asked by a newbie what the difference
between a MUD, MUSH, and MU* is - not the names, but the actual games they
represent!).
My main beef with 'MUD' is that it implies 'Multi User Dungeon' to many -
while 'mud' is not an acronym, merely a 'jargonistic' term referring to
these games.
Acronyms are evil. :)
Matt Chatterley
On 28 Aug 1997, Scott Goehring wrote:
> "Matt" == Matt Chatterley <ro...@mpc.dyn.ml.org> writes:
>
> Matt> This is the particularly worrying part which prompts this
> Matt> suggestion (at least I think its part of what prompted it). "My
> Matt> MUSH isn't a MUD!!"; people will still continue with this
> Matt> statement after having the TinyMUD ancestry explained to them.
>
> It's especially frustrating for me, as a dinosaur who has been away
> for many years. I naturally think of MUSHes as a "breed of TinyMUD"
> because when I started there was only one Tiny-type MUD: TinyMUD. As
> such, I routinely refer to them as muds, and am routinely met with
> comments along the lines of "this is a mush, not a mud". I rarely use
> uppercase at all when chatting online, so I don't think a change of
> capitalization will help.
Heh, I wasn't around back then ;)
As to capitalization - its an interesting point, but I would maintain that
it does make a difference (if nothing else, MUD looks aesthetically
different to mud, and is only the 'same word' if you actually read the
letters).
Scott Goehring
"Alan" == Alan Schwartz <ala...@araw.mede.uic.edu> writes:
Alan> I'll note that I (a developer of PennMUSH) and Amberyl (a
Alan> developer of TinyMUSH) both refer to mushes (as well as servers
Alan> running mudos, rom, moo, or whatever) as muds (capitalized
Alan> however). So, there's at least a few MUSH-types who agree with
Alan> you, Scott!
Yeah, but you've been in muds almost as long as I have, Alan. It's
the newbies that are the problem. :)
Nathan F. Yospe
Martin Keegan <mar...@cam.sri.com> wrote:
:I guess you don't know what A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. originally stood for, then!
Well, Phymud++ v.5 was emailed to the few testers who got it as
an ACRONYM - Advanced Codebase Running On Nathan Yospe's Mudclasses
--
Nathan F. Yospe | There's nothing wrong with being a sociopath. Getting
yo...@hawaii.edu | caught is the problem. Mad scientists are for real. I
UH Manoa Physics | happen to be QUITE furious about a lot of things. The
Biomedical Phys. | scientist is also the dreamer. Magic is in your mind.