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Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

writtenrealms.com

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Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#51

Post by npunt »

mbunch wrote: post #8
ndguarino wrote: post #3

MUD player for ~20 years, (previously) administrator/developer for ~5. First of all, great work on pushing this out and making a usable product, especially one built for people who aren't entirely familiar with writing software (which is often the big hurdle for starting a new IF game or MUD). I haven't had time to play with it, but I do have three (or 2.5) pieces of feedback based off reading the documentation. 1. S…

Not OP but somebody else who has worked on the platform. Thanks for the feedback! I can't give quite as good of a response as teebes but I'll take a crack at it. - Patreon isn't the ideal subscription service but it was the most lightweight tool we could find for the job since some users wanted to contribute and it didn't make sense to integrate a full payment platform right now. Is there a particular reason that you…

This is an exciting project! Been hoping someone would build a decent modern MUD creator - I played MUDs a long time ago but have been disappointed to see the medium largely stuck in 90s conventions. At least from my perspective telnet is an anti-feature because it limits design possibilities. There's already tons of telnet MUDs out there, I'd try to push the boundaries of what is possible in a web browser instead, and be willing to break some rules and expectations of MUDs. I'd love to see music, environmental effects and rich media, some focus on buttons > text parsing, and generally trying to adopt modern conventions and trying new things.

Accessibility on the other hand is 100% a good thing to implement. Text adventures are more than any other medium theaters of the mind, and any additions you make to them should fall back gracefully to that core idea.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#52

Post by ecdavis »

ndguarino wrote: post #3

MUD player for ~20 years, (previously) administrator/developer for ~5. First of all, great work on pushing this out and making a usable product, especially one built for people who aren't entirely familiar with writing software (which is often the big hurdle for starting a new IF game or MUD). I haven't had time to play with it, but I do have three (or 2.5) pieces of feedback based off reading the documentation. 1. S…

> Lack of telnet connection on multiplayer worlds is a big hurdle.

I believe that MUD developers' fixation on telnet support has been a major contributor[0] to the ongoing decline in popularity of MUDs over the last decade. It's a terrible protocol on which to build a multiplayer game. Supporting it as an option requires some kind of server-side content rendering layer which can be inherently restrictive to your other client offerings.

[0] There are others, yes. Particularly licensing issues and gameplay norms.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#55

Post by saurik »

ecdavis wrote: post #52
ndguarino wrote: post #3

MUD player for ~20 years, (previously) administrator/developer for ~5. First of all, great work on pushing this out and making a usable product, especially one built for people who aren't entirely familiar with writing software (which is often the big hurdle for starting a new IF game or MUD). I haven't had time to play with it, but I do have three (or 2.5) pieces of feedback based off reading the documentation. 1. S…

> Lack of telnet connection on multiplayer worlds is a big hurdle. I believe that MUD developers' fixation on telnet support has been a major contributor[0] to the ongoing decline in popularity of MUDs over the last decade. It's a terrible protocol on which to build a multiplayer game. Supporting it as an option requires some kind of server-side content rendering layer which can be inherently restrictive to your othe…

> Supporting it as an option requires some kind of server-side content rendering layer which can be inherently restrictive to your other client offerings.

It should be no more restrictive than the concept of supporting text rendering at all--which maybe want to be able to avoid?--as, worst case, you could literally just run a text client on a server on behalf of the user.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#58

Post by ecdavis »

saurik wrote: post #55
ecdavis wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lack of telnet connection on multiplayer worlds is a big hurdle. I believe that MUD developers' fixation on telnet support has been a major contributor[0] to the ongoing decline in popularity of MUDs over the last decade. It's a terrible protocol on which to build a multiplayer game. Supporting it as an option requires some kind of server-side content rendering layer which can be inherently restrictive to your othe…

> Supporting it as an option requires some kind of server-side content rendering layer which can be inherently restrictive to your other client offerings. It should be no more restrictive than the concept of supporting text rendering at all--which maybe want to be able to avoid?--as, worst case, you could literally just run a text client on a server on behalf of the user.

It's restrictive in that it requires your content to be rendered as a continuous stream of text. That sort of rendering is not suitable for all text games that could be considered MUDs. It's not even all that suitable for the more popular MUDs that still exist.

Now, this is not a hard requirement of the telnet protocol, for sure. ANSI controls exist, as do various sub-protocols, but support for these is mixed across telnet clients and therefore can't be relied on (unless you're willing to say your game can only be played by a subset of telnet clients, I suppose).

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#59

Post by mattowen_uk »

ecdavis wrote: post #52
ndguarino wrote: post #3

MUD player for ~20 years, (previously) administrator/developer for ~5. First of all, great work on pushing this out and making a usable product, especially one built for people who aren't entirely familiar with writing software (which is often the big hurdle for starting a new IF game or MUD). I haven't had time to play with it, but I do have three (or 2.5) pieces of feedback based off reading the documentation. 1. S…

> Lack of telnet connection on multiplayer worlds is a big hurdle. I believe that MUD developers' fixation on telnet support has been a major contributor[0] to the ongoing decline in popularity of MUDs over the last decade. It's a terrible protocol on which to build a multiplayer game. Supporting it as an option requires some kind of server-side content rendering layer which can be inherently restrictive to your othe…

It's not really the fault of MUD developers, more the obsessive nature of the players, who each have their own favourite client that is set-up exactly how they like it, and full of huge macros and plug-ins that only they understand. These players will not even try out your new MU* if it doesn't support their client.
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