you are right about that MUDS are starting to be only about combat, at least most of them but i've seen few with some that are more deep than that but they are very rare. I used to play a MUD that was kinda shallow and you just kept killing things over and over again... the addiction to that mud lasted for few weeks.
: Marathon MP is totally different from MUD-style play. Marathon MP is fun for
: the speed, action, reflexes - the audiovisual and tactile interaction with
: the game. Even if the graphics are primitive by today's standards they are
: still essential to that gameplay.
: Role-play is fun for the storytelling, the character interaction - it's
: basically a large collaborate writing process where each writer gets to
: write for one character and the game/GM controls the overall plot, chance
: events, etc. Unfortunately amongst all the old text-based MMORPG systems
: (including MUSHes, MUXes, MOOs, etc), MUDs are renowned for degenerating
: quickly into hack-n-slash combat fests with little interesting character
: development. They're sort of the Diablo of text-based RPGs - maybe
: addictive to some but ultimately shallow. That is of course not so much a
: limitation of the MUD system as just the type of user it used to draw in.
: A good Marathon MUD would have to be set in a time/place that would make a
: bad tradition Marathon scenario. The two game type are anethema to one
: another. You want a place without constant combat, with motives and
: possibilities that extend beyond just killing things. Perhaps something
: set on the Marathon en-route to Tau Ceti, or the seven years of the colony
: prior to the Pfhor attack? Possibly involving Strauss and whatever his
: plans were with the Battleroids, whatever sort of coup he may have been
: planning. Can still involve combat but not outright war, Chockesians can
: provide cannon fodder to build up combat skills, day-to-day colony life
: provides you with something to do, and the MIDA espianage(sp?) backstory
: allows for character growth and a connecting plot arc.
