: 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.
I dunno. It might work out. Maybe not.
I'm interested(ish), but I don't really want to get my hands messy with this one.
