Dancer Archive

We're playing on the newest type of one, basically.

MUD = Multi-User Dungeon

In the late 80s, some C/C++ computer nerds who were also into D+D and such, made up a text-based D+D type game and called it a MUD (not sure which kind it was exactly). It had I guess a small town with shops to buy equipment, a wilderness area, and a dungeon or two. There were a few typed commands, and you would make up a PC and basically go kill and loot things -- you couldn't do much more because it was pretty new and the tech level was quite low.

Later on, more extensive versions started popping up with class and level systems in great detail, race systems, clans, guilds, and whatnot. Several versions of MUD were developed. All this mostl by computer geeky types (this is not an insult, I am one such type), mostly posted on the web for free DL, and most of them free to play on. Variants included things like CircleMUD and probably the most popular and well developed (admittedly this is debatable) DikuMUD.

Up till the late 90s this was all text based. They were MMORPGs, really, but everyone called them MUDs. Other variants came out -- MUSH, MUX, MOO -- all different source code (C or C++ base), but with the same basic concept... object-oriented design, rooms, characters, objects to pick up and use, commands to type, all in text, all designed for multi-user online RPing.

Then in the late 90s the designers of what eventually became EQ grabbed a DikuMUD server variant (I'm not sure which one) and decided to put a graphical overlay on top of it. During the same period the makers of the Ultima games, which were single-player but the first real graphical fantasy RPGs on the computer, decided to make their game multiplayer. At their heart EQ and UO are thus MUDs, with EQ built on one of the better ones (Diku) with basically a 3D graphic engine overlaid on top of it. Because MUDs have a sort of geek/nerd connotation and they wanted EQ and UO to appeal to large audiences, they changed the name from MUD to MMORPG.

Over time other MMORPGs have sprouted, mostly using either the basic UO or EQ design. SWG is the newest of these, apparently borrowing elements of each and then adding several of its own (such as Star Wars).

Thus, the line of progression has been:

MUD --> EQ/UO --> SWG

SWG is thus basically a very, very souped up MUD, but at its heart you can basically do about the same sorts of things in the game (get online, RP with friends, go out in groups and kill things, create objects and sell them) that you could do (in text only) 15 years ago in the first MUDs. The test was designed for MUD players but since UO, EQ,and now SWG are very derivative of the original MUDs and retain their basic "nature" (whatever engine uprades have been made) the questions are very apropos.

That explain things?

C

killer 93%

achiever 66%

explorer 40%

socializer 0%

I think I like playing a dancer cause its different from most any other chr. I've played in a morph. After all there is only so many b.h. missions I can do before I'm board. That and I like dancing with my self

SEA here too.

Socializer 100 (yes, 100!)
Explorer 60
Achiever 34
Killer 6

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My character is a bio-engineer first, and a dancer second, Oh, and a TK student and a medic.

Dancing is something to do while socializing.

100% Socializer

60% Explorer

20% Achiever

20% Killer

Guess this explains why I talk so much.

Socializer 86%
Explorer 73%
Achiever 33%
Killer 6%

I'm a roleplayer so Entertaining seemed the perfect choice for me - that or the crafting. One thing I knew I didn't want to do here was shoot things and although my character keeps a gun by her bed, she has no idea how to use it

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TheMerovingian wrote:
It should be noted that, aside from code, the huge difference between MUDs and MUSH/MUX/MOOs are that the latter are mostly social endevours. Whereas the point of a MUD is to run around and kill things to advance your characters (primarily the point of EverQuest), the point of most MUSHes (et al) is to Roleplay. In fact, many of these games have xp garned only by the vote of your peers on your RP, not anything you kill.

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That's quite correct. I ran one like this (a MUSH) for 5 years. Votes by players on how well you RPed was the only way to get XP. And on some of these (MUXes do this a lot) there is no character system. You just write up a (publicly viewable) paragraph about who you are and what you can do in the game, and off you go to roleplay. This is called "roleplay by consent."

How do you know if you hit someone when you shoot at him? He decides... You pose "John takes a swipe at Joanna." Joanna then poses, either, "Joanna ducks under the swing." or "Joanna oofs as the blow hits her in the jaw." etc.

There are some who say this is the most "pure" form of roleplaying. While it is fun, though, I prefer to combine my roleplaying with a game system that helps define objectively how my character interacts with the world (objective = roll the dice, hit if you rolle 15 or higher, miss otherwise) rather than subjectively (subjectively = swing at my character, miss if I feel like it, hit otherwise, etc).

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TheMerovingian wrote:
Since this is the dancer board, I'm assuming a large number of people here are attracted to RP.

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LOL!

The reason I aksed this question is that I made a statement almost identical to this on the general board ("entertainers are in large measure roleplayers" I believe is what I said) and I was called a "roleplay nazi" for saying it.

So I decided to come here and see if my statement was right. It seems, based on this thread, that it was.

C

Your type is: ESA. 10% of respondents so far fall into that type.

Your answers were split as follows:

Explorer 73%

Socializer 66%

Achiever 46%

Killer 13%

Numerical update: 33 people have posted their test results.

28 out of 33 marked Socializer as 1st or 2nd.
24 out of 33 marked Explorer as 1st or 2nd.

(Thus, most of us seem to be SEx or ESx.)

5 out of 33 marked Achiever as 1st or second.
4 out of 33 marked Killer as 1st.

(I find it really odd that nobody marked killer second, it seems to be first or nothing. Hm, what does that say about gamer psychology?)

I'm not 100% sure about the numbers, since I had to tally them by hand. I may have missed a few. But I am sure it's close.

Thanks everyone for responding.

C

To dance

SEA, here...

Socialicer

Ack, let's try that again.

SEA, here...

Socializer 86%
Explorer 53%
Achiever 40%
Killer 20%

Dancing intrigued me during the character creation process, so I tried it out. It was completely different fromcharacter options in any game of which I've been a player, and now there's just no going back. Bartle does not lie, I'm a roleplayer at heart.

Explorer 0%

Please ignore the above

Explorer 80%

Socializer 53%

Achiever 46%

Killer 20%

I made my entertainer for a number of reasons:

1. It was an escape character. Someone who I can play without worries about progressing anywhere. (Funnily I have not gone back to my so-called main yet).


2. I like to make up stories and songs, which seemed to fit with the role.


3. I thought it would force me to be a bit more sociable in game. I find that I am not good at grouping for hunting but like grouping for dancing.


4. I thought it would be funny to create a female dancer named Albhert, as a bit of a commentary about a certain aspect of the game.

I do kind of regret the last reason now that I play this character as my main.