Post
by Bim » 12 Jul 2018 21:01
Hi All,
I'm one of the new joiners from the PC gamer articles. I, like many, had a foray into MUDs in the late 90s early 00s, and then again a few years ago (the discworld one in particular) but never came across Genesis at the time. To be honest, I tried it mostly out of spite due to the first PC Gamer article - I like PC gamer, but it annoys me no end when they post a 'I couldn't do it so this game is rubbish' article.
I'm really enjoying it, having a proper map and it being relatively straight forward in terms of no needlessly complicated systems is nice. Then when I read about all the different worlds I was truly wowed - I cannot WAIT to get to Gondor!
All that being said, I did nearly get put off a few times due to a few bits that got a bit frustrating. As a previous Mudder, I honestly understand (and agree with) the 'don't expect this to be WoW' mind set - it's why I chose to play a MUD. However, with so much choice of gaming these days, what would have been 'I'll work this out if it takes me all night' now turns into 'I'm getting frustrated, lets see whats on steam'. More than that, it seems that people on the forum wish it to have a wider reach, and for that I believe it needs to have some of the conveniences we have now.
For instance, having a 'loot' command that picks up everything from killed corpses would be great - I know you could alias it, but having it from the start with a sign that says 'once you've defeated enemies, type loot to pick everything up' would be common sense by today's standard. I know the equipment/inventory and logging off thing is something that's been debated a lot before, but I honestly think it's needlessly complicated and will really, really annoy a returning player if they've not jumped through the hoops and find all their stuff is gone. Regardless of what meta reasons there are, for the new player it's just 'logged in -> stuff I worked hard for gone -> quit'. More than that, for all the info, it might be better to have a few screens of 'enforced text' that come up - no reading signs, just 'FooBar the mad shouts at you 'LOOT CORPSES AFTER KILLING THEM BY TYPING 'loot'!'
Anyway, I can't wait to get more involved, and if anyone did want to hear more thoughts from someone who is both an olde Mudder and a newbie do let me know.