Volume Two Issue Twenty-Eight
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= .............._______ ............./ / THE LEGENDARY TIMES ............/ / .........../ /.....______.._____.....______.._____.......____ ........../ /...../ /./ \.../ /./ \...../ \ ........./ /...../ ___/./ ____/../ ___/./ __. \.../ /\ \ ......../ /...../ /_.../ /....../ /_.../ /..\ >./ /./ / ......./ /...../ __/../ /____../ __/../ /.../ /./ /./ / ....../ /_____/__/__../ \_\ /./ /__../ /.../ /./ /_/ / ...../ / /./ /./ /./ /.../ /./ / ..../ /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD .../________________/ running on bashful.cc.utexas.edu 9999 128.83.108.17 9999 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/johnmil/legend/legend.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VOLUME TWO, ISSUE TWENTY-EIGHT July 5, 1995 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ***************************** ...:/:[ CONTENTS ]:\:... *CODE UPDATE* - New Moods System - *ARTICLES* _ An Interview with Ptah - - A Slight Oversight - - MUD party pictures available - - Fund Raising Update - *SOCIAL EVENTS* - A Knightly Wedding - - Clan Updates - - The Perils of Levelling - - Kiera and the OTS Make Peace - - Miscellaneous Bits - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Please send your responses to articles to the Legendary Times address at [email protected]. Letters to the editor are welcomed :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= THE NEW MOODS SYSTEM A new roleplaying addition has been added into the mud. It's 'moods' -- essentially an adverb system for modifying your says, whispers, and talks. - What does it do? Well, instead of the usual says that look like this: Slasher says, 'Kill! I wanna kill!' You might see any of the following: Slasher says, eyes gleaming wickedly, 'Kill! I wanna kill!' 'Kill!' Slasher says, gibbering insanely. 'I wanna kill!' 'Kill! I wanna kill!' Slasher says, redfaced with anger. The extra tags may or may not be there, but any of the different placements of the speech tags might be. - How do I use it? In order to speak says as listed above, you must have the eloquence skill. Once you have this skill, your says will automatically have the movable tags shown above. So will your whispers and your talks. To add moods, you preface the regular say, talk, or whisper with a mood. For example: You type: SAD WHISPER JUJUBE I DON'T WANT TO DIE They see: 'I don't want to die,' Slasher whispers sadly to you. You type: POUTING SAY YOU NEVER LIKE WHAT I SAY. YOU HATE ME. They see: 'You never like what I say,' you say, lower lip trembling. 'You hate me.' You type: SHY TALK CINDERELLA CAN I BE YOUR HERO? They see: Galahad says to you, eyes averted, 'Can I be your hero?' - That's a pain to type. Is there a shortcut? Sure. Every mood abbreviates just like all other mud commands. You can simply cut it as short as possible so that it does not conflict with other commands, and it will work. Note that all regular mud abbreviations and socials have priority, so typing LOV will get you the love social, not the LOVING mood. For that you need to type LOVI at the least. There's another shortcut, one which essentially adds over a hundred rather generic socials to the library. You type: DISTRACTED They see: PicnicBasket looks distracted. Then you type: SAY SORRY, SOMEONE TELLING TO ME. And they see: 'Sorry, someone telling to me,' PicnicBasket says, mind clearly elsewhere. Using this method, the say will remember the last mood you entered. Note! Either way, saying, whispering or talking clears the mood, and you have to enter it again if you want to use the same mood several times in a row. Which looks bad anyway. If you use this two-part method, you can also do this: ANNOYED ANGRY ' HEY! And they will see: Huggermugger lookes annoyed. 'Hey!' Huggermugger says angrily. The latest mood will supersede the old one. - Cool! How many moods are there and how can I get a list? There are currently 140 different moods. What's more, each mood has between one and three different speech tags that can be attached. To get a complete list of the moods, type MOOD. The full list is a little longer than a screen, so we advise you set SCREENLEN to something less than 23 to see it without getting spammed. - This is all ANNOYING. I hate it. No problem! If you find yourself disliking this, just type MOOD OFF and you just won't see it anymore. :) You'll get the exact same messages you used to. Having mood off will also prevent your messages from being autocaptitalized or punctuated for you. People just entering the game may need to type MOOD ON to activate seeing it. - Help! Everything's getting split up into two sentences! The punctuation marks that are read as ending sentences (? ! . and ...) are not interpreted as such when enclosed in () or "", so those of you who find stuff breaking in odd places may want to make use of the double quotes. The interpreter will not split up stuff like ?!?!? or ??? but it may do it to really odd combos like !...!, and there's not much that can be done about it. :) Inventive typists can always find a way to defeat the system. It DOES currently break, unfortunately, on Mr. and Mrs. and other abbreviations with periods after them. I suggest leaving off the periods. :) Maybe someday we can add a list to check for, but until we have the processor to ourselves I don't want to add that many if checks. :P The double Huh? messages that those without eloquence are reporting will be gone soon. So will the occasionally garbled messages that happen when there are many people in a room and someone uses talk with a mood to a specific other person (must be a given one in the order of who's in the room). In any case, that'll be fixed soon too. :) - Are there help files on this? HELP ELOQUENCE explains how to use the basics. HELP MOOD gives the syntax for the mood command. - Why can't everyone use this? Because it's only for the eloquent, who have been waiting for some time for this skill to be useful. - Hey! Why can I be 'coy' but not 'flirtatious'? Can you add 'flirtatious'? You can't be flirtatious because it's included in coy. There are a lot of adverbs you might want to use that are covered in others. We're not going to add 6 more synonyms for happy, when in practice the 4 or 5 that are there already cover 15 different ways of saying it. If you find a CATEGORY of emotion that is skipped (like, in the first version, I forgot completely about the many ways of being scared), please let me know and I will see if it can be added eventually. But don't ask for something that has a close parallel already. - Does this work with socials? No, but who knows, it might work with some of them someday. Don't hold your breath. - Why didn't you fix hellebore, add more spells, add more skills, write another area, or whatever else, instead of wasting time on a cosmetic thing like this? Because this code wasn't for Legend but for a different project--I just happened to be able to port it. :) Count your blessings. -Ptah \*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\ AN INTERVIEW WITH PTAH Recently, Laura, a player on Legend, conducted a lengthy interview with Ptah on a wide range of subjects. She used this interview as the basis for an article on MUDs which she wrote for "her last undergrad class" (she's planning to submit it to a magazine such as "Internet World." Laura, who graduates with honors this summer, will be starting an MA program in Art History with a fellowship in the fall. In addition to going to school and raising a family, she has built and played on "Northern Crossroads" (a Diku MUD), C'thulhu based MUD, and (briefly) our own Legend. The LT is going to be featuring four separate excerpts of this interview, arranged by subject: muds in general, interaction on muds, the future of the internet, and building on the mud. The first two excerpts follow. ABOUT MUDS IN GENERAL: Q: How does this mud differ from others, and how would you like it to be different? A: Muds till now have been primarily either games or social spaces. This mud attempts to combine the three main aspects of mudding--a gaming system, a system for social interaction, and a system for fantasy roleplaying. It offers much more flexibility for social interaction than your usual gaming mud--perhaps less than a social mud. It tries to strike a balance, in other words. The historical theme we use also puts it outside the realm of any of those types at times. My goal for this place is to make it social, political, game, roleplaying, educational, the works. Perhaps I will incorporate the library function into here too. Q: True virtual reality - everything at once? A: Sure why not? Just today I wrote a post on Usenet about the state of the art in muds --about how there wasn't one. The mudding community offers no real self-evaluation, has no clear vision of its role within the Net. There is no standard set as to what is competent. There are no critics. I believe that mud design is game design -- for which there is a well-established tradition of criticism and it is also more -- world design and server design -- for which no basis exists yet. Muds cannot mature until the people who work on them agree to reward the good themselves . All the effort to take muds seriously has sprung from outside the community. Academics jumped on muds as a fascinating experiment -- but they approach it as that, too distanced to try to develop them. No sense of fun :) Q: How does a MUD differ from, say, a Bulletin Board System (BBS)? A: Most net functions are solitary. The standard setters know this and are working on interactivity--but the fact is that this sort of virtual face-to-face communication is probably the most powerful attractor in the Net. Communication, be it by publication, by email or face-to-virtual-face, is the true draw. Information is only secondary. It is the human contact that keeps the Net-addicted coming back. BBSes offer chat, and online services offer chat and forums and newsgroups. Muds cannot replace the multi-threaded hypertextual conversation that listserves and newsgroups give, but they give instant reaction and interactivity. The role of muds can and should be educational, political, social --everything in the virtual world that gatherings serve for in real life. Q: Do you think that muds could turn into virtual libraries or classrooms, then? A: Can? They have. I'm working on a mud that is a virtual library right now actually. And several universities have used mud interfaces for their campus tours or their libraries. Q: Copyright is a big issue here? A: Certainly. Who copyrights this interview? You the author? Does Donat, who just dropped a chat into the middle of it, have any say? Is this public speech? Is this publication? Can it be freely reproduced? If I chatted out the source code to some Microsoft program, would it be illegal? If I chatted out the code to the PGP key, a common encryption standard, and some of our players were in Australia, that WOULD be illegal, according to the laws on the books. Q: Is such a law enforceable? A: Of course it is not enforceable. That's the problem with Net legislation. Well, no more enforceable surely than someone slipping the PGP code to Canada. Q: So how do you think these issues should be handled? Who would you say owns the copyright on this conversation?. A: I would tend to regard this as public conversation--muds as PLACES and I would regard Usenet and listserves as publication and hence protected speech. This would be protected assembly. Unfortunately, under current law, none of them are either. They are all simply telecommunication, on par with a phone conversation or a fax, not only subpoenable, but also unprotectable by most any constitutional right. Q: So you regard MUDs as places of assembly. As an implementer of one of the most unique MUDs on the net, what purpose do you think they serve? A: I don't think they serve a fraction of their purpose yet. They may never be fulfilled in text form--but the fact is, when we talk virtual reality, we mean muds--full immersion ones, but muds nonetheless. Q: Do you think we will eventually have a VR5-type environment, like the TV show?' A: Eventually, sure. Ten years. Q: That long? A: Maybe less. Let me clarify. The ability to give us fully rendered realistic landscape we can move in and interact in in--full 3D virtual space--oh, we could build it now. The ability to have the DEGREE of interaction represented in VR 5--the amount of expressions, of ranges, of contact, of pain stimuli, all that stuff, that is a longer ways away. Right now it takes electrodes slapped all over one's face to get something as advanced as Moxy on the Cartoon Network and that is really, cartoonish. As cartoonish, approximately, as the socials system used on muds. VR5 implies the capability to 'emote' and it is gonna take a while to be able to represent that. :) Q: Do you think this mud will go commercial? A: I think that this mud is of a caliber that could go commercial, yes. I do not think it will. The mud right now is made up of frontiers people. Commercial would imply taxes :). It would imply laws. And that means that some of the frontier people would move on to a new frontier. I like them, and don't want to see them go. Nor do I feel it is entirely fair to confiscate their homesteading for a new city hall. MUDS AND INTERACTION: Q: How do you thinks muds effect people's perceptions of each other? A: Trick question. Q: Not intended as such...shall I rephrase? A: No, because it gets at the heart of the issue. People tend to think that muds alter how people perceive one another. That gender and race and handicaps cease to matter. It is a noble vision, sure, one shared in general by these frontier netters. In truth, muds reveal the self in rather disturbing ways. We all construct 'faces' and masks to deal with others. Usually in interpersonal relationships, the masks can slip, they evolve and react, and they have body language and cues. On a mud, on the net, whatever---they cannot. And people see specifically this: what you choose to represent yourself as, and THAT is more revealing of your true nature than gender, race, age, or anything else. Does it affect people's perceptions of others? Sure. But a more valid question is, how does it affect our perceptions of ourselves? Take the typical mud character. 95% of the women of muds are beautiful. If not beautiful, they are cute. If not cute they are perky, or mysterious. They are all attractive. And what's more, the difference between the females played by men and women is minimal. It's mostly a matter of experience. The men who play women mostly have the experience in flirting of a four-year-old. They are too crude and too direct. Interestingly, it doesn't take long to learn. Now, consider the men. They are also all handsome or mysterious, or terribly scarred. People talk a lot about how on muds, gender relations are altered. The sexual interactions become more important. There is more stereotyping. The blame usually falls on the men who pursue the female characters. But the fact is, I have rarely seen a mud player whose self-image was not sexually attractive and, therefore, I have to wonder, who's doing the stereotyping, and are the sexual interactions more important--or just more visible? In a sense, the characters we construct for ourselves on muds are ones that permit us to live out what we would like to be or do. Q: Do you think anonymity is affecting this? A: Certainly. But I have to reiterate, it's not a matter of how we hide, it's a matter of how we are revealing ourselves. In face-to-face, you present a front, but it is never perfect. Who knows, it may come down to pheromones and subliminal emotional messages. The basic fact is, face-to-face, you cannot truly end up with a recognizance of what this person wants to be quite as clearly. Q: Can you comment then, on what happens when these mud-friends meet Real Life? A: Sure. I can comment from two angles actually. People I knew in real life BEFORE going on the mud have become much clearer to me now, enough so that I can explain to others, who know them only on the mud, something of their motivation and manner on the mud. People I knew on the mud first and met later, well, there the things you thought you knew sink into the general, more complete impression of their character. You see the things that they purposely do not show. You understand why they emphasize one part of themselves more than anther part on the mud. On muds you meet who people want to be, even if only subconsciously; in Real Life, you meet who they are and rarely get to know what they want to be. And the complexity of personalities means that there are many people a single individual can want to be of course. Q: Do you think there is a large difference in seeing people as an Immortal and in player-to-player interactions? A: Certainly. Because as an immortal I have to express a different part of who I want to be :). I have to be more serious, more intellectual, more focused. It means I read people very differently. It means I read them the way I have just been telling you about. When I play a mortal, hell, I play it fair :). I let my wish-fulfillment meet their wish-fulfillment and skip the analysis. Q: How about dealing with troublesome people problems - those who cheat etc. Can you comment on that aspect? A: I treat it as a park and a system. People who cheat are ripping up the lawn, ruining the picnic tables. So I first take them aside and ask them to stop, then I kick 'em out. I hate doing it though. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= AN OVERSIGHT As many attentive readers (and IMMs) pointed out, in the last issue, I forgot to mention the change in the "Legendary Times" editorship. As of the last issue, I took over the editorship of "The Legendary Times" from Ptah, the founding editor (however, Ptah is still very much active in writing articles and giving me pointers :). I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Ptah for the classy job he did in setting up LT's format and producing the first year or so of the LT and MANY issues. I am only now just starting to realize how much work he put into it. I urge you all to thank him as well :) -Rusalka /\///\\///\\/////\//\\\\///\\\\/// MUD PARTY PICTURES AVAILABLE Pictures from the Texas MUD party are available for anonymous ftp at: ftp.io.com (type "ftp ftp.io.com") login: anonymous password: cd pub/usr/robingar Solo is the dog there, but the others are the people :0 These files are in .pcx format, PC Paintbrush. There are various converter programs for other formats available as shareware. For Macs, Ptah suggests GraficConverter :) ':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':': FUND DRIVE UPDATE It's getting close now! We only need $400 more to acquire the new system (Sadist has generously advanced this amount, but we do owe him the $400). The IMM's are currently in the process of arranging for the new site and system :) As weŐve mentioned before, an anonymous player has pledged to match ANY donations made by players (non IMMs) up to the sum of $200. Thus, your donation will essentially be DOUBLED. If you can send a dollar, it will count as $2! If you can only send $25, it'll count as $50! Please make this generous person's gift worthwhile by doubling our efforts to get a new site for LegendMUD. Current status: TOTAL CASH IN HAND: $1130 up by $20 TOTAL DONORS: 19 up by one ROUGH TOTAL PLEDGED: $1130 unchanged TOTAL PLEDGES: 21 unchanged AVERAGE DONATION: $59.50 Items donated: a 200mb hard drive a monitor a keyboard We suggest that those who have the money burning a hole in their pocket go ahead and send the checks directly to the following address and we will get the letters out to them as soon as we can, perhaps even crossing in the mail. This is the address to send donations to: (make checks payable to Raphael and Kristen Koster) Raph and Kristen Koster University Station PO Box 1114 If you are an overseas donor who cannot write a check in US Dollars, please email us at [email protected]. **************************************************************************** ________________________ / \ o O | Wonder what folks are | `\|||/ | doing over at LegendMud? | (o o) \________________________/ ooO_(_)_Ooo_____________________________________________________________ _____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| __|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|___ _____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| A KNIGHTLY WEDDING The long awaited wedding of Dominic, the Knightly Guildmaster and Lirra, the Lady Knight took place about a week ago. It was held in a small, intimate clearing in Sherwood, with several guests in attendance. Ptah conducted the ceremony, with Chrysostom serving as best man and Rusalka serving as a a very late maid of honor. A small woodwinds quartet provided music for the festivities. The bride was resplendent in a flowing white lace wedding gown, a white lace veil, a white garter with a blue ribbon, white lace gloves, and a pair of white dress slippers. She held a pocket handkerchief to catch her tears of joy :) Dominic and Lirra wrote their own vows to celebrate their marriage. First came Dominic's; facing Lirra and holding her hands he told her: 'Out of the depths of time, And across the distances. From the strength of arms, and the weakness of humility. In the depths of homage, and the ravages of war. Across the barriers, whatever their form, I pledge to thee my love, my honor, and the strength of mine arms. to protect and cherish thee, across the reaches of eternity.' After accepting Dominic's vow, Lirra made her own: 'It's hard to put what i feel into words. We have known each other for a long time. Through that time, together, we have experienced many things. The most cherished is our love for each other. My love for you runs very deeply. More than words can describe. In more ways than one you have been there when I have needed you the most. Standing by my side and protecting me from life's cruel hand. Today i come here and plegde my unending love to you and to let others know of my love for you. I will cherish each moment we have together till the end of time. I also pledge to be there when for you when I am most needed, as you have done for me for so many times past. There is so much more i can say.... but words cannot describe how I truly feel about you.' After Dominic accepted Lirra's vow, rings were exchanged, after which everyone cheered and congratulated the new couple. As befitted Dominic's status as one of the leading cookie collectors on Legend, cookies were served to all the guests (along with wedding cake :). Even more fittingly, Lirra presented her new husband with A Crystallized Cookie on a thong. The editor notes that this was the most spam-free Legend wedding that she has yet attended, and hopes that this trend will continue :) ///\/\\\///\\\//\\ The Knights have announced that while Dominic is off-Legend (he will be having RL site trouble for the next week), Crowe will be the acting GuildMaster and Lirra will be the acting Deputy Guild Master. ***************** The Hermetics have gained a new member, Eseau Isaac, who will serve as their second Shield Maiden. Guildmaster Zandy notes that, considering who the Hermetics' first Shield Maiden was (Sylia), she has "large shoes to fill." //\////\\\///\\\\\ No got in trouble with the Dark Lord for accidentally levelling and sporting the title "No more pkill, pkill s***s." The Dark Lord apparently prefers that Its minions get permission before acting so hasty a fashion. After materializing in the form a large, catfish over No's stricken head, It explained that It had never intended No to be a pkiller in the first place, but instead intended that he remain a thief. It also informed No that No's level had dashed hundreds of years of diabolical plotting. Finally, it assigned the following punishment to No -- not only must he continue levelling till 50 (since he had already botched everything by levelling once), but he had to aid OTS members as well. Although No sighed heavily over his grevious fate, his fiance and fellow anti-Paladin was heard to assert she thought he "got off pretty easy." ************* The OTS-Kiera war finally came to a climax. Apparently Kiera got tired of the way that things were dragging out and announced the following on CHAT: "Well, all, pass this word onto the bards, excuse me, OTS folks : From now forward, I will be doing the following: a) selling items from OTS corpses b) attacking OTS when link dead, and c) permakilling anyone OTS I can." The very next day (or two), she carried out her word after attacking Zorn. Not only did she kill him twice or so, but she attempted to sell off his gear as well (no one would buy, though). Things got even crazier when No, due to his before-mentioned punishment from the Dark Lord, ended up placing Zorn under his protection despite his long standing friendship with Kiera. However, calm was restored when the OTS members, under Greyscot's leadership and with help from various non-members, agreed to pay up the reported three million in gold which Kiera demanded. Thus, it looks like the longest running war we've yet seen on Legend may have finally drawn to an end, providing that OTS members are able to get the money to her. At any rate, last seen, Kiera had the following title : "Kiera is celebrating the end of a silly war (drunken aura). {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} Ptah announces that Mania has come back! She is abroad in Germany at the moment, but will return to the mud as a player in August. For those who weren't here when she was last around (well over a year ago!) Mania is the original builder of Germany--though we bet she'll have trouble recognizing it now! **************** Breton will be off-line for the summer as he is travelling and working in Scotland. He'll be back in September to regale us with tales of the highlands, no doubt :) */*\*/*\*/*\*/* Errata : In the last issue of the LT, I announced that Llew had performed the wedding ceremony of Lark and Kendrick. Actually, it was performed by Parrilyn :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Legendary Times is put out by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all replies/additions to Please send items and your responses to articles and to our address at [email protected]. for inclusion in the next edition. We, however, reserve the right to moderate this discussion, and may object to some submissions. If you feel we have wrongly omitted one of your messages, please talk to Rusalka online or through EMail and see if I did indeed receive it in the first place. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The LegendMUD anonymous ftp site has all back issues of the Legendary Times available for anonymous ftp. Its address is given in the banner at the top of this message. Once connected, cd pub/users/legend/lt, and you will find directories containing volumes one and two, broken in sets of ten issues. The anonymous ftp site also houses other files that may be of interest to you. Visit our Web page too! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=