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Interview
with who?
- Larnen Skyfire:
Part 2
How many lines of code can be found in
Elephant Mud?
Its hard to answer that one exactly. Including save files, and working
back from the size of the entire mudlib combined, its something in excess of two million. If
you leave off save files, it probably drops to something like 1.5 million. Which is quite a
lot.
Who was the first real
Ele player?
Virus. It was 5:20am in the morning on the 7th of April 1993. Id finally
booted the mud, and Virus (who was on Uglymug, to which I was also logged in) popped on
for a look. The first thing he said was 'Hoi! I don't want to be male or female!
I'm a virus!'. This is why, unlike most lpmuds, Ele has a 'neuter' option available. Now you
know who to blame :)
What was the worst event in the history of Elephant mud?
Oh there have been several. I could even make up whole categories -
rl, political, technical, site related etc etc. Probably the most threatening
event(s) would have to be site related - there have been times when we had nowhere to go to,
with our time left on our current site being measured in hours. Each and every time
though, we've managed to pull a trump, thanks, in no small part, to the efforts of people such
as Rhyder, Groggie, Ornan and Eldrytch. Steve Kennedy of GbNet also is owed particular
thanks for his assistance.
The move to his box, ns.gbnet.net, marks the last time Ele was in any danger of not having a home, something which is now over 4 years ago. These days we are secure,
and have numerous backup options should disaster strike.
What is your role on
Ele?
I have a number of roles - some of which I have until we can train the
right people to the right level to fill them. My most critical role is overall
coordinator and (as much as I hate to say the word) 'visionist'. In other words, I have the final say
over what direction Ele takes and how we get there. Having strategic direction is something
that is critical to a successful mud. Also of great importance is ensuring that the Admin
team is able to function effectively - that there are no problems to resolve, things
that are causing waves or the like. Admin can then provide a similar role for the teams
they head up.
Roles I have out of necessity at the moment include Head of Law and Head
of Approval. The latter of these is something I am keen to retain, although in both cases there
are very good individuals working with me, to whom more and more responsibility can be
given if they desire as time goes on. Additionally I do a lot of technical work, both in
terms of coding in the backend mudlib itself, and in terms of the Unix Sysadmin work
required on the Mud's host machine. Ele is very fortunate in some ways in that while some of its
Admin are stretched for time from rl jobs and pressures, they are extremely skilled people.
Where do you see
Ele in another 6 years?
The online gaming industry is changing at a remarkable pace right now, as
many games companies, and other sundry individuals and companies, have realised the huge
social opportunities it offers. Mudders realised this many, many years ago, and for this reason,
I'm happy to see many ex and current mudders being highly placed in driving this
revolution forward. Of course, the flip side of this is that with multi million pound budgets
to throw at pretty point and click games, the future of muds could be considered to be at
risk.
Personally, I disagree. Such games as Quake, Ultima Online and Everquest
serve to broaden the overall online market. Fundamentally, the 'free mud' model will
continue to do very well, although I believe we will see a few standing out, with the
majority having quite modest player numbers. The challenge for Ele, therefore, is to become a
true leader in the text based arena, and ensure that we are one of those that stands
tall and represents the industry. We want people weaned on Quake to come to us and stay, we
want people with no roleplaying background to see us as a great social pursuit, keep both
happy, while not diluting the essence of what makes Ele great. Those new to the net
often push for more chat lines and to make the mud more like a talker. Those weaned on
action games tend to prefer Pking, and aspects of the game that pit them directly against
other players. These two groups (and I use them just for example - there are many more) may
seem at first to be opposites who could never coexist happily, but this is exactly what is
increasingly happening on Ele, thanks to a wide range of very subtle changes that we have made
over the past couple of years.
In 6 years time, Ele will be a very different place, but the 'feel' will
be similar. We will be looking at much more intelligent parsing systems, huge wildernesses
to wander, littered with houses, castles and towns made by players for players. We are
focusing on adding breadth to Ele, increasing the options every player has, rather than
just mindlessly adding more levels as many of our competitors do, (something many have found to
their cost leads to a vicious circle of what can be abstracted as 'power inflation'). We
want to find new ways that many varied, interesting and exciting events can take place,
without any Wizard intervention needed. What we do not intend to do is try and make Ele a
'graphical' mud, to compete head on with the commercial games. This is, I strongly
believe, a fools road to ruin. Instead, watch for more sophistication, more flexibility and
even (if I kick Azazel hard enough) a cross platform, free client that is designed for
Ele to a degree that other clients (such as Zmud) will be unable to match.
Interview
with Larnen: Part 3
Interview with Larnen: Part 1
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