LPMUD的起源

還有什麼比LPMUD的鼻祖Lars Pensj的一段自述更能表現LPMUD的起源？原文參見http://genesis.cs.chalmers.se/history_frame.html

I played some Abermud (to wizardhood once), and a little tinymud. I liked the idea of a multi-user anonymous game very much, but found that Abermud was too difficult to extend while Tinymud had too little emphasize on adventure. The social part was nice, however.

So, I draw some guidlines about how to create a system which would be much more simple to extend, and still be very powerful so as to allow complex manipulations.

I presented these ideas to some friends who was going to create a MUD, or possibly take Abermud and add things. These friends did not believe in my ideas, so I spent a week to create a skeleton (small LPC interepreter). It worked, and could load code from external files. Now, I just had to try to define a player object and a room object. These worked, but I had to extend the LPC code to make it possible. As I was able to run the first LPC after only a week, and then continuosly was one of the main reasons I succeeded. I could all the time test the result, finding out how to continue.

I found it was quite easy to make a game skeleton. Becoming more and more engaged, I added more functionality. Until now, all development had been on a NS32000 Sys V machine, using Sys V IPC to communicate. It was not in a network.

At this stage, I wanted to show my friends that it did really work, so I ported the code to BSD, using sockets for communication. I set it up, started to "fish" for testers on Abermuds. I asked my friends to help me, but they were still not interested.

Anyway, I could not stop development. I added an internal editor, using PD code for an ed emulator, to make it possible for players (wizards) to add objects. This was done because I did not have enough fantasy to create a good world myself, so I though maybe others could do it for me. I made the requirement that players had to achieve a certain level, so as to make it a challange. This idea of letting wizards extend the game was not in the original plans. The original plan was really to make a language that should be easy to extend dynamically.

My MUD-interested friends of course did have to try it out now, and they could not stop until they reached wizardhood. At that stage, they had to try creating their own objects and adventures. So, I finally did make them help me, and just with the things I did not want to handle myself.

I liked the social part, and wanted to encourage it. So I created a pub, and allowed players to heal faster when drunk. This encouraged players to meet and talk at the pub, gathering strength enough to go out adventuring.

I haven't done any LPmud hacking since beginning of 1992, as I didn't feel I progressed any more. I now devote my time to my family (wife + 2 children), work, and the game of Go (which is by far more exciting and complex than any MUD).