Labors of Love
I haven't written for a while, and since posting comments on other peoples' journals doesn't increase my word count, I guys I'll just have to write "zombie" a lot more in my own journal. Disclaimer stated, proceed at viewer's risk.
I've often been intrigued by the phrase "labor of love." I've felt like it was used in an almost derisive manner for works that aren't considered valuable, yet it takes its origin from the Bible as a work for God's sake. That seems positive enough.
I happen to be involved in such a labor of love since July of 1997 (back me up Josh and Nick?). The mud has been a constant source of the best kind of frustration, the kind where you both know there's an answer, and that answer doesn't have to be subjected to anyone else's judgment of accuracy. Basically that means any answer you're satisfied with is a right answer. I've had the privilege to work on the Twilight world for (apparently) 7 years now, and every time I sit down with it, it satiates something in me. Something about the mud is a part of me now, and regardless of the fact that it will probably never be completed, I find satisfaction in the process.
Here's a little math to emphasize how much of my life MUDding has consumed: I started playing MUDs in fall of 1993, and from that point until Sandie moved to Oregon to be with me in the summer of 1999, I mudded regularly. And when I say regularly, I mean constantly. I was online (and this is a conservative estimate) on average about 4 hours a day every day in that period, that's an average to include periods where I was forced to be apart from the computer, sleep, school, etc. Over the summer I was basically sitting at the computer from 10am until 3am with breaks for bathroom, food, and the occasional karate class. That makes 5 years and 9 months, at 365.25 days per year and 30.77 days per month (accounting for leap year), a total of 2103 days times 4 hours per day makes approximately 11.39 MONTHS of time online. Add to that the time Sandie and I spent together MUDding from home in the last 5 years, and I bet I could squeak out an even year of online time.
That's a lot of time to be staring at text on a screen. In that time I played as a regular on 7 MUDs of at least marginally varying fantasy genre, so I got a decent idea of what people were capable of as pertains to text-based adventures. Nick, Josh, and Joel had also mudded, and had a good idea of how they worked.
Then of course, when Joel mentioned wanting to make a mud as a coding project Nick jumped on the bandwagon. Shortly after Josh and I followed. Nick had a very solid world concept, and a unique approach, so I was immediately in heaven. I worked on the mud as feverishly as I had committed myself to playing on other people's developments. After a few years of consistent, if not constant, work I noticed nobody else was particularly devoted to the project anymore. Nick hadn't attempted any code in months if not years, and I went through a long time of frustration with Nick and Josh, Nick for his apparent abandonment of the effort, and Josh for apathy and pessimism.
Then I came to my realization, and that's the whole point of this post. Building areas and coming up with unique and inventive ways to present challenges to players is what I like anyway, so why should I be upset when I'm doing what makes me happy? So I released my attempt to control their commitment, and decided to enjoy what I was doing, even if the mud never happened. Thusly do I proceed today. Anyway, if you're wondering why I'm so strange, just envision me as one year younger with no experience on the internet besides the trusty AOL account on my Gateway desktop pc.
Finally, as per Josh's suggestion, a bald-faced attempt to get "zombie" higher on my top 100 words:
Zombie zombie zombie, from you I run away,
Zombie zombie zombie, it's zombies I will slay.
... This is going to take forever, I need to stop saying "the"...
I've often been intrigued by the phrase "labor of love." I've felt like it was used in an almost derisive manner for works that aren't considered valuable, yet it takes its origin from the Bible as a work for God's sake. That seems positive enough.
I happen to be involved in such a labor of love since July of 1997 (back me up Josh and Nick?). The mud has been a constant source of the best kind of frustration, the kind where you both know there's an answer, and that answer doesn't have to be subjected to anyone else's judgment of accuracy. Basically that means any answer you're satisfied with is a right answer. I've had the privilege to work on the Twilight world for (apparently) 7 years now, and every time I sit down with it, it satiates something in me. Something about the mud is a part of me now, and regardless of the fact that it will probably never be completed, I find satisfaction in the process.
Here's a little math to emphasize how much of my life MUDding has consumed: I started playing MUDs in fall of 1993, and from that point until Sandie moved to Oregon to be with me in the summer of 1999, I mudded regularly. And when I say regularly, I mean constantly. I was online (and this is a conservative estimate) on average about 4 hours a day every day in that period, that's an average to include periods where I was forced to be apart from the computer, sleep, school, etc. Over the summer I was basically sitting at the computer from 10am until 3am with breaks for bathroom, food, and the occasional karate class. That makes 5 years and 9 months, at 365.25 days per year and 30.77 days per month (accounting for leap year), a total of 2103 days times 4 hours per day makes approximately 11.39 MONTHS of time online. Add to that the time Sandie and I spent together MUDding from home in the last 5 years, and I bet I could squeak out an even year of online time.
That's a lot of time to be staring at text on a screen. In that time I played as a regular on 7 MUDs of at least marginally varying fantasy genre, so I got a decent idea of what people were capable of as pertains to text-based adventures. Nick, Josh, and Joel had also mudded, and had a good idea of how they worked.
Then of course, when Joel mentioned wanting to make a mud as a coding project Nick jumped on the bandwagon. Shortly after Josh and I followed. Nick had a very solid world concept, and a unique approach, so I was immediately in heaven. I worked on the mud as feverishly as I had committed myself to playing on other people's developments. After a few years of consistent, if not constant, work I noticed nobody else was particularly devoted to the project anymore. Nick hadn't attempted any code in months if not years, and I went through a long time of frustration with Nick and Josh, Nick for his apparent abandonment of the effort, and Josh for apathy and pessimism.
Then I came to my realization, and that's the whole point of this post. Building areas and coming up with unique and inventive ways to present challenges to players is what I like anyway, so why should I be upset when I'm doing what makes me happy? So I released my attempt to control their commitment, and decided to enjoy what I was doing, even if the mud never happened. Thusly do I proceed today. Anyway, if you're wondering why I'm so strange, just envision me as one year younger with no experience on the internet besides the trusty AOL account on my Gateway desktop pc.
Finally, as per Josh's suggestion, a bald-faced attempt to get "zombie" higher on my top 100 words:
Zombie zombie zombie, from you I run away,
Zombie zombie zombie, it's zombies I will slay.
... This is going to take forever, I need to stop saying "the"...