I think ahw''s point about the difference between meeting someone on-line (be it in a mud or chatroom) and meeting someone in RealLife is extreamly valid.

(Just thinking of the top of my head, may be 100% BS) This is why.

Population.
Average mud game I''ve played has a population of 1 to 100 people. Avegare city/town is quite a lot more.

If you walked into town and there was only 2 people there, I think the chances are you would start chatting. Probally something like "Where the f*&% is everyone!"

When you go into a pub, the world of 5 billion is suddenly reducted down to twenty. The Pub becomes the entire world for the duration... BS maybe but just a thought.

I think when the online population of games becomes more, pubs will become more important (though the drink wouldn''t be (unless M$ can invent DirectBooze)).

Though still online and RealLife will differ. There are no monster infested forests in RealLife..


What else do you need; besides a miricle.
Money. Lots of Money. or I''ll never do a sequel!

Paul : I agree with Moth that ballon text is cluttering. BUT I agree much more with the tons of benefit you can do by simply making the simple fact of talking a much more complex feature. First there are the cool eavesdropping features you mention, but there also could be some cool things like different languages.
Personally, I think you could actually mix balloon speech and scrolling textbox. Just use a method similar to what I have seen in the Sims. I think they simply have a ballon indicating their emotion above their heads. Actually, this would be pretty useful, allowing the players to use moods ... why not have their face doing smiles, or crying, etc, popping up above the players sprites ?? And the actual text would be available if you can hear/undestand it in a scrolling textbox, that you could scroll through without problem; though I think you shouldn''t have a buffer ... after all, in RealLife, if you don''t listen to people, that''s your own problem ... just allow the game to make it possible to have a better memory, or some spell, etc.

Neoreality : actually, I was more pointing to the fact that pubs are not needed, because the main goal in life is that in a pub you get drunk (well, first you get merry ). you get drunk not because you are an alcoholic, but because it help and facilitate social contacts ... which is a hard thing to do most of the time.
you point that few people around will make people want to talk to each other is actually quite good. But my opinion is still that the main difference is the absence of the physical element in the communication process.

Selkrank : you should taste the stuff we got up here in Ireland I you are judging beer on piss like Budweiser ... I sure think there are stronger things out there.

youpla :-P

Well I''ve only ever drank Tetley''s Fine English Ale myself, but
it is a very smooth, creamy drink and damn it I want one now!

Paul : that''s basically what I was trying to describe.
Simply replace your dots by something meaningful, like an icon describing a mood, with different colors like you say for instance. Or why not simply a portrait of the onscreen character (a close up that would show jsut next to the guy onscreen).