[1377] in Coldmud discussion meeting

Re: [COLD] NBC Online project

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thu Nov 20 03:18:33 1997 )

From: jeffk@tenetwork.com
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 00:11:25 -0800
To: coldstuff@cold.org

FRank,

A serious RPg is a big undertaking.  I can't imagien anyoien doing anything
that will live up to any of NBC's hopes for free.

They really are dreaming.  UOL was a many milio ndollar project and, while
my own project is a shoe string in comaprsion, its still got an 85k a year
software developer (me) on it.

They need to face reality IMO.

JK

At 11:56 PM 11/19/97 -0900, you wrote:
>NBC Online/Homicide plans to include an RPG mud as part of their online
>offerings.
>(http://www.nbc.com)
>Their intention is to have some sort of mud that can be used to exend
>the Homicide/Second Story series that's being developed for the web; all
>this is in support of the television series Homicide.
>
>NBC Online will not pay for the project (what a surprise!), but they are
>willing to have online promotion for the mud/company that gets involved
>with the project.  Currently I'm tossing around some ideas with their
>software developer and their producer, but I'm not interested in
>promotion.  However, if someone can make a decent Homicide RPG Cold, it
>could really help give Cold a boost.
>
>I'm willing to provide the Black Rabbit server as a "proof of concept"
>server, but the Homicide RPG will have to be moved off the server by the
>end of March.  This means that the project will have to find another
>machine.  If a sponsor for the site can be found, then that sponsor
>should get the promotion from NBC Online.
>
>The project will also need a builder or two and an admin.  If anyone is
>interested on working on this project, I will give you complete mud
>control so you can get the job done.
>
>There are also some technical problems.  They want the mud to be able to
>handle 300+ online users. I believe that LambdaMOO lags to an impossible
>level at over 200-- don't know how well a Cold could handle that many.
>Many two servers is better.  Suggestions?
>
>Another concern is the use of the web.  I'm still not clear on this
>requirement, but I know that they want to tie it in to their web page
>some way.  If you look at the NBC web page, you will see that they make
>heavy use of web technology, including lots of javascripts, and maybe
>even java.  I don't really know what to do about this part.
>
>Finally, there will be some use of NPCs.  The "proof of concept" will
>have to include some functional NPCs, TBD.
>
>So what do you think?  Is that a project worth doing and are there
>enough resources in the Cold community to make it happen?  It's not a
>great project if you want to run your own mud.  But it may enhance your
>resume.
>
>So send me some email if you are interested in the project,
>
>frankc@maddog.com
>
>
>
Jeffrey P. Kesselman
Senior Game Integration Engineer
Total Entertainment Network

Unite for Java! - http://www.javalobby.org

** Tired of unsolicited email? TAKE BACK OUR MAILBOXES! --
http://www.ten.net/~jeffk/stopspam.htm **