I have been spending countless hours building a text-based game. On the surface, I think most people would consider that crazy. However, in my opinion, there are a few very logical reasons to make a text based game.
In the 80s and 90s, when a new monitor came out, it meant more colors, better resolution. These increases were exponential, increasing the colors a monitor could display from 16 to 256. Developers no longer faced difficult design decisions like: higher resolution or greater color palette? Once resolution and color reached a decent level, we started working on GPUs. How many polygons could we render on the screen? Then, frame rate? This game looks great in a screenshot, but how does it look in a video capture? Finally, we reached a point where hardware capabilities exceeded the software capabilities of most games. People were playing games at frame rates higher than what their monitors could actually display. Even worse, people were playing games at frame rates higher than what their eyes can actually perceive. It was at this point, finally, that we stopped to realize how important game play actually is.
Many of us already knew. Game play is the most important tool to a game developer. Everything else is subsequent to game play. Graphics are great and even integral to some games, but I would argue that our obsession with graphics has more to due with the emergence of technology than anything else. Now that technological advances in graphics are starting to slow, it appears, at least to me, that players are starting to focus on game play more. How else could you explain the success of so many indie games with basic, or even intentionally retro-looking graphics? I believe that the natural extension to all of this is inevitably a return to games that are text-based. That is not to say that all games of the future will be text-based (hah!), but that there will be an appreciation for text-based games again.
How often do graphics actually get in the way? The developer wants to portray a situation, but lacks the resources to do so in a visual way. Even in graphically sophisticated games, like World of Warcraft, players are limited in their ability to describe their character.
Every game should have a medium that fits the context of its game play. For some games, 3d graphics are integral. For others, graphics can actually be a hindrance.
That said, how have text-based games evolved? Game design has seen significant improvements over the years. Where do text-based games stand? Well, it seems like they are relatively untouched, in my opinion. While every other kind of game has blossomed and become more interesting, text-based games are still what they were decades ago. MUDs, specifically, are relics of the past. I see a significant opportunity in modernizing this kind of game with elegant game design choices, interface, sound, and ambiance.
I recently logged into 10 MUDs or so and played them for about an hour each. I wrote down in a notebook what I liked and didn't like. I was surprised to find that my main complaints were:
1) No direction of gameplay. Utterly trial and error.
2) Text scrolling by too quickly.
3) Ugliness of text formatting.
#1 was huge for me. I was utterly surprised by how poorly the games were designed, even though I had played them in my childhood. It was as if every MUD developer was impressed enough to just make two computers talk to each other; job done. You see, games were different back then. Players, myself included, were mesmerized by the concept of interacting with other players online. We were easily impressed and under constant bewilderment. Fast forward to 2017 and we have experienced a lot more. Meanwhile, most MUDs are still based on code from the 90s. It's a genre that slipped through the cracks. Nobody went back for them and gave them what they deserved.
How come we don't have MUDs with interesting clients, sound/music, story lines, and interesting game-play mechanics?
Everheart will be a modernized MUD. It will, hopefully, appeal to MUD veterans and newcomers alike. It is designed to feel like a modern game, without being encumbered by graphics. It will take some of the lessons game developers have learned over the years to, ideally, create a game that attracts newcomers to the genre.
I like the suggestions about the videos. I'll work on something soon!
People get turned off from the genre for dozens of reasons, including the ones you observed. The genre is in a time capsule. You shouldn't have to type 12 words to guess an internal variable for the name of, "the quick brown fox." You should be able to type "kill quick", "kill fox" etc. As long as there aren't other objects in the area with the word quick, the game should be able to parse your statement. Everheart's parser is smart enough to keep you from having to guess but doesn't match names inadvertenly very often.
There are better ways to add puzzles to the game than the guessing of command. You are absolutely correct; that is a key trait to those kinds of games. The challenge of guessing the right word is high and the reward is very little. It would better to put actual logical puzzles in the game where the challenge is more abstract. The puzzle should be in the content, not the interface. You usually want the interface to be the opposite of a puzzle. You want it to be intuitive and easy, so that you forget you're even playing a game. MUDs have a lot of great things they bring to the table, but unfortunately, interface is probably the main reason people can't get into them.