Having been a mudder only since April of 96, Stress, the creator of
DreamScape, is new to mudding by some mudder's standards. But in her
relatively short time as a mudder, she has come a long way. This is my
personal interview with Stress, in an effort to see inside the mind of
someone who has gone great lengths to set up a new and unique Multi-User
Dungeon.
Stress found an odd entrance into the world of MUDs. "I started mudding...
because the guy I was dating at the time was really into mudding, and i
wanted to see what the hell he was going on about," she says. Then, like so
many of us, she "got addicted REALLY quick."
Though she may be relatively new to mudding, Stress is certainly not new to
being in positions of power. When she first began, it was as a God on
SMiLE, then as power reshuffles took place, she took on the role of
Demi-God, then later, ArchWizard, as she was not a coder at the time.
Later, she received a promotion to ArchWizard on Hysteria for both her help
with the files, as well as her administration abilities. She resigned her
post on Hysteria when the load of DreamScape became to much to carry in
tandem with so many other powers. She also had an
ArchWizard-but-not-quite-Demi-God on PBMania, and a Demi-God on Sanctuary,
both of which are down at the time of this writing.
Stress's attraction to mudding was largely due to the people. "I am a very
sociable person," she comments, "I love talking to people. Also, when the
mood takes me, I like running. I like the challenge of working out new
puzzles, although I'm not very good at it." This may be, but if you have
run Eirias, you know she is good at creating them. "Also," she continues,
"when I'm in an evil mood, I LOVE [player-killing]."
Alas, every upside has its down sides as well. When asked what her least
favorite thing about mudding is, her answer was a definitive "MUD politics!"
Because of this, and seeing the havoc it can play on other MUDs, Stress is
trying to keep her MUD politics free as much as possible. Regarding this,
she has a very singular policy about runners with preceding reputations.
"Anyone," she states with conviction, "no matter what they have done on
other MUDs, is welcome at DreamScape, until they fuck up on DreamScape."
Stress cares about her players, runners and powers alike. This becomes
obviously manifest in her reasoning behind opening her own MUD. "I wanted
to create a place where everyone could go and enjoy themselves," she
laments. "I have seen other MUDs using policies I don't agree with at
all... And although I will abide by their policies, I thought I'd try and
make a place that is fair to everyone." If you are looking for favoritism,
you will not find it on DreamScape.
Stress hopes the friendly atmosphere will help attract runners and new
mudders to DreamScape. She has worked to make the general atmosphere both
welcoming and relaxed. But working hand in hand with that, she also has a
unique requirement for her powers. Idle powers who will not respond to the
questions and inquiries of mortals and lower level immortals are not
tolerated on DreamScape. As Stress says, her powers need to have a
"willingness to help anyone, and to listen to any comments/complaints we get
about the MUD, and to do something about it if at all possible. There is
usually at least one power on at any time, and all my powers are very
helpful and welcoming." This is something that is becoming more popular
among AberMUDs, but still not something every, or even most MUDs have.
I personally thought the Cdirt code base was an interesting choice. When
asked about it, Stress revealed that the choice was more accidental than
anything else. "The whole thing started as a coding exercise," she admits.
"I wanted to learn to code and so I got a copy of Cdirt and set it up on my
machine." Naturally, there are some bugs in it, but then it's the little
things that can really make a difference. "I love the little features," she
continues, "the [artificial-intelligence bot] Bob, for one, and the babel
spell."
Naturally, Stress cannot watch her MUD 24 hours a day. Even if she could,
one person could never take care of all requests and problems, be they code
or player generated, alone. Hence, a power structure is required. When
asked why Stress chose the powers she did, her answer was a simple yet
powerful "Because they are good." She then went into greater detail. I
think her words speak for themselves:
"Cyrilaan because he is a damn good coder, and he has run his own mud in the
past, so he has a lot of experience with admin/coding/starting and running a
new MUD. Tank because he is a very good coder as well, and I know him [in
real life], so I can yell at him really easily.
"LadyNimue because she is one of the best Admins I have seen around. She is
levelheaded and calm all the time, and she's very good with newbies. Mephie
again because he's a very good Admin. I've seen him on Hysteria and I know
he'll be good for the MUD. Also, he writes damn good webpages.
"Alanna I have talked to and she is a very friendly person, and very willing
to help. And although I don't think she has held a power position before, I
think she will be very good at it. Daria same as Alanna, very friendly."
Along with the atmosphere and ability of the powers, Stress hopes the quests
will also attract runners. "We have a lot of quests," she says, "and [we]
are adding more all the time. We also have a [player-killing] system, so
hopefully that will attract runners as well, since pk characters get higher
Wizlevels." With player killing, DreamScape will also offer a class
specific guild system to encourage balance, and hopefully instigate some
wars among the players.
If you ask Stress where she got the name "DreamScape," she will simply smile
and modestly tell you she probably just dreamed it. To her, the name is not
important, but the game is. In fact, possibly one of the most important
things, in her mind, is that the players have "a good time, a good laugh
[and] go away feeling they had a good time, and that they would like to return."
It is that devotion to the game, shared by Stress, Tank and their powers
that will make DreamScape a successful MUD. One where it is truly fun to
run or just sit and chat with the other runners, or even the powers.
I conclude with a few miscellaneous comments from Stress, which again, speak
for themself:
"We hope to open soon, definitely by the 25th of March, if not before. We
hope everyone who has been so kind as to visit us while we weren't open will
come and play when we are. The major crash bugs are all now fixed (well the
ones we have found so far) and thank you to Kroll, Tank, Cyrilaan, Mephie,
LadyNimue, in fact most of the high powers I have now, who have been onboard
since it started, and everyone who has made comments about the mud, as you
have all helped us make it what it is."
Stress's love for DreamScape is very clear. She and her coders have spent
months to bring it to where it is now. She will some days spend as much as
12 hours online, working to perfect her dream, to make it reality. As the
opening date draws ever closer, I'm sure those days will come a bit more
frequently. She works herself hard, and she works her powers, especially the
coders, hard. All to build a place where everyone is welcome, and all can have fun.
I am certain there will be those who will try to find fault with Stress's
dream, there always are. There may even be some who try to take it from her.
But her dream is just that... Her dream. For those who wish to cause
trouble, I mourn for you, as you will not be dealt with mercifully, but dealt
with you will be. And for the rest of you, I will see you in the dream.