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Frequently-Asked Questions
Why isn't TriadCity graphical?
AHA! - there's a great question!
With a pretty simple answer which might turn out a bit
long if we explain it fully.
Simple answer: 'cause the technology doesn't exist yet
which would do justice to our imaginary game world.
Here's what we mean:
TriadCity is intended to be extraordinarily rich.
This means complex, individualized, and really really
big: tens of thousands of discrete spaces, objects and
characters all written with enough depth to achieve
adequate individualization. Even with mere words this
is a humungous undertaking. With graphics the task of
individualizing scenery alone would take about a zillion
years with existing technology. You'd end up with the
usual trivial, dare we say Doom-like spaces composed of
the same sloppy octagons and dopey little stick-critters
that look, to coin a new term, bad. You've seen these
things and you know what we mean. This is what all
the currently-existing Internet graphical MUDs we know of
today look like to us.
If we were somehow able to build really rich, let's
say Anime-like representations of our game world, we'd
have a new problem: the
bandwidth required to move those images to your
computer would be, well, unavailable. So there you go.
There are some technology alternatives. We could build
rich graphics, then ship them to you on DVD instead of
via Internet. But we'd have to charge you for the
disks, and we'd have to build an organization on our end
which is good at pressing and distributing physical media,
and handling all the rigmarole associated. In business they
call this "fulfillment" and, frankly, we'd hate that
and probably suck at it too.
In any case, we really don't believe Anime quality is good
enough to adequately represent our conception of TriadCity
as a living three-dimensional space. You'd need
some futuristic VR-style immersive technology which certainly
isn't commercially available today. Say, the Holodeck on
Star Trek.
Besides, it wouldn't be literature without words.
That's our answer, today. Maybe the world will bring us a new
one tomorrow? (Fade to black, to the sound of futuristic sci-fi
music playing futuristically.)
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