Extensibility is one of the most powerful
features of
MUD's. MUD worlds and characters are dynamically extensible -- they can gain
or lose objects, magical powers, and intellectual and physical attributes
at any time. For example, a room might gain a new door, a world a new
forest, or a character the ability of flight. From a conceptual
perspective
there
are few barriers to the development of person and place
in a MUD aside from the human imagination.
Interestingly, the very first MUD environment was dynamically
configurable by users. Trubshaw and Bartle provided a power user level
called
a Wizard in their
original
MUD. Although the feature had originally been included simply as
a debugging
tool intended to be used just for development, it's potential became apparent
as an intrinsic part of the game.
Later MUD's also provided users with the ability to change the worlds
they found themselves in, adding spaces, objects, characters, and capabilities.
Some sophisticated MUD's even include a built-in programming
language and object oriented properties
like inheritance to enable very powerful additions and changes.
Extensible MUD's take the concept of a virtual world -- already a
powerful intellectual concept -- one step farther, giving visitors
to that world
the ability to change it in real-time. One might wonder at
what point the complexity of these worlds will evolve to the point
that they become sentient...
