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IPLAY
- noun The incarnation of
MUD2 which ran on the Interplay (Engage)
network from 1994 to 1996. A shining example of why exclusivity
contracts are a bad idea (to go with the other shining examples of
the BL and VAX
incarnations...).
Historical note: after frustration with Access 24 and NVN, Bridgette
Patrovsky took MUD2 to Interplay. This is where the game was finally
to hit the big time. As has happened on so many occasions,
MUD2 was the headline, opening product for a business
(in this case, the new Online division, which was later to
become Engage Games Online) and it suffered terribly from
this pioneer status (or, perhaps more accurately, this guinea
pig status). Programmers for the client came and went for
various bizarre reasons, inter-division bickering within
Interplay resulted in some strange management decisions,
and after a while the client project fell behind schedule. Network
problems meant players from other MUD2s
preferred those, and some said so publicly; eventually, Interplay was faced
with the choice of either cancelling MUD2 or
going for an exclusive. They chose the latter. MUSE had
little option but to accept, since it had other contracts
with Interplay upon which it was relying. The main rival
to IPLAY's incarnation, Dragon, closed early rather than wait
for the "inevitable". Even so, changes in personnel at Interplay/Engage
marginalised MUD2's internal supporters;
the game itself continued to thrive due to Bridgette's
efforts and the fact that at this stage it was free.
Interlay did not, however, sign the exclusivity
contract, despite drafting it themselves and holding onto
the copy MUSE had signed for something like 8 months; they decided
to cancel the project instead - and all those other projects MUSE
was working on for them. In the meantime, MUSE had
turned down chances to get the game on other major networks,
most notably AOL, in the belief that Interplay would sign
and therefore acquire exclusivity. The entire episode was a
body blow from which MUSE has taken some time to recover.
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