As a builder from other muds, I understand the quality assurance guidelines on descriptions and stuff. One mud I have played one had a custom crafting system where you submitted a design and it was either approved or sent back with errors pointed out and some people just shouldn't be allowed to try and be creative, however I notice a lot of plain room descriptions once you get a distance from developed areas and while this is relatively normal here's what I suggest.
Allowing a player to submit a room description while standing in the room in question. This would not only assist in a landmark map system which I am developping for the visually impaired persons of the game but would serve the GM's by taking some of the workload, as far as room descs are concerned, off their shoulders. Not to mention the fact that if submitted room texts were tagged with character names, those people could have work already in existence to look upon should there be a need for builders in the future. These room descriptions would not automatically be put into place simply by submission, they would still have to be looked at to determine if they were suitable. This could also be expanded if character tags are put into place so that GM's could then send a message concerning the description should they wish to the character stating their opinion or any revisions for future submissions. I understand this is a lot of background work to put together that wouldn't readily be apparent to the casual player but it is definately a faster way to make the world look more diverse.
I'm sure there are various reasons other than what i've stated here why this would be beneficial to the world and if the gm's and developers are of a mind things like submissions of survey material could be added. Mind you, to keep from getting these submissions in room that are fully completed you could simply put these things on a toggle where once a room has been completed it would accept no more submissions and would let the person submitting know something like
**Thank you but this room is complete.**
building the world up
building the world up
Rain falls steadily to the earth.
The gore has been washed from you.
The blood has been washed from you.
You are splattered with gore!
Rain falls steadily to the earth.
The gore has been washed from you.
The blood has been washed from you.
You are splattered with gore!
The gore has been washed from you.
The blood has been washed from you.
You are splattered with gore!
Rain falls steadily to the earth.
The gore has been washed from you.
The blood has been washed from you.
You are splattered with gore!
Re: building the world up
My only concern is:
On a game where this was allowed, the descriptions that were approved were crappy and then some. The standard of writing was atrocious, and the writing wasn't consistent from room to room.
I would vote no on this, unless the standard of writing approved was very, very high, as in, most might think me snobby for how high I'd set it. I'm not saying I'm capable of what I would look for, but it would be very hard to please me with most people's writing styles.
On a game where this was allowed, the descriptions that were approved were crappy and then some. The standard of writing was atrocious, and the writing wasn't consistent from room to room.
I would vote no on this, unless the standard of writing approved was very, very high, as in, most might think me snobby for how high I'd set it. I'm not saying I'm capable of what I would look for, but it would be very hard to please me with most people's writing styles.