A MUD can take as little a single person to create with no money (Seriously, you could do this yourself with a little bit of programming knowledge and an old laptop in a closet to host the server.)... An MMO takes a team of tens/hundreds of programmers, directors, designers, artists, quality assurance personnel, huge datacenters to host the servers, and importantly money, lots of money.
Care to ask why MMO's don't do this again?
PS. Go on sourceforge, and click the games section, you'll find about a million results for MUDs made by a single person/small team created in a couple hours/days, and don't cost a dime. May the source be with you.
You are wrong. The features can be added with very little effort to an existing mmo. You really aren't adding anything you are simply choosing to do it differently. Its pvp rulesets, npc rulesets, faction rulesets. Has very little to do with graphics or making the development take longer. It is lack of imagination on the part of current mmo developers.
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
The trinity didn't exist untill mmo's. Sorry but it just didn't happen in muds. There really wasn't a need for it. You are missing a point here. Once the mmo is created its just a matter of setting features. Guilds are formed and destroyed a certain way. Factions ect... Its not that difficult to implement features once the world is created.
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
The trinity didn't exist untill mmo's. Sorry but it just didn't happen in muds. There really wasn't a need for it. You are missing a point here. Once the mmo is created its just a matter of setting features. Guilds are formed and destroyed a certain way. Factions ect... Its not that difficult to implement features once the world is created.
Pretty sure "the trinity" has existed since Dungeons and Dragons. It's a core mechanic to group gameplay based on fantasy classes.
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
The trinity didn't exist untill mmo's. Sorry but it just didn't happen in muds. There really wasn't a need for it. You are missing a point here. Once the mmo is created its just a matter of setting features. Guilds are formed and destroyed a certain way. Factions ect... Its not that difficult to implement features once the world is created.
Pretty sure "the trinity" has existed since Dungeons and Dragons. It's a core mechanic to group gameplay based on fantasy classes.
If you mean healing 1 person a day then yes it has been around since the beginning of fantasy rp. But if you mean healing an entire raid through a boss fight. Then no it has not existed untill mmo's. And it definitely did not exist in the 20+ muds that I played.
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
Hi, @Loktofeit. My mentors who first taught me to code started in 1960 working on what would later be renamed the internet. I sat in my first coding class room back in 1983. So yeah my information is old but it is no less accurate today. In your quote you probably feel that you caught me in a glaring mistake. My audience here are non-coders, so I left out details for simplicity. But I assure you, "iT'S There in The code." Now pardon me as I go to work as a professional programmer.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
It seems there are two different issues being argued here:
Issue 1: MUDs are cheap as hell and thus are not comparable to MMOs.
Issue 2: MMOs that are already invested all the money in graphics etc. could create an empire building simulator like the MUD in the OP.
I agree with both of those points. I think MMOs are capable of doing something like the MUD in the OP, I just don't think "A MUD can do it, so you can too!" is a good way to make that point.
It seems there are two different issues being argued here:
Issue 1: MUDs are cheap as hell and thus are not comparable to MMOs.
Issue 2: MMOs that are already invested all the money in graphics etc. could create an empire building simulator like the MUD in the OP.
I agree with both of those points. I think MMOs are capable of doing something like the MUD in the OP, I just don't think "A MUD can do it, so you can too!" is a good way to make that point.
The tricky part is muds are mods created by a few players. And they have nothing to lose by experimenting with different things or playstyles. When a company pours a few million into a game they are unwilling to take risks and usually go with what is safest.
It seems there are two different issues being argued here:
Issue 1: MUDs are cheap as hell and thus are not comparable to MMOs.
Issue 2: MMOs that are already invested all the money in graphics etc. could create an empire building simulator like the MUD in the OP.
I agree with both of those points. I think MMOs are capable of doing something like the MUD in the OP, I just don't think "A MUD can do it, so you can too!" is a good way to make that point.
The tricky part is muds are mods created by a few players. And they have nothing to lose by experimenting with different things or playstyles. When a company pours a few million into a game they are unwilling to take risks and usually go with what is safest.
True, but it also boils down to what people want. What is the most risky part? Marking an MMO at all. That's literally the riskiest part of making an MMO. The market is a niche and is already so diluted that it almost makes no sense to introduce a new MMO. That's really what the risk surrounding MMOs is all about. It isn't a matter of lack of innovation. If you have a frank discussion with a game designer, developer, etc. ideas are a dime a dozen. It's creating the value proposition surrounding that feature. "How will that feature ADD value to our game."
It's like Full Loot PVP. How do you sell this to an investor? The MMO market is 20 million people (just using as an example). If we were to capture just 1% of that market that gives us 200,000 people. HOWEVER, if we add full loot PVP, we'll be cutting that number by 90% of that, so we're down to 20,000.
That's not to say that there isn't a market for full loot PVP, what it means is that you cannot add that in after the fact. It also means that for games spending a lot of money in development wouldn't be likely to consider it. So we mostly see this promoted and developed as a core game concept, targeting that niche, specifically, and lowering production values, etc. to get it done. Herein lies the problem with MMOs today. We want these deep features, but we 1) aren't willing to support games through cash shops, 2) aren't willing to crowdfund games, and; 3) aren't willing to pay full-price for the game, so we wait..... until the company dies and then we thank GOD we didn't buy it. It's a vicious catch-22.
Something like Shards Online will be interesting to watch, since they allow for custom servers with different rulesets. Will that bring in people in droves? Who knows. It's the same idea as Minecraft though, right? Maybe this is the way that future MMOs go. Maybe games even allow people to run their own servers for a monthly cost, and then create custom rulesets for the games, similar to Shards Online. It all boils down to how a company can monetize their game and re-coop those costs before going bankrupt.
I think a lot of people are misunderstanding the question. It isn't why can't a single person make a full fledged MMORPG, its this: If a single person can add all of these non graphical systems into a MUD, allegiances, politics, etc, why don't MMORPGs put a little more effort in to add these non graphical systems into their games? Obviously anything implemented into a graphical system will take more work than it's text based counterpart, but it is a valid question.
Just one example to help some people see what the OP is talking about. In mmo's character customization has to do solely with the appearance of the character. In a mud it is solely to do with the character's abilities. Every single mud gave you the option to deeply customize the character's abilities. But not very many mmo's have that option. Even though they could easily do it.
Just one example to help some people see what the OP is talking about. In mmo's character customization has to do solely with the appearance of the character. In a mud it is solely to do with the character's abilities. Every single mud gave you the option to deeply customize the character's abilities. But not very many mmo's have that option. Even though they could easily do it.
Not so sure about easily.
An ability is essentially an algorithm. It takes as it's inputs the players relevant information (e.g. strength) plus the target's information (e.g. armour), then outputs the result (e.g. mana reduction, health reduction).
In our current systems, the algorithm is fixed so accessing it is as quick as possible and the outputs are known. It makes it very easy to optimise.
If you made abilities configurable, you end up adding extra database lookups every time a player uses an ability which slows things down and is harder to optimise.
Thats not to say it can't be done - Camelot Unchained is doing exactly this thing with it's ability builder - but it's not easy and given how intensive MMOs are, anyway to reduce server load is a good thing. This is before you even consider balancing things, animations etc - issues that weren't really present in MUDs.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
MUDs relied heavily on the player's imagination to fill in the blanks... they were also infused with player created content which changed almost constantly. Far easier to change the words on a page than it is to reimagine them in pictures. They were simple and they still are simple.
But beyond all that... they required a certain mindset for them to even work... it's why some people enjoy reading a good book over watching a movie. Think about it... how many people out there even take the time to read a book anymore? They'd rather watch a movie or sit in front of a TV. Graphical games are not books, they are movies... you've taken away the endless possibilities of the mind and pigeon-holed them into a single possibility. Granted MMORPGs are less pigeon-holed than some games but they are still pigeon-holed nonetheless.
What you ask for is nostalgia... you want a good book to read... in a world where 30 seconds is too long to wait for a meal. Times have changed. Some say for the better... some say for the worst. Nostalgia is the one thing that never changes.
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
The trinity didn't exist untill mmo's. Sorry but it just didn't happen in muds.
I'm more inclined to agree with Bartle on that one.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
Hi, @Loktofeit. My mentors who first taught me to code started in 1960 working on what would later be renamed the internet. I sat in my first coding class room back in 1983. So yeah my information is old but it is no less accurate today. In your quote you probably feel that you caught me in a glaring mistake. My audience here are non-coders, so I left out details for simplicity. But I assure you, "iT'S There in The code." Now pardon me as I go to work as a professional programmer.
Thank you for an excellent example of False Authority Syndrome.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
At its base level an MMO is a 3D graphical UI to a database (Text File). A MUD is a 2D Text UI to a database. Believe it or not, to a programmer the UI elements have nothing(absolutely Nothing) to do with the difference between a MUD and an MMO.
Because the UI is encapsulated inside of both NotInCombatRange and MoveToCombatRange, I can flick a switch and the same code will work for either a MUD or an MMO with no change to the base program. All I have to do is define BaseGame as MUD or MMO and the proper objects and libraries are compiled and linked. And it runs.
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
The trinity didn't exist untill mmo's. Sorry but it just didn't happen in muds.
I'm more inclined to agree with Bartle on that one.
The role of a healer just didn't exist the way it does in mmo's. Because it wasn't necessary you never saw a dedicated healer. Potions were mainly used for healing and the priests/clerics were used for their buffing preparations and combat abilities. In the middle of a fight the healing classes would be fighting and not healing.
Just one example to help some people see what the OP is talking about. In mmo's character customization has to do solely with the appearance of the character. In a mud it is solely to do with the character's abilities. Every single mud gave you the option to deeply customize the character's abilities. But not very many mmo's have that option. Even though they could easily do it.
Wouldn't that be a balancing nightmare to a developer? Custom abilities means all sorts of potential ways for a player to break something.
Alternatively, even if you do give players a ton of customization over the various ability aspects of their character, it might all go to waste anyways if different characters end up playing the same way anyways and/or everyone just picks the most optimal cookie cutter build anyways.
Just one example to help some people see what the OP is talking about. In mmo's character customization has to do solely with the appearance of the character. In a mud it is solely to do with the character's abilities. Every single mud gave you the option to deeply customize the character's abilities. But not very many mmo's have that option. Even though they could easily do it.
Wouldn't that be a balancing nightmare to a developer? Custom abilities means all sorts of potential ways for a player to break something.
Alternatively, even if you do give players a ton of customization over the various ability aspects of their character, it might all go to waste anyways if different characters end up playing the same way anyways and/or everyone just picks the most optimal cookie cutter build anyways.
Rift,Archeage,Everquest, Untima Online and many muds would have something different to say about that. All of those games offering a ton of different character builds. We can't say its a bad idea because we are too lazy to try it. It can be done and it has been done.
just add graphics to ideas guys! reminds me of calories in calories out just seems like common sense until you're properly educated about the subject matter
A MUD can take as little a single person to create with no money (Seriously, you could do this yourself with a little bit of programming knowledge and an old laptop in a closet to host the server.)... An MMO takes a team of tens/hundreds of programmers, directors, designers, artists, quality assurance personnel, huge datacenters to host the servers, and importantly money, lots of money.
Care to ask why MMO's don't do this again?
PS. Go on sourceforge, and click the games section, you'll find about a million results for MUDs made by a single person/small team created in a couple hours/days, and don't cost a dime. May the source be with you.
You are wrong. The features can be added with very little effort to an existing mmo. You really aren't adding anything you are simply choosing to do it differently. Its pvp rulesets, npc rulesets, faction rulesets. Has very little to do with graphics or making the development take longer. It is lack of imagination on the part of current mmo developers.
At what point did I ever say anything about rulesets? Talking money and time bud, not capability. Are they capable? Sure. But there is a massive difference in what it takes to implement. It's not as simple as just punch a few lines of code in and done. What if that line of code writes to the wrong memory sector and shuts down the operating system? Or causes a loop crash?
A billion things can go wrong when there is a difference between 1000 lines of code (A MUD) and 50 million lines of code (A single player RPG) and billions of lines of code (An MMO)
Time costs money. No sane director or producer would go out of their way to spend that money if they don't have to.
A MUD can take as little a single person to create with no money (Seriously, you could do this yourself with a little bit of programming knowledge and an old laptop in a closet to host the server.)... An MMO takes a team of tens/hundreds of programmers, directors, designers, artists, quality assurance personnel, huge datacenters to host the servers, and importantly money, lots of money.
Care to ask why MMO's don't do this again?
PS. Go on sourceforge, and click the games section, you'll find about a million results for MUDs made by a single person/small team created in a couple hours/days, and don't cost a dime. May the source be with you.
You are wrong. The features can be added with very little effort to an existing mmo. You really aren't adding anything you are simply choosing to do it differently. Its pvp rulesets, npc rulesets, faction rulesets. Has very little to do with graphics or making the development take longer. It is lack of imagination on the part of current mmo developers.
At what point did I ever say anything about rulesets? Talking money and time bud, not capability. Are they capable? Sure. But there is a massive difference in what it takes to implement. It's not as simple as just punch a few lines of code in and done. What if that line of code writes to the wrong memory sector and shuts down the operating system? Or causes a loop crash?
A billion things can go wrong when there is a difference between 1000 lines of code (A MUD) and 50 million lines of code (A single player RPG) and billions of lines of code (An MMO)
Time costs money. No sane director or producer would go out of their way to spend that money if they don't have to.
But you were acting like it would take an impossibly long time to do such things. When in fact it wouldn't take any longer then it currently does. The arguments were trying to say they never try these things because it takes too long. Yet they are willing to try a whole bunch of other things that take just as long. So the time factor you presented is null.
Comments
This is the most hilarious post to read on a forum that argues day and night about the Trinity, a mechanic that became most problematic as a result of the shift from text to 3D world environments. Holy Dunning-Krugerness, Batman.
"The MUD is 2D, only one data element can occupy a tile at a time, it is either an army or it is a field of grass, not both." - Konfess
. . .
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Issue 1: MUDs are cheap as hell and thus are not comparable to MMOs.
Issue 2: MMOs that are already invested all the money in graphics etc. could create an empire building simulator like the MUD in the OP.
I agree with both of those points. I think MMOs are capable of doing something like the MUD in the OP, I just don't think "A MUD can do it, so you can too!" is a good way to make that point.
True, but it also boils down to what people want. What is the most risky part? Marking an MMO at all. That's literally the riskiest part of making an MMO. The market is a niche and is already so diluted that it almost makes no sense to introduce a new MMO. That's really what the risk surrounding MMOs is all about. It isn't a matter of lack of innovation. If you have a frank discussion with a game designer, developer, etc. ideas are a dime a dozen. It's creating the value proposition surrounding that feature. "How will that feature ADD value to our game."
It's like Full Loot PVP. How do you sell this to an investor? The MMO market is 20 million people (just using as an example). If we were to capture just 1% of that market that gives us 200,000 people. HOWEVER, if we add full loot PVP, we'll be cutting that number by 90% of that, so we're down to 20,000.
That's not to say that there isn't a market for full loot PVP, what it means is that you cannot add that in after the fact. It also means that for games spending a lot of money in development wouldn't be likely to consider it. So we mostly see this promoted and developed as a core game concept, targeting that niche, specifically, and lowering production values, etc. to get it done. Herein lies the problem with MMOs today. We want these deep features, but we 1) aren't willing to support games through cash shops, 2) aren't willing to crowdfund games, and; 3) aren't willing to pay full-price for the game, so we wait..... until the company dies and then we thank GOD we didn't buy it. It's a vicious catch-22.
Something like Shards Online will be interesting to watch, since they allow for custom servers with different rulesets. Will that bring in people in droves? Who knows. It's the same idea as Minecraft though, right? Maybe this is the way that future MMOs go. Maybe games even allow people to run their own servers for a monthly cost, and then create custom rulesets for the games, similar to Shards Online. It all boils down to how a company can monetize their game and re-coop those costs before going bankrupt.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
----------------
After reading on, I finally caught what you're saying. You're talking "features" while I was thinking "implementations."
Yes, I can't think of any features that a MUD can do that an MMO can't, given the will to make it happen.
VG
An ability is essentially an algorithm. It takes as it's inputs the players relevant information (e.g. strength) plus the target's information (e.g. armour), then outputs the result (e.g. mana reduction, health reduction).
In our current systems, the algorithm is fixed so accessing it is as quick as possible and the outputs are known. It makes it very easy to optimise.
If you made abilities configurable, you end up adding extra database lookups every time a player uses an ability which slows things down and is harder to optimise.
Thats not to say it can't be done - Camelot Unchained is doing exactly this thing with it's ability builder - but it's not easy and given how intensive MMOs are, anyway to reduce server load is a good thing. This is before you even consider balancing things, animations etc - issues that weren't really present in MUDs.
But beyond all that... they required a certain mindset for them to even work... it's why some people enjoy reading a good book over watching a movie. Think about it... how many people out there even take the time to read a book anymore? They'd rather watch a movie or sit in front of a TV. Graphical games are not books, they are movies... you've taken away the endless possibilities of the mind and pigeon-holed them into a single possibility. Granted MMORPGs are less pigeon-holed than some games but they are still pigeon-holed nonetheless.
What you ask for is nostalgia... you want a good book to read... in a world where 30 seconds is too long to wait for a meal. Times have changed. Some say for the better... some say for the worst. Nostalgia is the one thing that never changes.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Alternatively, even if you do give players a ton of customization over the various ability aspects of their character, it might all go to waste anyways if different characters end up playing the same way anyways and/or everyone just picks the most optimal cookie cutter build anyways.
just seems like common sense until you're properly educated about the subject matter
Are they capable? Sure. But there is a massive difference in what it takes to implement. It's not as simple as just punch a few lines of code in and done. What if that line of code writes to the wrong memory sector and shuts down the operating system? Or causes a loop crash?
A billion things can go wrong when there is a difference between 1000 lines of code (A MUD) and 50 million lines of code (A single player RPG) and billions of lines of code (An MMO)
Time costs money. No sane director or producer would go out of their way to spend that money if they don't have to.