by 4 people |
Why text games anyway?
With the proliferation of graphical games and the rapid pace of improvement in graphics, it seems like text gaming would be long since dead. Yet text games still hang on and in some cases even proliferate. What are these games, and what draws people to them? Why do people still play them? How can I try one out?
What is a MUD...
... and what is mudding?
A MUD is a type of online game where players can interact and explore the game either by themselves or together. A lot of games are like this - for example 'World of Warcraft' - but in order to qualify as a MUD, a game must be playable without graphics, using only text and commands.
Since most MUDs are playable using only text commands, most MUDs have browser-based clients that allow you to play from any browser, without downloads.
Most MUDs have the look and feel of an old 1980's era adventure game, but newer and more modern MUDs may have graphics and other enhancements that are not required but may make the game easier to learn and play.
Lack of graphics is in some ways an advantage. Rather than focus on creating skins for every object, monster, and place in the game, MUDs focus on creating an outstanding game. Many MUDs have huge worlds, with countless quests and other things to do, for all types of players at all skill levels.
Most MUDs are free and open to all comers. These are typically smaller games run by dedicated individuals. There are also a number of pay-to-play and other commercial MUDs out there, often with a substantially larger playerbase than free games.
Since most MUDs are playable using only text commands, most MUDs have browser-based clients that allow you to play from any browser, without downloads.
Most MUDs have the look and feel of an old 1980's era adventure game, but newer and more modern MUDs may have graphics and other enhancements that are not required but may make the game easier to learn and play.
Lack of graphics is in some ways an advantage. Rather than focus on creating skins for every object, monster, and place in the game, MUDs focus on creating an outstanding game. Many MUDs have huge worlds, with countless quests and other things to do, for all types of players at all skill levels.
Most MUDs are free and open to all comers. These are typically smaller games run by dedicated individuals. There are also a number of pay-to-play and other commercial MUDs out there, often with a substantially larger playerbase than free games.
Are there any Pay to Play MUDs?
Most MUDs are in fact completely free to play, and are graciously hosted by their owners or a small group of dedicated players - but some are not. Public codebases are available from a number of web sites, allowing anyone with a bit of skill and spare time to start their own mud; however, most public codebases prohibit charging fees for the game.
In the very beginning, there were only a few pay-to-play MUDs, two of the more famous being the initial versions of Gemstone IV and DragonRealms. The limitations of public code bases ensured that the vast majority of new MUDs were not commercial. Recently, custom commercial servers have become more commonplace. This has allowed MUD owners to charge for various things without violating any public licenses.
Some MUDs, such as DragonRealms, have monthly fees. Other MUDs, such as those run by Iron Realms, require you to pay (or get someone else to pay) to advance your character. Another business model, used in the past by Medievia, is to allow players to buy limited time 'super equipment', without which the game is vastly more difficult.
Yet another approach is to only offer rewards that would not unbalance the game or grant donating players a meaningful edge over other players. One MUD that does this is Alter Aeon, which only sells items for convenience and decoration.
[HISTORICAL NOTE - A lot of MUD codebases are derived from the DIKU source released in the early 1990's. This codebase has license terms that prohibit the use of the code for commercial gain. A handful of MUDs, notably Medievia and NiMUD, have attracted widespread scorn from the mudding community for DIKU license violations. The DIKU team is widely respected and appreciated for their contributions to MUDs and MUDding, making the actions of license breakers even more reprehensible.]
In the very beginning, there were only a few pay-to-play MUDs, two of the more famous being the initial versions of Gemstone IV and DragonRealms. The limitations of public code bases ensured that the vast majority of new MUDs were not commercial. Recently, custom commercial servers have become more commonplace. This has allowed MUD owners to charge for various things without violating any public licenses.
Some MUDs, such as DragonRealms, have monthly fees. Other MUDs, such as those run by Iron Realms, require you to pay (or get someone else to pay) to advance your character. Another business model, used in the past by Medievia, is to allow players to buy limited time 'super equipment', without which the game is vastly more difficult.
Yet another approach is to only offer rewards that would not unbalance the game or grant donating players a meaningful edge over other players. One MUD that does this is Alter Aeon, which only sells items for convenience and decoration.
[HISTORICAL NOTE - A lot of MUD codebases are derived from the DIKU source released in the early 1990's. This codebase has license terms that prohibit the use of the code for commercial gain. A handful of MUDs, notably Medievia and NiMUD, have attracted widespread scorn from the mudding community for DIKU license violations. The DIKU team is widely respected and appreciated for their contributions to MUDs and MUDding, making the actions of license breakers even more reprehensible.]
MUD History
MUDs have a rich history, starting out with the first text-based adventure games in the mid 1970's. In the mid 1980's, the first network based adventure games began to appear on what was to become the World Wide Web; a fairly comprehensive list of the original games and their timeline can be found on Wikipedia in the MUD article.
One of the first widely distributed MUD codebases was AberMUD, written in 1987 by Alan Cox. AberMUD's popularity resulted in several inspired works, the most notable of which were TinyMUD, LpMUD, and DikuMUD.
Both TinyMUD and LpMUD have comprehensive internal languages which can be used to construct things in game; TinyMUD is the basis for a lot of free-form MUSH and MUCK style servers. For LpMUD, it is possible to build a complete game without modifying the C code of the server. Both of these codebases and their various derivatives make up a large fraction of the currently active MUD/MUSH servers.
DikuMUD was one of the more popular code bases in the mid-1990's, with most of the game mechanics already present and hardcoded into the server. Prefab worlds were available, and the idea of being able to simply modify areas without having to program or modify the server code was attractive to many new MUD administrators. From this hack-and-slash style code base were many other code bases derived, including Circle, Merc, ROM, and Smaug.
More recently, custom commercial servers have become more commonplace. The DikuMUD distribution license contains clauses that limit its use in commercial settings; other public code bases have similar restrictions. There are also limitations in the publicly available distributions which may be undesirable when used in a commercial setting.
Unfortunately, the advent of graphical MMOs and MMORPGs has limited the growth of traditional text-based MUDs. Many of these MMOs have the same depth and quality as low-end MUDs, but with the addition of pretty graphics. High quality MUDs are largely considered to have much better long term gameplay than MMOs, but this does not appear to be sufficient to compete against the intuitive graphical interface. While the overall population of internet users has grown dramatically in the last decade, the overall population of MUD players has not kept pace.
One of the first widely distributed MUD codebases was AberMUD, written in 1987 by Alan Cox. AberMUD's popularity resulted in several inspired works, the most notable of which were TinyMUD, LpMUD, and DikuMUD.
Both TinyMUD and LpMUD have comprehensive internal languages which can be used to construct things in game; TinyMUD is the basis for a lot of free-form MUSH and MUCK style servers. For LpMUD, it is possible to build a complete game without modifying the C code of the server. Both of these codebases and their various derivatives make up a large fraction of the currently active MUD/MUSH servers.
DikuMUD was one of the more popular code bases in the mid-1990's, with most of the game mechanics already present and hardcoded into the server. Prefab worlds were available, and the idea of being able to simply modify areas without having to program or modify the server code was attractive to many new MUD administrators. From this hack-and-slash style code base were many other code bases derived, including Circle, Merc, ROM, and Smaug.
More recently, custom commercial servers have become more commonplace. The DikuMUD distribution license contains clauses that limit its use in commercial settings; other public code bases have similar restrictions. There are also limitations in the publicly available distributions which may be undesirable when used in a commercial setting.
Unfortunately, the advent of graphical MMOs and MMORPGs has limited the growth of traditional text-based MUDs. Many of these MMOs have the same depth and quality as low-end MUDs, but with the addition of pretty graphics. High quality MUDs are largely considered to have much better long term gameplay than MMOs, but this does not appear to be sufficient to compete against the intuitive graphical interface. While the overall population of internet users has grown dramatically in the last decade, the overall population of MUD players has not kept pace.
Mud History Links
This section contains links that detail various aspects of MUD history, for trivia buffs.
- Wikipedia Article on MUDs
- A good general introduction to MUDs, with extensive history sections.
- Wikipedia - Hierarchy of Public Mud Bases
- Inheritance trees for the LpMUD, TinyMUD, and DikuMUD code bases. These three codebases are the ancestors of most public/free muds.
MUDs and Mudding links
This section is for general links to information on MUDs.
- Alter Aeon Muds and mudding FAQ
- A short FAQ with mudding questions and answers.
- A glossary of mudding terms
- Alter Aeon's glossary of mudding terms. Some of these are specific to Alter Aeon, but most of them are general terms.
- Part 1 of the usenet MUDding FAQ
- Hosted by The Mud Connector, this is one of the most comprehensive MUD FAQs out there. This is only part 1 of four and concerns primarily gameplay.
- The MUD resource collection
- Another USENET resource, an old but still mostly valid look at mudding.
- Richard Bartle's Mud Writings Archive
- Richard Bartle was one of the first people to publish social analysis of player behavior on MUDs and has written a number of articles and commentary on the topic.
- Mud statistics - live games
- This is an interesting site that runs a host of scripts to track several hundred text games in real time. The list by default shows games with the most players connected, and has graphs of number of players as well as other information.
Reader Feedback
I'm going to try to keep this halfway updated, so send me a note if the flow or content seems like it doesn't work.
submit
