OMG! The MUD is alive!

[Lerxst]

Sorry, just a bit happy to rediscover an old favorite!

Years ago I started in the MMO gaming world by playing and helping design a couple MUDs - Multi user Dungeon/Domain. They were very complex, open-world text-based, persistent RPGs that saved your character's progress. I just found out that the MUD I played on is still online, albeit completely empty.

Thought this would be a fun opportunity to get people together to repopulate it again and get things up and going once more. You can check out the details here http://arcadia.net/MUD/

 

[sprinkles]

I used to play MUDs all the time.

Unfortunately I kind of grew out of them. typing 'e e e e e s e s up in' all the time eventually wore out for me. (took a while though)

 

[Lerxst]

I just think the freedom of them still tends to surpass anything modern MMOs have to offer. I mean, in a modern MMO, you get blinded in combat, you see stars over your head (or some such graphic). In a MUD, if you get blinded, all the text descriptions change into "Something" that makes a sound or "Someone" who enters the room with you, actually making you feel as helpless as your character is.

 

[sprinkles]

I just think the freedom of them still tends to surpass anything modern MMOs have to offer. I mean, in a modern MMO, you get blinded in combat, you see stars over your head (or some such graphic). In a MUD, if you get blinded, all the text descriptions change into "Something" that makes a sound or "Someone" who enters the room with you, actually making you feel as helpless as your character is.

Yeah. That's true.

There's benefits and drawbacks to both systems. Text system has the benefit of imaginative immersion. Things aren't illustrated for you so you can feel it for yourself in your own way.

Graphical interfaces are more intuitive and natural. This means that the immersion is already strictly defined for you which means you can direct everything to interactions. Graphical interfaces can also be more in real time rather than in discrete ticks like in a MUD. In MUDs everything happens in steps - the actions happen then it spits out the results line by line, then more actions happen. With graphics everything can happen at the same time as it goes.

Plus with graphics you get a peripheral sense at all times, while with MUDs it tends to only point out things that are immediately relevant or that you're focusing on. e.g. when you're in a room and somebody comes in, you get their entry message. You see a message when they do actions. You can 'look' or 'examine' them but you don't peripherally see them in the room, and due to this a lot of information gets lost.

Regarding the status effects like blindness and such - in graphical MMOs it is probably depicted as only stars so as to not piss off the casual players who always want to see. In several shooters things like blindness are depicted realistically. Especially with flashbang grenades where everything first goes white then you're stuck with only an afterimage of the last thing you saw, and you get an ear ringing effect and can't hear what is going on. You can't even know what direction you're facing or anything when that happens.

Edit: realistic status effects are also often considered 'cheap' by many. "I could beat you if you didn't blind/stun all the time! Noob!"