An article on why text based rpg MUDs seem to be timeless despite an age of graphics

[aryianna]

Why in this day and age of amazing graphical games do text based MUDs still flourish? One journalist, from the online magazine, The Kernel interviewed a few players from their perspective of what keeps them coming back day after day, some having been involved for over 19 years.

http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-...verending-mud/

[medievalman1]

Why in this day and age of amazing graphical games do text based MUDs still flourish? One journalist, from the online magazine, The Kernel interviewed a few players from their perspective of what keeps them coming back day after day, some having been involved for over 19 years.

http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-...verending-mud/

I wouldn't exactly call the numbers they have as "flourishing", certainly not failing by any stretch though. I'm not entirely sure how there can be any question why games whose graphics are quite simple can still be around though. With all of the gamers out there, with all of their particular tastes and priorities (with regards to what in a game matters) of course games such as this will still be around. I dare say there's an even bigger group of games with minimalist graphics that "flourish"-roguelikes, specifically those with ascii graphics, but even then most roguelikes that aren't ascii are still minimalistic in their graphics department.

To sum it up: Gameplay > Graphics for many people.

[Deleted]

To sum it up: Gameplay > Graphics for many people.

You must not have played MUDs if you're talking about gameplay.

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Amazing gameplay! This from someone who played a few MUDs for years.

[aryianna]

Obviously you were playing the wrong MUDs. Avalon is so much more than that. There are going to be negative comments and that's fine. The article was from the point of view of people who do still play

[Sj]

I played PernMUSH for years. Always preferred MUSHs over MUDs, but a good MUD was hella fun.

[Rukh]

You must not have played MUDs if you're talking about gameplay.

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Amazing gameplay! This from someone who played a few MUDs for years.

Your example doesn't exactly support your argument. Yes, those are the commands you enter, but it's up to the mud creators to set the scene.

[Kyanion]

I still fondly remember my days playing MUDs. I played Dragon Swords and Chaos Blade (renamed to Chaos) and last I checked both of those MUDs were still around with DS still having a community. I wish I could go back to playing them sometimes but I miss the community more than I do the game itself and the community for the most part moved on to other things.

[Deleted]

Obviously you were playing the wrong MUDs. Avalon is so much more than that. There are going to be negative comments and that's fine. The article was from the point of view of people who do still play

Your example doesn't exactly support your argument. Yes, those are the commands you enter, but it's up to the mud creators to set the scene.

Umm... I guess you people have a whole different meaning for the word "gameplay" then. For me, it means gameplay mechanics, and that includes how you control your character. Every MUD I tried (Circle, LP variants, perhaps some Tiny) worked exactly the same way; you type your commands, the MUD "ticks" every second, or however long the "heartbeat" is, and then you try to time your spells and attacks the best way possible to take down other players or NPCs.

Besides that, it was usually the typical "kill stuff, gain experience, gain levels" -shtick, but the MUD I loved the most was a true PK MUD, and there you'd lose big chunks of XP and lose levels when you died, more to monsters but still a nice amount to players, as well.

Can't say I'd say that the "gameplay" was so great in any of them, though. I know that you can create more intricate gameplay mechanics in a MUD, of course, having done some code to some of them, but I personally didn't come across anything that special. I'm guessing you two meant the plot, lore and the actual "point" of the MUD, and whether or not you can "beat" it, though, and not actual gameplay. As far as I understand, gameplay typically means how you, the person, interact with the game, and how the engine of the game works, and not the "scene" or setting or plot of the game. I'm sure there are awesome plots and stories in MUDs out there, but that's not really gameplay. In Diablo, for example, gameplay would be clicking on a monster to hit it with a weapon. Not the lore or the plot.

Anyways, StickMUD is where I spent most of my time, and some in BatMUD, and then a bunch of others, typically to test them out for a week or two.

[Mormolyce]

Niche market. No disrespect to those games.

[Shinzai]

MUD's are extremely niche, compared to even the most indie of indie games these days, but they do have their supporters still. I was actually fairly active on RavenMUD until about 2005.

[Tekkommo]

Not played one since I was a kid and will never play one again, don't know anyone who plays them either and I never hear about them. This is the first time I have seen someone mention them for a long time.

I know there will be people out there who play them, but to say it's flourishing, cmon lol.

[Rukh]

Umm... I guess you people have a whole different meaning for the word "gameplay" then. For me, it means gameplay mechanics, and that includes how you control your character. Every MUD I tried (Circle, LP variants, perhaps some Tiny) worked exactly the same way; you type your commands, the MUD "ticks" every second, or however long the "heartbeat" is, and then you try to time your spells and attacks the best way possible to take down other players or NPCs.

Besides that, it was usually the typical "kill stuff, gain experience, gain levels" -shtick, but the MUD I loved the most was a true PK MUD, and there you'd lose big chunks of XP and lose levels when you died, more to monsters but still a nice amount to players, as well.

Can't say I'd say that the "gameplay" was so great in any of them, though. I know that you can create more intricate gameplay mechanics in a MUD, of course, having done some code to some of them, but I personally didn't come across anything that special. I'm guessing you two meant the plot, lore and the actual "point" of the MUD, and whether or not you can "beat" it, though, and not actual gameplay. As far as I understand, gameplay typically means how you, the person, interact with the game, and how the engine of the game works, and not the "scene" or setting or plot of the game. I'm sure there are awesome plots and stories in MUDs out there, but that's not really gameplay. In Diablo, for example, gameplay would be clicking on a monster to hit it with a weapon. Not the lore or the plot.

Anyways, StickMUD is where I spent most of my time, and some in BatMUD, and then a bunch of others, typically to test them out for a week or two.

Sure, but when you "kill ogre" you're not just doing that are you? Are you casting your aura shield? Blasting them with a doom spell, or using a weapon skill? Yeah you input commands by text, but the mechanics of the game are entirely up to the imagination of the creators. I've seen MUDs with grid combat too, where positioning relative to your enemy mob mattered. I personally felt that it got repetitive to have combat so involved for every single fight, but some people like it.

I was pretty in to mud creating back in the day. I had made an airship that essentially existed as two objects as the mud I was on had a sky zone. So it had a shadow object that moved around and had to be mapped to the location of the airship object. It could be flown around by controls in the cabin.

[aryianna]

Anyone can strip down combat or skills or interactions in any game if they so desire: casting a fireball in WoW may look prettier but ultimately it's still a line of code forcing that task or subroutine to perform its action. The syntax used is irrelevant (and really how different is typing KILL OGRE to CAST FIREBALL if this is the yardstick for judging engagement?) and gameplay is a broad term. Effect and consequence and interaction is as much a part of the gameplay umbrella as the input one uses to make those things happen.

And for anyone that thinks MUDs are just a banal repetitive series of commands being typed, try some of this text on for size:

A Bard directing the final crying crescendo of death:

The final blood-curdling cry conspires with your dramatic stigmata and the weakened form of Bugfrei Zand. The song's coda is a conflagration: Bugfrei Zand raised momentarily by the power of your song, shaking dangerously, unconsciously, helplessly with each rising note. And then he shatters in a torrent of unspeakable body-parts inside and out. Dead; the Bard's final word.

A would-be lumberjack attempting to fell an awakened tree:

You merrily begin to swing your axe in a huge arc towards the base of the tree, hopefully aiming to make contact with it about a foot off of the ground.

An ancient chestnut tree reaches out a branch and hooks it about you, crunching you bodily in its grasp. You are dragged towards the trunk and - to your horror - find yourself brought face to 'face' with two enormous, nut-brown eyes. The chestnut-tree stares at you, paralysing you with fear, before ripping you to pieces...

Elmaethor, god of the stars:

Elmaethor, god of the stars stands before you, his flowing starscaped robes rustled softly by the eddy of a gentle breeze. A celestial penumbra frets the entirety of his divine presence, scintillating periodically as strange, glittering stardust twinkles about his silhouette. On occasion these motes of the far heavens shine forth, burning impossibly bright then bursting brilliant seconds later. It is mesmerising, these noiseless microcosm supernova, for watching each one gives a stab of inexplicable mourning as the star-effulgence cascades its remaining light at the feet of the star-deity and renders his every footfall the brightfire ephemera of lost worlds innumerable. This bewitching play of distant worlds is only broken when, at last, Elmaethor, god of the stars turns his eyes upon you: his immortal gaze brushing aside the spell of his sparkling avatar as reality returns to your thoughts and senses once more.

Two deities battling:

The very earth trembles under foot and the air turns ice-cold as life across the continent becomes frozen. Two of the divinities are readying to battle: human visible, dominating the celestion, facing Tyranis, god of war; his expression one of fury, his eyes ablaze. "Enough!" he fulminates and all Avalon quakes in wonder.

Light is blotted out across the land and the very firmament grows black as pitch. The only sight visible is Cornelius, the all-consuming opening his divine arms - wide enough to encompass the world - as He pours forth his faer-essence, gathering an incandescent sphere of pure immortal might. Cornelius turns to Tyranis, god of war, the fulgent globe raised aloft.



Tyranis, god of war can do nothing but meet the challenge of Cornelius, the all-consuming and the latter hurls the fulgence across the heavens. Tyranis is consumed by the conflagration; the entire land is flooded in blue-white brilliance - such is the manifestation of divine rage. Then silence broken only by the cry of an immortal stricken to his very core.


The continent is riven by quakes and the oceans crash and roar, Mount Sapience belches flaming
torrents and mortalkind quails aghast. Cornelius, the all-consuming stands unmoved, looming enormous as his silhouette subsumes the brilliance of his manifestation and even the lamentation of Tyranis, god of war is silenced in the dead-calm that follows.

A tree struck by lightning:

A lightning strike at the base of the tree has shaken it to its very roots and it can weather the storm no longer. Slowly but inexorably the tree falls, its trunk splintering as its integrity is shattered by the hammerblow of the storm.

Phoenix-fire resurrection from the opalescent lorerobe spectrum:

Your eyes are filled, all of a sudden, with a burning red light and you feel your skeleton knit together within your ghostly form. Still enveloped in the deep magic of the resurrection you open your blurring eyes to catch the last shreds of skin grow back onto your regenerated flesh. You are whole again; but once resurrected a second conflagration is set in motion: the phoenix rebirth.
The rubies of your opalescent spectrum grow enflamed, the crucible of your life-giving reaction sprouting firewings dripping white-hot waterfalls about the location. The phoenix-fire wings spread to their fullest extent, describing an arc above the entire locale raining fire and terror on all sentient witnesses to your magnificent return to life.

The Silver Tree waxing under the skies:


The purpose of the divine Tree on the southern horizon is now plain, for all Avalon is lit by a serene and wonderful luminescence, spread across the heavens with a brightness akin to daylight.

There is a subtle shift in the Silver Tree, its tendrils of serene silver light adjusting to a softer hue - still illuminating all Avalon, yet also affording sight of the dome of stars.

The wondrous light of the Silver Tree, illuminating the entire world from its place at the centre of the southern horizon, has reached a perfect symbiosis with the stars; and a healing glow suffuses every corner of the continent.

A cauldron of oil set alight ready to burn legionnaires:

The oil-cauldron filled with flaming oil continues to burn away, thick acrid fumes filling the surrounds as the boiling oil bubbles away like the black butterscotch of The Diabolus

Four different damaging strikes:


Calling upon your host of evil you direct poisonous black-evocation against a shadowy figure to bring about his asphyxiation.

Shaitan echoes a terrible curse and you feel unseen hands tighten about your neck, choking the lifeforce from you.

You pierce the body of the waxen image of a shadowy figure with your fingernails.

You are struck by a sudden, piercing pain. It courses through your veins, as if your blood has been suddenly heated - enflamed and excruciating.

With a shriek you call the spirits of earth, fire and darkness to your do your bidding and cast spears of sorcery against all those present.

Shaitan screeches a terrible litany and a splintering wave of spirit-shards whirls outward from where he stands, raining about the locale. The shards pepper against your body, akin to an explosion of nails scorching at your very soul.

You spread your arms in a sunburst motion and a shaft of brilliantine light spears down from the heavens into a shadowy figure.

You are thrown back to the ground by the blast - your chest cavity is ripped to pieces by the awesome magic of your foe. Your life is over.