Most people are under the impression that MUDs seem to be dying out - Generally speaking, most people are right. However, all things aside, that isn't exactly true.
Zuggsoft reports 3600 sold copies of zMUD last year, and roughly 82.000 startups of their newest release (CMUD client). For those who are unaware, zMUD and now CMUD is a 'MUD Client', tailored towards making playing text-based games as pleasurable and as convenient as possible. The reason I bring this up, is to portray the fact that Zuggsoft has a lot of MUD traffic passing through it.
Every year, Zuggsoft holds a bidding session for which 10 MUDs to appear in their 'featured' list. This list appears when you start up a Zuggsoft client for the first time, and continually so unless you explicitly remove them.
This year, Zuggsoft made approximately $14.000 off the bidding session. The minimum bids started at $1000, with a maximum of 10 spots available. According to Zugg of Zuggsoft, this was the most fair way in which to determine what 10 MUDs to list. The idea behind the featured list, according to Zugg, is to attempt to retain new MUD players by offering them a list of very solid choices to begin with, so as not to 'scare' the player away.
I find the whole thing very fascinating, and while I do agree that usually you will tie quality to commercial products, I think this falls through with reguard to MUDs. The MUDs which are a profit business at the moment, are either completely pay to play (Avalon), or pay-for-perks (Aetolia, Medievia, f.ex.). Does the fact that they retain enough players with money to spend on the MUD imply playing quality?
Perhaps it does, perhaps it doesn't.. In any case, its fairly clear to me that the MUD community is not that at all - The MUD playerbase is spread out across microcommunities, all fighting against eachother to grasp at players with anything they can. There are no free, public, oft-visited venues of advertisement that work well for MUDs - The only central venue is Zuggsoft. I wonder how much this is due to MUDConnector's rather difficult website design (www.mudconnector.com), how much is due to a general loss of quality from source leaking (harder to find good games in the mass), and how much is REALLY due to players not wanting to play MUDs.
I'd love to know how many players tried MUDding and then stopped, and why they did so. Perhaps a better structured method of community nurturing would centralize things a bit, and give room for proper exposing of quality products.
One thing is clear though: Thanks BYOND, for taking a more sane approach to things than MUDConnector and the MUD communities originally did. The channels idea alone would work wonders on MUDConnector, where its virtually impossible to find something you like unless you randomly stumble upon it.
I started MUDding in my first year of college because a fellow student showed me a local server. I stopped playing there after somehow managing to fill the server with people from my old highschool. An administrator from a fledgling MUD stole me from another MUD I was browsing through and I stayed in her MUD for a while.
I stopped MUDding because I because I got tired of spending all of my time playing. I finally got completely burnt out after being a clan leader. I have since avoided MORPGs other than some open Guild Wars tests. Of course, I'm often tempted to let others spend their time. I came to BYOND after getting tired of rewriting sections of ROM and I still feel the itch to create a MUD once in a while. ;) | |
I've spent obscene amounts of time MUDding, but no longer play for the same reason as ACWraith; it was just too much of my time. Achaea held me captive for quite awhile, and overall I was quite impressed with how the managed the out of game economics. Players could buy credits with real money, which could be used for any number of advantagous things in game - particularly for exchange to lessons, which were what you spent on skills. There were any number of ways to obtain credits without money, however, particularly in buying them in-game for obscene amounts of gold, winning them in lotteries, etc, or in winning monthly bardic and artistic contests (which produced some really great material).
My most infamous Achaea character had 8 full days of play time over a 1-year period, and I don't believe he was the only character I played over that time period. Hence why I stopped. | |
This year, Zuggsoft made approximately $14.000 off the bidding session. The minimum bids started at $1000, with a maximum of 10 spots available. I think you are trying to make fools of us! | |
My most played MUD character had approximately 250 days of played time on it (Geez, thats 6000 hours). Others spanned from 10 to 50 days. After I stopped MUDding, I went on to create a character that massed up over a year of played time in EverQuest.
Boy, those were some productive years. >.> I'm hoping to fix the user friendliness part myself; I've never understood why MUDs have to have hard syntax, cant help players along, and usually have very bad websites :s | |
Hello, my name is James. I am a Mudaholic.
I started in high school. My friends were doing it and kept telling me how cool it was. Eventually I caved in. In those early days, I hadn't learned about all the different types of MUDs, so it was easy to get a fix. AddictMUD was my first hit. It was Circle, and it was good for a while. But soon, I needed more. MUSHES and MOOS weren't enough. I went to MERC and ROM, the hard stuff. By college, I was brewing my own junk. Me and some buddies rented space on a cheap server and started dealing our own mix based on ROM. At first, business was slow. But our combination of new content and fresh code got people hooked. Soon, we had dozens on at a time. I was in euphoria- I could play what I wanted and was slinging MUD to a whole new group. Fortunately, real life intervened. My fraternity brothers help detox me by introducing me to healthier activities like drinking and women. While the initial withdrawal was tough, I made it. I must admit, though, that in recent years I am relapsing. I am back into mixing. I have even tried MUDs again a few times. So far, it's just a side project, a hobby I tell myself. But for how long? We all know what its about. I only hope that there is enough booze and women out there to keep me clean.... | |
Jmurph wrote:
I must admit, though, that in recent years I am relapsing. I am back into mixing. I have even tried MUDs again a few times. So far, it's just a side project, a hobby I tell myself. But for how long? We all know what its about. I only hope that there is enough booze and women out there to keep me clean.... Well, lets hope I manage to brew up something interesting enough to rekindle an interest yet give the women and booze a fighting chance. What about women and booze in MUDs? Now, theres a lethal combo. | |
MUDs will always be around, just like books will always be around, I expect. If a lot of them disappear over the years, that's not necessarily for the worse.
I was trying to explain to someone at work today what a MUD was. He said, "So you have to like actually type 'attack orc'?!" | |
Zilal wrote:
I was trying to explain to someone at work today what a MUD was. He said, "So you have to like actually type 'attack orc'?!" I get that a lot; Especially from my girlfriend, who does play MMORPGs occasionally (Right now she plays WoW) - Its interesting to note that most people I know who play WoW don't read a lot of books; Most people I know who play or have played MUDs, are avid book readers (If you can say such a thing). My girlfriend seems to accept the explanation of a MUD far easier than other friends I have who play WoW, as the only one of those who actually reads fantasy novels and the like in that group of people. I wonder if thats a trend, or just a local observation in my case. It might be easier to test with a larger pool of people which are unbiased (i.e. not my girlfriend). | |
I started Mudding around the age of 11. I was in my follow the leader stage, trying to become just like my brother, and from 11 to 13, I was so addicted to it, I just couldn't break it. Everyday after school, I came home and hopped on, and played into the morning of the next day. But then reality hit me and I become a "man", and I stopped playing for about 1 and half, every now and then I would glance at MUDconnector and see what was going on in the MUD Life. But I always went back, then I tried playing WoW when I turned 16, that experience was a quickly forgotten one. But during the last few months of my 16th year, something inside of me told me it was time to go back. Because I thought to myself how much of the gaming community really reads what the game outputs? 40% maybe 50%. I mean my own nephew went around asking me for everything but because he didn't read it. Same with my girlfriend. Her brother got her into games, but she was so into just playing and not understanding that she asked me for everything too. I mean how hard it is to get into Zelda: Oracina of Time. Beating the first boss. I mean you only have to read and understand three people. One who tells you where the sword is, one who tells you, you need a sword and shield to get passed him, and well. The Deku Tree(cause he made you..) but anyway. My point is I believe the people who play MUDs, are really the smarter half of the gamming community.
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What made you dig this up all of a sudden, out of curiosity? =) I mostly agree, mind.
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Alathon wrote:
What made you dig this up all of a sudden, out of curiosity? =) I mostly agree, mind. Mustly, I've been exploring the net and whatnot... | |
Hows the text MUD you mention in your blog coming along? =)
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Well, after working with Keeth, better. I took a deeper look into Intermundia and recreated the room and zone system.
So at this rate. I should have it up and running at around 10% in no time.. | |
Well, after working with Keeth, better. I took a deeper look into Intermundia and recreated the room and zone system.
So at this rate. I should have it up and running at around 10% in no time.. | |
Back when I first tried to find "online games" and discovered MUDs, none of the MUD websites that I came across had any useful information on how to join a game. (I say "useful" from the perspective of a 9-year-old who didn't have a computer of his own, knew practically nothing about the internet, and had no idea what Telnet was supposed to mean.) Nobody else I talked to knew how to join a MUD, and I didn't know where to find the information on my own.
So the reason I started playing EleMUD was because that particular MUD was the first I found that had a java-based MUD client built into its website. (I later installed a free version of zMUD.) I stuck with the MUD because of its atmosphere and nice community.
And the reason I stopped playing was due to carpal tunnel syndrome. =P