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    MUD

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    MUDs, or "Multi-User Dungeons", are online text adventure games which support multiple users in a persistent virtual world. Often including gameplay elements from role-playing games and hack-n-slash games, MUDs were the predecessors to today's modern MMORPG, and pioneered many of the concepts that are utilized in online gaming today.

    Still playing MUDs?

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    rubberluffy

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    #1  Edited By rubberluffy

    Is there anyone on here that still plays MUDs?  How about anyone who did but hasn't in a while?  I haven't played one heavily in years, but every few months I always go back to one.  Unfortunately yesterday I logged into one that was mostly empty.  Mind you, the character I logged in as is almost 11 years old (created feb '00), and this place use to regularly have 50-60 people on at any given time.  Tonight there was one person on.  I find it a little sad.  I think a lot of people prefer MMORPGs to good old fashioned MUDs, but I will never be one of those people.

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    deactivated-5c5cdba6e0b96

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    I played a few years back but never really got anywhere with it, but I'm sure there are some active MUD's out there somewhere.

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    Pragmatic

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    #3  Edited By Pragmatic

    I play in Lusternia, one of the Iron Realms muds, all of which are very active. (Lusternia has 100+ people on during peak hours).

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    dutch42

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    #4  Edited By dutch42

    My best friend used to come over and play that shit on my computer for hours and hours and hours while everyone else played Goldeneye.

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    captain_clayman

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    #5  Edited By captain_clayman

    not to sound like a noob here, but what exactly is a MUD?

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    MikkaQ

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    #6  Edited By MikkaQ

    Wow I didn't even know these still existed. 
     
    @captain_clayman, They're multi-user dungeons, kinda like a predecessor to MMORPGs. Someone will do a better job than I, describing this. 

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    Pragmatic

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    #7  Edited By Pragmatic

    A MUD is a text based MMO - there are (typically) no graphics at all, everything is rendered in text. Typically there is a lot of customization available for your character, and role playing is a big deal (kind of like a table top RPG).
     
    Hard to describe why they are so fun and addicting, best to play one and find out.

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    buzz_clik

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    #8  Edited By buzz_clik

    I used to play MUDs all the time in 1996. While I never went to university (but you stay in school, kids!) all my mates did and we'd have major overnight sessions in the computer labs. Good times.

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    PiltdownMan

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    #9  Edited By PiltdownMan

    @rubberluffy: When I was in middle school I went to a science camp at a university here in Nebraska and on their local BBS the sysadmin had a MUD running. When I got home I figured out that my teacher parents had access to the internet by way of dialing into the local ESU so I could telnet into that BBS (and browse the web via lynx). So a big chunk of my time from probably 1992-4 was spent playing their MUD. I think it was a Crimson MUD variant. They eventually introduced player housing at some point and I'm not sure but I think my character's house might be in other versions of the game that went out. If you ever see a house of Justarius near a house of Santa in a MUD that was me.

    For some reason tonight I had the stupid idea of a Giant Bomb themed MUD, maybe even one that you could access through this site. I'm contemplating making a post in the general forum with a casting call for programmers who could dink around in the code enough to make it work...

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    fisk0

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    #10  Edited By fisk0  Moderator

    Yeah, I know, old thread and all that, which some people apparently don't like it when you resurrect. Anyway, I used to play some muds up until 5 years ago, also was a builder for a local short lived cyberpunk MUD in 2006.

    I think it would be interesting to discuss the differences between the MUD and MMO genres, as the latter is generally just seen as the evolution of the former, but some early games that were called MMO's were text-based as well (Legends of Future Past and AT&T's Neverwinter Nights for example, though the latter was not strictly text-based, but included still images as well). I may not have played enough MUD's to make these general statements, but I think one difference is in the name, the MUD's I've played generally focused on one dungeon, like Diablo and Roguelikes, which players explored together (whether helping each other or not) while something like Legends of Future Past (and MMORPG's in general) had several areas and quests, letting players do their thing in different parts of the often huge game world.

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    jeconner

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    #11  Edited By jeconner

    I used to play Arctic, which is a MUD loosely based on the dragon lance universe. I have a lot of fond memories of that game.

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