[Miniryu]

I'm doing reasearch for my dissertation about internet psychology, and in a lot of the literature a MUD (or multi-user domain or multi-user dungeon) is listed as one of the more frequent online activites (among Instant Messaging, Messageboards, Blogs, gaming, email, and newgroups). MUDs were supposed to be one of the most popular online activities in the early days of the internet. I have been an active internet citizen since 1998, and I have never seen or heard anyone talk about MUDs. What's going on? Do they have a different name they are normally called by? Does anyone have a link to one?

[Woehrle46]

MUDs are basically online text based rpgs, you connect into a server and it puts you into a world, much like the mmo rpgs of today, except that you type all your commands in and the server tells you where you are, whats arround you and who else is in your general area. They usually work on the d20 system. Lost a lot of popularity when Ultima Online, Everquest and the like came out.

[TETENAL]

mud |məd|
noun
soft, sticky matter resulting from the mixing of earth and water.
• figurative information or allegations regarded as damaging, typically concerned with corruption : they are trying to sling mud at me to cover up their defeat.
PHRASES
as clear as mud informal not at all easy to understand. drag someone through the mud slander or denigrate someone publicly. here's mud in your eye! chiefly Brit., informal used to express friendly feelings toward one's companions before drinking. one's name is mud informal one is in disgrace or unpopular : if you forget their birthdays, your name is mud.
ORIGIN late Middle English : probably from Middle Low German mudde.

[ehjay]

MUDs are still extremely popular. sites like mudconnector and such are filled to the brim with new sites popping up.

I've played the same MUD for the last 10 years or more, it all depends on the aability of a MUDs staff to keep it going. They are a rather large and time-consuming venture.

But still very much alive out there.

[Turias]

Surely someone who has been "an active internet citizen since 1998" knows about Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

[Miniryu]

Originally Posted by Turias

Surely someone who has been "an active internet citizen since 1998" knows about Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

Yah, I'm a mornon for not consulting the Wikipedia first. I was working on a few entries about psychology last summer that I never submitted because school started for the year.

[Macfreak7]

Check out this book called Life on the Screen. It can get pretty redundant, but I'm sure it'll be relevant for your research.

LINK

[Ganesha]

telnet://mad.rom.org:1536/

Running since 1994... (and i've been there since 1994 )

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by Ganesha

telnet://mad.rom.org:1536/

Running since 1994... (and i've been there since 1994 )

Pretty neat... I'll have to play around with this some when I'm not on FFXI. I'm Arkive, btw, nice talking to you And I'm arkive on FFXI on Valefor server if anyone else plays.

[starman]

MUDs were around when I first got on the 'net back in '88. I tried them. They were cool, but I just couldn't get into them. MUDs claim to be the start of MMORPGs like Everquest, but that's like saying horses were the start of cars.

Mike

[Xeo]

Originally Posted by starman

MUDs were around when I first got on the 'net back in '88. I tried them. They were cool, but I just couldn't get into them. MUDs claim to be the start of MMORPGs like Everquest, but that's like saying horses were the start of cars.

Mike

But aren't MUDs essentially graphic-less MMORPGs? As many people that want to can join, right? It's an RPG, right? Sounds like a reasonable claim to me.

[Link]

Heh, and I run one of the few mac-hosted MUDs Too bad after enough massive data losses and crappy codebases all I have to show for it is an almost-stock MUD. School and college stuff make me too busy to fix it too *shrug* oh well.

MUDs are great, if you have the time to play one, a well played MUD can be better than any IRC server if you spend some time that way. One of the driving forces behind my ambitions used to be a merc-based MUD of sorts called Abandoned Towers, but after a few staff conflicts they shut down

EDIT! HOLY CRAP IT'S RETURNED! That's INSANE. Wow... thanks for bringing this thread up! Wow I can't believe after all this time it's back! wow...

[:XI:]

IRC with swords.

[starman]

Originally Posted by Xeo

But aren't MUDs essentially graphic-less MMORPGs? As many people that want to can join, right? It's an RPG, right? Sounds like a reasonable claim to me.

The thing is, the MUDs that I was on back then really didn't have the same feel as true MMORPGs. Like someone said below, it's like IRC with swords. For me, it was more of a gathering place than a real MMO. I spent more time chatting with people than acutally hunting anything.

Mike

[Lancer409]

former godwars player here =)

[dreilly1]

I was never much into MUDs back in the day, (and the Wiki link is either down or my employer blocks it), but I had friends who were on them in college. I seem to remember that part of the MUD experience was the fact that most had their own scripting languages and you could essentially make your own objects and specify how other users interact with them.

For instance, you could build a room for your character, and stock it with objects. You could have a painting hanging on the wall, for instance, and when another user types "look at painting" you could program the object to say "You see a painting of that famous bald screaming dude", or something like that. A bundle of those associations later, and you have a virtual home that reflects your tastes and experiences.

It strikes me that the newer online RPG's, for all their flashy graphics, don't really let you construct things, and are less about creativity than about dealing crack in the form of subscription gaming to the addicted throng. But then again, I haven't really played around that much with the newer online RPG's, lest I get hooked myself!

[:XI:]

Originally Posted by starman

The thing is, the MUDs that I was on back then really didn't have the same feel as true MMORPGs. Like someone said below, it's like IRC with swords. For me, it was more of a gathering place than a real MMO. I spent more time chatting with people than acutally hunting anything.

Mike

*cough* You mean 'above'. And what do you mean someone?

[Millennium]

MUD stands for either Multi-User Dimension or Multi-User Dungeon, depending on whom you ask. As others have mentioned, they are text-based online games. You could consider them predecessors of the modern MMORPG. They tend to offer more features than many MMORPGs, but at the expense of graphics and ease of use. Although they are designed as games and played as such, there tends to be much more of an emphasis on social interaction than you find in most MMORPGs.

You may also hear the terms MUSH, MUCK, and MOO; they stand for different things but refer to the same basic concept. The major differences are in the server software; there are almost as many server programs as there are MUDs. You can connect to a MUD though a standard Telnet client, though there are also specialized clients out there which make things a bit more convenient.

I'm not a member of any MUDs myself, but you might want to look at LambdaMOO for more info. They've been online for ages, and they have a rich history, not all of it good. If you're doing a dissertation in Internet psychology, it is well worth checking out.

[starman]

Originally Posted by :XI:

*cough* You mean 'above'. And what do you mean someone?

Ha. When I was editing it, you were below. Too early in the morning to think and I was on the way to the dentist so I wasn't in the best of moods

Mike