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This article is about a type of online computer game. For other uses, see Mud (disambiguation).

In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social chat rooms. A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather A multiplayer game is a Game which is played by several players. A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Hack and slash or hack and slay can refer to either a subgenre of Action game, or a type of Gameplay. The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by Mass media to describe any form of Synchronous conferencing, occasionally even Asynchronous conferencing Typically running on an Internet server or bulletin board system, the game is usually text-driven, where players read descriptions of rooms, objects, events, other characters, and computer-controlled creatures or non-player characters (NPCs) in a virtual world. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a Computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to A non-player character, often shortened to NPC, is a character that is controlled by the Gamemaster in Role-playing games or one that is not A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars These avatars are usually depicted Players usually interact with each other and the surroundings by typing commands that resemble a natural language, usually English. In the Philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is a Language that is spoken or written in phonemic-alphabetic or phonemically-related English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Arguably, modern graphics-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft, and social avatar virtual worlds such as Second Life can be considered MUD variants. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars These avatars are usually depicted Second Life ( abbreviated as SL) and its sister site Teen Second Life are Internet-based 3D Virtual

Traditional MUDs implement a fantasy world populated by elves, goblins, dwarves, halflings and other mythical or fantasy-based races, with players being able to take on any number of classes, including warriors, mages, priests, thieves, druids, etc. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting An elf is a creature of Norse mythology. The elves were originally imagined as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, who are often pictured as youthful-seeming A goblin is an evil crabby or Mischievous Creature of Folklore, often described as a grotesquely disfigured or Gnome -like phantom DWARF is a widely used standardized Debugging data format. DWARF was originally designed along with ELF, although it is independent of Object file Halfling is another name for J R R Tolkien 's Hobbit and is a fictional race sometimes found in Fantasy Novels and Games The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" There are many elements that show up throughout the fantasy genre in different guises This article is about a concept in role-playing games For character classes specific to Dungeons and Dragons see Character class (Dungeons & Dragons. Warrior is a Character class (or job) found in many Role-playing games This class may also be referred to as Fighter, as in Dungeons A spellcaster in role-playing games refers to a creature capable of casting magic spells The cleric is a Character class in Dungeons & Dragons and other Fantasy Role-playing games. The Thief or Rogue is a Character class in many Role-playing games including Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy In Role-playing games a druid is a Character class that is generally portrayed as using nature-based magical abilities who strive to protect nature , in order to gain specific skills or powers. The object of this sort of game is to slay monsters, explore a rich fantasy world, to complete quests, go on adventures, create a story by roleplaying, and/or advance the created character. A monster is any of a large number of Legendary creatures which usually appear in Mythology, Legend, or Horror fiction. In roleplaying, participants adopt and act out the Role of characters, or parts that may have personalities motivations and backgrounds different from Many MUDs were fashioned around the dice rolling rules of the Dungeons & Dragons series of games. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by

Such fantasy settings for MUDs are common, while many others are set in a science fiction–based universe or themed on popular books, movies, animations, history, and so on. Not all MUDs are games; some, more typically those referred to as MOOs, are used in distance education or for virtual conferences. MOO programming language Distance education, or distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the Pedagogy and Andragogy, technology and instructional systems design MUDs have attracted the interest of academic scholars from many fields, including communications, sociology, law, and synthetic economies. Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually in the context of an

Most MUDs are run as hobbies and are free to players; some may accept donations or allow players to "purchase" in-game items, while others charge a monthly subscription fee.

Contents

History

A MUD logon screen.
A MUD logon screen.

Prehistory

The first games which might today be recognised as MUDs appeared in 1977 on the PLATO system. PLATO was the first (circa 1960 on ILLIAC I) generalized Computer assisted instruction system In Europe at around the same time, MUD development was centered around academic networks, particularly at the University of Essex where they were played by many people, both within and outside of the university. The University of Essex is a British Campus university located near the town of Colchester, England In this context, it has been said that MUD stands for "Multi-Undergrad Destroyer" or "Multiple Undergraduate Destroyer" due to their popularity among college students and the amount of time devoted to the MUD by the student. The popularity of MUDs of the Essex University tradition escalated in the USA during the 1980s, when—relatively speaking—cheap, home personal computers with 300 to 2400 bit/s modems enabled role-players to log into multi-line BBSes and online services such as Compuserve. Modem (from mo dulator- dem odulator is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode Digital information A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a Computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to An online service provider is inclusive to Internet service providers and Web sites such as Wikipedia 's or Usenet (commonly accessed through CompuServe, ( CompuServe Information Service, also known by its acronym CIS) was the first major commercial Online service in the United States

MUD the game

The first known MUD was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using initially MACRO-10 (an assembly language) and, later, rewritten in BCPL; also used was a database description language, MUDDL. Roy Trubshaw (1959 -) was a Programmer at the University of Essex who co-authored with Richard Bartle, the first known MUD on a DEC Richard Allan Bartle (born January 10, 1960, in England) is a British writer and game researcher best known for being the co-author of The PDP-10 was a Mainframe computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC from the late 1960s on the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor See the terminology section below for information regarding inconsistent use of the terms assembly and assembler [1] They chose the acronym MUD to stand for Multi-User Dungeon,[2] in reference to a Fortran port of Infocom's text adventure game Zork for the PDP-10 called Dungeon (or DUNGEN due to the six character filename limit). Zork was one of the first Interactive fiction Computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. [3] Zork in turn was inspired by an older text-adventure game known as Colossal Cave Adventure or ADVENT. Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) (Crowther 1976 Crowther The classic game MIST (also part of Essex University MUD) which could be played from any computer connected to JANET (a European academic network), became one of the first of its kind to attain broad popularity. JANET is a private British government-funded Computer network dedicated to education and research [4]

Oubliette, written by Jim Schwaiger, and published on the PLATO system predated MUD1 by about a year. It was so difficult that one could not play it alone: in order for players to survive, they had to run in groups. While Oubliette was a multi-player game, there was no persistence to the game world. Following it, also on PLATO, was a game called Moria written in 1977, copyright 1978. This article is about the game written for the PLATO computer system for other uses see Moria. Again, players could run in parties but in this game it was also possible to effectively play while only running one character. They were graphical in nature and very advanced for their time, but were proprietary programs that were unable to spread beyond PLATO. Textual worlds, which typically ran on Unix, VMS, or DOS, were now far more accessible to the public. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer Open Virtual Memory System ( OpenVMS) initially known just as Virtual Memory System ( VMS) is the name of a High-end Computer server DOS, short for "Disk Operating System" is a shorthand term for several closely related Operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market

Another early MUD was Avatar, begun around 1977 and opened in 1979, written by Bruce Maggs, Andrew Shapira, and Dave Sides, all high school students using the PLATO system at the University of Illinois. Avatar is a text-based & graphics-based multi-user highly interactive Role-playing Computer game, created on the University of Illinois's Control Data This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of This MUD was 2.5-D game running on 512x512 plasma panels of the PLATO system, and groups of up to 15 players could enter the dungeon simultaneously and fight monsters as a team. 25D (two-and-a-half Dimensional is an informal term used to describe visual phenomena which are considered "between" 2D and 3D A plasma display panel (PDP is a type of Flat panel display now commonly used for large TV displays (typically above 37-inch or 940 mm Avatar, with by far the most hours played of any PLATO game, is still running, playable by anyone, on the emulated mainframe at www.cyber1.org and via the NovaNET NPT service.

In the late 1970s there were numerous other PLATO games which were MUD-like, in various stages of development, some open, some never opened. Some were essentially single-player games but had some multi-player interaction such as communication and shared halls of fame. These games influenced the development of more well-known PLATO MUDs such as Avatar and Oubliette. At the time, these games were referred to as 'dungeon games'. Around this time, at least 10 and possibly as many as 100 people were actively working on MUD games on PLATO. It was common to see two to five people sitting side by side and working on different MUD games in room 165 or the author room of University of Illinois's CERL building. Many non-MUD games also came from this environment, such as empire and airfight.

Commercialisation and spread

In 1978, Alan E. Klietz wrote a game called Milieu using Multi-Pascal on a CDC Cyber, which was used by high school students in Minnesota for educational purposes. Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural Programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small The CDC Cyber range of mainframe -class Supercomputers were the primary products of Control Data Corporation (CDC during the 1970s and 1980s Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers Klietz ported Milieu to an IBM XT in 1983, naming the new port Scepter of Goth (also spelled Sceptre of Goth). The IBM Personal Computer XT, often shortened to the IBM XT or simply XT, was IBM's successor to the original IBM PC. Scepter of Goth, also spelled Sceptre of Goth, was an early multi-user text-based adventure game a genre now typically called a "multi-user dungeon" or MUD Scepter supported 10 to 16 simultaneous users, typically connecting in by modem. It was one of the first commercial MUDs; franchises were sold to a number of locations. Scepter (and an unfinished advanced MUD by Klietz called ScreenPlay) was first owned and run by GamBit (of Minneapolis, Minnesota), founded by Bob Alberti. GamBit's assets, including Scepter and ScreenPlay, were later sold to InterPlay (of Fairfax, Virginia). This article refers to the independent city of Fairfax Va For the surrounding unincorporated area of Fairfax County with a Fairfax postal address please see Fairfax County Virginia InterPlay eventually went bankrupt, making Scepter no longer available. In 1984, Mark Peterson wrote The Realm of Angmar, beginning as a clone of Sceptre of Goth. A video game clone is a Video game or game series which is very similar to or heavily inspired by a previous popular game or game series

In 1984, Mark Jacobs created and deployed a commercial gaming site, Gamers World. Mark Jacobs may refer to Mark Jacobs (video game designer, CEO of Mythic Entertainment Mark Jacobs (television producer The site featured two games coded and designed by Jacobs, a MUD called Aradath (which was later renamed, upgraded and ported to GEnie as Dragon's Gate) and a 4X science-fiction game called Galaxy, which was also ported to GEnie. GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange was an online service Dragon's Gate was an Interactive, real time, Text-based multi user online Fantasy Role-playing game, sometimes referred 4X games are a genre of strategy Video game where players control an Empire and "eXplore eXpand eXploit and eXterminate GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange was an online service At its peak, the site had about 100 monthly subscribers to both Aradath and Galaxy. GEnie was shut down in the late 1980s, although Dragon's Gate was later brought to America Online before it was finally released on its own. Dragon's Gate was an Interactive, real time, Text-based multi user online Fantasy Role-playing game, sometimes referred Dragon's Gate was officially closed on February 10th, 2007 until further notice. [5]

These text-adventure games (both single and multi-player) drew inspiration from the paper-and-pencil based role-playing games (RPGs) that were approaching their peak popularity at this time, especially with the release of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) in 1977. A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Over the years there have been a number of different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Role-playing game (D&D

This strong bond between RPGs and MUDs continued through the years with the release of dozens of AD&D modules and related books and stories (e. g. , Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance). The Forgotten Realms is a Campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D Fantasy Role-playing game, created by Dragonlance is an immense series of Fantasy Novels, with over 190 novels printed and is accompanied by a supplemental Campaign Influences also came from the gamebooks such as Fighting Fantasy, Choose Your Own Adventure, and Lone Wolf. A gamebook is a Book that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices that affect the course of the narrative which branches down various paths through the For a list of Fighting Fantasy media see List of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's Gamebooks first published by Bantam Books Lone Wolf is a collection of 28 (soon to be 32 Gamebooks created by Joe Dever and initially illustrated (books 1-8 by

Other MUDs that appeared around 1985 included Mirrorworld, run by Pip Cordrey and developed and written by Tim Rogers, Lorenzo Wood and Nathaniel Billington. Mirrorworld was the first MUD to feature rolling resets. SHADES by Neil Newell was a commercial MUD accessible in the UK via British Telecom's Prestel and Micronet networks. Prestel (abbrev from press telephone) the brand name for the UK Post Office 's Viewdata technology was an interactive Videotex system developed Micronet800 was an information provider (IP on Prestel, aimed at the 1980 ’s personal computer market A scandal on SHADES led to the closure of Micronet, as described in Indra Sinha's net-memoir, The Cybergypsies. Micronet800 was an information provider (IP on Prestel, aimed at the 1980 ’s personal computer market Indra Sinha (born in 1950 in Colaba, which is part of Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra, India) is aBritish writer of English and Indian descent

Another popular MUD was AberMUD, written in 1987 by Alan Cox (also known as Anarchy), named after the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. AberMUD was the first popular Open source MUD. The first version was written in B by Alan Cox, Richard Acott Jim Finnis and Leon Thrane based Alan Cox (born July 22, 1968 in Solihull, England) is a British Computer programmer heavily involved in the development Aberystwyth University (Prifysgol Aberystwyth sometimes called "Aber" or "the College by the Sea" is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales AberMUD was initially written in B for a Honeywell L66 mainframe under GCOS3/TSS and later ported to C, which enabled it to rapidly spread to many Unix platforms. B is a programming language that was developed at Bell Labs. It is almost extinct as it was replaced by the C language. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer [6]

Monster was a multi-user adventure game created by Richard Skrenta for the VAX and written in VMS Pascal. Richard "Rich" Skrenta (b1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a computer programmer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Name "VAX" was originally an Acronym for V irtual A ddress e' X' tension, both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit It was publicly released in November 1988. [7] Monster was disk-based and modifications to the game were immediate. Monster pioneered the approach of allowing players to build the game world, setting new puzzles or creating dungeons for other players to explore. [8] Monster was the inspiration for TinyMUD. TinyMUD is the name both of a certain implementation of a Multi-User Dungeon server and the first MUD run using that implementation [9]

TinyMUD and diversification

In 1989, TinyMUD began to allow players to easily participate in creating the online environment, as well as playing in it. TinyMUD is the name both of a certain implementation of a Multi-User Dungeon server and the first MUD run using that implementation The TinyMUD code spawned a number of descendants, including TinyMUCK and TinyMUSH, which added more sophisticated programmability. TinyMUCK or more broadly a MUCK, is a type of user-extendible Online text-based role playing game, designed for role playing and social interaction MUSH (sometimes said to be an abbreviation for M ulti- U ser S hared H ack H abitat H olodeck or H allucination (TinyMUCK versions 2 and higher contain a full programming language named MUF, or Multi-User Forth, while MUSH greatly expanded the variety of commands and functions available and allowed them to apply to all objects. MUF (short for "Multi-User Forth" is a Forth -based Programming language used on TinyMUCK MUCK servers and their descendants Forth is a structured, imperative, stack-based, computer Programming language and programming environment ) Some use the term MU* to refer to TinyMUD, MUCK, MUSH, MUSE, MUX, and their kin; others simply allow the term MUD to apply universally. MUVE is a recent coinage, intended to stand for Multi-User Virtual Environment. UberMUD, UnterMUD, and MOO are some other MUD servers that were at least partially inspired by TinyMUD but are not direct descendants. MOO programming language

Also in 1989, and inspired by TinyMUD and AberMUD, LPMud was developed as a more game-oriented MUD built around a C-like programming language, LPC. LPMud (sometimes shortened to simply " LP " is a MUD variant developed in 1989 by '''L'''ars '''P'''ensjö (hence the LP in LPMud that The LPC programming language is an Object-oriented Programming language derived from C and developed originally by Lars Pensjö to facilitate 1989 also saw the development of Avalon, using its own code base run through the Hourglass compiler. Developed in complete isolation from all other MUDs, Avalon adopted an object-oriented approach using the powerful British Acorn Archimedes computer technology. The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltd 's first general purpose Home computer based on their own 32-bit ARM RISC In Europe it was very popular for MUD writers to write in isolation. The three largest commercial examples would be Avalon, Shades and the Terris/Cosrin Engine.

In 1991, the release of DikuMUD, which was inspired by AberMUD, led to a virtual explosion of hack-n-slash MUDs based upon its code. DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based adventure game (a type of MUD) written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer Tom Madsen Katja Nyboe Michael Seifert Hack and slash or hack and slay can refer to either a subgenre of Action game, or a type of Gameplay. DikuMUD inspired several derivative codebases too, including CircleMUD, Merc, ROM and SMAUG. The term codebase, or code base is used in Software development to mean the whole collection of Source code used to build a particular application CircleMUD is a MUD Codebase written by Jeremy Elson first released on July 16, 1993. Merc is a multi-user domain ( MUD) engine derived from Copper, which in turn was based on DikuMUD. ROM is a MUD codebase derived from Merc, which is based on DikuMUD. Smaug is a fictional dragon character in The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien. Meanwhile, Avalon had become a commercial game operating in the UK on up to 16 simultaneous modem connections.

In 1994, Mark Peterson rewrote The Realm of Angmar, adapting it to MS-DOS (the basis for many dial-in BBS systems), and renamed it Swords of Chaos. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. Swords of Chaos is a Computer game by Mark Peterson of the type called a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon For a few years this was a very popular form of MUD, hosted on a number of BBS systems, until widespread Internet access eliminated most BBSes.

At this time, AOL US already ran several highly successful games, including Dragons Gate and Darkness Falls (by Mythic Entertainment, which later launched Dark Age of Camelot), Federation (game) (a space trading game) and Gem Stone III (Simutronics, which later launched A Hero's Journey).

MUDs can be accessed via standard telnet clients, or specialized MUD clients which are designed to improve the user experience. Telnet ( Tel ecommunication net work is a Network protocol used on the Internet or local area network (LAN connections A MUD client is a Computer application used to connect to a MUD. Numerous games are listed at various web portals (see External Links).

Next phase?

Online graphics-based games (MMORPGs), such as EverQuest, Lineage II, and World of Warcraft, as well as graphics-based virtual worlds like Second Life, are arguably analogous to MUDs, and are sometimes referred to as "graphical MUDs" (see next section) or "next-generation MUDs". A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with EverQuest, often called EQ, is a 3D fantasy -themed Massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) that was released Lineage II The Chaotic Throne (리니지 2 is a Fantasy Massive multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) for the PC and a World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars These avatars are usually depicted Second Life ( abbreviated as SL) and its sister site Teen Second Life are Internet-based 3D Virtual

Similarities include the basic goals and objectives of the games and the society of the environments. A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions One difference is that the majority of MMORPGs and social avatar worlds are commercial ventures. The Business of Social Avatar Virtual Worlds

Variants

Graphical MUDs

Main article: MMORPG

A graphical MUD is a MUD that uses computer graphics to represent parts of the virtual world and its visitors. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with Computer graphics are Graphics created by Computers and more generally the Representation and Manipulation of Pictorial Data A prominent early graphical MUD was Habitat, written by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar for Lucasfilm in 1985. Lucasfilm's Habitat was an early and technologically influential online role-playing game developed by Lucasfilm Games and made available as a Beta test F Randall "Randy" Farmer has created and organized numerous online communities Chip Morningstar is an author academic and developer of software systems for online entertainment and communication Lucasfilm Limited' is an American Film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco California Graphical MUDs require players to download a special client and the game's artwork. They range from simply enhancing the user interface to simulating 3D worlds with visual spatial relationships and customized avatar appearances. The user interface (or Human Computer Interface) is the aggregate of means by which people&mdash the users '&mdash interact with the System An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games a two-dimensional Icon

After the increase in computing power and Internet connectivity during the late nineties, graphical MUDs became better known as MMORPGs, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with

Talkers and spods

Main article: Talker

A less-known MUD variant is the talker, typically based on ew-too or NUTS, with plenty of derived codebases. Comes from the word Talk. Talkers are chat systems that people use to talk to each other over the Internet. Comes from the word Talk. Talkers are chat systems that people use to talk to each other over the Internet. ewtoo, short for Elsewhere Too, was the first publicly available code base for Internet Talkers and was written by Simon "Burble" Marsh NUTS, or Neil's Unix Talk Server is a Talker base written in C programming language by Neil Robertson and got the status as the best-known Talker The term codebase, or code base is used in Software development to mean the whole collection of Source code used to build a particular application The early talkers were essentially MUDs with most of the complex game machinery stripped away, leaving just the communication commands -- hence the name "talker". Talkers use simple protocols and create very little network traffic, making them ideal for setting up quietly at work.

People who use these tend to be called spods, and have earned a place in the Jargon File. Spod is used to refer to a person who uses Ew-too -style Talkers (it is unheard of with NUTS -style talkers which make up half of all talkers The Jargon File is a Glossary of hacker Slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of hacker slang from technical cultures such as the MIT AI

Player versus player MUDs

Main article: Player versus player

A player versus player, or player killing, MUD is one which encourages player versus player combat. Player vs player, PvP, or Player Killing is competitive interaction within a game between two or more live participants Player vs player, PvP, or Player Killing is competitive interaction within a game between two or more live participants Player vs player, PvP, or Player Killing is competitive interaction within a game between two or more live participants Some MUDs have registered player killing, meaning a player must register as a player killer and can only fight other registered player killers.

Roleplay Intensive MUDs (RPIs)

A Roleplay intensive MUD is a MUD that is heavily roleplay-enforced. In roleplaying, participants adopt and act out the Role of characters, or parts that may have personalities motivations and backgrounds different from The RPIMUD Network describes a RPI MUD as a MUD that "center themselves around suspension of disbelief and playing out specific character roles as if the role were real and you were your character. In general, the objective of the game is not to complete computer-generated quests or tally the most kills in order to gain levels and equipment, but to collaborate with fellow players to create complex and multi-layered storylines in a cohesive gaming environment. RPIMUDs are very different from other MUDs because of the emphasis on character interaction over hack-and-slash gaming. "

Psychology

Dr. Sherry Turkle, Ph. Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a clinical D. of Sociology of Science at MIT, developed a theory in her book "Life on the Screen" that the constant use (and in many cases, overuse) of MUDs allows users to develop different personalities in their environments. Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Life on the Screen Identity in the Age of the Internet, by clinical psychologist and professor Sherry Turkle, is a study of how people interact with machines and She uses examples, which date back to the text-based MUDs of the mid-1990s, showing college students who simultaneously live different lives through characters in separate MUDs, up to three at a time, all while doing schoolwork. The students claimed that it was a way to "shut off" their own lives for a while and become part of another reality. Turkle claims that this could present a psychological problem of identity for today's youths.

Turkle also explores the ideas of the use of bots in MUDs. She references the Turing Test, put forth by Alan Turing, proposing that an automaton could be considered truly intelligent if they were able to convince a human conversing with it that it was human. The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a Machine 's ability to demonstrate intelligence Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (ˈt(jʊ(ərɪŋ (23 June 1912 &ndash 7 June 1954 was an English Mathematician Turkle presents the troubling ideas of sexual deviancy involved with this: that someone posing as a bot could "trick" someone into believing that they were a bot and allowing them to engage in sexual activity online. Turkle wonders aloud if this could be considered, at the worst, rape and at the very least, an invasion of privacy.

See also

References

  1. ^ Early MUD History.
  2. ^ The Dragon Ate My Homework
  3. ^ Richard A. A MUD client is a Computer application used to connect to a MUD. A MUD ( M ulti- U ser D ungeon tree is a hierarchical display of derived code from source code packages A mob or MOB is a Non-player character (NPC or monster in a computer game for example a Role-playing video game or MMORPG or A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with MUSH (sometimes said to be an abbreviation for M ulti- U ser S hared H ack H abitat H olodeck or H allucination MOO programming language TinyMUCK or more broadly a MUCK, is a type of user-extendible Online text-based role playing game, designed for role playing and social interaction Comes from the word Talk. Talkers are chat systems that people use to talk to each other over the Internet. Online Creation, also referred to as OLC, Online Coding, Online Building, and online editing, is a software feature often found in MUDs An Cyberformance refers to live theatrical performances in which remote participants are enabled to work together in real time through the medium of the internet employing technologies such Bartle. Designing Virtual Worlds. July, 2003. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. Chapter 1, pg. 5: "The "D" in MUD stands for "Dungeon" [. . . ] because the version of ZORK Roy played was a Fortran port called DUNGEN. "
  4. ^ Escape from the Dungeon
  5. ^ The Future of Dragon's Gate
  6. ^ Richard A. Bartle. Designing Virtual Worlds. July, 2003. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. Chapter 1, pg. 9.
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ http://www.skrenta.com/monster/final.html
  9. ^ http://www.linnaean.org/~lpb/muddex/mud-answers3.html#note1

External links

MUD history, analysis

MUD source code repositories

MUD resources

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