MUD

MUD is an acronym for �Multi-User Dungeon�. It's an old form of interactive, online role-playing game. in that:

• A has a text-based interface, so the world is described with text instead of pictures and players type commands rather than clicking a mouse
• s have smaller player bases, usually dozens of players rather than thousands
• s are usually hosted at universities or other not-for-profit institutions, and there is no fee required to play

Types & Variants

While the original acronym simply denoted a generic kind of game and not a particular style of play, inveterate experts of the matter distinguish several types of denotes a kind of online game in which it is the characters' primary goal to explore the virtual world they find themselves in. All along the way, they solve various kinds of riddles, perform quests, thereby proving themselves worthy by gaining experience, skills and power. After having played and labored for several years, and having gained enough power to reach the highest level a character can obtain, a level usually referred to as a Wizard, the player may start to forge the game world according to his will. To do so, he is bestowed the responsibility for a part of that world.

On the other hand, players, and usually just hang out together to discuss (virtual) matters instead of teaming up to slay monsters.

There are other types of s, like MOOs, MUXs, and derivatives that describe slightly different variants of the types above. However, most of these variants describe differences of the software that runs on the game server rather than differences of what players or characters spend their time with.

Delimitation & Popularity

According to many s simulate the interaction of multiple characters controlled by real humans � protagonists as well as antagonists � within the virtual world. A similar distinction applies to the type of game (also employing the ambiguous term Role-Playing Game) in which a single player controls an entire party that sets out to confront wave after wave of malicious monsters.

The golden age of s were usually considered an academic phenomenon, and featured a high percentage of people with geekish finesse. When the Internet reached the masses in the middle of the 1990s, and was recognized as the commercial platform it is today, this development went hand in hand with a change of the type of online entertainment people spend their time with. As far as games were concerned, media-heavy, resource-greedy applications swept away the former charm of text-based adventuring, and although the mudding-culture never really died it never received the quantitative push that the online community could have brought. It therefore quietly lingers on relatively isolated from the eyes of masses.

Ars Magica Related MUDs

• Tempora Heroica

Legacy Page

The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:mud