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"Have you ever wanted to jump into a book and live inside that world? Here is your chance."

medievia.com is still up and running, you might like that community.

Medievia. Quests, bloodlines of "related" characters, an environmental weather system (why doesn't WoW have this!?), crewed sailing ships with sea serpent bosses, trade caravans, clan towns (guild-owned zones)...

Did you know that the genre of text RPGs known as MUDs still exists and is still going strong with new development to older games as well as release of brand new games? The larger, long-lasting MUDs such as Medievia have withstood the test of time and still manage to not only engage the player in a world of fantasy, but also manage to have such in-depth gameplay that they hold the players' interest for years on end. These games are constantly in development and are releasing programming on the cutting edge of AI and gaming. While the playerbases are not as large as WoW, the larger, more popular games get 500 players online or more at peak times. The best thing about MUDs is that the social aspect is a large part of the game, moreso than graphical MMOs. Friendships are made and relationships form that can't be found elsewhere. If you want a new type of adventure, think outside the box, and try (or re-try) a MUD.

Links:

http://www.medievia.com/ - One of the oldest and most popular MUDs, in development since 1992.

http://www.ironrealms.com/ - Iron Realms Entertainment: providing 4 different worlds to explore.

http://www.mudconnector.com/ - The Mud Connector - major MUD portal

http://www.topmudsites.com/ - Top Mud Sites - ranking site for MUDs

I must admit firstly, that I have paid a LOT of money over the last dozen-or-so years that I have been buying video games on my own. Just as far as PSOne and PS2 games combined, I have spent at least $2500 since '97...over time it really isn't that much, perhaps 1 new $50 every 2 months. That's just for PS series games though.
Factor in PC games, subscriptions for any MMOs I had played (I'm through paying per-month for the same cookie cutter crap that I can get for free or on a 1-time-buy), hardware to play said games, as well as any portables I own, and we're talking an equal or greater amount than my PlayStation collection. I was single, had disposable income (albeit not a lot in the earlier years) and got bored quickly with games.

The titles I have beaten and/or keep coming back to are, in my eyes, timeless. SoulBlade, FFTactics as well as a couple of other FF numbered series, Castlevania (particularly Simon's Quest and Symphony of the Night), Starcraft/Warcraft, Diablo 1 and 2, Day of Defeat, Medievia (a MUD http://www.medievia.com/, and more. Hell, I still own my original NES and Sega Genesis and still play some of those classics when I get the chance.
You will never see me replay crap titles like Dungeon Lords, Silent Storm, or so many of the other games that were rushed into production and put on the shelf with a fancy box only to contain a shallow and quite boring game that is far from "polished".

The point is, the games that held my attention for being high-quality with a good replayability factor are STILL holding my attention. How many newer games live up to the precedents that the old classics set so many years ago?

Medievia has been developing non-stop since 1991. Check us out to see the most in-depth game ever created.. updated daily!

http://www.medievia.com/

Medievia...

Text only MUD, but by far the best game I have ever played. I quit because I had over 10,000 (yes, ten thousand) hours of gameplay in and I needed to concentrate a little more on the real world. As for skill in the game, I remember having bad equipment dueling 3 of my friends who were the same level as me, with very good equipment, and winning... by a fair margin (for anyone who has played I was a hero thief -> highest level in the game).

If you truly want a game that is very challenging and actually requires skill to be good and not just "uber" equipment, then this is for you.

I have regressed back to a MUD. check it out >>> http://www.medievia.com/

It is fun, and I can play on Linux and Windows & more importantly at WORK. I am sick of upgrding for new games. Rebell and play something that is totally free! Shameless Plug :)

I bought a non free game a bit ago for a PS2, Killer 7 - the worst game I have bought in a long time, and it was $50. My geographic location gives me little options, and I have a slow Satellite Internet connection.

War aint what it used to be!

-Anonymous Non-Coward

Brief overview:
Medievia is a multiplayer online text based role-playing game that has been in development since 1991. Medievia is a free virtual environment that offers imaginative game play and an environment so compelling hundreds of its users have continued to log in and play daily for five or more years. Imagine a game that has the intuition to track your happiness, pride, sadness, and fear, and then changes the game to fit your needs. Imagine a world in which intelligent monsters from afar bring chaos and evil to the world you know. Imagine a multi-player realm in which you can join together with friends and clan members to battle against other player groups in real-time quests. Imagine an online community where the relationships you form with your fellow adventurers are so strong you will remember them for a lifetime. Medievia V offers its players not only excellent game play with its Dungeon Master, Mob Factions, Dragon Lairs, Clan Ships, Bloodlines, Master Heroes and Naval Battles, but it also offers a unique social environment in which to create and sustain strong and lasting friendships.

As an administrator of one of the larger free MUDs, Medievia, I see many players with addiction problems. Playing our game is very addicting and has led to school, marital, and family problems, not to mention the anti-social behavior of a lot of our players. If they are at home Mudding, they are not learnng valuable social skills, or so people say.

We have realized this problem and have created a http://www.medievia.com/addiction.html Medievia Addiction Page for the assistance of those players that need it.

In addition, it is not uncommon for players to realize their problems and they request to be frozen for an extended period of time or have their playerfile purged altogether. We of course don't deny their requests. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't.

Our players tell us that they enjoy Medievia because of the relationships they form with their fellow players. Many of Medievia's players have been logging in for 5 or more years - some even 10 or more! They keep coming back because the friends they met on Medievia keep coming back. They form clans, they have deep bloodlines. They basically have a family away from their family. This is one major reason why MUDs are better than graphical MMORPGs.. you just cannot achieve the level of closeness that you can on a MUD.

Of course there is also the gameplay. MUDs like Medievia that have been around since the early 1990s have been developing for almost 15 years now. Although the development teams are much smaller than that of the larger graphical MMORPGs, they have had much more time to develop deep storylines and complex gameplay. There are so many different aspects of Medievia and the gameplay is so deep that it is impossible to explain the game without spending 2+ hours or just experiencing it yourself. Most of the highly-developed MUDs are the same way - years of development ahead of the more modern games.

http://www.medievia.com/

Medievia has a system where heroes can create children and either give the character to a newbie or play those children themselves. Upon heroing a child, the parent heroes stats are boosted.

Medievia does have an interactive combat system, some nice er "text" graphics, and is more entertaining than any of the 6 MMORPG's I've played (City of Hero's, DAoC, EQ, Anarchy Online, SWG, WoW Beta). After Maxing out 2 accounts in DAoC, I still go back and play Medievia.

This game ate my grades in high school and I never even made it to a second class character... My hat's off to the folks that manage to make it to Hero.

Try Medievia.

I can't believe this wasn't posted yet...

___________

In theory, the random seeding would work excellently if new elements were consistantly added. He mentioned coke cans, why not resurrect Tan soda?

Random seeding works really well for things like items but I imagine it's hard to pull off when you're dealing with something like new visual elements.

Come to think of it one of the best features of the mud i've wasted far too much of my life in is item tweaking. Running the same zone several times over to get the best eye of vecna you can get or what have you. Definately motivates you to play more and adds flavor to an economy.

Anyone ever played Medievia?

Its probably the most played MUD today, and I'm still an avid player. Telnet to it here or download a MUD client.

i don't think so. that's actually a shame. this page delves into it from a high level but doesn't hit the technical details. especially since they keep changing it.

interesting details:

there are places where no one can attack anyone (LPK), places where you can kill but not loot (NPK), and places where you can kill and loot items (CPK). walking into a CPK area always requires confirmation. additionally, players can set a "DUEL" flag which allows them to engage other players in NPK anywhere on the map, even in town, if both players have the flag set. In addition, killing another player in NPK gives you a certain amount of time during which anyone can attack you (and TRACK you) in NPK. This is called "blood time". you accrue almost none for killing someone stronger then you, and exponentially more for killing someone weaker than you. a level 124 player killing a level 10 player would spend the rest of the day with "blood on their hands".

also read about this, a portion of the game which is dynamically re-located and re-mapped continuously at runtime.

i don't think so. that's actually a shame. this page delves into it from a high level but doesn't hit the technical details. especially since they keep changing it.

interesting details:

there are places where no one can attack anyone (LPK), places where you can kill but not loot (NPK), and places where you can kill and loot items (CPK). walking into a CPK area always requires confirmation. additionally, players can set a "DUEL" flag which allows them to engage other players in NPK anywhere on the map, even in town, if both players have the flag set. In addition, killing another player in NPK gives you a certain amount of time during which anyone can attack you (and TRACK you) in NPK. This is called "blood time". you accrue almost none for killing someone stronger then you, and exponentially more for killing someone weaker than you. a level 124 player killing a level 10 player would spend the rest of the day with "blood on their hands".

also read about this, a portion of the game which is dynamically re-located and re-mapped continuously at runtime.

Where text muds went 10 years ago. All the problems of grief players, player killing, user grouping, experience sharing, and dynamic landscape generation were solved in text based MUDS like this one years ago. Watching the graphical corporate players re-learn these painful lessons (with the added humor factor of corporate arrogance, pride, and a PR department) has had all the humor value of watching a blind baby learn to walk.

If you find that kind of thing funny.

A redundant article, so I get to make a redundant post.

Selling virtual items in-game was pioneered by this text based MUD, which is financed entirely by sales of virtual items to players.

And since we're talking about "virtual addiction", take a look at their MUD Addiction Page. Now substitute the word "play" for the words "get high", and read it again. Scary, isn't it?

A redundant article, so I get to make a redundant post.

Selling virtual items in-game was pioneered by this text based MUD, which is financed entirely by sales of virtual items to players.

And since we're talking about "virtual addiction", take a look at their MUD Addiction Page. Now substitute the word "play" for the words "get high", and read it again. Scary, isn't it?

Here's a text-based MUD in it's 12th (I think) year of development. They pioneered some stuff the corporate RPG's are just getting into, like dynamic map generation and a 100% user-governed economy (they've even halted inflation for 2 years. Ha!). It is 100% user funded. Their revenue model? They sell in-game items that can only be purchased. Some items are just very hard to obtain in the game; others can only be purchased by sending money to the game. These items can be used to attack and kill other players... Some of these items expire, others last forever.

What else could be funded by virtual item sales? I don't know. But I don't think it's limited to games.

Medievia, a mud, already does that. And to be honest I think those types of rules are a good thing, no sense unbalancing games by allowing people to buy their way to the top. That's for politics.

I hate anti GiS trolls, er,

oops, now that I *am* a troll,

Guys, everquest is some dangerous stuff, and I mean this in all seriousness, Mudding can ruin your life. Like, if you skip a day of school to do a trade run or run a hard new zone, or you don't go on a date because you are on a major eq run, then like, uh, turn off the game, because it's not a carrer, although if it were i'd be playing it still or something.

A much better mud than everquest (in my own opinion, obviously.) is medievia, you should check it out, it's free for the most part too, although they like donations from people and junk. And if you need a client MCL is really good, or if you happen to be a windows junkie mud master.

I don't like everquest and UO and crap because of the way high level eq is usually traded and sold with real money, which I think totally messes up the games economy.

One thing that bothers me about muds like med, Medievia is free yet still proprietary in nature for some reason, so go figure. I wish the owner would just open up the source but thats unlikely, he fears competition and crap.


-[ World domination - rains.net ]-