Salon on M.U.L.E Creator Dani Bunten

douglips writes "If you're a hacker of a certain age, chances are you played M.U.L.E. Salon is running a story on M.U.L.E. creator Dan[i] Bunten. Ahead of her time, she insisted that games would be most enjoyable when they involved social interactions rather than just flashy single-player action and graphics."

Comments

I remember it on the C64

[donmilo]

Was this game really that good, or do we just remember it as being great. I loved the game in the 80s, but I don't think it would hold my interest for a minute today.

Behind my time

[f97tosc]

Ahead of her time, she insisted that games would be most enjoyable when they involved social interactions rather than just flashy single-player action and graphics

I must be behind my time, I still prefer flashy action games over those involving social interactions.

I suppose, multi-player is preferable over single-layer, but nobody can say Counter-Strike involves social interactions...

Tor

Re:Behind my time

[localman]

but nobody can say Counter-Strike involves social interactions...

Sure they can. I've played both ways: online and just with bots (in CS and in other games). Despite the shallowness of the social interaction, there is quite a lot of it when the players are human. The way that you form quick non-verbal alliances with teammates to get a certain thing done. The way vendettas come and go. The brainless voice commments...

But that's just it - it's _not_ brainless. I mean, it certainly isn't what one might call intelligent, but it's very human. In fact it's so human that we think it's brainless. But I've yet to see any AI that provides even a dash of the thrill or depth of going against humans - even in a flashy action game.

Nothing wrong with the flashy graphics in and of themselves, but I bet even you would prefer - over the long term - a satisfying game with average graphics to an empty game with flashy graphics.

Re:Behind my time

[kfg]

I don't think there's any doubt that computers have raised the single player game to levels previously unimaginable.

We've gone from puzzle games, crosswords, solitaire and such to fully immersive interactive worlds like Grim Fandango and IL2.

I, for one, think that there's too *much* emphisis on multiplayer these days, to the extent that single player is often totally ignored.

However, all that being said, whether you *think* you are acting socially or not, a multiplayer game of Counter-Strike is an entirely different, ummmm, ball game, just because you *know* those are actually other people out there.

And while I may spend many, many, *many* more hours driving Grand Prix Legends in solo mode it's the online racing against real human beings that gives the game the spice that has allowed it to remain the king of Driving Sims for over 4 years, in a world where a game more than one year old is considered dead.

I'm a geek and a Buddhist. I deeply revere hours spent in solitary concentration and contemplation, even in my recreational hours, but I am *not* socially averse or inept either.

If you think Thoreau was a hermit than if you read Walden for the first time you'll be likely to proclaim him, as did one Amazon reviewer, a "fraud." Thoreau posed an experiment in reducing human living to its bare essentials. He considered social interactions to be one of the things that man cannot truly live *entirely* without and remain a man.

He strove to find the right *balance* between solitude and social interaction.

So should you - and so should game designers.

KFG

This is true..

[Gortbusters.org]

Warcraft by yourself is pretty fun... multiplayer rules.

Duke Nukem by yourself is pretty fun... playing against someone was awesome.

DAOC, EverQuest, heck even all the MUDs that existed were barrels of never-ending fun.

Sadly...

[ackthpt]

Sadly... Dani[formerly Dan] Bunten died before a re-issue of M.U.L.E.

As I recall, this was referred to as Edu-Tainment, which fell out of favor when faced by the likes of first person shooters and one-on-one combat games. I still play M.U.L.E. on a 64 emulator and have hacked it various times over the past 15 years. I've had it play as many months as I like, usually by 18 you can see some actualy economic cycles develop, though in the c64 version there's some issues with the money cap. I don't recall which one, but one value rolls over at 32678, the other value does at 65536, which can make for some radical changes in ranking :-)

Still, it's one of my all time favorites. And it Dani was ahead of her time, then those who enjoyed the game, like I did, were also.

Re:M.U.L.E. is just perfect

[TopShelf]

Please notice year this game was released. Please notice hardware it runs - just 64KB of RAM!

Hey, back then that was a decent amount of memory - my Atari 400 came with 8K, and it cost $200 and two weeks in the shop to go all the way up to 16K. It just goes to show how importance elegance of code used to be...

Re:Social interaction?

[CrazyJoel]

You might as well say the same thing about board games or DnD.

Some of the best times I had with my friends were playing poker or Risk.

Re:Sex change operation

[n0rm]

I don't think this is a problem at all. The article was about her impact on early game development, not her identity.

Re:Sex change operation

[ohboy-sleep]

When I read the article this morning I was glad that it wasn't five pages on her struggle with a sex change. The thing that endeared her to me and to many other people was that she created a game that was a fun part of our childhood. A number of people have had sex changes but what makes her stand out is her game, M.U.L.E., and the impact on the video game industry of the time.

Command HQ

[Pasc]

Dan was also behind one of the greatest games of all time, Command HQ. It is definitely an ancestor of modern RTS games.

Oddly enough I had a hankering for classic games this past weekend and downloaded Command HQ (abandonware) and played a few games of it on Sunday. (I bought this game back in its prime and I still have the manuals, but the media is missing.) If only I could play it over the Internet...

Re:Sex change operation

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, the are quite a few of us in the tech field, especially programming. At a local support group, I once counted half the members as being in some type of high-tech work. I think the "we value your brains more than how you look or what you wear" values of most (but, alas, not all) tech companies helps. And, for the most part, we're not "out", since (as seen in many of the other posts to this very article) bigotry is still rampant.

And I agree, the article was well written. I'm sure she'd like to be remembered as a game designer who happened to be a transsexual woman, rather than "that TS who wrote games".

M.U.L.E.!

[QuackQuack]

One of the few 8-bit games I still enjoy today. It would be great if we had an emulator that supported four joysticks so the game could be played the way it was meant to be.

Re:Writer's Attitude

[CausticWindow]

I think he's got a point. Can't remember playing any really engaging or fun games since about Monkey Island 2 (if we're talking new commercial games, that is).

Seems to me that most games today are 90% presentation and only 10% game. And why, oh why, does it have to be three dimensional vector graphics over and over again?

Guess I'm just bitter since the very beautifully hand-drawn (2d mind you) Simon The Sorcerer 3 from Adventuresoft, were turned into Simon The Sorcerer 3D.. since the publisher wouldn't publish anything that wasn't 3D.

I really want to play Monkey 2 again too, but I still remember that LeChuck is Guybrush's brother.. when will I forget??

Re:Social interaction?

[Doomdark]

I have always found this type of game to be rather odd. Isn't social interaction what you are supposed to be doing in real life?

No, not ONLY in real life. If you have ever played MUDs, the exotic combination of non-real world and 'real' characters (as in played by real people more or less acting as if they were not) is the killer substance that gets you hooked.

Also consider "but you can interact socially in real life" aspect a bit; wouldn't it be interesting if, unlike in Real World, you could actually tell your boss exactly what you think about him/her, act in totally different manner you otherwise do (without burning bridges in your real life)... Thus, "doing something you just can't do otherwise" is definitely not unique aspect of combat games or simulators. Rather, it (often referred to as role-playing) is one of main attractions of (massively) multi-player games.

And like many people have pointed out, social interaction need not just be talking and such; tactics and communication in otherwise boring 1st person shoot-em-ups also counts as form of social interaction.

Re:For a guy with a beard he turned out ok as a ch

[AnnaBlack]

Nice to see that her appearance is the factor by which you judge her. There are other reasons for transition you know! Anna