Return of Text-Based Games?

twivel asks: "I've noticed a trend recently. I've had many friends return to text based MUDs even after a couple years of playing MMORPGs like Everquest and WoW. When I've asked them why they returned, they've said that the virtual community in MUDs really seems to set them apart from the newer MMORPGs. In MMORPGs, you just get lost in the numbers. In the forums on places like MUDConnect, a popular MUD listing site, you find people claiming that the MUD community is actually growing. For those of you who've experienced both forms of entertainment, would you agree? While the cost is much less (many great MUDs are 100% free), how would you rate your overall experience with MUDs compared to newer forms of online entertainment?" A bit of this discussion was touched on not too long ago, but it would be interesting to note if the MUD community is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, as the article implies.

Comments

With a MUD...

[GuitarNeophyte]

With a mud, at least the ones that I play, you may not have numbers anywhere as high as in a MMORPG, but it's generally alot easier to make an influence on the surrounding world. I'd say that there are alot more MUDs that, when big things happen, the world is actually changed.

MMORPGs might be huge, but at least with MUDs, they generally at least have the RP that the so-called RPGs ascribe to.

Luke
----
Do you like ketchup? I just found the most hilarious stand-up monologue all about ketchup. Go read it!

Re:Size Counts

[Gravedigger3]

I agree to everything u just said and if i wasn't a n00b to /. and i knew how to do anything i would mod that up. ALthough there is something to be said for playing a game with a smaller population where u can get to know everyone its not for me. I want to be in a living world where 99% of the people around me are strangers going about their business. I am in a small guild where i have gotten to know everyone and i bump into familiar players now and then which is always fun. The world wouldn't feel as immersive and big if u know everyone. Plus as u stated if im going to be staring at a game for 100+ hours i want it to look good.

Love Them, Live Them

[NaNO2x]

I have been a MUDer for over nine years now, I have tried MMORPGs like Shadowbane, Ultima, and WoW to name a few, but I always keep coming back to the MUD that I have been with for all this time. There are many reasons, one is the community, on a MUD like the one I play there are only about 40 of us and we know each other well. Another reason is that the MUD that I play at least is about Role Playing, which is not something that can be truely done on a MMORPG. A good balance of PK and RP is what is needed, and MUDs can provide that. Also on a MUD you have to actually use your mind, your imagination. Another great thing I have found after my years of MUDing is an improvement in certain skills, I read faster, type faster, and can make things up on the spot that sound more reasonable. Overall I think that MUDs are great things, but they arn't for everyone but those of you who take to them they are much much better than a graphical game ever could be.

By the way, the MUD I play is called Dark Mists http://darkmists.org/ and my character is Nij so if any of you want to stop by I'd be happy to show you around.

Immersion is key, can be ruined.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been seriously considering trying my hand at a MUD.

With any game, especially RPGs, forgetting that you are Tim, Level 47 Copier Repairman, and getting really into being Dante, Level 27 Blackguard, is key.

Not to sound elitist, but the kiddies and the gold farmers and the ninja looters just f-ing *ruin* it for me. Would these kids have even *played* D&D?

D&D required imagination, as I imagine text-based adventures do. Who is usually in posession of that attribute? Intelligent, thoughtful folks. Right now I just want a group of gamers who share the same values I do, cooperation and selflessness.

The rush of overcoming an otherwise impossible obstacle using the entire party's talents is incredibly fun. As a WoW player, I miss it.

Re:Immersion is key, can be ruined.

[Anonymous Coward]

oh yeah, grief players *did* exist in my time as a D&D player, for certain (always seemed to be a cousin from out of town who wanted to play for the weekend).

there were two mitigating factors in that situation, though.

1) the class and manner of scoundrel: an evil player character can make things VERY interesting if played, again, by an intelligent and thoughtful person.

2) the number of "evil" players was almost always in the minority, and the will to put them "in their place" was most certainly within the groups' mindset.

On MMORPGs, it seems that "grief" players are boorish, hateful, uninventive, and on an equal footing with the rest of the community. Accepted, even. Talk about the banality of evil...it becomes waaay to much like RL.

Re:MUD to the masses

[orasio]

Maybe part of the fun is that it's not for the masses.

MUDs have many advantages

[Optical Voodoo Man]

MUDs have a few advantages over MMORPGs. The biggest in my mind is that they require more imagination than MMORPGs because they are text based. This also allows for the developers to say things like "12,000 ice skating elephants with hockey stick glide onto the ice, snatching helpless contestants from the Zarbania Curling Olympics." Try showing that graphically. The text based nature of MUDs brings the player's imagination into play far more than the graphical MMORPG interface. The verbal descriptions are not only more descriptive, they are also far easier to modify. You want rhinos instead of elephants? Easy, just change that word.

You actually get to roleplay your character, which is an important part of the experience. Instead of killing X number of rats so you can gain points to kill bigger things, or mining gold so you spend more billable hours on the game, the range of options and quests is much broader.

Certainly the ability of the players to customize their environment is also much higher, as well as being easier to accomplish. Adding flair and pizzazz to a player can be as easy as modifying a text string.

Many other advantages

[linzeal]

MUDS at least to me offer another set of advantages in that I can often play them on any connection, on any computer and with any amount of time. When I played WOW sometimes I was virtually coerced by people I guilded with to spend 3-4 hours clearing a dungeon. That is a stupid amount of time to play a game for me so I quit.

Mudding and me

[Konerak]

I always compared MUDs to books, and MMORPGs and stuff to movies. Book leave things to your imagination. A dragon there is a *huge* fearsome creature.. You're bent over the keyboard, reading the text, going north and back south immediately to have a quick glimpse.. your imagination does it for you.

I can't help but feel not bound to the MMORPG characters.. it's just a few pixels on a screen.. it's like pacman for me. It's not me, and if it died, *I* didn't die. My remote control midieval guy did.

And just as when you read a book and then see a movie and are dissapointed because you imagined it all differentely, I am dissapointed at the graphical stuff. Maybe I should try a massive first person online roleplaying game or so. Any suggestions?