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

Size Counts

[RogueyWon]

OK, reading through the original post, I think I can see the problem that some people have with MMORPGs. Thing is, though, I don't agree that this is a problem inherant in the genre, it's more a matter of how players approach it.

The key factor here is size. I've done one or two MUDs and most of these had player counts in the hundreds, or occasionally the low thousands. A large-scale commercial graphical MMORPG, on the other hand, isn't really commercially viable with less than about 50,000 players.

There are some obvious implications here. Even if the MMORPG in question takes the common approach of parcelling players on different servers, with average populations of 10,000 or so (which is a pretty low estimate for a lot of the games out there), it's always going to be more people than you can get to know. Hell, my secondary school had 1,000 pupils and I doubt I knew more than 150 or so, even on a passing basis. And that was without the problems of location and language barriers that you have in a MMORPG.

The result of this is that a player who doesn't have a good, consistent group of friends in a MMORPG, be they real-life friends or online acquiantances, is going to have a pretty lonely experience. In a MUD, on the other hand, with just a few hundred people, it's easier to become a known face much more quickly.

Now personally, I *much* prefer playing a graphical MMORPG. These games are designed to be played for pretty serious amounts of time and if I'm going to look at anything for that long, I want my eye-candy, goddamit. Moreover, I'm always impressed when the developers of a MMORPG manage to come up with a new visual location design that really knocks me back. Both FFXI and WoW have managed this fairly regularly (although you have to get pretty deep into the Zilart and Promathia strands of FFXI to find the prettiest areas). The quality of service and regularity of updates that you get from a well-run commercial MMORPG is more than worth the monthly fee.

I guess if there's a solution for people who are finding it hard to "click" with a MMORPG and missing the interractions of a MUD, it's to find a regular group. Either throw heavy things at real life friends until they sign up, or actively seek out a group of like-minded players in game. A good guild/linkshell of 50-100 people, with its own rivalries, goals and ethos, can completely transform your gaming experience.

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.

Size *does* matter

[MattW]

I co-founded and coded 100k lines of C for Avendar: The Crucible of Legends. I think they've remained steady now for about 7 years of uptime as far as players. But it's true - the admins get to know you, the players really know each other, and you can actually engender a lot more character vs character conflict without anonymous asses ruining the process as would happen in an MMO.

I also scripted and built for an NWN persistent world, City of Arabel. It was and remains one of the most popular PWs for NWN - pretty much pegged to capacity in prime time (and sometimes way beyond prime time) for the past 3 years. One of the reasons PWs get so popular and remain so is that the smaller playerbase allows you to develop intimate plots and interactions between characters. With just 50-55 players at peak, spread across a level range, Arabel resembles a tabletop D&D game as much as it resembles an MMO.

Moreover, one thing MMOs have really lacked is personalization. You don't interact in a dynamic manner with NPCs of note, gods, and GMs do not set up and run quests. That's decidedly untrue in the smaller scale games. For Arabel, for example, and other NWN PWs, it's common to have DMs running quests. I used to start all sorts of things - evil mage kidnaps PC, and her friends assemble a group to rescue her; a city official from Arabel requests help to accomplish some task; an earthquake opens a gateway down to undiscovered caverns where riled-up elementals guard ancient catacombs; a mage in town loses control of a summoning circle and demons begin to pour through onto the Material Plane. What made these events special is that everyone participating in them was experiencing them for the first (and generally only) time. This isn't like an MMO where you can hit a database to figure out how to solve the quest that's bothering you or find where to get the phat loot.

I think there's a big future for an MMO with a dual-subscription model, where there's a customized service that gives you unique opportunities to adventure and emulate the tabletop sort of experience. Or perhaps a game will come out like NWN, where there's a client, a toolset, a DM client, and an "official" persistent world that plays like an MMO, but also you can use the tools to create your own. Imagine if players could craft their own city areas and script their own quests in City of Heroes or World of Warcraft. Imagine having a small WoW server with a few GMs that were out to customize play like a traditional DM, and only 40 players on at a time.

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.