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A short opinion article by Mith Crothwyn.
MMORPG's vs. MUD's
Today it seems more than ever that the gaming community is getting into the Role Playing Genre. Is it because they are bored on the net and want something to do. Could it be that it is now more appealing than ever. Or perhaps people are looking for an environment to chat in (Yes, there are people who pay $10 a month to log onto EQ and chat).
The MMORPG community has blow out in great leaps and bounds. There have been thousands of people sign up for games like EQ(Everques) AC(Asheron's Call) and UO(Ultime Online). These gamers have gone into a genre that has been years in the making. The MMORPG is revolutionary in its own way, due to the fact that it can get thousands upon thousands of gamers to be on simultaneously. But where did this all come from? UO was envisioned as the pioneer of MMORPG, but its not even close to being the earliest. Diablo might be one of the early graphical MMORPGs, but it also is not the first.
Where then did the MMORPG come from? Well, in the 70's there were web forums you could connect to through DOS and pay money per minute to be connected to. These were not all that popular, but they were used. With these people would start a story somehow, give a character and its background history. Usually these would just be as if people were in a tavern reciting tales. Not much to it, but it did bring about life on the net in a new way. In the spring of 70 the first MUD was created, by a man named Roy Trubshaw. This "Game" was little more than some interconnected rooms where people could move and chat to each other. Back then they worked on a DEC-10, and had a max of 50kbs of memory, which isn't much even for a text based system, and the MUD was done in assembly, so it was extremely hard to manage. Roy decided that he couldn't keep up with this system so decided to change over to and code in BCPL, and this became the first MUD with external connections, although it was the 3rd version of the original.
Now with a little history we can examine the communities of today. The gamers of Diablo and EQ type of RPGs are into heavy hours of gaming and are willing to pay money to play and RPG online. With a MUD you can get pretty much the same experience (with a little imagination due to the fact of it being Text-Based). Looking at the way of things, MUDs are for those who want to get the RPG experience while taking the time to be social and have fun, without taking the extra money. I have also found that there have been a greater amount of Intellects on MUDs I have visited, in contrast to many people on MMORPGs who feel they can do anything and get what the want. I think that MMORPGs have drawn some of the wrong crowds due to some of the stunning visuals, and in turn traded in some of its game play. But if you are willing to sacrifice pretty looks for a good game, then I would say the MUD world is that place for you.
Of course there are still many aspects to MMORPGs that can make it worth while. There are those out there who feel they can bring a good RPG experience to the MMORPG field, and those are the people who you would want to get to know. Just watch out for the majority of people who think they can bring in a FPS with a RPG. And then again there are people who MUD who feel they can do what they want, since they are pretty much only in a chat room. Another good thing about MUDs is the fact that the Player to Admin ratio is much more balanced than a normal MMORPG. But if you enjoy masses of people then you would enjoy the MMORPG field. You just have to sacrifice to get what it is that you want. As it is in most things with the world :p
-- Mith Crothwyn
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