Mud Manifesto

 

 

Apropose of last night’s post about my current mud-home, I’m posting this thing from the old Workpad site.

 

 

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First, let me get something out there. I said in my resolutions post that I was going to give up online games. Well, that is not going to happen. I'm moderating my online time, but having no television set and little vision my avenues for entertainment are limited. I am not going to give up the one or two opportunities for idle fun left to me, that would be lunacy.

 
So.

 
I'm still looking for the ideal mud, and I haven't found it yet. I look for certain things in one of these games. One of them is hard to communicate. It's the look and feel, or rather, the sound and feel, a text game that works well with my screen reder and doesn't sound like it was written by a delirious eight year old. Most of them have bad grammar and otherwise fall apart in the writing area. Others are organized visually and simply provide audio hash for the blind player. And probably my least favorite are games based on the Diku codebase, especially those which haven't been rethought and still use the capital city of Midgaard and its streets full of beastly fidos.

What I want is an online text RPG that an adult can play. I want a large map, currency which involves more than one coin, systems for fishing and hunting game, and a crafting system for player created weapons, armor, medicine, herbs and magical items. I want a multiplicity of guilds and races that are genuinely different from each other and actually provide different modes of play. I want room descriptions that are concise and even poetic, but not flowery or overblown. I want a general sense that a thoughtful human being or beings are in charge of the game system and that problems will be attended to quickly and sanely. I want a game with automated quests, and one which provides bells and whistles when you gain experience, when you level and when you achieve goals, from the creation of a magic ring to the landing of a prize fish. In short, what I want is an online reality in text, free of graphics and full of adventure for blind and sighted alike.

 

Several gamesI have played come close on many of my requirements, but none that I have ever played do it all. If after another month of searching I don’t find what I'm looking for, I am going to roll up my sleeves and code the damn thing myself.

 

 

 

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