Any active MUDs?

MightyUnclean

Is anyone playing any good, very active MUDs these days?  If so, what are they?  Thanks!

nariusseldon

There are still beyond a small niche of players playing TEXT games?

Nilden

http://www.mudconnect.com/

Check out the top 10-20 MUDs it's a great place to start. I enjoy ZombieMUD as well.

MightyUnclean

Thanks!

KnightFalz

nariusseldon said:

There are still beyond a small niche of players playing TEXT games?

Some companies are still making some money off of them.

Books are still being sold as well, for the small niche of people that read.

Akulas

Used to play Threshold back in the day. That's ok if you like required RP.

nariusseldon

KnightFalz said:

nariusseldon said:

There are still beyond a small niche of players playing TEXT games?

Some companies are still making some money off of them.

Books are still being sold as well, for the small niche of people that read.

Actually reading book is not a small niche. Look at JK Rowling or John Grisham. I read novels all the time.

But games is about gameplay and NOT good writing/stories. How can one get good gameplay from text? Is it exciting to read "fireball hits you for 6 points" 20 times? 

In fact, i don't play games to get good story and i don't read novels to get gameplay. 

Scorchien

  I visit Gemstone quite often , always active .. great game ...
https://www.play.net/gs4/

anemo

Anything from IronRealms will have population.   They even have the biggest fantasy tropes to choose from.    Though their monetization makes EA jealous...

nariusseldon

Scorchien said:

  I visit Gemstone quite often , always active .. great game ...
https://www.play.net/gs4/

wow .. this is still alive? I suppose since it is just a bunch of text, the upkeep is cheap and a tiny customer base is enough to keep it alive.

I remember it from the GEnie days. 

TheScavenger

Scorchien said:

  I visit Gemstone quite often , always active .. great game ...
https://www.play.net/gs4/

how would you compare Gemstone to Dragonrealms? 

MightyUnclean

nariusseldon said:

KnightFalz said:

nariusseldon said:

There are still beyond a small niche of players playing TEXT games?

Some companies are still making some money off of them.

Books are still being sold as well, for the small niche of people that read.

Actually reading book is not a small niche. Look at JK Rowling or John Grisham. I read novels all the time.

But games is about gameplay and NOT good writing/stories. How can one get good gameplay from text? Is it exciting to read "fireball hits you for 6 points" 20 times? 

In fact, i don't play games to get good story and i don't read novels to get gameplay. 

If you don't play games for good stories, you've been playing the wrong RPGs your whole life.  What do you play, FPS?

nariusseldon

MightyUnclean said:

If you don't play games for good stories, you've been playing the wrong RPGs your whole life.  What do you play, FPS?

Are you kidding?

Diablo series .. great games ... story is optional and meh.

Torchlight 2 .. nice little game .. story meh .. i wasn't even reading through the text. Blah blah blah some alchemist you need to defeat. 

Destiny 2 .. good shooters (yeah FPS) .. story meh.

The now dead marvel heroes ... i play it for combat & marvel characters. If i want decent marvel stories, i go see the movies or read the comics.

I play RPGs for combat and progression. I have never played any games that have stories that can hold up to novels, and i am not looking for that. 

AndrewGoat

I have been a volunteer on one of the Iron Realms MUDs for a couple of years now, and I can say all of them are pretty active/great. A new one is coming out soon though, the first scifi one, Starmourn. If you're down for something new and interesting in the MUD space, keep an eye out for it.

postlarval

OP, DragonRealms is probably my favorite, with about 300-400 players on at peak.

You can find all you need here: http://mudstats.com

Scot

nariusseldon said:

MightyUnclean said:

If you don't play games for good stories, you've been playing the wrong RPGs your whole life.  What do you play, FPS?

Are you kidding?

Diablo series .. great games ... story is optional and meh.

Torchlight 2 .. nice little game .. story meh .. i wasn't even reading through the text. Blah blah blah some alchemist you need to defeat. 

Destiny 2 .. good shooters (yeah FPS) .. story meh.

The now dead marvel heroes ... i play it for combat & marvel characters. If i want decent marvel stories, i go see the movies or read the comics.

I play RPGs for combat and progression. I have never played any games that have stories that can hold up to novels, and i am not looking for that. 

Welcome to WON, the world of Nari, can you imagine him playing a Mud? The mind boggles.

postlarval

nariusseldon said:

There are still beyond a small niche of players playing TEXT games?

Yes, especially if you're tired of the sheer number of shitbags playing MMOs these days.

Scot

Good to see MUD's are still going, without them it is unlikely that we would have had MMORPGs starting as early as they did.

unfilteredJW

mudstats.com to check out options based on populations.

Hariken

Can you imagine making a MUD today. People would freak out because they have to read. But i have one game on my phone. Its called The great Tournament. Its an enter active book and its really fun.

TheScavenger

So I asked before. But I think I'll expand my question instead of a one liner

What is the difference between GemstoneIV and DragonRealms? It seems DragonRealms might be a lot more immersive, because instead of DnD style numbers of Gemstone, you get an RP description of combat. That is a lot more immersive, and never liked the DnD mechanics in games (I like DnD in real life, but not the style for me in video games. I know a lot of games take inspiration from it, and that is okay, but flat out DnD style combat isn't my thing). 

The other difference, if I got it right...DragonRealms has fantasy but also some futuristic stuff to it? Or steampunk or something? So its a bit mix fantasy/sci-fi? That is really unique since most games are only sci-fi or only fantasy. I always liked the mixed style.

However, the HUGE downside I can see is DragonRealms is its heavily focused on PvP. I vastly prefer PvE in games and supposedly (as of 4 years ago, so quite some time ago) GemstoneIV is a lot more PVE focused? or are they about the same?

I like PvP and actually PvPed a lot in WoW. However when I did that was never forced to PvP. Same with GW2, even though GW2 is pvp focused, its always an option to PvP and never forced on you. And GW2 still has mountains of PVE content.

Thanks

MightyUnclean

TheScavenger said:

So I asked before. But I think I'll expand my question instead of a one liner

What is the difference between GemstoneIV and DragonRealms? It seems DragonRealms might be a lot more immersive, because instead of DnD style numbers of Gemstone, you get an RP description of combat. That is a lot more immersive, and never liked the DnD mechanics in games (I like DnD in real life, but not the style for me in video games. I know a lot of games take inspiration from it, and that is okay, but flat out DnD style combat isn't my thing). 

The other difference, if I got it right...DragonRealms has fantasy but also some futuristic stuff to it? Or steampunk or something? So its a bit mix fantasy/sci-fi? That is really unique since most games are only sci-fi or only fantasy. I always liked the mixed style.

However, the HUGE downside I can see is DragonRealms is its heavily focused on PvP. I vastly prefer PvE in games and supposedly (as of 4 years ago, so quite some time ago) GemstoneIV is a lot more PVE focused? or are they about the same?

I like PvP and actually PvPed a lot in WoW. However when I did that was never forced to PvP. Same with GW2, even though GW2 is pvp focused, its always an option to PvP and never forced on you. And GW2 still has mountains of PVE content.

Thanks

Yeah, I'm currently looking at Aardwolf, Gemstone IV and DragonRealms.  From what I can tell, the first two are more PvE-focused, and DragonRealms has a heavier PvP focus.  Can anyone confirm?  Thanks!

MightyUnclean

Holy crap, Aardwolf has been around since 1996 and Gemstone, since 1989!  I guess Aardwolf has a rudimentary map while Gemstone is purely text-based?

MightyUnclean

WTF, the DragonRealms Prime server costs $$$49.95 a month!  People must be seriously into this game to pay that.

nariusseldon

postlarval said:

nariusseldon said:

There are still beyond a small niche of players playing TEXT games?

Yes, especially if you're tired of the sheer number of shitbags playing MMOs these days.

Other people don't concern me .. i treat them as NPCs, or I play solo. 

postlarval

MightyUnclean said:

WTF, the DragonRealms Prime server costs $$$49.95 a month!  People must be seriously into this game to pay that.

It's not required. The company offers a $50/mo. option (Platinum) for serious roleplayers. They also gate how many people can participate in that realm. It's designed with a pay wall to keep the population of the community in their Platinum tier small and they shut down new members when it grows too large. Its actually pretty awesome as everyone knows each other and they really take roleplaying to heart. Sadly, I (and many others) thought that's what all MMORPGs would be in the future, but it didn't turn out that way.