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Rise and Shiny: DragonRealms
As a part of MUD May, I just had to play at least one MUD for Rise and Shiny. I have a handful of favorite MUDs, like GemStone IV, BatMUD, and Achaea, but I have never really given DragonRealms a chance. Until now. I've poked into it here and there, but every time I found myself on the Simutronics website, I always logged into GemStone IV. I heard that DragonRealms was a lot different, more hardcore, and filled with PvP, and after spending an initial week with the game and the killer community, I can say that it is different, but mainly in a few outstanding ways. Of course I might find much more that sets the game apart if I played it for several years like some of the people I met in game, but for now I'll settle with telling you what I've learned so far. The usual embedded video in this article serves two purposes. First, it's an interview piece I did with Eric Latham, Producer at Simutronics. Next, it's a glance at DragonRealms, from character creation to a bit of gameplay. It's not as in-depth as my other videos, but it keeps in the greater theme of MUD May.
Free for All: Celebrating MUD May with Gemstone IV
MUD May has been a blast so far, but I won't lie to you and say that I hope to even make a dent in the decades-old history of many of these titles. I decided instead to use some examples from my favorite MUDs that I have come across over the last couple of years. It's admittedly been a challenge to think about what to cover. Do I cover the communities? The in-game mechanics? The publishers? This week I decided to attempt to kill several birds with a handful of stones (and questions) and snagged Simutronics Producer Eric Latham for an video interview. Simutronics has been in the business for 26 years, and the publisher makes my favorite MUD, Gemstone IV. Latham has been with the company for 15 of those years! Technically I am using the interview and video as part of my Rise and Shiny series, but the questions and answers are more relevant to the general topic of MUDs. You might see it now as well as later, but it will hopefully provide some insight into the world of making MUDs.
Free for All: An intro to basic combat in MUDs
Welcome back to the second installment of MUD May! Almost any time I write an article, I try to keep new players in mind. It's fun to see the reaction from readers when I talk about MUDs or other "classic" MMO models and how these games can pull in fresh blood. Many people seem to forget that there are new players coming into MMO gaming all the time, and MUDs should be no different. Over the next few columns, I will be pulling examples from five games: Gemstone IV, Dragonrealms, Threshold RPG, BatMUD, and Achaea to explain how some basic MUD systems work. With that in mind, I'd like to use this week's installment to explain -- in a very simple way -- how combat might feel in a MUD. One of the biggest hurdles for a new MUD player is often the massive amount of information that is built from decades of development. MUD players often sneer at the thought of simplifying the entry for new players. To be fair, this unwelcoming attitude is common in gaming in general. I feel differently, however, and want to explain some of the basics of these fantastic MMOs -- simply -- in a way that illustrates just how cool MUDs can be.
Free for All: Introduction to MUD May
For the month of May, I will be using this column to cover the world of MUDs aka multi-user-domains or dungeons. MUDs are text-based MMORPGs, and playing one is sort of like playing through a choose-your-own-adventure book with potentially thousands of other players. I'm not so arrogant to think that I could cover the decades of MUD development within the span of five articles, but I've had a go at it in the past and want to examine the topic more. Why? There are many reasons, and to kick off this series, I'd like to talk about them. After today, my columns will concentrate on interviews with developers and players to explain how and why MUDs still work, and I hope that all of this will encourage many of you who have never tried a MUD to pick one out now. The recent buzz surrounding Twine-based games and interactive storytelling is perfect fuel for MUDs to come back into the spotlight. Unless, of course, many of the issues with the insulated community of MUDers sabotage the perfect timing. Let's get started.
Free for All: My favorite female armor sets
Of all of the crazy characters from HBO's Game of Thrones, Brienne is easily my favorite. Why is she my favorite? It's not because she's just heroic or brave or any of the things that people often attribute to her; it's because she's a survivor. Much of that survival comes from her armor and the fact that she knows well enough to be able to protect herself! The actress Gwendoline Christie has talked about how uncomfortable the armor is to wear. I've heard the producers say that the metal skin is supposed to look sort of mismatched, and I love that. It only makes it stronger. I often wish MMOs represented armor in better ways, especially for female characters. Some MMOs do a better job than others, and some MMOs do a decent job some of the time. Here are some of my picks for my favorite armor sets for female humans, orcs, goblins or... well, you get the point. (Please don't post Game of Thrones spoilers in the comments section.)
MMO Blender: Game of Thrones, MUDs, and the perfect quest text
Nothing seems to suck me into a game more than a good story. The brilliant thing is that the story doesn't have to be complicated or intense as long as it's original and easy to follow. I want characters to meet, locations to discover. I need to immerse myself into a story more than I need to raise a level or obtain powerful loot. In this edition of MMO Blender, I wanted to use three main games as prime examples of systems that, when combined together in some form, would deliver the best story-driven experience I can imagine. There are several factors to consider: story, movement, character, and interaction. I want to use War of Dragons as an example of movement in a mostly text environment, Gemstone IV for character and interaction, and Game of Thrones Ascent for story. Hopefully, when I am done, I'll have convinced someone to give me a few million dollars to create this dream MMO.
MMO Blender: Beau's portable, accessible, and casually immersive mashup
I've been pretty excited to take my turn at the MMO Blender wheel. Sure, we all have ideas about how we would build our dream MMOs by mixing up different parts from favorite games, but honestly, I wanted to use my time here to make a point: MMO gaming needs to climb outside of the box, soon. Since there is more and more emphasis on mobile and casual gaming, my game will take that in into consideration. But games have to be fun too, right? I think they can be fun, immersive, and casual all at the same time. I'm hoping that my examples will show how other developers have combined the three such that players can access the game from anywhere. It's also important to me that my game be simple to play and accessible for players with disabilities, so let's just say that I have included all of the proper features like adjustable colors for the color-blind, resizable text, and maybe even audio cues to help those with sight issues. I've been given a budget of one million-billion internet bucks, so let's get to it... this game is not going to build itself!
Rise and Shiny: Aardwolf MUD
This week I dove into yet another MUD in the hopes of finding even better gameplay than I found in titles like Gemstone IV and Threshold RPG. It's a bit of a daring attempt for me, especially considering that I often suffer from migraines when I have to concentrate on text on my monitor so much. Funny enough, when I get a MUD client set up just how I want, I have no issues and can play for a few hours at a time. MUDs are relaxing much of the time and don't feel as rushed as standard MMOs do. That relaxation must help with the migraines! At first, I was bit hesitant in saying Aardwulf MUD is akin to the titles I have covered in the past. Something about the site, and the fact that the game did not force roleplay, turned me off, and I was determined to find it lacking. Luckily, I was proven wrong and even suckered fellow Massivelyite (Massivelyian?) Jeremy Stratton into the game; he's contributed a few of his thoughts today too.
The Soapbox: The death of AAA
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. I think we're all pretty familiar with the tragic story of 38 Studios by now. If not, take some time to familiarize yourself with it. Essentially it is a tale of massive dreams, botched plans, and hundreds of job losses. I'm not yet sure exactly what went wrong, but I have a feeling that the lackluster response to the studio's stand-alone title might be to blame on top of the poor performance in the high-end of the company. Either way, I have seen many comments exclaiming the end of the big-budget title or at least more trepidation from governments that feel the need to get into a game (no pun intended) they were unfamiliar with. If we could take a poll of the several million "AAA" MMO players in North America, it's my bet that most of them simply go from one title to the other. The RIFT players who are now enjoying Star Wars: The Old Republic came from World of Warcraft, and before that (if they played MMOs before WoW) they might have been City of Heroes fans and EverQuest players before that. For a long time, large studios held all of the players. Then, AAA started rolling down the steep hill to where it is now.
Free for All: How MUDs can stay relevant in today's 3-D world
My latest passion is MUDs, or multi-user-dungeons. Essentially, they are text-based MMOs. Imagine a choose-your-own-adventure book that is played with hundreds or thousands of other players. I have found more freedom in the text-based worlds of some titles, freedom to make the character I want to make. I've also found many of the common, underlying problems with MMOs in MUDs as well. These are issues that might have started with MUDs, being that they are some of the oldest multiplayer games in existence today. I wanted to take a look at how many of these MUDs could keep themselves in the game. It's not as though they need the help; many of them have been steadily chugging along for a decade or more. What I would like to see is many of them add more players, add to their developer teams, and actually stick around for 10 more years. Is it possible? I think so.
Free for All: Making the perfectly flawed character
Whenever I play a new MMO, the first thing I want to know is who I am supposed to be inside this particular game world. I would like to have as much control over the conception of my character as possible, but let's be honest: Great customization is not as common as many of us would like. This might explain my attraction to games that offer the ability to craft a true, unique character, even if only in looks. I love a good cash shop and the ability to make my character essentially me -- if I were the me inside that other world. I don't play MMOs to be the hero, at least not most of the time. I don't want to kill the largest boss or get the best armor. I'll leave that to gamers who like that sort of thing. I play an MMO to sort of lose myself inside the world of a character of my own making. Over the years I've noticed a pattern in how I establish a great character, one that I want to continue playing. Originally, I wanted to refine this process into a list in case other players wanted to compare, but the list keeps evolving, so instead, I'll give some examples of how I have been creating unique and wonderfully flawed main characters in some of my favorite MMOs.
Rise and Shiny: Gemstone IV
This article was a long time coming. Not only have I avoided taking a look at any sort of pure MUD for many years, but I meant to write this up last week but real life interrupted my plans. I just didn't think it was fair to write up a first impressions based on only a few hours of play. I was quite hesitant to take a deeper look at Gemstone IV mainly because I knew that the non-stop reading would surely create more migraines that might derail my work again. I was very worried, actually. Luckily, the Gemstone IV client is customizable enough to allow me to create a "book-style" experience: black text on a white background. I don't think I'm alone in my inability to view bright, colored text on a dark background comfortably. If I were, popular websites would still look like they were from 1996. We've moved past ugly fonts and horrible color combinations. Unfortunately it took me most of the time with Gemstone IV just to learn how to play, make the text comfortable to read, and understand what my character was supposed to be doing. Once I got comfortable, though, I honestly had one of the most enchanting times in a game yet.
Previously on MV TV: The week of April 21st
What a week it has been in Massively's world of streaming games! We have a little bit of something for all types of viewers. Hardcores, roleplayers, explorers, crafters and lazy-bums like yours truly: We have something for all of you. Be sure to bookmark our livestream schedule page so that you can always see the schedule ahead of time. It's much easier to plan your life around our videos if you know the schedule early. Invite your friends... we love to hear from new people in the chat room! This week, we had some EVE Online adventuring with Mike followed by his attempt at Drakensang Online, a browser-based action MMO. Adventure Mike took a spin in the way-back machine and streamed some EverQuest, and MJ scored some time in EverQuest II, a chunk of Vanguard, and Aion. She's been a very busy streamer! Lastly, I took a look at Gemstone IV, a fantastic MUD that almost brought tears to my eyes. Tears of frustration, but many tears of joy. Let's get to watching!
Free for All: The importance of those first moments in a game
This week, I decided to download and install Aion. I haven't played it since beta. Although I was not impressed with it at the time, my favorite Aion columnist has been covering the game in such a way that I knew some good things had happened to the game. And after all, it's free now. Right? I was nervous from the moment I installed the game. NCsoft hosts a notoriously odd account management system. Sure, once you break the code and understand how to make an account for your master account that signs into your game account (or something like that), it might seem elementary. Until that moment, though, the system makes you feel like an idiot. It makes you feel as though the publisher literally doesn't want you to play the game. I had a week filled with such moments. The frustration I felt led me to today's topic.
Rise and Shiny: Stronghold Kingdoms
There are certain designs in the MMORTS genre that have frankly started to burn me out. I was a bit worried that I had reached my tolerance point and would not be able to stomach another city-builder until I had put some time between me and my latest preview or first impressions. It's an amazing genre, and as I have argued before, it's more MMO than most MMOs. As in many genres, successful design is copied. The ironic thing is that all of these copies often dilute the market, making it worse on everyone. As much as I love the genre, I am a bit sick of running into the same design, stereotypical settings, and mechanics. Of course, we cannot take these copies and paint the whole genre with a terrible brush; if we did that, all of MMOdom would be in trouble. Still, I'm sick of it. Luckily Firefly Worlds, maker of Stronghold Kingdoms, has a very persistent "PR ninja" who made a point to poke at me on Twitter. Usually, we funnel all PR contact to our lead editors for organization purposes, but hey, I can't resist a nice voice and a lovely looking game... and I have a high tolerance for fun people.
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: The games
Fair citizens of Massivelyville, believe me, I've heard your voices. After two weeks of giving an overview of MUDs and MU*s, not to mention talking to Dr. Bartle about the genre, I think I've held off talking about specific games long enough. No need for heads to explode on my watch! One of the reasons I stalled for time is that I was gathering as much information on the most popular and beloved MUDs of the past few decades. From the perspective of someone who is but a mewling infant when it comes to these games, it's a considerable task akin to asking someone to sum up all of the World War II movies out there. The selection field is big -- that's all I'm saying. So after polling a number of friends and hearing what you've had to say in the comments section, I've culled the list to six games that seem to pop up over and over again. Not only are each of these MUDs a wealth of history, but they're all going strong even in the futuristic year of 2011. If you've never played a game in this genre, then consider these a good place to start, and if you have, hopefully this will be an exciting stroll down memory lane. Watch out for the boojums and grues!
