diku
Latest
The Game Archaeologist: How DikuMUD shaped modern MMOs
Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know. Of course, that doesn't mean everyone knows what DikuMUD is or how it shaped the MMOs that came out after it. You might have seen it used as a pejorative in enough comments that you know it is loathed by many gamers, but I find that there are varying degrees of ignorance about DikuMUD in the community. What is it, exactly? Why is it just the worst? And is it really the worst if we like the games that can point to this text-based MMO as a key ancestor? Today we're going to dispel the mystery and myths of DikuMUD to lay it out there as it was and is today.
The Game Archaeologist moves into Lucasfilm's Habitat: Part 1
For some of you reading this, you may simply never have known a world before the internet existed by virtue of your age. It's not your fault, but as generational divisions go, this was a biggie. The internet saturates so much of our lives now that it's even difficult for those of us born prior to the '90s to remember how we functioned without smartphones, Google searches, and terabytes of cheap entertainment on demand. I think there were video game arcades in the mall or something. Because of this, some of you will not understand the import of how it felt when technology advanced to the point that people could reach out online and interact with others, first through written communication and later through applications and games. What we take for granted in today's MMOs -- the constant presence of thousands of real humans interacting with us in a virtual space -- simply blew the minds of those who first encountered it. And way back when, those encounters depended on the person and technology available. Some folks had access in the '60s and '70s to the early form of the internet and email in universities and government offices, but these close encounters of the virtual kind only started to make its way into households in the '80s (and even then, mostly to those plugged into the geek community). The developers of these programs -- the MUDs, the BBSes, CompuServe, etc. -- were truly pioneers forging a path while trying to figure things out on the fly. So it amazed me to hear that I've been missing out on a key part of MMO history by overlooking Lucasfilm's Habitat, which wasn't quite an MMO by modern standards and yet created a graphical virtual world with many of the elements that were adopted into later projects. In our two-week look at Habitat, we'll see just how eerily similar this 1986 title is to what we know today -- even though it came out on the Commodore 64.
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: The history
You know that sinking feeling when you get into something that's way, waaaay over your head and you have no choice but to swim furiously or drown? That's exactly how I felt when I started to do research for this month's series on MUDs -- Multi-User Dungeons -- and their descendants. At first I was thrilled, because I knew that along with Dungeons & Dragons and Bulletin Board Systems, the MUD was one of the key predecessors to the MMORPG as we know it today. It was, and still is, vital gaming history that helped to shape the genre. The only problem was that for various reasons -- mostly a lack of good internet access in college and general ignorance -- I'd missed out on MUDs back in the day. But it's not like that stopped me from covering any of the other games in this series that I never experienced first-hand way back when; after all, there are few among us who can honestly say they did everything. So the problem wasn't the lack of first-hand knowledge but the sheer, overwhelming scope of this subject. One game alone is a manageable subject -- MUDs are an entire genre unto themselves. It's intimidating, to say the least. It doesn't still my excitement, however, nor will it stop us from diving into this topic no matter how deep the waters get. This week we'll take a look at the brief history of the MUD/MUSH/MOO/et al. and then get into specific games later this month. So hold your breath and jump on in with me!
The Daily Grind: What aspects of DIKU MMOs make you laugh?
So I'm blowing up Triroan in Aion's Theobomos Labs dungeon the other night. He's a big nasty that drops decent equipment for 50ish Daevas, and my six-man group was running the instance for the umpteenth time in the hopes of helping out some of our gear-poor compadres. Beating Triroan with a great tank in your party is one of the most boring things in the game if you're a Sorcerer, as all you have to do is stand in the back of the room and nuke the living hell out of the boss while the plate class holds aggro. This got me to thinking how silly a lot of DIKU mechanics really are from an immersion standpoint. Sure you can argue that you suspend your disbelief simply by virtue of flinging fireballs or sprouting wings, but the fact that a giant monster ignores the people doing him the most harm to focus on the heavily armored guy who couldn't top a DPS chart if his life depended on it just makes me chuckle. DIKU is clearly the language of MMOs, as just about every game that comes out nowadays is indebted to it in a big way. It's an old and incredibly flawed system, though, and so we ask you, Massively mobsters: What other DIKU holdovers seem silly, far-fetched, or otherwise cackle-worthy to you? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
MMOrigins: Dissection of a gamer
The Misty Mountains You are on a steep rocky slope and just above lies the remnants of an ancient rock slide. Far below you can see the Redhorn pass through breaks in tree canopy as well as the winding Anduin River. The sky is overcast, with a strong northerly wind raining down icy lances. The air is thin, making it difficult to breathe. *Labero the Black Numenorean* is here riding a pack horse tending his wounds. o S W C Move: Tired> Backstab $target You begin to silently move behind your victim... Oh the memories! That text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD) experience may have been the most influential on my gaming career, but it certainly wasn't the first. No, for that we'd have to travel back in time several more years; the day I unwrapped my first gaming console. It was a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the year was 1989. Follow me as I take a trip down memory lane and recount the main influencers on my MMO timeline.
EQ dev: WoW wouldn't exist without EQ
Videogamer.com has an interview up with Ryan Barker, the lead designer for seminal MMORPG EverQuest. When asked if he thought WoW would exist without EQ having been around, he replied that he didn't think so, and that Blizzard designers would likely agree with that statement. I think he's right, too. The success of EQ allowed for countless imitators and innovators to follow in its footsteps, and WoW is certainly both of those things. What made WoW successful in the first place, beyond brand recognition, was the fact that the developers -- whose team consisted of a number of former EQ devs and prominent community members! -- refined and added on so many features cribbed from EQ. They made the formerly hardcore-only genre accessible to a wide variety of players and age groups, and in doing so broke subscriber and sales records -- thus continuing to make new MMOs financially plausible. And with WoW's improvements to the diku formula, the genre is now filled with WoW imitators as well. History repeats itself. Sure, it's entirely possible that WoW could have existed without the advent of EQ, but it would have been a very different game if it existed at all. And I doubt it would have been anywhere near as good without having been able to learn from EQ's myriad mistakes or study its successes. We owe a lot to Old Man EQ. Now get off his lawn.
The Daily Grind: Most influential MMOs?
While Beckett has compiled their listing of 20 industry people they feel are the most influential across the board, we realized that, by and large, many MMO players just don't know who all the names are behind an MMO. As such, we got to thinking about what games were more or less influential than others. Would you say Meridian 59 was influential? EverQuest? Do you throw out a nod to MUDs? Would WoW make the list as a true innovator, or just as a refinement? As such, this morning, we're asking you - what do you think are some of the most influential MMOs? Which ones shaped the genre and led it in new directions? If given the chance, who would you vote for?
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all MMOs, including WoW! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. Face-capturing tech to be "in-game soon" for Age of ConanLopping off heads in Age of Conan might soon be taken very personally, as ShackNews has reported that some fancy face-importing technology is being prepared for use in-game -- you're bound to be just a tad more put out when you see your actual face rolling away on a decapitated noggin. The technology itself comes from a company called Big Stage Entertainment, and you can already get a feel for how it works at their website by registering an account and creating your own 3D "@ctor". SOE storms the internet with Free Realms beta promotionsThis weekend saw one of the largest beta key giveaways in MMO history with tens of thousands of special codes being handed out at once by several different outlets. Aside from the normal MMO news and fan sites, the Free Realms Twitter account has been giving away a thousand keys at a time. A rocky start for Warhammer's 1.21 patchPatch day in an MMO is always hit or miss, but according to a number of sources, Mythic's 1.21 patch for Warhammer Online broke many core components of the game that still haven't been fixed several days later. A public acknowledgment appeared on the WAR Herald this past weekend, but some players are still furious.
Newest 1UP blog a haven for RPG and MMO fans alike
There's a saying that goes, "Teach a man to level up, and you'll satisfy him for a lifetime. But teach a man to grind, and you'll satisfy him for several hundred hours bereft of showering."We don't really know where these wise words came from, but they obviously reached the ears of the very first MMORPG developers. Today, if you're not grinding away at something, then you're obviously doing something incorrectly. And it seems like the guys 'n gals over at 1UP.com would agree. Their newest blog to focus on one aspect in videogaming is, in fact, all about the many facets of RPGs -- including the massively multiplayer online variety.While there isn't anything about our beloved persistent online worlds up just yet, we're sure there'll be tasty words to chew upon soon enough. We'll be keeping a lookout for you, just in case your busy day can't handle the kind of obsessive news and information tendencies we here at Massively indulge in at a constant tick.
The Anatomy of WoW: Seven games that inspired Blizzard
Blizzard is one of the most prestigious and succesful developers in the world for good reason -- it takes the best ideas from all over the industry (even ones that don't quite work right... yet) and refines them, forcing them to succeed in ways they never did before.Millions of people are playing World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King today, so we decided this would be the perfect time to dive into WoW's mechanics and see what other games inspired Blizzard when it was creating this monumental phenomenon. We'll look at seven critical predecessors to which Blizzard paid homage with its own design decisions. Join us and learn a bit more about why WoW is the enthralling experience it is today. Click to start >> %Gallery-36773%
Terra Nova looks back (and forward) at the Diku legacy
EverQuest, World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and many other MMOs all have one important thing in common. Well, okay; they have a lot of things in common -- like about 85% or more of their gameplay mechanics. But the main thing -- indeed, the reason why they have so much in common -- is that they are all descendants of a kind of text MUD game called Diku.Acknowledging that, virtual worlds blog Terra Nova published a "State of the Diku" article for the year 2008. The article was written by Timothy Burke. It's mostly a dispassionate look at game design -- serious business. Burke starts out questioning the purpose of "vendor trash" drops (or grey items as they're generally known in many popular contemporary MMOs). Then he analyzes the public quests of Warhammer Online, viewing them as a positive variation on traditional Diku design.If you're into thnking critically about MMO design, it's worth checking out. We take for granted the fact that most of today's MMOs are based on the Diku formula; maybe that means we're clinging to old ideas that don't make a lot of sense in today's world.
The Daily Grind: Is the genre too commercial?
Every industry has its Wild West period. Seemingly crazy folks move forward with what turn out to be not-so-crazy ideas. They work together (or in competition) to usher in something totally fresh and new. Some of them stumble. Okay, most of them stumble. But some of them create something so inspiring it births a whole new industry.If you played the early MMOs, you know that it was an exciting frontier. But in recent years the industry has settled into a groove. Yes, it's been a turbulent groove, but it's impossible to deny that in terms of design, most games these days are following a similar formula. This formula -- introduced by EverQuest (well, Dikus, actually!) and refined by World of Warcraft -- is used now because it works. It makes money most of the time -- more often than the other formulas or the wild-eyed ideas, anyway.But since the genre has settled on this formula, has it lost something? Has the massive success of World of Warcraft replaced the exciting frontier with a commercial empire that's short on inspiration and character? Put another way: do you feel like the new games are so focused on commercial appeal that there's no trace of love or passion for the endless as-yet-unimagined possibilities of virtual worlds left over?
Player vs. Everything: What if WoW sold its code base?
I could bore you all today by starting my article with a lengthy story about the pre-history of your beloved MMORPGs, but I'll cut to the important part: Once upon a time there was a little game called DikuMUD. Similar in nature to the popular Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, it quickly took off with the geek crowd and became something of a phenomenon. In 1991, the source code for the game was made public and it grew into the most popular code base out there for the creation of multi-user dungeons, largely attributed to the ease with which the code could be set up and run. This led to an explosion of rather similar games that eventually gave rise to the more modern virtual fantasy worlds like Ultima Online, EverQuest, and World of Warcraft (each of these have been compared to DikuMUDs at various times). What's the point of rehashing all of this? Simply this: While many people would probably disagree with me, the proliferation of a popular, established code base that was proven to attract players and was easy to set up "out of the box" allowed enormous innovation and creativity to flourish. At one point, there were so many MUDs available on the web that you could go to a website designed specifically to sort out what features you wanted in yours (and play it free of charge, most of the time). Given the wild popularity of World of Warcraft today, I can't help but wonder what would happen to the online gaming industry if Blizzard decided to start selling their source code to people interested in starting up their own game.
Saga (MMORTS) Trailer: What WoW should have been
Years ago when Blizzard sounded the trumpets and announced that WoW was in the works I dreamt RTS and MMORPG mechanics would fuse together to whisk in a new era in massively online gaming. I swore that if Blizzard copied the Diku formula popularized by EverQuest I wouldn't bother playing it. That is until magical forces intervened, and I found myself in the WoW friends and family alpha and loving every second. WoW improved on familiar loot-n-scoot, and level based PvE gameplay, but I still hoped that I'd someday play an MMORTS or some bastardized attempt at one and actually like it. That's not to say there isn't anything out there or in development. Two games come to mind are Mankind and Dreamlords, take them for what you will, but it looks like Saga is a real solid attempt to fill a void. The graphics aren't top notch, but the gameplay looks interesting, and I hope others would appreciate the efforts from a smaller independent development studio as I do. There is a free client available, but several features are not usable unless you upgrade to the full version. There is no expiration date on the trial, and if you are concerned about a monthly subscription fee, don't be because there isn't one. The payment model is based on the purchase of booster packs. The booster packs contain cards, and these cards portray units and spells that you then use to build armies and maintain your nation. The end game actually revolves around PvP against other player built nations. You can read a much better detailed account on the missions, PvP, the card system, in this great first look posted on Brandon Reinhart's blog. You can find more information about the game and where to download it on Saga's official site. I'm about to try it out firsthand, and if you've played it please feel free to share your thoughts about Saga below.
IGN snubs MMOs in top 100 games of all time list
What is it with lists? I recently harped on a G4 writer's most Epic Gaming Failures list; at numero uno the writer picked every MMOG since WoW. IGN's list is also another huge disappointment. The only MMORPG that made the cut was of course, World of Warcraft -- it ranks 83. Forget any of the pioneer MMOs that made it all possible, not even Ultima Online is found, nor is EverQuest recognized, which was the first graphical Diku-based MMOG to hit 500k subscriptions. Even great non-MMOGs like Morrowind and Oblivion weren't invited to the party. At least Mario Kart made it, which is personally one of my all time favs...With so many games to choose from picking the cream of the crop is going to stir up some controversy. But from what I gather from the list, very few editors at IGN even play MMOs beyond WoW, which is their loss. What I really guffaw at are the trolls, the haters, the dolts who truly accost MMOs as seen in this Digg thread. News flash: MMOGs aren't the only "waste-of-time." Anything entertainment based, or any hobby that isn't saving the real world from lava penguins (lolz) is considered as such, and can be a huge time sink if taken serious. Nick Yee, the research mastermind, has built-up quite a bit of empirical evidence that the average MMOG player spends 20 hours a week and the national average for television watching is 28 hours a week. Our hobbies are merely switched around and invested elsewhere.
