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MMObility: Motion Twin's Mush conjures delightfully paranoid gameplay
If you are a regular reader of mine (thank you if you are), then you know how much I enjoy Motion Twin, the studio behind one of my favorite games, Die2Nite. I fell in love with Die2Nite over the last year or two; the game has grown into an amazing and sometimes scary experience, and it does it all with very little imagery. Motion Twin is in fact a one-stop-shop for many unique games that come from many different genres. So when I heard about Mush, the latest multiplayer title from the same developer, I was naturally excited. For the record, Die2Nite and Mush are both pseudo-MMOs or MMO-like games; make no mistake. But as I have pointed out before, the gameplay is so intriguing and smart that MMO developers would be wise to pay attention to the designs. Take Die2Nite and set it in space, tweak it, and make it more immediate, and you might begin to understand how Mush plays. Let's look into it -- just remember that in space, no one can hear you scheme!
The Game Archaeologist: Dark Sun Online
Computer RPG players in the late '80s and early '90s were surely familiar with Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and its now-infamous Gold Box series. The series, so named because of their distinctive gold packaging, ran on a solid engine that helped the company churn out over a dozen titles within a five-year span. From Dungeons & Dragons' Pool of Radiance to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, these titles quickly became revered among the gaming community. I personally have very fond memories of playing both Buck Rogers titles, despite not having ever watched the show. While the Gold Box series has not become as timeless or replayable as late '90s classics like Baldur's Gate and Fallout, they definitely had a huge impact on the PC scene and helped elevate the CRPG genre. Following the Gold Box engine, SSI went on to produce another engine that it used for a completely new series set in the D&D campaign setting of Dark Sun. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993) and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager (1994) were both modest hits, and when it came time for a third game in the series, SSI decided to make the leap to the then-untested realm of online gaming. What followed was a wild two-year experiment in MMOs that happened prior to the Ultima Online and EverQuest generation. While ultimately unsuccessful in achieving its potential or gaining a large audience, Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands made a valiant attempt at achieving the inevitable future of gaming.
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The memories
It's been a good month looking back at EverQuest Online Adventures, wouldn't you agree? Educational, almost. While this title is just about as far from the mainstream MMO eye as can be these days, it's heartening to know it's still out there, still running, and still capable of evoking fond memories from current and former players. While we did attempt to contact SOE for an interview to see if we could find out anything new -- or even old -- about EQOA, it failed to materialize. As a wonderful consolation prize, however, this week we'll hear from three players who have extensive experience in the game. So let's hit this column running and equip our +2 Ears of Paying Attention!
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: Your journeys, part 2
This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end. Of everything that MOOs, the end. No safety or aggro radius, the end. Man, listening to The Doors early in the morning does not put you in a happy state of writing, let me tell you! In any case, we've extended our MUD/MU* month here on the Game Archaeologist Channel to include a few more first-hand testimonies of Massively readers' favorite text-based MMOs. As much as anything else we've talked about in this column, it's vital that we not forget the roots from which our current MMOs were born nor neglect to take the opportunity to expose a whole new generation to a graphically simpler but textually richer experience. So let's kick the tires and light the fires of nostalgia as we talk with five of the baddest MUDders you'll ever know!
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: Your journeys, part 1
What a long, strange trip it's been back through the heyday of multi-user dungeons and the many, many spin-offs and variations thereof. We've looked at the history, talked with Richard Bartle, and promoted a few of the best titles out there -- but we're not done yet! The Game Archaeologist will not hang up his hat and call it a day well-lived until your stories are entered into the history books. Throughout this month, MUD and MU* players have deluged the inbox of the Game Archaeologist Institute for Text-Based Virtual Worlds, impressing us with hefty paragraphs of passionate experiences. These stories are so good, in fact, that we have little desire to choose between them, which is why we're going to annex the first week of May so that we can share all of them. May won't mind -- May's cool like that. So hit the jump and read the testimonies of the word warriors who were there on the front line of parser combat and grammatically correct roleplaying. These are their stories. This is your lunch break.
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!
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 Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life
Second Life has just seen its seventh anniversary (called its seventh birthday, only it technically isn't -- the original birthday is in March, but the anniversary is in June. There's history there). It's also traditionally a time when Linden Lab and Second Life users most often treat each other as enemies and obstacles; and it is a time for retrospectives and for considering the future. With the departure of Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon (the press release release says "stepping down," but the day prior to the release many Linden staffers were saying that Kingdon was fired) Linden Lab has hit a turning point -- or the end of another era. Accordingly, over the next couple of weeks, we're going to look at the history of Second Life, starting back in 1999 and continuing to the present day. Or at least as much as we can cover the ten-year history of something so rich and diverse in the available space. Second Life is quite legitimately a phenomenon (and even won an Emmy award). It was also something of an accident, since it wasn't what Linden Lab started out to make.
Splashing through the MUD and the MUSH
Before forum trolls complained of bad graphics or crappy voice acting, there was text-based gaming. Progressing from the success of games like Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the multi-user dungeons (MUDs) and multi-user shared hallucinations (MUSHes) were our best methods of roleplaying and interacting with other people from across the globe. Without these original text-based experiences, we would not have any of the MMOs we have today.To pay homage to this fact, Kaila Hale-Stern at Gawker's io9 writes a telling narrative of the old days in MUDs and MUSHes. PernMUSH, a MUSH based on Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series was (and still is) an extremely popular online hub for roleplayers. This story tells of Kaila's experiences with PernMUSH and how magical they were "for a sixteen year-old with a 36kbps modem and a family phone line." Be sure to check out the pages of comments as well, as they each tell their own memories of the birth of online gaming and roleplaying.
MUD history dissolving into the waters of time
While many modern MMO users may never have looked at a screen of white text on a black background and typed "go north," multi-user dungeons, or MUDs, were the forerunners to modern graphical MMOs. Without their appeal and gameplay concepts, we wouldn't be playing World of Warcraft or even EverQuest. So, logically, we should make sure to preserve the histories behind the many MUDs which began our conquest of the online playing field, right?Well, it appears Wikipedia does not think the same way we do on this matter. The online encyclopedia powered by user contributions has begun cracking down and removing articles on MUDs, citing inability to provide verification along with reliable sources. Currently on the chopping block is the entry for Threshold, one of the oldest MUDs still active to this day. This isn't the first time Wikipedia has put online games under fire -- already pulling out the entries for BYOND, LegendMUD, and even removing the article on dragon kill points (DKP) for a time. The removal for the entry of LegendMUD is particularly painful, as there are other articles on Wikipedia that reference the LegendMUD entry, yet are still apparently viable on their own.
Anti-Aliased: I wear funny hats and I'm proud of it
Since when did role-playing become a dirty word? Apparently even mentioning the initials of the dreaded "RP" is enough to make people want to prove John Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory as loudly as possible. Players go out of their way to make others feel uncomfortable and to ruin any sort of fun some people may have. Is it because it's the internet? Or have we forgotten the history of the role-playing game?Because I can't exactly spend a whole column talking about the horrors of the internet (NSFW) I'm going to be focusing on the place of role-playing and how it got interjected into these online games of ours.
Richard Bartle at Metanomics
Richard Bartle dips in and out of Second Life. He likens it as going to London. He might not be there for months, and then multiple times in a week. To him, Second Life is a place, much like many others. Bartle was in that place on 11 March, as a part of the Metanomics series, hosted by professor Robert J Bloomfield. Bartle often regarded as the father of the first MUD. In a sense he's the progenitor of all existing virtual worlds, both those based on games and those that are game-free.
MMOGology: Roleplaying is dead
A red sun set over the ashen wastelands of Searing Gorge. Three shadows crept up a snaking path toward the encampment on Firewatch Ridge. The first shadow struck her victim hard in the back. The second pounced in cat form, lacerating and stunning her prey. The third finished off his hapless victim with a combination of quick stabs to the chest. The Twilight Idolater dropped silently to the ground. The trio continued to their next target, but this time their prey called for backup. The druid morphed into a vicious bear, drawing her enemies' attention to herself to take the brunt of the attack. The rogues tried to sap the reinforcements into submission or cut them down from behind. Despite their efforts the added numbers of the enemy overwhelmed the heroes and they fell. "Hey Silvanna," said the cute, brunette rogue named Mystletoe. "Do you mind if I get my friend Barbi to help us. She's a 70 priest.""Uh, OK." agreed the druid. It wasn't long before a beautiful, blonde priestess arrived. She revived her allies from the brink of death and with a few simple flicks of her supple wrist, slew the band of Twilight cultists without chipping a nail."Sweet, lets turn this quest in," said the rogue named Twojoints."So have you guys tried out the new voice chat?" asked Mystletoe. The druid began to sweat noticeably."Uh, no, no. I don't think mine's working quite right yet," replied Silvanna. Suddenly there was audible giggling from somewhere near the party. It was as if the air around them had come to life and was laughing at the group."So let's hear your beautiful voice Barbi," giggled the very feminine voice of Mystletoe."Hey guys," belted a baritone. Barbi was a man!"Oh-my-God, Barbi's a dude!" laughed Mystletoe with an air of false surprise.The druid sighed, somewhat relieved."That's OK Barbi," Silvanna replied. "So am I."
