[MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS.

[Adam Wiggins]

> Re: What is needed to make a MUD
> >...At the very least you need
> >something where you can choose a lot of options to personalize your
> >character, then have that character use those abilities to grow,
> >change, and learn new abilities, all of which are 'remembered' by the
> >game.  This can include anything from your skill with long blades to
> >scars to your character's birthday.
> 
> This would imply that simplistic level based MUDs with no character
> customisation outside of name, level, inventory, and possibly current
> HP value are not MUDs.  (cf MUD2, Shades, most Abers, etc).

Maybe in today's world they do barely qualify, but that's still enough
for me.  In Quake you have none of those things.  Even just saving
your name is a step in the right direction; remembering what you
are wearing, carrying, the description you've typed in for yourself, and
whatever else is good enough for me.
Of course, Diablo does this as well, but the problem there is not so
much with the characters.  (Although they are certainly plenty limited,
but still good enough to qualify for a mud in my book.)  The problem
there is that there is no persistent world; you just pop in and out of various
'games' as they appear and disappear.  Actually I'm not real knowledgable
about this as I've never played either net Quake or net Diablo, but I have
seen friends playing both enough to know how they work.

So for a mud you need a persistent, customizable world, and a (potentially
large number of) persistent, customizable characters who all exist in that
same world.  Not all that tall of an order - I see no reason someone couldn't
fool around with the Quake engine for a bit and come up with a perfectly
good mud server.  (Well, I wouldn't play it, but it would still qualify as
a mud.)