[MUD-Dev] Influential muds

[Koster]

So I learned an interesting bit of historical mud trivia this weekend. I
always knew that Merc MobProgs were derived somehow from Worlds of Carnage's
acts system. But I never knew how. I was informed that they were coded up in
crude imitation of Carnage's acts by Satin, a Carnage immort, who was
starting a mud with Heretic, another Carnage immort. After their startup mud
went bust, Satin released MobProgs to the Merc guys.

Before this happened, however, a bunch of Carnage players had already
started their own Diku-derivative with an embedded script system--Legend.
Legend beat Carnage to installing a skill-based system by mere months--but
Carnage did (apparently) develop the concept of the "tutorial object"--in
Carnage's case, this was a "newbie sword" as has been discussed on this list
before. Eventually many of the Legend people were hired by Origin for Ultima
Online.

But shortly before that Mike Sellers offered one of them (me) a job on
Meridian 59. I couldn't take it because of Origin, so I suggested Heretic,
aka Damion Schubert. He went on to be a key designer on Meridian 59, and
even hired Satin as a scripter on that project.

Not all that long ago I recruited him to Origin... our careers seem forever
linked.

But it brought to my awareness how influential Worlds of Carnage was in the
contemporary commercial mud arena--for a mud that never had more than 80
players. :)

So my question is something that sort of overlaps material that is in the
FAQ, but not really. What do you think are the most important and/or
influential muds, and why? What contributions did they make to the state of
the art, or what significant muds owe a lot to them?

-Raph