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Interactive Multi-User Computer Games
Dr Richard Bartle,
MUSE Ltd.,
34, Grantham Road,
Great Horkesley,
Colchester,
Essex.
CO6 4TU.
UK.
email: Richard%tharr.UUCP@ukc.ac.uk
Copyright (c) MUSE Ltd, British Telecom plc.
December, 1990.
Abstract.
This is a short research report
covering the field of interactive,
multi-user computer games. Its main
component is a comprehensive overview
of what presently constitute the most
important products in this category.
The report ends in a discussion of ways
by which existing services may be
improved to the benefit of both the
user and the vendor.
Author's note: this document grew from
a longer report commissioned by British
Telecom plc. It is commercially
oriented, so was delayed for six months
after delivery prior to being made
publicly available. Certain
commercially sensitive details have
still had to be struck out, in
particular a comprehensive contact list
of leading people in the field.
Furthermore, some of the information
(particularly that concerning game
access) has been superseded since it
was written. I hope that what remains
is nevertheless of some use.
MUSE Ltd Contents
1. Introduction. 1
1.1 The Field of Study. 1
1.2 Narrowing the Field of Study. 2
1.3 Acceptance Criteria. 3
1.4 Categories of IMPCGs. 4
1.5 Brief History (Industry). 5
1.6 Brief History (Academia). 6
2. Game Architecture. 7
2.1 Technical Aspects. 7
2.2 Operational Aspects. 8
2.3 Managerial Aspects. 10
2.4 Scenarios. 12
2.5 Clients. 13
2.6 Bots. 14
2.7 Indicators. 14
Breadth 14
Depth 15
Size 16
Parser 16
Players 17
Role-playing 18
Wiz Powers 18
Age 20
Gameplay 20
Atmosphere 21
3. Reviewing Strategy. 23
3.1 Review Format. 23
3.2 Accuracy. 23
3.3 Locations. 24
3.4 Genealogy. 26
4. Reviews - UK. 28
4.1 Federation II. 28
4.2 Gods. 33
4.3 MirrorWorld. 40
4.4 MUD2. 46
4.5 Shades. 55
4.6 AberMUG. 65
4.7 Avalon. 66
4.8 Bloodstone. 73
4.9 Empyrion. 79
4.10 MIST. 81
4.11 Mosaic. 83
4.12 Prodigy. 89
4.13 Quest. 93
4.14 Realm. 96
4.15 Trash. 97
4.16 Void. 101
4.17 Zone. 106
4.18 Chaos World of Wizards. 112
4.19 Rock. 116
4.20 Sector 7. 118
4.21 Other MUAs. 119
5. Reviews - Rest of the World. 131
Contents MUSE Ltd
5.1 British Legends. 131
5.2 Gemstone III. 134
5.3 Other Commercial MUAs. 137
5.4 AberMUD. 139
5.5 LPMUD. 143
5.6 TinyMUD. 149
5.7 TinyMUCK. 156
5.8 TinyMUSH. 159
5.9 TinyMOO. 161
5.10 UberMUD. 163
5.11 Other InterNet MUAs. 165
6. Reviews - Non-MUAs. 175
6.1 Fantasy Sports. 179
6.2 Island of Kesmai. 181
6.3 Sniper! 188
6.4 The Spy. 191
7. Discussion. 194
7.1 Organisation. 194
7.2 Why Do People Play? 194
7.3 Why Do People Not Play? 207
7.4 Why Do People Stop Playing? 211
7.5 What Does the Future Hold? 219
7.6 Conclusion. 225
Introduction MUSE Ltd
1. Introduction.
1.1 The Field of Study.
"Interactive, multi-user computer games":
despite containing three adjectives, the phrase is
wide-ranging in its coverage. The first task in
reviewing the area must therefore be to formulate a set
of criteria that can be used to determine whether a
system should, or should not, be the object of study.
The term 'games' refers to those pastimes
which are undertaken primarily for the purpose of
entertaining the user (or, in this context, player).
Although games can be designed for business or
educational use, rather than solely for leisure-time
activity, nevertheless to qualify they must somehow be
"fun". They also need a set of rules, and, if
competitive, some means of gauging how close the player
is to "winning" (ie. meeting a predefined overall
objective). Additionally, most require some skill on
the part of the players. In cases where modelling the
real world is a significant aspect of a game, it may be
referred to as a 'simulation' (although not all
simulations are games).
'Computer games' are games which are played
against, moderated by, or played using, a computer. In
rare cases, they can be played between computers.
'Multi-player computer' games are computer-run
games that several individuals can play simultaneously.
'Interactive, multi-player computer games' are
those computer-run games where the individual players
can issue commands which affect the way the game treats
other players.
This specific-seeming definition nevertheless
admits such activities as two friends playing a pinball
down at the local pub. It's a game, there's a computer
inside it controlling everything, it'll entertain up to
four players taking turns, and one player's score
affects the extent to which the other players will take
risks (and, hence, is a means of interaction).
Nevertheless, a pinball is not what is generally
regarded as an interactive, multi-player computer game;
indeed, if it were, then the range of other games that
also fit the definition would reduce any overall
analysis to a level of vague generalities.
1 MUSE Ltd Introduction
1.2 Narrowing the Field of Study.
It is necessary to discard from consideration
those games which lie outside the spirit of the
definition. 'Computer games' in this context are those
games which run solely on general-purpose computers.
This excludes machines hard-wired to play one game
(chess, space invaders, pinball), but still includes
certain categories of games machine (Sega, Nintendo,
modern video games).
If a game is to be 'multi-player', there are
three alternatives: several people playing on the same
machine in the same room; several people playing over a
LAN; several people playing over a public network. In
practice, only the latter is worth considering: games
in the first category tend to be commercial flops
unless the multi-player facility is merely a gimmicky
extension to an essentially single-player game; games
in the second category rarely sell, because most LANs
are company-owned and are unavailable for leisure
activities (although within the next few years they may
be introduced into amusement arcades).
Thus, 'multi-player computer games' can be
reduced to those which individuals contact over some
public network, eg. that of the telephone. However,
this further constrains the architecture of such games,
in that unless users all have similar, tamper-proof
machines, the bulk of processing must be centralised
within a single computer (or a cluster). Otherwise,
system security would be compromised. Although some
processing can be done locally (graphics, sound
effects, parsing etc.), nothing multi-user can be
trusted to a user's home machine. Even in situations
where all players are known to have identical hardware
and software (as is the case with games consoles),
unless one machine is in overall control there is a
dangerous susceptibility to the sudden system failure
of a component machine. Distributed games are not, for
the moment at least, viable.
A special case is that of two-player games.
With players who can trust one another not to cheat,
modem-to-modem games can be played in distributed
fashion. If finding a player is difficult, contact
agencies can pair people up (CompuServe in the USA, for
example, has a "Challenge Forum" for people wishing to
find opponents for tandem games such as Falcon, Flight
Simulator 3, Modem Wars, 'Vette and Omega). In this
instance, the host machine is merely acting as a
bulletin board or matchmaker. However, there do exist
two-player games where major processing is done on the
contact machine itself.
This leaves us with a set of games where the
players have computers which they use as front-ends to
access a (usually larger) computer, upon which the
games themselves run. There are some games of the FIST
variety where the user can dial telephone numbers to
2 Introduction MUSE Ltd
issue commands, but no such games have anything that is
not subsumed by some aspect of play-by-modem games; not
even the emerging voice-activated telephone games are
much of an advance.
Finally, what is meant by the term
'interactive' when applied to multi-player computer
games? Actually, the word is ambiguous: it can mean
"allowing players to act upon one another", but also
merely "on-line" (in a computer sense). Both these
meanings are, to some extent, already implied. Although
being multi-player indicates that there is some degree
of awareness of other individuals playing at the same
time (if you can't tell by playing that it's multi-
player, it may as well not be), 'interactive'
emphasises the requirement that players be able to do
things with and to each other. This is exemplified by
the ability to communicate freely. Limited forms of
communication using standard protocols are possible in
certain games (eg. bridge), but in general the players
have to be able to send messages to one another in
free-form natural language if they are to communicate
effectively.
Inter-player communication not the end of it,
however, because an ordinary chatline program can
perform such a function; a chatline, though, is not a
game. There may be conventions observed by
participants, but there are no formal rules of play,
and there is no way to "win" - or even advance in
status - on a chatline. To be an interactive, multi-
player game, communication between players is
necessary, but not sufficient; players need to be able
to do things to one another that, within the framework
of the game, will have a tangible effect.
1.3 Acceptance Criteria.
To summarise, then, for the purposes of the
remainder of this report, an interactive, multi-player
computer game (IMPCG) is something which satisfies the
following criteria:
- It is played by people primarily for fun.
- It has a set of rules, and an overall game-
dependent objective.
- You need a general-purpose computer to play it.
- It runs primarily on a central computer,
connected to the players' computers over a public
network.
- More than one person can play it
simultaneously.
- Players can communicate with one another in
real time, using a natural language (eg. English).
- Players can issue commands independently which
may affect the status of other players within the game.
3 MUSE Ltd Introduction
1.4 Categories of IMPCGs.
Existing interactive, multi-player computer
games satisfying the above criteria are, in the main,
programs sharing a common heritage known variously as
MUGs (Multi-User Games), MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons,
Multi-User Dimensions) and MUAs (Multi-User
Adventures). Although the terms are often used
interchangeably, there are technical distinctions:
MUG - Used mainly by journalists and people
who don't know any better. A UK-only term. Vague -
soccer is a "multi-user game" - but employed in the
present context the term refers to any on-line computer
game, whether interactive or not. Scrabble by modem is
a MUG (and, on Minitel, a very popular one).
MUD - Ambiguous in that it can refer not only
to a class of interactive, multi-player computer games,
but also to a particular game (the first one of this
genre). In the UK, normally the specific form is used,
but elsewhere 'MUDs' is generic.
MUA - Perhaps the most accurate description.
Multi-user adventures are, simply, adventure games for
more than one player. Adventure is a term already used
to refer to a popular form of single-player computer
game, such as those produced by Infocom, Level 9 and
Magnetic Scrolls. The very first adventure game (now
called Colossal Cave) was originally entitled
Adventure. MUA is used by purists, but rarely appears
in non-technical magazine articles due to its being
hard to incorporate into witty headlines.
However, for the remainder of this report the
acronym MUA will be used to refer to this kind of
IMPCG. This is because MUG is too general (and unused
outside the UK), and MUD is ambiguous.
MUAs are not the only IMPCGs, just the dominant
form. There are other games which satisfy our adopted
criteria, but they are one-off individuals, not classes
of games. Examples are Island of Kesmai, You guessed
it! and Sniper on CompuServe. All are characterised by
communication and interaction, and they do not play the
same as MUAs. They can, however, each be seen as a
specialised form of MUA, and could, for example,
readily be programmed in the better MUA definition
languages.
This report will therefore concentrate on MUAs
as best exemplifying IMPCGs, while making reference to
other games that also qualify when appropriate.
4 Introduction MUSE Ltd
1.5 Brief History (Industry).
Present day MUAs are all descendents of a
single game known as MUD (Multi-User Dungeon; to avoid
confusion with the generic term, the game will be
referred to as MUD1 for the remainder of this report).
Although there were early attempts to turn single-
player adventures such as Colossal Cave and Zork into
multi-player adventures, and there may have been
attempts to write MUAs from scratch, these came to
nothing or petered out. MUD1 was the first proper,
workable multi-user adventure game.
MUD1 was written by Roy Trubshaw and Richard
Bartle at Essex University on a DECsystem-10 mainframe.
Trubshaw began in Autumn 1979, and Bartle took over in
Summer 1980. Initially, the game was playable only by
students at the university and guests using (what was
then) EPSS. After a year or so, however, external
players began to direct-dial from home using modems,
and the game's popularity grew.
Many of MUD1's players found it difficult to
get a slot in the game, since the number of dial-up
ports on the university machine was limited, and
because the game was only available late at night when
there was spare processing capacity. Some of these
players wrote their own MUAs, based on MUD1 and using
similar commands. Among these were AMP, Gods and
Shades.
After a flurry of articles in computer hobby
magazines around 1984, MUD1's fame spread even wider.
Bartle and Trubshaw formed MUSE Ltd to rewrite the game
as MUD2, and run it on VAXes owned by a division of BT
then known as NIS (Network Information Services). Due
to an internal dispute between NIS and Prestel, Prestel
declined to take MUD2 as "their" MUA, and chose the
lookalike game Shades instead. MUD1 was, for two years,
available on the CompuNet network in the UK, but it was
removed when CompuNet discarded their DECsystem-10s. A
version of MUD1 still runs on CompuServe in the USA,
and, despite its venerable age, continues to be one of
their most profitable leisure products.
After a time, people who had played games based
on MUD1 wrote their own MUAs, and the process
snowballed. Nowadays, there are some twenty or more
MUAs in the UK of varying degrees of sophistication,
six of which (MUD2, Shades, Gods/The Zone, Federation
II, AberMUG and Bloodstone) are run on a commercial
basis. The UK leads the world in this technology,
despite the constraints of high communications charges
(even using PSS, it costs over 5 times more per hour to
call MUD2 than the game itself charges for playing).
This, then, is the state of the "industry" in
the UK. However, there are two almost disjoint streams
to the development of MUAs, the other one being based
in academia.
5 MUSE Ltd Introduction
1.6 Brief History (Academia).
With the publicity of the mid-1980's and the
advent of JANet (Joint Academic Network - free inter-
university networking), students at other universities
continued to play MUD1 at Essex (along with other games
written using the same shell, MIST being the main one).
These students also wrote their own MUD1-like games.
The first, AberMUD, was programmed at Aberystwyth, and
made available to other sites over JANet and InterNet.
This in turned spawned other MUAs based on it (TinyMUD,
LPMUD), which were distributed freely to (mainly Unix)
sites around the network. There are now some fifty
sites running versions of these games, and the sources
are available free to anyone who wants them. There is a
thriving NewsNet section dedicated to these games
(which are called "MUDs" by everyone), and new sites
are coming on stream all the time. They're mainly in
the USA, but can be found in many other countries as
well. Only one game is run commercially, an incarnation
of AberMUD called AberMUG, which was mentioned earlier;
a version of TinyMUD has appeared alongside Gods, but
as a test and without any publicity.
It can thus be seen that at present there are
two almost completely disjoint MUA camps. Few people in
one group are aware of people in the other. At present,
the best games are the top-notch UK professional MUAs,
but with the huge number of US academics presently
engaged in MUA activity, it is only a matter of time
before players over there start writing their own
versions and marketing them commercially. Unless the UK
can maintain the lead that history has given it, these
American MUAs will doubtless come to dominate the scene
over the coming years.
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6 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
2. Game Architecture.
2.1 Technical Aspects.
To gain the most from reviews of MUAs, some
understanding is required of how such games work. In
essence, they can be regarded as high-level operating
systems. Players log in to a host computer
interactively over an appropriate network. The host
computer usually has a fast processor and lots of disc
space, because MUAs are computationally expensive.
Players type commands on their own home micro, which
are passed through the network to the host computer.
This takes commands from all players, executes these
commands (usually asynchronously - ie. in turn - but
sometimes synchronously under timesharing), and sends
information back based on how the commands were
interpreted in the game context. This information is
then displayed on the players' computers. Thus, it can
be seen that players' own computers act as 'front-end'
processors for the host, handling all i/o. Although
most front-ends are dumb, in that they send raw
commands and print raw output, some are intelligent
enough that they can draw pictures when instructed,
word-wrap, produce sound effects, and so on.
The game running on the host computer will be
either 'Interpreted' or 'compiled'. Interpreted games
are written in a MUA-specific definition language of
the programmer's own design, and are flexible, easy to
modify, robust and slow. Compiled games are hard-coded
in a standard implementation language such as C, and
are inflexible, hard to make changes to, fragile and
fast. The better games are interpreted and use fast
hardware.
The way games behave is determined by a
definition file, commonly called a 'database'. For
interpreted games, it is rarely a database in the
conventional sense of the word, being more akin to a
program. It becomes a database when converted into
internal data structures and loaded into memory. Even
compiled games rarely use a true database for
definition purposes.
Interpreted games can behave radically
different given contrasting databases as input.
Compiled games will generally use the database only for
text. Interpreted games are managed by an interpreter
program, which can take as input the database of any
game written in the appropriate definition language.
Thus, having written an interpreter for one target
machine, any MUA written for it will automatically run
on all other machines for which interpreters exist.
This is not the case for compiled games, which must be
written virtually from scratch for each game.
In executing players' commands, the process is
one of database management. Players issue commands in a
stylised form of (usually) English. This is parsed into
7 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
a tuple normally of the form verb/object/instrument.
The game uses these tuples to look up instructions in
an internalised database query language, and those
instructions are then executed to interrogate or modify
the database. Success/failure messages are passed back
to the player who issued the command, and to other
players entitled to receive them.
2.2 Operational Aspects.
From the players' point of view, the underlying
mechanisms are of little or no interest. To them, MUAs
are environments where things happen. Players have
'personae', which exist in a world elsewhere. The
computer is their interface to this otherworld,
carrying out their orders and reporting back to them
what has happened. MUAs are sprawling landscapes,
richly described, and you can try anything (within
reason) that you like.
Taking a less poetic view, MUAs are made up of
'objects', which have properties. Some of the objects
represent rooms, others represent players, and others
represent ordinary/non-special objects. Rooms are
linked together in a network by means of 'exit'
properties, and each has a 'contents' property (ie. a
list of objects the room contains - it can be the empty
list). If a player object is in one room, then
executing for that player a movement command (eg.
"north") involves taking the following steps:
1) Find the room which has, in its contents
property list, the object that represents the player
who issued the command.
2) On the inter-room network (the 'travel table'),
follow the north exit property for this room to find
another room.
3) Remove from the contents property list of the
first room the object representing the player who
issued the command.
4) Add that object to the contents property list
of the second room.
5) Check through all other objects in the contents
property list of the first room: for any that represent
a player, send the message "<name> has left." to that
player's front-end, where <name> is a string property
associated with the persona of the player who issued
the command.
6) Check through all other objects in the contents
property list of the second room: for any that
represent a player, send the message "<name> has
arrived." to that player's front-end.
7) Send to the front-end of the player who issued
the command the description property of the second
room.
From this example, it can be seen that MUAs are
really little more than a framework of discrete objects
which players can manipulate by commands, with an
additional facility for persona-directed message-
sending. In a well-designed game, the ways in which
8 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
objects can be manipulated bear a close resemblance to
the real world, so that when a player uses a command
like "drop" the result can be predicted relatively
easily. Poorer games may not allow objects to be
handled in ways that one might expect they should be,
eg. it might be impossible to place one object inside
another. Some MUAs are underconstrained in this
respect, eg. you can place a large object inside a
smaller one.
In addition to objects representing players and
rooms, there is a third category of special object in
many games, 'mobiles'. These objects represent
"intelligent" inhabitants of the MUA's environment, but
rather than being controlled by players, instead they
act under the instructions of the game itself. At
worst, this means they act mindlessly, moving around on
a fixed course and attacking things at random. At best,
they can communicate, pick up and drop objects, and
have at their disposal the full set of commands
available to "real" players.
To become games, rather than clever but boring
world modelling systems, players have to be given a
goal. The commonest way to implement this is by
associating with players a score property that can be
incremented if the player performs the right series of
actions. Normally, this involves seeking out objects
designated as treasure, and depositing them in some
given location. However, in most games such points can
also be gained for solving puzzles, or for winning
fights against mobiles or other players. When players
have accumulated enough points, they go up a level of
experience, and gain more powers. Reaching the final
level is the overall goal, and at that stage powers are
granted which are so considerable that the player can
use them to change the very character of the game,
hopefully to its benefit. This top level is usually
'wiz' (short for 'wizard/witch'), but recently the word
'god' has become increasingly popular in newer games
whose authors want to emphasise the rewards of reaching
the top. There is sometimes an 'arch-wiz' level, which
is invitation-only and used for game-management
purposes.
Fighting is part and parcel of most MUAs,
although some deliberately omit the concept, either for
programming reasons, moral reasons, or both. In fights,
a player or mobile attempts to cause damage to another
player or mobile. If more damage is given than the
victim can receive in total, then the fight finishes
and the victim "dies". What happens to their persona
then depends on the game: it is either eliminated, or
it is allowed to return (but usually at a lower points
total). The loser's fate may also depend on who started
the fight. Fights proceed either automatically, with
blows occurring until one player flees or is killed, or
on a blow-by-blow basis. The former is fairer in fights
against players with fast comms links or against
mobiles, but the latter is more realistic.
9 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
The concept of the 'reset' is central to many
MUAs. With several people in the game, puzzles will
rapidly be solved and objects swiftly removed from
play. After a time, there is nothing left to do. At
this point, the game resets, ie. it starts afresh, with
only players' personae remaining as they were
previously. Doors that were opened are closed, dead
mobiles are resurrected, and objects are arranged in
their original places. In some games, players can
continue to play earlier sessions until they quit, and
in others everyone is ejected. With 'rolling resets',
objects are replaced individually without disrupting
the flow of the game. Although this is less harsh on
the players, it can make planning your future actions
difficult, and the game is usually lacking in complex
puzzles as these can be hard to invert. Games that
don't have any sort of reset either exist around the
concept of performing quests of some kind, are
primarily for building your own worlds, or are
incredibly boring to play.
A recent trend has emerged for MUAs which do
not place much emphasis on puzzle-solving, but instead
focus on world-design issues. Players are allowed to
add rooms and objects (rarely commands)
indiscriminately. Other players then explore these
areas. Little goes on here that could be called
"gaming", and the whole exercise can be seen as a means
of providing common subject matter for people to talk
about in what is really just a thinly-veiled chatline.
Nevertheless, there are conventional MUAs where object-
creation by wizzes is encouraged as a means of
providing new and original puzzles for non-wizzes
(mortals) to solve. As this is a post-MUD1 concept,
however, most of the older games and their descendents
are not specified highly enough to be able to implement
it.
Since they are all descended from MUD1, MUAs
have a common core of commands, the following of which
are the bare minimum necessary: movement commands,
'get', 'drop', 'quit', 'say', 'inventory', 'score' and
'help'. Most also have 'kill', although some do not (by
design).
2.3 Managerial Aspects.
Running a MUA is not simply a case of mounting
a game on a computer and inviting all-comers to play.
MUAs arouse such emotions in their players that they
will often resort to lying, cheating and vitriolic
abuse to achieve whatever goals they have set
themselves. Many games have suffered from poor
management; what seems good in the short term can have
serious long-term consequences concerning the game's
playability and its attractiveness to players.
As well as the rules which are encapsulated by
what the game will allow players to do, MUAs also have
10 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
a set of (usually unwritten) rules that define the
boundaries of reasonable behaviour. Although some MUAs
may allow swearing, for example, others will not. Many
MUAs disallow a practice known as 'looby-looing', where
one persona takes all the risks to gain points for
another persona (normally owned by the same player).
MUAs with fighting will generally take a grim view of
players who 'pslam' (ie. hang up the phone) during
combat. When people reach wiz level, they have powers
to harass and victimise mortals beyond all endurance,
and should keep themselves in check. What happens if
they don't, though? Should they be punished? If so,
how?
Answering these questions is the essence of
game management. Good managers with years of experience
behind them are rare in MUAs - most new MUA managers
have little or no idea of this aspect of the game when
they start up. Once they have gained the required
expertise, it's often too late to do anything about it,
especially in a pay MUA where customers would lose the
results of years of effort were the persona file to be
reinitialised (the last resort!).
Although under-management is the most common
fault in MUAs, over-management (when it happens) is
worse. The consequences of accusing innocent players of
doing things they haven't will drive away more players
than will allowing a guilty player to play
unchallenged.
It is beyond the brief of this report to go
into details of how a MUA should properly be managed;
it is sufficient to point out that games can be wrecked
by the antics of the people in overall control (however
well-meaning they are). To give some flavour of what
can and does go wrong, though, here is a list of common
mistakes:
- Granting too much power to inexperienced
people. Players who are given the ability to interfere
with other players without fear of repercussions will
do so unless they have learned already the full
consequences of such actions.
Usual cause: too few points required to reach
wiz.
- Giving too much power to stupid people. As
above, except that the player is too dim to realise
they're doing wrong. Sad, because some dim people plod
on for years striving to make wiz.
Usual cause: no way for non-stupid people to
eliminate the stupid people, eg. death by fighting.
- Reinstating people who "lose" points through no
fault of the game's. What happens is that people take
advantage, claiming for "lost" points they never had in
the first place. Points should only be given back if
they were lost through a game fault, and then only if a
small number of players were affected.
11 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
Usual cause: belief that no-one would lie to
you.
- Failing to remove persistent offenders. If you
allow disruptive elements to continue playing, they'll
just push the limits of acceptable behaviour back even
further the next time. Getting rid of one bad guy and
ten hangers-on will net more good guys in the long run.
Usual cause: giving "one last chance" too
often.
- Favouring some players over others, and letting
them off when they make a mistake because you know they
didn't mean it, or they're friendly, or they were
drunk, or they have twenty messages of support from
friends. The majority of players may remain silent, but
they won't forget the inconsistency when you hammer
someone else for committing basically the same offence.
Usual cause: believing the flattery of others.
2.4 Scenarios.
MUAs implement an imaginary world. There are no
constraints on this at all, except those imposed by the
operations allowed on the database and the objects the
database can represent.
MUD1 was set in a fantasy environment, ie. a
vaguely medieval world where magic works and dragons
are real. Most of the first generation of lookalike
games stayed in the genre, partly because the authors
liked that kind of game (or they wouldn't have played
MUD1), and partly because MUD1 could be used as a
source of ideas for commands, spells, monsters and so
forth.
As MUD1 was interpreted, it was possible to use
the same shell to interpret alternative databases, and
experiments were done into other domains. These
included ITV's Fraggle Rock, Essex University's
computing department, various aborted science fiction
worlds, and more assorted fantasy environments.
Nowadays, although fantasy still predominates,
MUAs are set in the whole range of scenarios popular
among face-to-face role-playing games players
(cyberpunk, 1920's Lovecraftian horror, Arthurian
Britain) plus others beside. Some of the DIY-style MUAs
have all of them together in a colourful tapestry (or
hotch-potch, depending on your degree of cynicism) of
intermingled milieux.
The setting of a MUA is one of the most
important things about it. In choosing between two
competing MUAs, players will select the one with the
atmosphere they like the best, be it a gloomy, dark
future, mystique-laden high fantasy, or dreamy spirit-
world. Although the other players contribute greatly to
this, the primary source of atmosphere is the game
itself. For text-based MUAs (which almost all are), the
12 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
impact of well-written room and objects descriptions on
new players cannot be understated. However, writing
these descriptions is no easy thing - an average sized
game can easily have a novel's worth of material
embedded in the way it describes locations.
2.5 Clients.
Although they are not strictly part of a game,
clients can greatly enhance its attractiveness to
players. Authors of these programs command respect from
the MUA-playing community commensurate with that of MUA
authors.
Clients are programs that are run on the front-
end of a MUA, and their purpose is to make playing the
game easier. They are basically comms programs, and
although they preponderate in the academic MUA world,
nevertheless there are clients for commercial games.
Usually, a client is written specific to one MUD, but
some function adequately with others.
As well as basic i/o and network management,
clients let you do things like:
- gag a player (not print any lines containing
that player's persona name)
- highlight a player (print that player's persona
name in reverse video or a stronger colour)
- log all i/o to a file for later perusal
- define macros, so a few keystrokes can expand
into a longer command string
- load files and transmit them as if they had
been typed directly
- perform screen functions, directing text of
different origin to different windows
- log in to a MUA automatically (sometimes also
concurrently)
- set trigger commands to be executed
automatically when a given event occurs
- use command buffering to pull back previous
command lines, edit them them, and transmit them to the
MUA
- repeat commands any number of times
- fork a shell process to gain access to the
operating system
Clients can also be used to do sound effects
and graphics, but are always MUA-specific in such
cases.
13 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
2.6 Bots.
Bots ("robots") are programs which play MUAs
using the same interface as players. Like clients, they
are not part of the MUA per se, but their programmers
are considered important individuals in the MUA field.
Apart from some experimental versions in the commercial
sector, all present-day bots run on academic MUA sites.
On the face of it, bots are indistinguishable from
players, although from their reaction to events and
communication they can invariably be recognised for
what they are. Bots predominate on MUAs which are not
sophisticated enough to have intelligent mobiles,
however in the future there may be some mobiles that
evolve into bots so they can be run on another CPU.
Bots are not as popular now as they were at
first, because after the novelty wore off they lacked
any real lustre, and people became bored with them.
Also, they tend to crash the (surprisingly fragile)
academic MUAs upon which they run, and can generate
lots of background "noise" that irritates players. When
several bots were run at once on individual MUAs, that
also angered human players.
Bots are usually able to perform the following
types of action:
- mapping
- reaction to keywords
- the registering and forgetting of players over
time
- liking and disliking players
- obeying commands from authorised players
(including repeat-until commands)
- the ability to log data to disc
- the ability to give help to players
- movement
- the creation and use their own macros
- communication with players (usually not too
well, but sometimes using an expert system interface)
2.7 Indicators.
To compare MUAs against one another
scientifically, some means of assessing their strengths
and weaknesses in important areas must be established.
It is beyond the scope of this report to suggest a
formal approach to this; however, the main parameters
by which a MUA is commonly judged should be expressed,
so as to help place the reviews of individual MUAs in a
wider context.
When considering a MUA, then, experienced
players and reviewers look at the following indicators:
'Breadth'
The breadth of a MUA is the extent to which it
is able to deal with things the players want to do. If
a game has trees and an axe, then it is reasonable to
assume that players will attempt to fell the trees.
14 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
Likewise, if it has water then players will try to
swim, and if it has a spade they will try to dig. They
will also try to write, sing, throw, sleep, and perform
similar "reasonable" actions. The more commands a game
is able to cope with, the greater its breadth. Giving a
stock "I don't understand that" or "You can't do that"
response shows a lack of robustness. Games with the
greatest breadth cover eventualities most players would
never consider, such as trying to open a door with a
skeleton, trying to read a "guardian" mobile as if it
were a newspaper, or hitting a sack and expecting to
fall asleep.
'Depth'
Depth expresses a sense of the level of detail
to which a MUA descends; it is sometimes called
'sophistication'. It is a dependent upon the physics of
the world which the MUA manages. Games with good depth
generally treat objects in a way which approximates the
real world. Games with bad depth will omit certain
concepts, or misimplement them. Dropping a glass object
on a hard surface "should" break it (unless there's a
game-related reason why not, eg. it's magic); dropping
it on a soft surface "shouldn't" break it. Placing a
small box inside a sack "should" be allowed; placing it
inside a sack which the box itself contains "shouldn't"
be allowed.
'Selective depth' is where the system can
handle a concept when applied to one kind of object,
but not to another. For example, rooms may be able to
contain objects, but boxes might not; players may be
able to carry objects but mobiles might not; a box may
be able to contain another box, but not if that second
box contains another object; players may be able to
enter a vehicle, but not drop things into it from
outside. Selective depth problems are usually caused by
omissions in the initial design of a MUA or by having
parts of the database designed by different people.
All MUAs are based on discrete objects, and are
consequently pressed when obliged to represent
continuous quantities such as fluids. Most MUAs can
handle containers, but almost all MUAs are unable to
model what happens when a jug containing 5 litres of
water is poured into a bowl with a 3 litre capacity.
Likewise, it is beyond the definition languages of most
MUAs even to express concepts like temperature or
density, let alone provide a working ontology.
Another representational problem concerns
compositionality. If 1,300 matchsticks have been made
into a model of the Eiffel Tower, and 700 are removed,
does that leave a 600-matchstick model? What if 1,299
were removed? What if only 1 was? What if the
matchsticks were made into something else? Even the
best MUAs have tremendous difficulty in this area, and
it is therefore either avoided completely or simplified
by use of a "make" command that only works with certain
other objects as ingredients.
Since the idea of rooms is central to MUAs,
there is often a problem with things that happen across
room boundaries. Line-of-sight is hard to implement, as
15 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
are determining the direction from which distant noises
come, representing smoke or weather that covers a wide
area, and inclusion of "small" rooms that can only hold
a certain volume, eg. inside a grandfather clock. Some
MUAs are (co-ordinate) point-based rather than room-
based, which makes directional calculations easier, but
they have related problems in dealing with objects
larger than the granularity of the points.
MUAs with great depth can suffer if too much
detail is given to the players. Players do not like
being asked over which joint of which finger of which
hand they wish a ring to be placed. They don't like
being informed of how many petals there are on the
flower they have just picked, nor do they want a 400-
line description of the painting they are looking at.
If a MUA deals with details, it should only bring them
to the attention of players when it is important to do
so (either for breadth or puzzle-solving reasons).
Detail for its own sake is tedious.
'Size'
The size of a MUA is easy to gauge in terms of
raw data: it is the number of rooms (or locations) that
the MUA contains. This can be deceptive: a MUA
consisting of a 100 by 100 grid can claim to have
10,000 rooms, however if it did then it would need a a
large number of players to populate it - even 50
players wouldn't meet each other often enough to
promote the interaction that makes MUAs such fun to
play. In reality, point-based MUAs actually have an
interaction radius that makes "nearby" players able to
see and hear one another. On a 100 by 100 grid, an
interaction radius of 5 would bring the effective
number of rooms down from 10,000 to around 400.
Some of the world-construction MUAs do actually
have thousands of rooms in the conventional sense. Even
though they have large numbers of people playing
simultaneously, they are nevertheless sparse. Unless
players can easily find out where other players are
located, and can easily get to those locations, these
games may as well be single-user.
There are other factors determining the feel of
how big a game is, such as the mean distance of rooms
from the start, and how many people play at once. These
are flexible, though, and for a commercial MUA any
figure from about 200 rooms to 1,000 will probably be
OK. New games that boast thousands of rooms are not, on
the whole, to be taken seriously.
'Parser'
The format of commands acceptable to a MUA is
important, as it is the only means by which players can
describe what they wish to do in the game. The part of
the MUA which converts input into a form that the game
can execute is the parser. The absolute minimum
requirement is that <verb>, <verb> <object> and <verb>
<object> <preposition> <instrument> are catered for.
Good parsers allow adverbs, and will fold these
and prepositions into the verb to produce a new verb:
the sentence "go west quickly" might, for example,
16 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
convert into the tuple run/west; "put the apple in the
box" might convert into insert/apple/box. Similarly,
good parsers allow adjectives to apply to nouns, as in
"get the gnarled stick".
In commercial MUAs, where speed is of the
essence, a good parser will make life easier for
players by accepting abbreviations ("k z w ls" - "kill
the zombie with the longsword"), and by allowing
players to define their own abbreviations (synonyms)
and macros. Easy ways to repeat commands are also
common (eg. "w.." to mean "go west twice"), as are
pronouns (eg. "tickle him" instead of "tickle
Aloysius").
These syntactic features can easily be
incorporated into a client, rather than be part of the
parser. However, clients can not help at the semantic
level. Some commands imply things by their use which
are not stated explicitly. The simplest example is the
implied string ("say this is interesting" instead of
"say 'this is interesting'"), but there are also
implied objects ("open door" meaning "open the door
using whatever key I'm holding that fits") and implied
bindings ("drop weapon" meaning "drop the weapon I'm
holding, not the one on the floor").
'Binding' is the process whereby a parser ties
a noun to a set of specific objects, and it functions
best when there is a classification hierarchy defining
a partial order over all objects. For example, if a
spoon is of type gold, and gold is of type metal, and
metal is of type solid, then any of "drop spoon", "drop
gold", "drop metal" or "drop solid" will drop the
spoon, along with other objects of the class named.
Most older MUAs do not have a classification hierarchy,
but, with the advent of object-oriented programming,
many newer ones do.
'Players'
A powerful reason for playing a MUA is the
quality and quantity of the other players. Indeed, for
some MUAs that's the only reason to play them - the
games are otherwise void of redeeming features.
The first metric to use when assessing players
is their number. There's a minimum population for every
MUA, below which the game is not sustainable and will
die. This varies for each MUA, but if you play for
extended periods and see few other players, the chances
are that it needs an influx of newcomers to survive.
Games that aren't intrinsically much fun to play need a
larger user base than those that are, if they're to
remain viable. Any game on a large network is likely to
be popular if it has no challengers.
After number, the type of player is worth
considering. MUAs which are played mainly by teenagers
are more likely to be violent and acrimonious than
those played mainly by adults in their thirties.
Although it is true that certain scenarios will attract
a given type of player and others will not, and that
therefore the type of players are really only a
reflection of the design of the game itself, this does
not always follow: an expensive game will tend to be
17 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
played only by people with sufficient disposable
income, and would thereby effectively disqualify
students from it. The gender of players is also a good
indicator of how a game will be played: if there are
more of one gender than another, eg. 10% female to 90%
male, then gender tends to matter little; with a more
even distribution, eg. 45% female to 65% male, games
can rapidly become little more than dating agencies if
improperly managed. In almost all cases, there are more
males than females who play a MUA (that's in real life:
the gender of the persona a player is controlling does
not have to be the same as that of the player).
A further signal that a game might be less
entertaining than it should be is the wiz/mortal ratio.
If there are more players with game-altering powers at
their disposal than there are without, playing as a
mortal can be hell, with constant interference from
above. It also devalues the overall goal if there are
so many wizzes that it seems "anyone" can become one.
Top-heavy games are hard to deal with, because once
players have reached wiz level it is often impossible
to remove them without causing even worse problems.
Finally, if you really want to know what a MUA
is like, the players are the best way to find out. Just
ask them. After a few minutes of conversation, you'll
have learned more about the MUA than hours of playing
would ever tell you.
'Role-playing'
Many MUAs make a big thing out of being role-
playing games. Strictly speaking, such a game is one
where players choose a personality other than their
own, and try to behave in character all the time.
Theoretically, then the more freedom players have to
define their personae, the better suited a game is for
role-play. However, in practice the term is often used
to refer to games where there are strictures on what a
player may or may not do - enforced role-play. Thus,
games with character classes, alignments, skill levels
and so on are usually understood to be role-playing in
nature. In MUAs where there is freedom to act however
one chooses, "I was only role-playing" is more often
heard as an excuse to justify antisocial behaviour that
the player regrets, eg. viciously attacking someone
else.
The role-playing issue can be looked on as a
distinction between 'hidden depth' and 'open depth'. A
game with open depth (lots of fussy, detailed
information made available to the players) looks more
impressive on the face of it than one with hidden depth
(players have to find out things for themselves).
Although the former are exciting to newcomers, the
latter are more rewarding in the long term.
'Wiz Powers'
Wiz powers are those command which (normally
only privileged) players are able to use on other
players, and against which there is no defence. Such
powers are important for two reasons: the desirability
of earning the right to wield them is an important
18 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
early driving force for mortals; they allow wizzes to
mould the game to their own personality, enriching it
and helping it to evolve.
There is less consistency in the naming of wiz
commands than there is for normal commands. This is
because people who write their own MUAs have not always
reached wiz level in another MUA, and are thus unaware
of existing conventions.
Having wide-ranging wiz powers is usually a
good thing, although having too few can be a blessing
in disguise for games with an over-large wiz/mortal
ratio. Most MUAs strive to provide a comprehensive
range of powers for their wizzes, although many of the
most potent wiz-only command often require facilities
which the implementation is unable to deliver. Among
these are:
- 'snooping'
Being able to copy someone else's textual i/o
to your own machine, while continuing to play yourself.
Multiple snoops are where several people can be watched
simultaneously.
- 'attaching'
Being able to control another player or mobile
using normal commands, receiving incoming text from
their point of view as if you were playing them
yourself. A lesser ability is 'dubbing', where your
speech appears to issue from the dubbed object, but
otherwise your commands refer to your own persona.
- multiple levels of invisibility
Not all games offer a means for players to
disappear from the view of others, but some do. Of
those, few permit selective invisibility, where one
category of player (eg. mortals) cannot see you, yet
another (eg. wizzes) can.
- object creation
The ability to manufacture arbitrary objects,
rooms, mobiles, whatever, and place them in the game.
These additions may or may not be permanent. Some games
allow anyone to perform such feats, notably in the
academic sector.
- command definition
Like object definition, but commands can be
added. Very dangerous, in practice, because commands
are, in effect, programs, and can thus crash, hang, hog
the cpu, and perform arbitrary alterations to the
game's data structures. Be wary of playing any new game
offering this facility until you obtain cast-iron
assurances that it's safe.
- 'proofing'
The ability to display arbitrary messages on
players' screens which they cannot distinguish from
those the game itself would send. Sometimes called
'illusion'. Primitive proofs are commonly available,
but multi-line proofs are uncommon, as are proofs which
are sent selectively to either individual players,
players in one location, or players satisfying some
audio-visual requirement (eg. players who are in the
dark should not receive messages telling them that a
butterfly is fluttering by).
19 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
- 'FODding'
The ability to delete a persona from the game,
completely. Sometimes known as 'blotting' or 'toading'.
"FOD" stands for "finger of death".
- 'teleporting'
The ability to move to an arbitrary location.
Can be extended to allow the movement of any object
from one locale to another, although this can cause
problems without the proper checks (objects that are
allowed to contain themselves can readily cause
crashes).
- 'pre/post-fixing'
Being able to change the way in which players
are described. Some games allow players to do this
themselves, which can have depressing results...
- 'tinkering'
Having the capacity to change anything in the
game whatsoever, akin to poking a Basic program. Very
dangerous, and if it's offered to more than a handful
of trusted people it will speedily render a game
unplayable.
As a postscript, the presence of some wiz
commands can greatly influence the way a game is played
and managed. In particular, if nowhere is safe from the
snoop command (or any form of logging), this greatly
discourages people from indulging in imaginative
sexually-oriented talk, and thus makes such MUAs more
acceptable to the parents of younger players and to
moral guardians.
'Age'
The length of time a MUA has been around can
reveal a great deal about it. First, it obviously
works, and is likely to be relatively free of bugs. It
is therefore stable. However, unless it is frequently
updated with new features and puzzles, it also runs the
risk of being stale. Furthermore, if it has a
comparatively fixed-size user base then it can
saturate the market, ie. everyone who is going to try
it has now done so. Old games also tend to be unable to
cope with the latest advances in MUA technology, and
become fossilised.
New games, on the other hand, are likely to be
unstable yet fresh, and can revitalise a user base that
another MUA has saturated. New MUAs will often contain
experimental features unavailable in most other games,
but if they're the authors' first attempt at a MUA then
they can still be fossilised, albeit in a more
contemporary setting. Only MUAs that are complete
rewrites of an earlier version are usually able to keep
up with future developments, since by then the design
team has acquired a degree of awareness of the
generality needed to maintain and improve upon their
MUA.
The ideal situation is where an old yet second-
generation MUA is given access to either an untapped
user base or one which existing MUAs have saturated.
'Gameplay'
A defining characteristic for a MUA is its
20 Game Architecture MUSE Ltd
gameplay. What's the overall goal, and how do you reach
it? Is there a hierarchy of player levels? Do personae
gain powers as they advance? Is there fighting - and
what happens to losers? Do the environment and command
set promote socialising, combat, puzzle-solving or
puzzle-designing?
Implicit in the way a game interprets players'
commands is a set of "rules" that decree what the game
will allow, and what activities are favoured. These
should support the game scenario, and not get in the
way. For example, a game with fifteen different
character classes and complex procedures for training
to acquire weapon and spell skills may go well with a
"city-state" scenario where there exists a complex
society and a legislature; however, it would get in the
way of a "wandering knights battling dragons" scenario.
Players should really be able to do what they want, and
if the game prevents them then there should be a sound
reason for it. New games announcing that players can be
elves, dwarfs, trolls, bunny rabbits and so on have to
be able to justify why these different types are
present. Artificial constraints ("if you want to be a
magic-user you can't be a troll") may give a veneer of
attention to detail, but rarely does it ever make much
difference.
One often-overlooked aspect of a MUA is its
treatment of newcomers. It is not good for a novice to
join a game, have no idea how to talk to people (and be
unable to find out), and to wander around for half an
hour and not see anything that could be picked up.
Ideally, there should be some mechanism to ensure that
even when a game is near to being played out of points-
giving objects and puzzles, novices should still be
able to find something. There should be on-line help,
and it's desirable to have the game provide unsolicited
hints if it is advanced enough to recognise when a
player is having trouble. For commercial games, a guest
account should be provided, and game walk-throughs (or,
if undertaken interactively, 'tours') ought to be
available. Rules and regulations should be kept to a
minimum - a daunting 100-page booklet describing how to
play the game may be intended to impress with its
depth, but it's more likely to scare off new players in
the long run.
Gameplay is immensely important, but only to
people who play primarily for gaming reasons. Compare
MUAs with board games: "real" boardgamers look at the
rules, decide on strategies, try them out, and play to
win; "occasional" boardgamers don't care much for game
realism if that means lots of rules to learn, and they
only indulge in games on social occasions, not really
caring whether they win or lose. MUAs can be geared to
be suitable for either serious or trivial users; the
best MUAs can cater for both.
'Atmosphere'
Finally, in judging a MUA there is the
crucially important but frustratingly intangible
quality of atmosphere. The scenario, the room and
object descriptions, the events that occur, the things
21 MUSE Ltd Game Architecture
the players say, all add up to a background feeling
that dictates the mood of the game.
It is difficult to determine whether a game
truly has atmosphere without playing it for some time,
however there are some things to watch out for which
are certainly not conducive to it.
A good sign that a game will lack atmosphere is
shoddy descriptions. Misspellings, poor punctuation,
incorrect grammar, tortuous phrases that dismally fail
to promote the feeling of brooding terror that its
thesaurus-wielding author hoped they would - all these
interrupt the flow of narrative and bring the player
momentarily into the real world instead of that of the
game. Other signals are improper articles ("a ox", "a
water"), bad gender possessives ("Susan taps you with
his bat") and numbered objects ("There is a rat22
here").
Subject matter plays a part. A wrecked pirate
ship with a vacuum cleaner in the hold may be supposed
to be funny, but it will jar on players' sensibilities.
If players have the ability to add things to the game
without their creations first being checked out for
consistency by someone with editorial control, there is
a very good chance that any overall sense of atmosphere
or mystique will be completely non-existent.
Different games have different atmospheres at
different times, and the same MUA may cycle between
murderous hack-and-slay and jovial sweetness-and-light
every six months. Something to beware of, though, is
the MUA which radiates joy and kindness all the time:
this is usually imposed on players in dictatorial
fashion from above, in "you will be nice!" style. Since
no-one can possibly get on with everyone else forever,
a seething mass of hatred builds up, and when it
bubbles over there are terrible recriminations.
Games can have their atmosphere disturbed by
external factors, such as an uncertain future or a
price rise, and almost every MUA has its prophets of
doom who will tell anyone willing to listen that the
game has gone downhill since the "fun" days of
yesteryear, and it's only a matter of time before it
keels over. Reviewers who are talking to players should
be ready to hear this kind of morose rambling, and only
give it credit if it is substantiated in talks with
others.???????????????????????????????
22 Reviewing Strategy MUSE Ltd
3. Reviewing Strategy.
3.1 Review Format.
The meat of this report is a series of reviews
of MUAs currently active in the UK. Each review
commences with a header giving facts concerning the
game under consideration - its name, its authors, its
commercial status, and how to access it.
Following the header are historical notes,
presenting background information on the game, and a
brief description of its setting. After that comes the
main body of the review, where the game is discussed in
some detail.
Although the reviews have been written as
objectively as is reasonably possible, naturally some
subjectivity will inevitably creep in. To counteract
this eventuality, brief quotes from reviews in
magazines and from players will also be given (if
available). All the quotes are unsolicited.
In order that some impression may be given of
the overall importance of the game in the IMPCG
industry, the review header also includes a grading
which is purely subjective. Games will be rated as
being in either the first, second, or third rank; first
rank is most important. This grading is based on an
assessment of the impact which the game has had on the
MUA-playing community. It therefore does not follow
that the "best" games are necessarily of a higher rank
than lesser ones.
After the reviews of UK games, there follow
reviews of MUAs from the rest of the world. The same
approach is taken for these as for UK games. A handful
are commercial, and these appear first; the rest are on
academic machines, and for these no pricing structure
is given (they are all free). Their importance is
relative to other games in the same category.
3.2 Accuracy.
Although every attempt has been made to be
accurate in the reviews, they are not guaranteed
correct. This is because information supplied by the
game designers is often out-of-date, over-optimistic,
or contains outright lies. Likewise, many semi-
professional reviewers in magazines have little or no
idea what they should be (or, indeed, are) looking for,
and will give anything good or bland reviews so as to
elicit future advertising revenue from the flattered
game author.
Since some of the information stated in the
reviews in this report come from such sources, it is
possible that they contain errors. Where possible,
however, facts have been verified independently.
Opinions expressed in the review, however, while
23 MUSE Ltd Reviewing Strategy
primarily the review author's, are grounded in either
personal experience or statements made by a number of
players or reviewers.
Some of the later quotes that are given in this
report are solicited, but as the result of general
questions (eg. "How do you think MUAs should be made
more widely available") rather than specific ones
("What do you think about Shades' lack of containers?).
Most quotes, however, are from public access sources
that anyone can read, such as bulletin boards, NewsNet,
magazine articles and publicity material. They
therefore appear here without the permission - or
indeed the knowledge - of their originator, who may
regard them as too out of context to reflect their
intended meaning.
3.3 Locations.
Included in each review is an indication of how
the game can be accessed. Some games run on the same
system as others, and their location is indicated by
specifying the name of the appropriate system. Most
games operate at 1200/75 baud, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no
parity, but a good many can handle other baud rates
too.
For some of the academic MUAs there are many
copies of the games sprinkled across the networks. All
these have their own local name to distinguish them
from other systems running the same software. The
reviews of these games concern the general software,
however local versions are listed along with the
address at which they can be reached. As a guide to the
countries in which these lie, consult the last section
of the address:
.au Australia
.ca Canada
.dk Denmark
.fi Finland
.nl Netherlands
.se Sweden
.uk United Kingdom
Anything else is assumed to be America (the .edu
selector means "educational establishment").
Systems supporting more than one MUA are:
Name: CompuNet
Phone: Pre-game registration required, call
(081) 997 2591 voice
MUAs: Federation II, Realm
Comment:
Long-running but troubled network, originally
backed by Commodore and carrying MUD1. After staff buy-
outs, its future now seems more secure. Still caters
primarily for users with Commodore hardware. Users pay
to play.
24 Reviewing Strategy MUSE Ltd
Name: CompuServe
Phone: Pre-game registration required, call
(0800) 289378
MUAs: British Legends, Island of Kesmai,
Sniper, Megawars 1, Megawars 3,
You Guessed It!
Comment:
Largest user base of any commercial network in
the world (around 1,000,000 users). Very expensive by
UK standards. Recently began a UK publicity drive.
Name: Essex University
Phone: PSS A2206411411
MUAs: MIST, Rock.
Comment:
Site of the original MUD1 game and many other
MUAs using MUD1's interpreter (Valley, Crud, Blud,
Uni). About to lose all its MUAs because the hardware
upon which they run will shortly be scrapped.
Name: InterNet
Phone: Not available
MUAs: TinyMUD, AberMUD, LPMUD, UberMUD,
TinyMUCK, TinyMOO, many more.
Comment:
An international network of (mainly Unix)
computers primarily used by research institutions
(Universities and large companies) for electronic mail.
It carries daily updates of public messages on a wide
range of topics, rec.games.mud being the one of main
interest to MUA players. Free to users.
Name: IO World of Adventure (IOWA)
Phone: (0883) 744044 and 744164.
MUAs: MirrorWorld, Parody, Quest, Empyrion,
Chaos World of Wizards.
Comment:
Made an attempt this year to run commercially,
but its players deserted it and it had to back down.
Free at present, and a popular place to meet and chat.
A local call from London.
Name: JANet
Phone: Not available
MUAs: AberMUD, TinyMUD, MIST.
Comment:
The main UK network for research institutions.
Linked to InterNet. Free to users.
Name: Lap of the Gods
Phone: (081) 994 9199
MUAs: Gods, The Zone, Future Life,
TinyMUD.
Comment:
Long-standing system, has its own particular
clientele. Users pay to play.
25 MUSE Ltd Reviewing Strategy
Name: Prestel
Phone: Consult BT for your local number
MUAs: Shades, Trash.
Comment:
Large user base, and prices to match. A local
phone call from almost anywhere in the UK. Shades and
Trash can be played for free on a development machine
at (0342) 810905, but be prepared for sudden surprises,
eg. text in french.
Name: Synergy
Phone: (081) 968 0333
MUAs: Avalon, The Spy.
Comment:
New system, having started this year. Small
user base at present. Users pay to play.
3.4 Genealogy.
This diagram shows the family tree of MUAs
(where parenthood is known). Children are listed
alphabetically rather than in order of appearance,
because time of birth is difficult to establish for
most of the games.
MUD1
|
+-------AMP
|
+-------Federation II
|
+-------Gods
| |
| +-------Future Life
|
+-------MirrorWorld
| |
| +-------Empyrion
| |
| +-------Mosaic
| | |
| | +-------Avalon
| |
| +-------Parody
| | |
| | +-------Prodigy
| |
| +-------Quest
|
+-------MIST
| |
| +-------AberMUD
| |
| +-------LPMUD
| | |
| | +-------DUM II
| |
| +-------TinyMUD
| | +-------Cthulhu
| | |
26 Reviewing Strategy MUSE Ltd
| | +-------Midgaard
| | |
| | +-------SMUG
| | |
| | +-------TinyMUCK
| | | |
| | | +-------TinyMOO
| | |
| | +-------TinyMUSH
| | |
| | +-------UberMUD
| |
| +-------YAMA
+-------MUD2
|
+-------Rock
|
+-------Shades
| |
| +-------Bloodstone
| |
| +-------Sector 7
| |
| +-------Trash
| |
| +-------Zone
| |
| +-------Void
|
+-------VaxMUD
|
+-------Wanderland
???????????????????????????????
27 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4. Reviews - UK.
4.1 Federation II.
Name: Federation II
Importance: 1
Author(s): Alan Lenton ("Bella")
Location: CompuNet
Pricing Structure: L1.50/hour plus
L12 flat quarterly fee
Brief Description:
SF, interplanetary trading/exploration game.
Historical Notes:
The Multi-User Galaxy Game project was begun in
1985 by CompuNet as a SF alternative to MUD1, which
then ran on the system. When the other programmer left
CompuNet, Lenton rewrote the game from scratch as
Federation II. It was officially launched on CompuNet
in 1989; reported also to run on MicroLink, and on any
other commercial system willing to take it.
Review:
Federation II (known as Fed to its players) is
a departure from the conventional form of MUA. Rather
than being based around the accumulation of context-
independent points, it is instead concerned with money
(game-money - 'Imperial Groats' - rather than real
money), which, unusually, can be given away to other
players. The game-play is dominated by economics rather
than by fighting skills or puzzle-solving abilities
28 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
(there are no puzzles in Federation II).
Federation II's setting, the solar system of
the future, is wide in scope but lacking in descriptive
atmosphere. Referred to as 'dataspace' by its author,
it consists of the Earth plus six other planets/moons.
Despite this, the actual number of rooms it contains is
not large, and movement in space is with standard
compass points rather than being directionally based on
pitch/yaw/roll. Most surprisingly (except from a
programmer's point of view), the planets are
stationary.
There are 17 player levels, although most
experienced players stop at level 9. As well as pure
monetary qualifications, other conditions need to be
satisfied in order to reach the next level. These are
intended to ensure that players don't try to run before
they can walk, and include such things as having
undertaken a certain number of trading contracts, and
owning a warehouse ('whorehouse' in game parlance) on
every planet.
There are no wizzes in Federation II. Game
management problems are dealt with by the six richest
players in the game, which ordinarily would lead to
even worse management problems; however, the real power
is wielded by the game's author, Alan Lenton, who used
to be a MUD1 arch-wizard and is one of the most
experienced MUA managers around. Consequently,
Federation II runs smoothly.
The game is insensitive in some respects - it
promotes the consumption of alcohol by having its
29 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
social focus at a bar named "Chez Diesel" on Mars, and
quaffing drinks will increase players' stamina; this
might offend some people. On the whole, though, there
is little of the overt use of non-violent contact
commands ("kiss", "hug" etc.) seen on some other games.
This is partly because of Lenton's managerial skills,
and partly because Federation II attracts a higher
proportion of female players than any other UK MUA.
Federation II lacks both depth and breadth - it
has only 96 distinct commands. The overall aim of the
game (reaching level 17) is virtually unattainable, so
it is treated mainly as a social forum rather than as a
"real" game. There is little interaction required by
the game mechanics, and fights are infrequent (but see
later concerning insularity). The 33 objects in the
game are exclusively for giving to one of the 51
mobiles in exchange for points, or consuming so as to
increase one's stamina. They are not used for solving
puzzles.
Beginners choose their name and gender, then
distribute 140 units between strength, stamina,
dexterity and intelligence attributes. Intelligence as
an attribute is unusual in MUAs - most games assume the
intelligence of the persona equates with that of the
player commanding it. In Federation II intelligence
determines the power of the ship-board computer a
persona can use.
Players proceed by buying spaceships (usually
with a loan), equipping them (hull size, armour,
shielding, drives, weapons, tractor beams, computers,
30 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
power plants), then purchasing commodities (24 are
technical/industrial, 16 are agricultural, 10 are
leisure) from one planet and moving them to another
where they're needed (there are periodic announcements
of contracts that are to be undertaken). Players
competing for the same contract race to get there
first. Completing contracts gives players money, which
they use to improve their ships, start their own
companies, build factories and buy warehouses.
Federation II has two novelties not present in
other MUAs. One is a bounty system, where players can
place reward money on their enemies in order to induce
someone to attack them; the other is an insurance
system, whereby players pay a certain premium and in
the event of their untimely death they are resurrected
at their previous level. These two features tend to
work against each other, and the insurance facility in
particular means that players rarely lose their status
once it is gained.
Players have the ability to describe themselves
("buy clothes"); ordinarily, this would be perilous to
any coherence of descriptive power in the game, but
since Federation II is deficient in that area anyway it
doesn't really make much difference. Atmosphere, as
perceived by the players (not as found on planets'
surfaces), is engendered entirely by those players.
Regrettably, the highest-level players form a clique
that is very choosy about who can join, and they can
make life very unpleasant for any upstarts they
dislike. This makes the game very insular, a charge
31 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
repeated many times by ex-players and professional
reviewers.
When combat does take place it is non-
automatic, and there are many weapon-control commands.
Experienced players will invariably win, except against
hordes of novices (in which case they will later kill
them individually, having themselves been resurrected
on an insurance policy). Players are only allowed one
persona per account ID, but can have several account
IDs.
Federation II does not have resets, and there
is no automatic save to disc of players' scores. Thus,
if the game crashes then points gained after a player's
last explicit "save" command are lost.
Federation II is written entirely in C, is
compiled directly (rather than working from a
definition language), and it therefore runs very
quickly but could never be used to implement any other
scenario. Why is it of the first rank? It takes a
courageous new approach to the standard MUD1 style of
fantasy-based, combat-oriented, puzzle-solving world -
it can run alongside such a MUA without poaching any
players; it is portable, and available on several
networks; it has a publicity director (Clement
Chambers) and will thus continue to be in the news; it
is continually being updated and improved (Lenton works
on it full time); its author is one of the most
experienced in the field.
32 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Summary:
Federation II is a game with a pedigree, but of
modest size, poor breadth, shallow depth and little
atmosphere. Nevertheless, its players are enthusiastic,
its support team dedicated, and its future rosy.
Quotes:
"Federation II is a wonderful blend of space-
trading game and adventure."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"It sets you free from reality."
Trancer [player]
"Reality is boring."
Topcat [player]
"We all want an alter-ego, and Fed releases
it."
Penelope [player]
"I found the other players very helpful and
quite willing to give vital information to help me on
my way."
Popular Computing [magazine]
"It boasts quite the best manual of any game
I've seen."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"Britain's most advanced multi-user game"
CompuNet [promotional material]
"I feel proud an honoured to offer people this
game. It's like partying without risk to the body. I'm
giving them value for money, so they come back for
more."
Clement Chambers [marketing manager]
4.2 Gods.
Name: Gods
Importance: 1
Author(s): Ben Laurie ("Tiger Tiger")
Location: Lap of the Gods
Pricing Structure: L0.575/hour or
33 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
L11.50/month flat fee
Brief Description:
Advanced MUD1 clone, fantasy world.
Historical Notes:
Although the present system went live in
October 1988, Gods began in 1985 as a non-commercial
MUA; its author was inspired by MUD1 to write his own
game, and was among the first people to do so. Gods was
Shades' only rival to be the Prestel Micronet MUA.
Review:
The dominant concept in Gods, which permeates
every facet of it, is that of object creation. Instead
of becoming a wiz when one gains the appropriate
experience points, one becomes a 'god'. Gods have the
ability to alter the game at will, but doing so costs
them points. When mortals cash in treasure for points,
they take it to the temple of their favoured god. This
will add to that god's points, as well as to their own.
Thus, popular and respected gods will be able to make
more changes to the game, and ones that are unpopular
will lose the ability.
The idea is attractive, but fundamentally
flawed. Gods can use their powers to do anything they
like, without any interference from the equivalent of
arch-wizzes. Unfortunately, what they like to do is
prevent people they dislike from becoming gods.
Although theoretically a seller's market ("which god
shall I give these points to?"), it's actually a
buyer's market ("give those to me"). There are two
34 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
reasons for this: treasure is worth more if the
receiving god is present when it is offered at that
god's temple; gods who see mortals giving treasure to
non-present gods have sufficient powers that they can
readily persuade such mortals that it would be in their
best interests to deposit their treasure elsewhere.
Thus, unless there are several gods playing for most of
the time, the treasure dedicated to each god will tend
to be proportional to the period the god spends in the
game. If a god needs more points to create something,
it's just a question of sitting around in the game for
long enough to get them.
This dominance of the idea that gods can create
things is a shame, because otherwise Gods is a very
well thought-out game, wide in its extent and with
imposing depth to its world. Despite being first-
generation, it has nevertheless stood the test of time,
and its definition language is one of the clearest and
most functional around. It is based on the notion of
'objects', which are items that have 'properties'.
Properties are either 'mundane' (they return a simple
value) or 'esoteric' (they run some code to return a
value). Commands are implemented as properties of
objects, thus making Gods one of the earliest object-
oriented programming languages and pre-dating much of
the work presently going on in the TinyMUD field.
Gods operate by changing objects' properties,
but this is not yet fully implemented, nor is it likely
to be in the near future. They can alter mundane
properties easily, but esoteric properties are out of
35 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
bounds. This is because they require programming
skills, and there is no guarantee that they will be
safe. Problems of unwanted interactions between
independently-created objects are expected, and a
facility to test/debug objects is necessary. It is
interesting to note that these are issues which have
always concerned Gods experts, but their importance is
only now being recognised in the TinyMUD world.
Nevertheless, it is a pity that the central
vision of Gods is still some way away even after all
these years, and that what the game presently boasts as
its major player-winning feature is actually no better
than what is available as just one riff in MUD2. Gods'
over-emphasis on object creation distracts attention
from the many really quite splendid other features that
it has. Its parser is good, it has a built-in class
hierarchy of objects (although "get all" doesn't work),
and there's a neat counting feature for similar object
(eg. "You pick up thirty-one assorted rabbits."). The
game is atmospheric - its large (2,000 rooms), North
African seaport setting is rooted in historical fact
(although elements from different periods are
disconcertingly juxtaposed; this may be deliberate).
Puzzles can vary with time depending on whether it is
night or day, and commands that you use frequently can
develop different affectations. Gods has the reputation
of being a difficult, challenging game.
One of Gods' recent innovations is its
treatment of fights. Some players like fighting, some
don't, so Gods has two classes: fighters and non-
36 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
fighters. Non-fighters cannot be attacked, receive no
points for killing, but don't die if killed. Fighters
can be attacked, do receive points for killing, and
lose them for dying. Whether this will work in the long
run is something which remains to be seen, though - the
non-fighters would appear to be able to annoy and
dispose of the fighters without taking any personal
risk, and it may be that unimaginative non-fighters may
find themselves at high levels without really having
much knowledge of the game at all.
As well as a points value, treasure also has a
monetary (alms) value. There is a commercial system in
Gods which can be played as a game without reference to
the deities. Money can be used to buy certain objects,
for gambling in a slot machine (slot machines are not
uncommon in money-oriented MUAs), and for buying drinks
at a bar to regain stamina. As with Federation II, this
"alcohol is good for you" attitude could offend some
people, and Gods may attract another form of objection
by its explicit use of "black magic" as a form of spell
use which can be practised. That said, critics of this
sort are likely to complain about the very name of the
game anyway, irrespective of other considerations.
Gods tries to maintain an aura of mystique by
keeping information from players until they gain
experience. Thus, a newcomer (of 'scum' level) is only
told how many points are required to reach levels 1 to
4, and has no idea how many levels there are
altogether. Similarly, only those spells which can be
used are listed. This works as an incentive to go up
37 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
levels, but can be rather worrying when you first start
to play. Another way in which Gods strives to provide
atmosphere is by folding objects into room
descriptions. This looks good, but newcomers find that
they can't always tell what is gettable and what isn't.
Rather than limiting the number of objects a
player can carry, or letting players carry as much as
they like, Gods has a halfway solution which is perhaps
more realistic. The more objects carried, the greater
is the chance of dropping one. Thus, with your arms
full of treasure you can only travel a short distance
before something falls to the ground. Travelling light,
you can play for hours and not drop a thing.
Gods runs on an 80386 processor under Xenix.
The Lap of the Gods system to which it is connected
consists of specialist multiplexer hardware and
associated software, collectively known as The Butler.
This has recently been upgraded so as to provide on-
line help facilities, but the information it displays
is rather hurriedly put together. This is reminiscent
of the whole system - every feature imaginable can be
expressed in one way or another, but somehow it's never
used quite as fruitfully as it could be.
Day-to-day running of the Gods system is now by
one of the game's gods, Heptaparaparshinokh. It appears
to have no major managerial problems, perhaps due to
the fact that it is, in part, an experiment on the way
deities behave without higher deities above them. There
is a guest facility for beginners, with a built-in tour
available.
38 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Gods has a client written for it, Hear-Gods,
which consists of normal terminal software for the
Atari ST with the addition of sampled sound-effects.
A version of Gods runs in Germany.
Summary:
A lone pioneer of object-creating MUAs, Gods is
well written and abounds in detail. It is old, yet
still fresh, and has worn well. However, its overall
premiss, though seductive in theory, is unproven in
practice. Had it been written as a conventional MUA
instead of a slightly eccentric one, it might have had
much wider appeal and taken its place at the forefront
of MUA development. As it is, Gods' story is one of
missed opportunity, and its considerable potential is
still to be realised.
Quotes:
"Certainly a game I would recommend to anyone."
ACE [magazine]
"You will find a coliseum and a set of dry
docks close by each other, but this doesn't seem
unusual in the game."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"The system of scoring is complicated."
ACE [magazine]
"With the current generation of modems, I
personally feel that objects should be readily apparent
to players."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"Really, we can't explain what the games are
like - you'll have to try them"
Lap of the Gods [promotional material]
39 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4.3 MirrorWorld.
Name: MirrorWorld
Importance: 1
Author(s): Pip Cordrey ("Pippin"),
Nat Billington ("Natso"),
Lorenzo Wood ("Penfold"),
Patrick Bossert ("Zoot"),
Tim Rogers ("Grobble"),
Piers de Lavison ("Inziladun")
Location: IOWA
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone, Tolkienesque.
Historical Notes:
Pip Cordrey used to run a BBS called 'Labbs',
which had a section devoted to MUD1 in its early days.
Six people from St. Paul's School worked on that
section, and Cordrey organised them into a team to
develop a MUA that would run on a home computer. The
system was named MirrorWorld because it had rolling
resets (as in the film "Westworld"). It went live in
1986. The St. Paul's group are now all MirrorWorld
arch-wizzes.
Review:
MirrorWorld (MW to its players) is a venerable
yet thriving MUA. Its stated aim is for players "to
score points by killing monsters and other players,
finding and selling treasure, and doing clever things".
40 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Its conventional setting is well described, and it has
a strong, magical atmosphere.
The game is easy to enter, and provides guest
facilities. The new user is well catered for with on-
line help, but the authors seem preoccupied by the
expense of telephone calls to the game, and the
newcomer is somewhat bombarded with dire warnings of
how costly it is to play.
Another of the things with which MirrorWorld is
obsessed out of all proportion to its importance is the
concept of rolling resets (or 'autosets', as they are
called in the game). MirrorWorld was among the first
MUAs to incorporate rolling resets, and the authors
consider it their invention. The main reason for having
rolling resets is to give a seamless scenario which
doesn't have its atmosphere ruined by intrusive resets;
however, MirrorWorld's alternative is to have a little
man in a white coat appear to reset puzzles, which,
although a cute idea, doesn't fit in well with the
fantasy milieu. The downside of rolling resets is that
they're difficult to implement for hard puzzles, and
this betrays a hint as to the deeper nature of the game
(or rather the lack of it).
From the outset, MirrorWorld was intended to
run on a home microcomputer (rather than the mainframe
that hosted MUD1), and it partially succeeded: the main
computer is a BBC Master 128, but it has a 4mb RAMdisc
and custom-built multiplexer added on. This modest CPU
perhaps explains the overriding feeling that pervades
all of MirrorWorld - its (spasmodically elegant)
41 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
simplicity.
Everything about MirrorWorld is simple. The
parser is so basic that it merely looks at words in the
order they come, not even 'parsing' at all in the
computational linguistic sense. It has only a dozen or
so spells, and they are defined poorly or not at all -
"blind", in particular, can only be implemented in an
astonishingly inadequate way (teleportation to a
special room).
There's a fragment of originality in the way
that spells are time-based, so that lower-level players
have a longer delay between casting a spell and its
taking effect than do higher-level players.
Unfortunately, people coming in using fast comms links
have a similar advantage... The "nullify" spell is
unique to MirrorWorld and its sisters, as it interrupts
an opponent's spell if it fires during that spell's
delay period. Otherwise, though, MirrorWorld's spells
are depressingly ordinary.
The problem that MirrorWorld faces is its
implementation. Along with most of the other IOWA
games, it is written in a database definition language
called 'Slate'. That Slate is sufficiently powerful to
be used to define several disparate databases is to its
credit, however it is a comparatively feeble language,
rooted in old ideas and methods, and resistant to
change. For example, when an "act" command was needed,
Slate wasn't really up to the job, and the resultant
hack makes MirrorWorld the most impoverished major MUA
in this area.
42 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Slate is a lot like a bad Basic. Variables
cannot be declared arbitrarily - only predefined system
ones are usable. Its subroutines have no
parameterisation, and there is a confusion between
commands, actions, and actions tied to objects (in an
object-oriented fashion that would be more convincing
if objects were arranged in an inheritance hierarchy).
All this makes use of Slate difficult, but not
impossible. However, no amount of fancy programming can
get round the fact that too much is built into the
Slate interpreter, and not enough is in the hands of
the database designer. Modern features cannot be added
to MirrorWorld without making alterations to the Slate
language, and thus to the compiler itself.
These criticisms of Slate aside, it must be
said that the language does work very well for simple
MUAs, and that there are people willing to pay L3,000
to buy a complete Slate system so as to program their
own MUAs in it.
Accepting that MirrorWorld is not really much
of an intellectual's MUA, it nonetheless has some nice,
novel touches. There is an arena for fights, where
people go for mass combat and only one survivor is
allowed to leave. There is a gambling module, which is
another concept the MirrorWorld team implemented first,
and which thus receives more publicity than it really
merits. Also, the persona file stores more details
about a player's status than is common, so eg. if your
persona is crippled and you quit, it'll still be
crippled when you return.
43 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
On the managerial side, MirrorWorld functions
well. There are written and unwritten rules that the
players must not transgress, which keeps everyone
peaceful but can occasionally stifle originality
(today's best wizzes are often yesterday's most
misbehaving mortals; guidelines are a better solution
than cast-iron rules). MirrorWorld is overseen by Pip
Cordrey, who has arch-wiz status on Shades and is thus
well qualified for the task. MirrorWorld is regularly
updated.
There are 12 levels for normal players, with an
unusually large number of points required to make wiz.
Indeed, despite its age the game has under 20 wizzes in
total. Wizzes can die in the game, which is something
that is impossible in other games (and difficult to
justify in this one). Some of the feminine forms of
levels below wiz appear a little condescending, eg.
male = peasant, female = washer-woman; male = potent,
female = bewitched.
Although relaxing and pleasant enough to play,
MirrorWorld is not a true heavyweight of MUAs. However,
it has made an immense contribution to the genre, has
an experienced programming and design team behind it,
and has pioneered the concept of genuine choice between
different MUAs on a single system dedicated to such
games. After a rough period in early 1990, when its
authors thought that it was better than it was and
prematurely charged people to play game (which lead to
their rapid abandonment of the system), MirrorWorld has
bounced back and is again an entertaining place to
44 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
spend an evening. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Pip
Cordrey in publicising IOWA (and MUAs in general), it
is likely to remain so for some considerable time.
Summary:
MirrorWorld is very shallow, has little
breadth, and it possesses a thoroughly awful parser;
and yet, it isn't frustrating to play. Of average size,
its gameplay is good - especially for MUA novices - and
its players friendly. The atmosphere is well
maintained, but, although it tries hard, MirrorWorld is
more a picturebook MUA than a meaty novel.
Quotes:
"MirrorWorld has that feel to it that just
keeps you playing on and on."
ACE [magazine]
"The feeling you get is that you have visited
this place sometime before."
Confidential [magazine]
"Used treasure is repositioned by an old man
who wanders round the game dropping things, which is a
little less painful than being thrown off every 45 - 60
minutes!"
ACE [magazine]
"[Resets] do nothing except drag you out of
your fantasy world and plop you right back in the real
one."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"Make sure that your phone bills contain no
surprises."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"Though some players are not quite as friendly
as on some games, it really is good."
ACE [magazine]
"On-line entertainment for the nineties"
IOWA [promotional material]
45 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
"If you have offended against one of the rules,
the thing that the wizard or arch-wizard wants to hear
is that you recognise that you have broken the rules
and will not do it again."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"[Cordrey] has something that only a handful of
other men have: his own world."
Confidential [magazine]
4.4 MUD2.
Name: MUD2
Importance: 1
Author(s): Richard Bartle, Roy Trubshaw
Location: (081) 203 3033
PSS 23421920100441
Pricing Structure: L0.50/hour to L1/hour,
depending on amount bought up
front
Brief Description:
Advanced MUD1 rewrite, fantasy world.
Historical Notes:
By 1985, MUD1 was becoming fossilised, so a
completely new version was written from scratch.
Although MUD2 contains nearly all of MUD1 as a subset,
it is considerably larger. Originally intended to run
on Micronet, this was thwarted by BT politics, and MUD2
now runs on one of BT's Vax clusters connected to
Telecom Gold's network. BT and MUSE have both been
trying to escape from their mutual contract ever since.
Warning: the principal author of MUD2 is the author of
this report; expect unrestrained enthusiasm.
46 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Review:
The cutting edge of MUA technology. MUD2 is the
most advanced MUA in the world, with a big lead over
its challengers (Gods and Avalon are probably the next-
best in programming terms). Although roughly the same
age as Shades, MUD2 is a second-generation MUA and was
designed for portability and endurability. Thus, there
are versions of its interpreter in C and Pascal, and it
runs on a VAX under VMS, an Archimedes under Unix, and
on both an Atari ST and a VME-based piece of specialist
hardware under OS9. The same database will load on all
these configurations.
In every aspect of MUA technology (except its
parser, which, although admirably capable of choosing
implied objects, does not handle pronouns, adjectives
or adverbs), MUD2 excels. Its breadth and depth are
unparalleled, its atmosphere compelling, and its
management sound.
In terms of detail, MUD2 (or simply MUD to most
players) is the only MUA that deals routinely with
fluids (miscible or otherwise), heat, all audio-visual
effects, smells and consistency. If you drop an object
from a height through several vertically-placed rooms
into running water, it will consider impact damage,
water damage, and will place the object either where it
landed or further downstream depending on whether it
floats or not - players in intervening rooms will see
it pass. This form of world modelling adds a sense of
realism to MUD2 which most other games cannot even
represent in their definition languages, let alone
47 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
emulate in practice.
The number of commands, spells and interactions
MUD2 supports is also unrivalled. Many of its nuances
are found only occasionally by the more enterprising
players, and it has a dedicated band of enthusiasts
whose main preoccupation is simply exploring the range
of command possibilities the game might trap (eg. "play
poker" for a poker object meant for stoking a fire, or
"stick pin in doll" using a rolling pin rather than a
needlework pin).
MUD2's mobiles are the most sophisticated of
any MUA. It has a large number of them (over 160), and
they are of many different types (some fly, some swim,
some regenerate, some can cast spells). They are also
multi-functional: for example, there is a sword that
can be used for combat as expected, but it also
continually makes comments about its wielder, its own
prowess, other weapons, fights, and the weather. It
will inform its owners when magic has been cast against
them, and cure them of ailments (especially if they
deafen themselves to avoid its endless chatter!).
Even mundane mobiles are very advanced. They
incorporate expert systems that enable them to fight
(often better than the players): MUD2's thief knows not
only how to steal objects, but how to score points for
them (it carries them to a 'swamp' room and drops them
there). Most mobiles know which weapons to use, to drop
useless objects when attacked, to attempt to steal
useful objects from opponents in a fight, when to flee,
and when to offer a withdrawal (MUD2, uniquely, has a
48 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
mechanism that allows combatants to agree to stop
fighting without either losing points). Mobiles are
also capable of planning to achieve goals, eg. if they
can't go west because there's a locked door in the way,
they should unlock it with the right key and then
proceed (Bartle's PhD concerned Artificial Intelligence
planning techniques).
There are 11 levels in MUD2, which fall into
two streams (magical/non-magical) and two forms
('protected' and 'non-protected' personae). Only magic-
users who are not protected personae can reach wiz. The
distinction between fighters and magic-users is
unusual, and although it does add something to the
game, MUD2 could survive quite adequately without it,
treating everyone as if they were magic-users. To
switch from fighter to magic-user, there's a special
object (a "touchstone") that must be touched, with a
high chance of causing death at lower levels. Some
players don't like the idea, others look on it as a
watershed that thrusts their play into a different
gear.
Protected personae are mainly people exploring
who don't want to be molested by other players.
Conversion back to the normal stream is allowed at any
time, at a cost of two-thirds of the persona's score.
This ensures that people with no aspirations of
reaching wiz can play in relative safety, but that
anyone seeking the top rank must run risks.
Another safeguard that ensures unsuitable
people don't "sneak" to wiz is a system of 'tasks'.
49 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
These are eight quests, any seven of which a persona
must solve if it is to become a wiz. Some require co-
operation with other players, some test knowledge of
the game, some test fighting, and some are important
puzzles; most are a combination. When players makes wiz
in MUD2, it can therefore be guaranteed that they have
had a broad education in the game.
Wiz powers in MUD2 are considerable. As well as
object, mobile and room creation (by fleshing out
"blanks"), wizzes can attach to mobiles and personae
(and thus play as several beings at once), there is a
full complement of proof commands, and multiple snoops
are possible. There are four levels of invisibility, so
wizzes and arch-wizzes can choose to whom they are
visible. Wizzes have the ability to alter the manner in
which players are described, and the messages given
when arriving, departing or using magic. As these
powers are creative in aspect, they are not granted to
mortals (because otherwise the game's atmosphere could
be spoiled).
Among MUD2s other features are: a command that
draws birds-eye view maps; a safe start location where
people can enter the game for a chat and to see who's
playing without risking assault; many-on-many fights; a
wide range of spells with their effects properly
handled (so if you're blinded and walk into a room
where dripping water can be heard, you'll be given that
part of the room description but not the rest); and
delayed-effect actions.
To new players, MUD2 can seem imposing. This is
50 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
usually because its sophistication, though concealed
from newcomers in part, is nonetheless imposingly
evident; however, the game's reputation also has an
effect. To ease the way, a pair of excellent handbooks
are provided that answer many of the questions that
enter newcomers' minds (but which reviewers don't
always bother to read...). The game itself has special
novice-level treasure that other players are
discouraged (by its negative value) from picking up,
and which is therefore often in play even when a reset
is due. Room descriptions are friendly in areas
frequented by novices, and get increasingly forbidding
the further away one travels; MUD2's prose is generally
regarded as the finest of any MUA's. There is a tour
facility, that enables prospective players to be shown
round various areas of the game with a running
commentary (and which takes account for what's
currently in the rooms being visited).
Fighting in MUD2 is of the automatic variety,
with spells, potions and (breakable) weapons available
for use. Death results in persona deletion,
irrespective of who started the fight; although this
is regarded as unfair by many inexperienced players,
those who have played for longer accept that it is the
best approach to adopt - in terms of game management,
it's essential. MUD2 is managed by its principal
author, the most experienced of all MUA managers. At
present, MUD2 is top heavy with arch-wizzes, though;
this is because several were appointed in preparation
for an impending move to Prestel which was (as usual)
51 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
cancelled by BT.
There is a full classification system in MUD2,
which readily accepts commands such as "get food" (to
pick up anything that might be edible). Unlike many of
the first generation games, it allows multiple objects
of the same type, however since its parser is weak on
adjectives that leads to objects with names like
"key21". This can be rather unatmospheric.
Because of the game's high puzzle-density and
large number of objects, it resets every 105 minutes;
this is despite its average size (around 800 rooms).
MUD2 is programmed in a special MUA programming
language called MUDDLE. This is the key to its success,
since it gives complete control to the MUA designer
without hardwiring essential functions into its
interpreter. Object-oriented in concept, but reading
like a hierarchical version of Prolog, MUDDLE's
versatility should ensure that MUD2 maintains its lead
position in the MUA world for some time yet.
Summary:
MUD2 is well designed, has superb depth, is
wide-ranging in its scope, and is easily modifiable.
Its age belies its advanced features, particularly its
mobiles and the facilities provided for its wizzes. Its
atmosphere is carefully maintained by powerful room
descriptions, and its gameplay is well thought-out.
Only its parser is less than satisfactory. Clearly,
MUD2 stands head and shoulders above all other MUAs.
However, it has enjoyed only modest success compared
52 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
to, say, Shades. This is almost entirely due to its
being tied to BT by an agreement that was rendered
inappropriate within a year because of reorganisations
within that company.
Quotes:
"An adventure on a grand scale."
ACE [magazine]
"MUD was, and still is, the multi-user game
that others are measured by."
PC Plus [magazine]
"MUD is the first of a new generation of
interactive games."
Daily Mail
"If you want a civilised entry into a game, try
MUD, the Multi-User Dungeon."
MUSE [promotional material]
"The game is very user-friendly."
Computer and Video Games [magazine]
"Where MUD scores is in the atmosphere of the
world you have to explore. It's not as communal as
Shades, but ... it can become an obsessive exercise in
politics, co-operation and the exercise of power."
ACE [magazine]
"The atmosphere can be slightly daunting for a
first-time player, but as a rule other MUDders are
tolerant of newcomers and even helpful if you meet
trouble."
PC Plus [magazine]
"[In atmosphere] MUD is definitely better than
Shades."
Acorn User [magazine]
"I prefer to play [MUAs] in "verbose", even if
I don't bother to read it all. It's handy for picking
up the feel of the place. I rarely read the whole
description unless it's my first visit to the room and
I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere. I quite like the
"unverbose" mode that MUD has, no other game seems to
have that one."
Wabit [player]
"One of the best things about MUD is the style
of the text. The locative descriptions are long, well-
written, and vividly evocative."
PC Plus [magazine]
53 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
"Part of MUD's strength is the quality of the
descriptions of each location, which are excellent."
Acorn User [magazine]
"Deaths lurk around every corner."
Computer and Video Games [magazine]
"Due to various political shenanigans at BT,
MUD2 never got to Prestel."
GM [magazine]
"Shades versus MUD: how about blank objects,
levels of invisibility, far greater realism,
atmosphere, better room descriptions, greater
flexibility with everything..."
Faramir [player]
"Just because we think MUD is a better game
doesn't mean that all of the existing Shades players
will drop Shades and come a running to MUD."
Wabit [player]
"Novices and guests don't like MUD. They can't
find any treasure. Shades is more exciting for a
beginner."
Acorn User [magazine]
"I honestly think that MUD's main problem is a
lack of players, due to a lack of advertising and a
general lack of anyone in charge being that bothered by
the lack of players."
Wabit [player]
"MUD has too many internal problems. The game
itself is far superior to anything else on the market,
and with a little forward thinking could still be the
number one game. Although advertising would have
helped, I don't see that as being the culprit ... the
problems were actually caused by an internal political
power struggle, and as there wasn't anybody strong
enough to put people in their place, the struggle
gained momentum."
Wabit [player]
"It's an adventure, sure, but it's far more."
Computer and Video Games [magazine]
"Some activities are, it must be said, a little
unusual, but are in keeping with the alternative comedy
theme that pervades the game."
Atari ST User [magazine]
"MUD is expected to be one of the most popular
innovations in home computing."
The Times
"Despite its outward appearance as just another
computerised fantasy, MUD is a great deal more than
that, and what it promises is even more intriguing."
Computing [magazine]
54 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
"MUD's success has been little short of
phenomenal."
Atari ST User [magazine]
"MUD has a devoted following (one regular
player lives in Japan) among whom some must certainly
be counted micro-junkies. One unemployed participant
built up a L1,000 phone bill and got zapped by British
Telecom."
Mail on Sunday [magazine]
"If you buy your credits in bulk, it can be
satisfyingly cheap to play."
ACE [magazine]
"One player in Wales clocked up a telephone
bill of L3,000 before she was cut off."
The [Economist]
"MUD has been described as the greatest
adventure in the world."
Computer and Video Games [magazine]
"MUD leaves other adventures for dead."
Personal Computer World [magazine]
"You haven't lived until you've died in MUD"
MUSE [slogan]
4.5 Shades.
Name: Shades
Importance: 1
Author(s): Neil Newell ("Hazeii")
Location: Prestel (Micronet)
Pricing Structure: L4.80/hour 8am - 6pm
L1.20/hour 6pm - 8am
L19.80/hour on (0898) 100890
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
Newell was a MUD1 player. Shades was written
over Christmas 1985 when MUD1 was unavailable, partly
as a spoof. It was launched nine months later on
55 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Micronet, in preference to MUD2 and Gods because of
internal BT wranglings. It has been highly successful
on that service. Nowadays, it is billed as "the most
popular on-line multi-user adventure game in Europe",
which, in terms of player numbers, is absolutely
correct.
Review:
Shades is very lucky. MUD2 was going to go on
Micronet, but due to rivalries between departments of
BT (Prestel and what was then NIS), the deal fell
through. Micronet's much-vaunted Viewdata scrolling
software was, for example, originally programmed to
MUSE's specifications for MUD2. Shades was chosen as a
substitute (ahead of Gods for technical reasons), and
has remained the premier MUA on Micronet ever since,
challenged only by the jokey Trash (which comes from
the same stable). Most MUA authors - Newell included -
consider this form of protectionism absolutely
disgraceful. Compared against almost any other MUA,
Shades looks decidedly inferior.
Because it is the only MUA accessible at local
call telephone rates from anywhere in the country,
Shades has enjoyed tremendous success. It has
introduced many people to MUAs who might otherwise have
been unaware of such games, and for this reason alone
it ranks very highly. It has been well marketed, and
has good technical support, but it is five years old
now and really shows its age. Because of the hard-coded
way it is programmed, it is fossilised in 1985. Its
56 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
infrequent updatings (minor changes every six months,
of late) means it continues to shed old players while
only attracting a trickle of new ones: its user base
has been saturated.
Technically speaking, Shades is actually pre-
MUD1 in sophistication. It has insufficient depth to
handle even basic concepts like containers. Its mobiles
follow a set track, rather than moving with some
randomness, and they cannot contain/hold objects
either; this means that at times the game works
counter-intuitively. For example, there is a "thief"
mobile which steals things, however he can't carry his
booty so it just automatically appears in his lair. If
you see him steal an object, and you kill him before he
leaves the room, your treasure is still in his lair.
The game itself is not really all that bad,
given its age. There are over a thousand locations now
(which is probably too many, since each game can only
handle eight players at once), and its database is the
usual castles and buried treasure fare. The aim is to
collect treasure and drop it in one location (the Mad
King's room) for points. There are 14 levels, some of
which aren't immediately obvious as being gender
equivalent (eg. male = gallant, female = dauntless;
male = soothsayer, female = spellbinder). This doesn't
appear to bother the players (who call themselves
'Shadists').
Persona attributes are strength, stamina, power
and fight skill, which is an unusual combination. All
players start with identical statistics, but they can
57 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
change (stamina goes up to 230: again, uncommon). Only
the latter three attributes are used in combat, which
plays a central role in the game. Blows in fights are
handled automatically, with power being the damage you
do, and chance to hit depending on the combatants'
respective levels. Fight skill defines the number of
blows that occur per round of combat; it can rise and
fall depending on the outcome of the fight.
Shades has a problem with fights, after
complaints from players lead to a misguided (from a
managerial perspective) alteration to the way fights
work. If you start a fight and are killed, you lose all
your points; if you were attacked and are killed, you
only lose half your points. If the winner started the
fight, the reward is 6.25% of the loser's score; if the
winner was the player attacked, the figure is 25%.
This, in a game where fighting is a key element, is
something of a surprise. It discourages inter-player
fighting, which in turn means that anyone can reach wiz
merely by playing for hours on end, whether they are
'suitable' in some sense or not. Once they have
reached a high level, they are unlikely to be attacked
at all - other high-level players will not attack
because the rewards don't match the risks, and low-
level players won't because they'd lose the fight
(incredibly, Shades doesn't allow fights involving more
than two players). There is a "berserk" command which
could balance this, as it allows low-level players to
flee without losing points (whereupon another can
attack), however it is used infrequently because it
58 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
doesn't work all the time.
As if this isn't bad enough, Shades has another
means of ensuring that anyone can be a wiz if they
really want to be: 'pacifists'. These are similar to
MUD2's protected personae, but have no maximum level
and a quicker advancement rate - only half that of non-
pacifists. A pacifist can be attacked, but loses no
points for fleeing. Pacifists can't start fights.
Switching modes between pacifist and fighter zeroes
your score.
Shades has many problems as a result of earlier
managerial decisions. Although the situation is better
now, there are still mistakes (eg. offering 10,000
points for the best map of the game). Despite having a
MirrorWorld arch-wiz (Pippin) and a MUD2 arch-wiz
(Lordant) on its books, Shades has always been a place
where, if you complain loudly enough and with enough
people supporting you, you'll get your way in the end.
There are horror stories of people deliberately working
up secret personae, gathering a coterie of
impressionable admirers around them, then doing all
they can to wreck the game as a wiz and having their
minions leap to their defence every time there's a
warning that they're out of line (receiving 50 letters
telling you you're wrong is often enough to make even
the most hardened arch-wiz think twice). By the time
these trouble-makers have been ejected, they've worked
up another persona and can start their disruption
again. In addition, they probably didn't pay any money
for what they did, having simply torn up their Micronet
59 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
bill and waited to be cut off (you can get around 5 or
6 months' play for free this way).
One of the problems is that the game lacks
logging facilities, so gathering evidence is always
difficult. Another is that wizzes have feeble powers
compared to other MUAs, and can't always keep mortals
under control. However, since most mortals seem
convinced that wizzes don't play fair, perhaps it's
just as well there isn't anything really dangerous they
can do.
Shades still has some oddities despite its age:
there are mispunctuations ("moats bank" instead of
"moat's bank", occasional American spellings
("center"), and room descriptions giving wrong
directions. This latter point is extremely irritating,
because Shades has no "exits" command (unlike virtually
every other MUA) and thus you have to rely on reading
the long descriptions of rooms to find out which
directions you can move.
Atmosphere is player-driven. The players can be
friendly at times, although stroppy at others. The room
descriptions are not particularly evocative, and are
constantly spoiled by out-of-place objects and events.
Using rooms as a form of providing help is a neat idea,
but it feels odd compared to the rest of the rooms
(especially as there is a standard on-line help feature
built-in anyway). Not really obviously (and perhaps
politically unwise), the means chosen to give players
back lost stamina is to touch a "little girl" mobile.
The spells in Shades are the usual batch, but
60 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
there is no "blind" and no "deaf" (some room
descriptions contain sound references that would still
appear audible to a deaf persona). The only original
spell is "jaunt", which enables the user to teleport to
the location occupied by another player. Most MUAs do
not have such a spell, as it can be a most unfair way
of stealing treasure that someone else has worked on,
and there are problems of consistency that can occur
when someone suddenly appears in a room (eg. it's a
"falling off a cliff" or a "you can only get here if
you're carrying a cross" room). Another point worth
mentioning is that the more usual spell, "summon" (move
someone to your room, rather than vice versa), is
available to novices in Shades, whereas it is
restricted to high-level players only in most MUAs.
Finally, the incantation "where treasure" will tell you
the location of every item of treasure in the game,
thus (unfortunately) making novices aware of every
major room and object right from the start.
Shades uses the normal fixed-time reset method,
albeit using a shorter period than most MUAs (45
minutes - under half that of MUD2) since it gets played
out quicker. The more people there are playing, the
more treasure is worth (to compensate for its
subsequent scarcity), but there is no time-based
scaling.
There are two widespread clients for Shades.
Named Ripper and Shadist, their principal function is
as an aid to fighting in the game, however they can
perform simple i/o tasks too.
61 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
It is widely acknowledged that Shades is a good
game for people new to MUAs. It is easy to get into,
there is lots of treasure lying around for novices to
find, and there are no difficult problems to solve. The
scenario is not threatening, and the players can be
jolly, supportive and entertaining. For people who want
a game rather than a place to socialise, Shades has its
shortcomings, but it is by no means as awful as is
often made out. It's a nice, easy, friendly, non-taxing
MUA. It might not be the best programmed, the most
challenging or the most innovative MUA, but its claims
to be the most successful of the first generation MUAs
are not made without some considerable justification.
Summary:
Shades is a very shallow MUA, its breadth is
well below average, and its parser is notably weak. It
is old, and looks it. It is of slightly above average
size, but almost totally reliant on its players for
what little atmosphere it can be said to possess. The
gameplay requires no imagination on the part of its
players, its wizzes are over-numerous, and by the
standards of other MUAs they're virtually impotent.
Management is much improved of late, but there are
still legacies of the past that won't go away. Shades
is popular because it's the only MUA with local-call
access nationwide. It's a good game in that it's a MUA,
but alongside other MUAs it looks very weak. It was in
the right place at the right time, has been exploited
marvellously, but is now, sadly, well past its sell-by
62 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
date.
Quotes:
"Shades, already Europe's leading multi-user
game, heralds the introduction of a new generation of
interactive entertainment."
Micronet [promotional material]
"There is nothing else like Shades."
Micronet [promotional material]
"Shades is still fun to play."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"Shades seems to be the most popular MUG around
at the moment if you're judging by sheer weight of
numbers, though it has something of an advantage in
being part of Micronet/Prestel."
ACE [magazine]
"Pity that there's no real alternative
available for people to show their disquiet. If
something like Avalon was available at the same call
rates, I doubt you'd see most Shades players for
dust..."
Nigel Hardy [Sector 7 author]
"Shades is better at coping with this [resets]
than MUD, since there are eight games of Shades running
on each Prestel computer."
Acorn User [magazine]
"She stood close to me, put her arms around my
neck and whispered, "It's not the treasure I want,
silly boy. Take a look around." I did. I couldn't
believe my eyes! We were in the Bridal Suite! There was
a bed, the door was locked, and I was being cuddled
again."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"I found that type-ahead didn't work properly."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"The location descriptions are atmospheric, and
also vital to moving about the game as there is no
"exits" command."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"Shades has an emotional immediacy - MUD seems
a somewhat austere environment in which grand concepts
are brought to grand conclusions."
PC Plus [magazine]
"Shades has a more light-hearted approach. It
is a teddy bear adventure. MUD manages to be rather
serious until you meet some practical joker: then the
fun starts!"
63 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Acorn User [magazine]
"Shades is a good place to start for the new
player. It's friendly, and fairly easy to get going."
ACE [magazine]
"First time users find it less daunting than
MUD, while serious adventurers may find it less
enthralling."
PC Plus [magazine]
"If you are new to multi-user adventures, go
for Shades. ... Once you have mastered Shades, the
dizzy heights of MUD wizardhood still beckon."
Acorn User [magazine]
"Shades is very basic, having no real depth or
imagination. What little thought has gone into it has
been wasted - who really wants to play football in a
fantasy game? The players themselves are usually big
whingers. They hate enthusiastic killers just as much
as they hate people who talk too much. However, where
Shades wins over MUD is how the game is actually
managed. Ego seekers seem to be pushed to one side, and
everyone seems to know exactly where they stand within
the framework."
Wabit [player]
"Shades (and Trash) is left way behind in the
technical fields compared to (say) Avalon or Gods (I'll
explain that: Avalon and Gods have much better parsers,
much better commands, and much better things for
immortals to do once they've made it). They [Shades and
Trash] were written when even single-user adventures
were in their infancy, and have stood the test of time
remarkably well. But now they look just a trifle run
down and archaic."
Graeme [player]
"Shades has a more amateurish feel to it [than
MUD2]."
Acorn User [magazine]
"The game itself is rubbish. It has no life or
realism in it. Role-playing is one thing, but that just
wasn't believable. As for the players, yes, they have
got lots more [than MUD2]. The only problem I found was
that they didn't want to talk or interact more than
what they had to. Eventually I was kicked off by a
wizard for annoying too many people by chatting to
them."
Wabit [player]
"Having all the players start out equal is a
design principle. Although it doesn't mean it can be
achieved in practice, the mere fact that the goal is
unattainable doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to
reduce the distance to it."
Neil Newell [author]
64 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
"My viewpoint is not that fighting is the
lifeblood of the game - it is an essential element, but
just one facet of the whole picture."
Neil Newell [author]
"The ultimate adventure multi-user game"
Micronet [slogan]
4.6 AberMUG.
Name: AberMUG
Importance: 2
Author(s): Alan Cox ("Anarchy"),
Jim Finnis, Leon Thrane,
Richard Acott, Ian Smith.
Location: (081) 863 6646
Pricing Structure: L6.50/month flat fee or
L65/year flat fee
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
Originally entitled AberMUD, a version was
moved by Smith to Connect (the IBM PC User Group
conferencing system) in 1989. The name change was for
legal reasons, to avoid allegations that it was passing
itself off as MUD.
Review, Summary and Quotes:
See AberMUD in the section on international
MUAs.
AberMUG runs on a Compaq Deskpro 386/16 under
SCO Xenix system V/386 2.3.1.
65 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4.7 Avalon.
Name: Avalon
Importance: 2
Author(s): Yehuda Simmons ("Genesis"),
Daniel James ("Aldaron"),
Jon Baber ("Cornelius"),
Peter Evans ("Zaphod")
Location: Synergy
Pricing Structure: L0.25/hour or
L10/month flat fee or
L25/quarter flat fee or
L80/year flat fee or
L200 flat fee
Brief Description:
Arthurian/Odyssean, multi-skill, trading game.
Historical Notes:
Written by students in 1989. Originally on
IOWA, but went independent in 1990.
Review:
Avalon is a new MUA that has already attracted
great attention in the industry due to its departure
from the traditional MUD1 mould. It is primarily a
role-playing system, where the game determines the
skills available to personae, rather than the players
acquiring skills (eg. combat) themselves.
Indeed, skills are a very important feature of
Avalon. The gameplay works something like this: when
players start, they are given a history of training in
66 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
eight listed skills. All told, there are over 30 such
skills, covering a wide range from perception to music,
defence to riding. Personae may have up to 17 skills
each, although why 17 rather than some other figure
isn't made clear. Skills can be improved by use, and by
learning them from other players. By acquisition and
use of skills, players may do things which earn them
money or gain them experience.
Experience is obtained by visiting new places,
wandering around exploring, and even by simply
chatting. This contrasts with the usual MUA scheme
where points are obtained for finding treasure or
performing specific tasks. In Avalon, treasure may be
sold for money - gold pieces - and used to buy things.
Almost anything can be bought, including houses, shops,
taverns, animals, weapons, food and drink. Personae may
use certain skills to create objects, eg. potions,
which can be sold to other players for use on their
adventures.
It is easy to go up experience levels in
Avalon, at least initially, but it has many more levels
than usual in MUAs so rising to a new level doesn't
mean much - it can happen just by talking to someone
for long enough. There is a MUD2-like task system to
rise from the third-highest level ("ultimate") to the
second-highest ("demi-god") and highest
("god/goddess"). Avalon employs the Gods system for its
wizzes, with some modification in that gods/goddesses
cannot lose their powers once they have been obtained.
Nevertheless, it is still rather galling for many
67 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
players to have to prostrate themselves in front of
other players if they are to advance in Avalon. The
gods also earned an early reputation for being heavy-
handed and for ignoring new players.
The system of deities (of which their are
currently eight) is interwoven with that of skills.
There are nine guilds, each of which is devoted to a
particular style of play, with primary and secondary
associated skills, a persona as head, and (usually) a
deity as patron. Deities favour different aspects of
play, and players are encouraged to choose one as
patron that they may advance in their chosen skills
more quickly, via the appropriate guild.
There is some lack of forethought here in that
to reach god level, a persona must identify with and
follow the tenets of some other god, and thus when they
become deified there will be two gods with roughly the
same outlook, so one of them must change so as not to
be supernumerary. To change requires alteration to
Avalon itself, because at the moment it is built around
a balanced system of greek-like "god of the ..."
constructs. After several years, when perhaps twenty or
thirty gods have accumulated, this will lead to an
inevitable fragmentation into a collection of over-
specialised deities without any having a wide enough
brief to be attractive to players.
Game management is woven into the game, with a
judicial system in place allowing personae to deal with
offenders. Whether this will function remains to be
seen - as with Federation II, most complaints will be
68 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
about out-of-game actions (carrier loss, program bugs)
that will spoil the atmosphere if discussed in a game
context. Certainly, there have been problems: one of
the authors is rumoured to have got into an argument
with a player and deleted the entire persona file in a
fit of temper.
Avalon is atmospheric, but the room
descriptions show inexperience on the part of their
authors. The purple prose falls over itself to use
every word in the synonym library, and makes the
mistake of telling players how they react to the scene.
This form of unnecessary embellishment extends into the
rest of the game, and can be very tiresome; for
example, if you clap your hands it's reported as being
done "merrily" even if you did it in anger, or to call
for silence. The dialogue for learning new skills,
although interesting at first, is samey, hard-wired,
and looks too automated. The text also needs some minor
polishing, eg. "a unworthy", "the principle currency".
Overall, the scenario feels patchy, with
creatures from Tolkien (dwarves, orcs) alongside cities
from ancient Greece. There are a large number of
locations (1,600) compared to the small number of
players it allows at once (5 external lines). Some of
this size may be explained by the fact that Avalon
incorporates some ideas from Mosaic, and thus has a
collection of locations arranged in grid fashion. This
may also explain why you need a steed to travel the
distance between towns.
The magic (or magik) system is complex. Spells
69 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
must be memorised, and some require the chanting of
appropriate words before they can be cast (using a
"chant" command - merely saying them won't work). A
very bad move is that when players are killed they
don't start from scratch; instead, their spirit roams
the land shedding experience until another player
reincarnates it. This fosters co-operation and
friendship, which is its intent, but it also means
personae are effectively unkillable, and that in the
long run players are pretty much guaranteed to make it
to god if they have enough friends. Having the game
itself prevent unsuitable or troublemaking candidates
from reaching the top is one of the tenets of good game
management.
Avalon has several innovatory features, such as
a page-based "read" command and a page/line-based
"write", random-access style, and object creation
(within a tightly-controlled framework) by mortal
personae. When you leave the game, objects can be kept
for when you restart (eg. that weapon you commissioned
from a smith), and you restart in the room from which
you quit. This means some objects can be kept
unavailable for long periods if their owner isn't
playing. There are no resets. Shouts in Avalon get
level-dependent (but not gender-dependent)
descriptions, which discourages newcomers from using
this method to communicate. Combat is non-automatic,
which makes life hard for people without macros or fast
modems.
Avalon runs on an Archimedes, connected to
70 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
modems via a multiplexer programmed by Blane Bramble
(Comms Plus! magazine's UK MUA reviewer). The system
crashes quite often, and has a reputation for never
being up for very long. The game itself uses a language
called Hourglass, specially designed for writing MUAs.
It is highly flexible, although the authors' claims
that "unlike other multi-user game languages it allows
the user complete freedom in the nature of the system
created" betrays a certain naivety; it may be true of
Slate, but it certainly does not apply to MUDDLE or
some of the American object-oriented definition
languages now emerging.
To the beginner, Avalon is intimidating. This
is no fault of the players, more a consequence of the
sheer amount of information presented. It is almost as
if reading a manual is necessary before play can begin.
Instructions on how to use simple commands, such as
communication, are buried deep in the help system.
There are no automatic tours; newcomers have to rely on
a deity to show them around, which, of course, will
thenceforth colour their outlook in that god's favour.
Avalon actively promotes role-playing. It feels
less of a MUA, more of a single-player role-playing
game such as the later ones in the Ultima series. The
other players are constrained by their skills, their
patronage and the requirement that they role-play, to
such an extent that they can appear little more than
the mobiles which feature in SUAs. It is a worthy
experiment, nonetheless, and if Island of Kesmai can
flourish under such limitations, so can Avalon.
71 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Summary:
Avalon is very deep and very broad, but not in
the usual "physical" sense applied to MUAs; instead, it
is social aspects of play that it models. There is a
great amount of detail, but always the nagging thought
that in the main it's unnecessary, mere depth for
depth's sake. The game would probably function just as
well were much of the system removed; the players would
certainly feel less like they were wearing
straitjackets. In their keenness to try anything and
everything, the authors have expanded Avalon into a
great sprawl of ideas, some good, some bad, many
unworkable, but all interesting. In two or three years'
time, it will probably be in the first rank of MUAs.
Quotes:
"Players may choose to worship the gods in the
land, although quite what good this will do depends on
who you choose to worship."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"The main thing that is different is the idea
of skills, and being able to learn different skills to
different levels of competence. This allows for every
player to be different and an unknown quantity."
Wabit [player]
"Implementation [of skills and object creation]
is not quite how I would like it to be, but it's a good
start and a definite step in the right direction."
Wabit [player]
"Most of the 'usual' role-playing skills will
be implemented (hiding, stealing, archery), as well as
some more unusual ones (juggling, tightrope walking)."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"I really object to being told how I view the
location. Besides, it's stupid to have a description
that states you "pause to survey your surroundings" if
you are legging it through the location, or one where
an old woman appears and disappears every time you do a
72 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
look... These little things really bug me!"
Wabit [player]
"A multi-user game's atmosphere is to a large
extent formed by its players, and Avalon wishes to
encourage a tolerant and constructive environment."
Hourglass Communications [promotional
material]
"In five hours, no-one hardly said a word to
me, despite the fact that I tried on many occasions to
chat."
Jhary [player]
"Avalon is not simply a multi-user game, it is
a way of life, a living world unlike anything that has
existed before."
Hourglass Communications [promotional
material]
4.8 Bloodstone.
Name: Bloodstone
Importance: 2
Author(s): Robert Muir, Andrew Pusey
Location: none
Pricing Structure: none
Brief Description:
Advanced MUD1 clone, fantasy setting.
Historical Notes:
Muir was originally a Shades player. With
finance from Tony Cox, he and Pusey designed a
transputer-based MUA specialising in world modelling.
Named Bloodstone, it burst on the scene in 1989 in a
flurry of advance publicity, but wasn't launched for
almost a year. It finally went on-line on MicroLink,
but disappeared after a few months with hardware,
software and contractual problems. The cost was
L7/month flat fee (the equipment it ran on cost over
L20,000).
73 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Review:
Bloodstone was the victim of its own arrogance.
Its specifications were so exciting that, had they been
implemented in full, the authors would have qualified
for a Nobel Prize. It was to be vast, fast-moving,
incredibly detailed, and the MUA to end all MUAs. In
the end, it was brought down by implementation problems
and the cold reality that profit from MUAs in the call-
charge dominated UK market is not great.
The driving motivation in Bloodstone, which
worked in part, was compositionality. Objects were made
up of other objects, and these of others, and so on
until the author got bored. For example, human beings
were made up of 260 parts, including eyes, finger
joints and so on, but excluding individual hairs on the
head. A rose bush was made up of roots and branches,
with thorns and flowers on the branches, the flowers
being made up of a stamen and petals. Although always
present, such details were not always given, however:
"some flowers" or "many petals" would be described. In
this respect, the game was able to ensure that players
weren't completely swamped with information.
Despite this level of detail, Bloodstone was
intended to be set in a continent with 12 separate
countries, in which were towns and cities and 37
different races of creatures. All these would work
independently, with players being able to have jobs
during the day and be family men at night. Female
personae could become pregnant and give birth nine
74 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
months later to a child.
Mobiles were to have artificial intelligence
(AI). Because of the way bodies were made up of parts,
it was possible to get eg. a broken arm in a fight. A
mobile might be able to figure out it needed a splint,
and proceed to make one. Getting this alone to work as
a general principle would be worth a PhD in AI...
There were initially 20 spells, including
"polymorph" - change into a different kind of creature.
This, as a side effect, would allow communication with
other creatures of that kind (which seems unrealistic).
Everything was interlinked. If bricks were
removed from a wall, it might collapse, bringing the
rest of the building down. Small-scale actions could
have large-scale effects. There are, however, well
known problems in the AI field of object representation
concerning this kind of activity. Either the programmer
has to list explicitly all effects of players' actions
(which is difficult and tedious) or the game's
interpreter can figure it all out on-the-fly as it
happens. This latter approach, where there are a set of
physical laws that are applied to everything that has
moved after a command has been executed, is workable
but vulnerable; there can be long delays as effects are
propagated throughout the universe being modelled, and
some effects may take considerable time to dampen down
and disappear. Pulling a petal off a flower may seem
innocuous, but if it makes you weigh just enough that
the snow bridge upon which you're standing collapses,
and this in turn starts an avalanche, there can be
75 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
wide-scale devastation that is almost impossible to
sort out.
Bloodstone had a 25,000 word dictionary; this
was quite a feat, but the authors never made apparent
which words were actually functional and which were
merely ignored. It is quite difficult to think of even
1,000 words that could feasibly be of use in a MUA.
Again, Bloodstone appeared to be going for overkill in
an effort to impress potential customers.
Originally, the game was intended to run on
transputers, but apparently these slowed it down. It
finally ran on a custom-built 80386 machine running at
over 6 mips (but rather flakily).
Although there were plans for graphics-based
clients on the Atari ST and the Amiga, Bloodstone's
normal display was rather poor. It didn't word-wrap,
and the text (built up from object descriptions)
contained such blunders as "a blood" and "it feels has
a firm, warm texture".
Bloodstone was envisaged as a game of life, yet
there lay its central problem: it had no gameplay to
speak of. It was a simulation to incredible depth, but
there wasn't really much that players could do, it was
too open-ended. Even given the extravagant claims its
publicists made, it probably could have been forgiven
all but that.
Bloodstone was a grand concept, but doomed to
failure. Its reliance on compositionality ensured that
it would be stuck in a morass of intricate inter-
relations between its components unless it sacrificed
76 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
some of its depth (and thus some of its claim to
originality). Some application of AI techniques may
have alleviated the problem (eg. lazy evaluation -
expand a rose object from a template only when it is
actually in use), but the best approach would probably
have been to represent objects at a higher level of
abstraction. In the end, depth is useless unless
there's a reason for it. Bloodstone's depth didn't pass
this "so what?" test.
Bloodstone has been included in this review
because although it is currently down, it is not out,
and it may return in the near future. Hopefully, this
time it will make less boastful claims, and advertise
only what it does do rather than what it could do given
a team of thirty programmers and a Cray 2 for four
years. It's a very nice idea, but the programmers set
their sights too high initially.
Summary:
Bloodstone is characterised by its almost
unbelievable depth, which dominates every aspect of it
completely. It is known, however, by the conceit of its
advertising, the unlikeliness of its features ever
being implemented, and the contempt in which it held
other MUAs.
Quotes:
"I see that Bloodstone has gone down the pan.
And just as MicroLink were about to 'start serious
promotion'. Pity they didn't do that when it started,
or they may have been able to get more than 4 users on
and brought in enough dosh to keep the thing alive."
Nigel Hardy [Sector 7 author]
77 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
"The game is revolutionary in that it is
massive and has huge expansion potential."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"If you pull a wing off a fly, that creature
will be missing a wing forever and will probably die."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"Mobiles are equipped with artificial
intelligence and will probably strap a broken arm into
a sling."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"It looks set to take the lead in the multi-
player game market."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"Reports from UK-wide testers were proving
enthusiastic."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"It combines all the necessary detail and
commands to be able to walk all over the opposition and
should be sufficient to convert players of Shades and
MUD."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"One of the early gripes [with MicroLink] has
been about the late arrival of its multi-user games."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"It puts everything else into the shade."
Derek Meakin [MicroLink chairman]
"We feel we have a powerful enough parser for
anyone."
Robert Muir [author]
78 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
4.9 Empyrion.
Name: Empyrion
Importance: 2
Author(s): ?
Location: IOWA
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
SF, multi-skill trading game.
Historical Notes:
Appeared on IOWA in 1990. Currently withdrawn
from service.
Review:
Empyrion is another of the well-received new
MUAs, a cross between Avalon and Federation II. Its
scenario is an underwater city of the future, divided
into districts called Hages. Each Hage is run by an
administrator, a position which may be occupied by a
player. Administrators have a budget which they can
spend as they please. Players can leave the city (a
crime under city law) and explore the surface, which is
in the grips of a sinister alien force. From there,
they can trade.
Trading gets players money, which they can
spend on objects. Houses can be commissioned, and are
built over a period of time, so it's possible to go and
watch the construction engineers at their task. Like
all IOWA games, Empyrion has no sudden resets.
There is no conventional scoring system in
79 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Empyrion. Rather, it is skills-based: players progress
by acquiring and practising survival skills such as gun
combat, medicine, bribery and street-wiseliness. What
they progress to is not apparent; there are a
collection of energy beings called "eternals" with
gamesmaster status, but how exactly one becomes an
eternal - if indeed it is even possible - is not clear.
Eternals are capable of shape-changing, and are
worshipped as gods in the city. They are able to create
and alter rooms, objects, system messages and puzzles
on-line; little is built into the interpreter. In this
sense, the game is player-extensible, but only by
selected players.
The city has a legal system run by the hage
administrators and a group called "the sandmen" (as in
the movie Logan's Run). For breakers of city law they
can impose fines, brainwash out skills, or order
executions. This is part of playing Empyrion, and is
not to be confused with game management - that's
handled externally.
As with Avalon, and increasingly in new MUAs,
some objects can be reserved for individual players and
left in a safe place so that the next time that player
plays, the object is available. Despite its SF setting,
Empyrion does have a magic system, "the force" (as in
the film Star Wars). Players expend psi points using it
and have to spend time "recharging" afterwards. Because
of its large scale, vehicles are commonplace in
Empyrion to enable players to move between places that
distant from one another.
80 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Empyrion runs on two machines, one for the game
itself and one for mobiles. The mobiles are therefore
more akin to bots. They are written in Prolog, and are
supposedly able to learn.
Summary:
Empyrion is an interesting game combining many
features shared by other newish MUAs, but not indulging
in them to excess. However, it is rarely available at
the moment.
Quotes:
"It certainly sounds good."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"In Empyrion, practically everything is
editable on-line by the gamesmasters."
Confidential [magazine]
"Empyrion is a fascinating new game that should
have Sci-Fi buffs sitting on the edge of their chairs."
Confidential [magazine]
4.10 MIST.
Name: MIST
Importance: 2
Author(s): David Barham, Paul Goodjohn,
John Medhurst, Dave Morris,
Shaun Plumb, Paul Friday,
Michael Lawrie ("Lorry"),
Bret Giddings, Richard Thombs,
Adam Bird ("Orc"),
Simon Smith ("Boo")
Location: Essex University
81 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
Written using the Trubshaw and Bartle MUD1
interpreter, went live Christmas 1987. Runs on Essex
University's DECsystem-10 mainframe, but not for much
longer as the computer is shortly to be scrapped.
Review:
MIST is one of the several databases written by
students for the MUD1 interpreter in its MUDDL language
(NB: MUDDL is MUD1's definition language; MUD2 uses a
greatly different language, MUDDLE). MIST introduced
many JANet users to MUAs, and was worked on by a large
number of students.
Unlike MUD1's original database, MIST uses the
berserker option. This makes for a fight-oriented game.
Management is easy, however - whichever student is in
charge any particular year usually assumes draconian
powers, and it's not unprecedented to delete the entire
persona file (which would not be an option in a
commercial game).
MIST is dated by its MUD1 interpreter and the
weakness of the MUDDL language. However, the age of the
hardware upon which it runs is its final executioner -
Essex's DECsystem-10 will be switched off and melted
down for scrap sometime within the next few weeks.
82 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Summary:
A large mish-mash of rooms by different authors
bound together in an heroic fantasy setting. A
completely traditional, fun MUA.
Quotes:
"MIST doesn't have any rules as such, it's a
pretty anarchistic place as games of this type go."
Michael Lawrie [author]
"Rules for general behaviour are laid down by
the wizards and you would be well advised to follow
them."
Michael Lawrie [author]
4.11 Mosaic.
Name: Mosaic
Importance: 2
Author(s): Pip Cordrey ("Pippin")
Location: none
Pricing Structure: none
Brief Description:
A MUA design methodology.
Historical Notes:
Originally known as Vector, Mosaic was first
suggested several years ago, but only in 1989 did it
come to the fore after a talk by Cordrey at the
Adventure 89 convention. Some of its concepts are used
in Avalon.
Review:
Mosaic is not a MUA itself; rather, it is an
influential approach to designing MUAs.
83 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
MUAs represent rooms as a network of nodes
connected bidirectionally. The central theme of Mosaic
is that a better approach would be to use a point-based
co-ordinate system instead. What normal MUAs regard as
a "room" in Mosaic would be nothing more than a
collection of points that share a common name.
The primary advantages of a Mosaic system over
normal MUAs are: room descriptions can be generated
automatically; interaction over distance is possible;
it is more realistic.
That viable room descriptions can be generated
on-the-fly is not in doubt. Work at Essex University
established that "bookkeeping" information (number of
exits, large nearby buildings, views from windows) can
be folded into a piece of atmospheric text to produce
readable complete descriptions. However, this work was
in a normal MUA environment, not in a point-based one.
A prototype of Mosaic ran into problems in that too
much information was provided to the players, with many
objects visible some considerable distance away. The
solution it adopted was twofold: to provide a command
whereby players could restrict how far into the
distance their "look" command proceeded; to prioritise
objects so that things like advancing dragons would be
included in a description and distant mud huts
excluded. There was no command to set priorities for
each user, however, nor was there one to select the
cut-off point of priority totals above which no further
information was given.
In Mosaic, the world is divided into 1m cubes.
84 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Each cube has a surface type, eg. grassy plain, which
determines how it is described. Objects can be seen at
any distance, but can be occluded: line-of-sight
calculations and adjustments for atmospheric conditions
are done automatically. Descriptions are player-
relative, so players can not see what is immediately
behind them (there are objections to this aspect of
"realism" - just because a player is generally facing
west, that shouldn't mean they can't keep glancing
around and picking up high-priority objects approaching
from the east).
A big play is made of Mosaic's ability to
reduce the amount of text necessary for a MUA, however
in some ways it increases it. Objects (which are not
made up of 1m cubes) need different descriptions
depending on how far away they are and the direction
from which they're viewed; what looks like a house from
a distance may look like a pole from the side and look
like a billboard close up. Objects can also have
different descriptions depending on the time of day,
whether they're inside or outside, and the lighting. So
although Mosaic requires less text for describing
rooms, it needs more for objects. Interestingly, there
is no provision for describing objects on-the-fly based
on whatever properties they have.
Physical features in the game, eg. hills, can
either be constructed from unit blocks or calculated at
run-time from (fractal?) planar functions. Distant
objects can be modelled by placing appropriate surfaces
at the edge of the game world, eg. the sun, clouds, and
85 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
mountains.
Movement can be fine-tuned, so that a normal
"north" command may move a player 5m north, or 4m
through marshland; a "run north" may be 10m and 8m
respectively, whereas "north very slowly" could be 1m
in both cases. There is great scope for combat in this
system, since combatants can move around as they fight,
terrain advantage can be taken into account, and weapon
length can play a part - someone standing behind a bar
holding a polearm would be unassailable from even the
most magic of swords. There would be no need to flee -
players would simply move away and hope their injuries
weren't so great that they could be caught again.
Cordrey's articles on the subject include some
suggestions for player properties. Although some of
these are perhaps conceivably of use (height, weight,
build, weapon skills), others are rather eccentric
(body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar level,
endocrinic activity) and would simply get in the way of
playing the game. There are also suggestions for more
accurate physical modelling, such as handling gravity
automatically, however at best this would be a case of
moving objects down until their z co-ordinate matched
that of a surface; questions of objects being
overbalanced or knocked over by having a new mass land
on them are unlikely to be addressed because these are
currently research issues in AI robotics.
Mosaic, like MirrorWorld, is a one-concept
system - everything revolves around this 1m cube idea.
In reality, though, it's less flexible than the system
86 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
employed by normal MUAs, since their nodes can be
strung together in arbitrary ways including a co-
ordinate system, whereas Mosaic is held rigidly to
uniformally-sized blocks. Perhaps a better approach
would be to overlay the rooms in a normal MUA with a
co-ordinate grid, thus gaining the best of both worlds
(Avalon, which has a Mosaic segment, may do this; a
single-user version of MUD1 released around 1987
certainly did).
Implementation of these ideas can need a good
deal of computer power. Line-of-sight calculations are
required every time an object is moved, so its new
position may be reported to all players, and this can
be very cpu-intensive. The first implementation
recalculated the entire database every time an object
was moved, to check for consistency, but this approach
had to be abandoned because it proved far too slow.
All in all, Mosaic is a neat idea but it's too
restrictive and too slow for MUA programmers' liking.
However, in one respect it would be fantastically
successful - graphics. The co-ordinate system it
envisages is precisely what is required in a graphical
MUA, and many of the problems that arise from textual
descriptions (eg. information overload) would disappear
if the information was represented visually. However,
Cordrey is vehemently anti-graphics, so no work has yet
been done in this area.
87 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Summary:
Mosaic is an idea with potential, and its
employment in MUAs in parallel with the traditional
approach would be beneficial. However, until the idea
is taken up by MUA programmers other than the IOWA
team, this is unlikely to happen.
Quotes:
"You never know, we may change the face of
tomorrow's adventuring."
Pip Cordrey [author]
"Not only should this form of system make games
more realistic, but it also means that games
(especially combat) should become more tactical."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"The real advantage is that it is no longer
necessary to sit scratching ones head dreaming up room
descriptions, the system will do it for you. What is
more, these descriptions will be accurate."
Pip Cordrey [author]
"Mosaic really is a progression from the early
free style, free space tabletop game."
Pip Cordrey [author]
"In current MUGs, if two players both decide to
get the same object, the one who enters the command
first gets it. With Mosaic, the system can determine
the distance to the object (and possibly how quickly
the player can cover the distance), and delay the
action accordingly.
Comms Plus! [magazine]
88 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
4.12 Prodigy.
Name: Prodigy
Importance: 2
Author(s): Blane Bramble ("Geolin")
Location: IOWA
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone, Ancient Britain setting.
Historical Notes:
Originally entitled Parody, but very recently
rewritten from scratch and renamed Prodigy (coinciding
with the loss of Parody through hardware failure).
Review:
Parody was a run-of-the-mill MUA set in
"Wesarg", a mythical part of pre-Christian Britain.
Written in Slate, it was subject to all the limitations
of that language, and Blane Bramble, its author,
decided to rewrite it as Prodigy using a language of
his own design. Although this will eventually make the
game much better, most of it doesn't yet work. Worse,
the original Parody game had to be taken away because
of hardware problems, so at present there is no MUA
available containing the complete Parody universe.
In Prodigy, players choose a character class
for their persona, one of warrior, rogue, priest or
mage (standard AD&D classes). There is no difference at
the top level for each class, which equates with wiz;
players need 3,072,000 points to reach wiz, though -
89 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
the highest yet seen in a MUA and probably
attributable to the "pinball scoreboard effect" of
scaling all point values by a large number so as to
give the impression that players are doing better than
they actually are.
Experience points are gained by solving
puzzles, or by finding objects and selling them to a
trader (ie. back to the game). Experience points can,
unusually for MUAs, be spent, either in the
anachronistic casino (playing a card game based on
baccarat) or on spells. Later, experience points may
also be exchanged for goods in shops, eg. food. The
ability to swap experience for spells, though, gives a
more interesting trade-off: players who do it will not
go up levels as quickly (because they spend some of
their experience points), however they may survive
longer in the long term.
The magic system is not fully implemented, but
the spells Prodigy has at the moment are mainly combat-
oriented, with no "blind" or "deafen" spells (a hang-
over from the original Slate implementation). However,
it does have its own unique spell, "charm", which stops
its victim (usually the person who cast it) from being
attacked by mobiles for six seconds.
When finished, Prodigy will have 160 extra
locations, more puzzles, and more objects; Bramble has
delegated editorial control to one of the players. The
database definition language it employs is under wraps,
but although it is better than Slate it clearly has its
problems: everything is stored in memory, which can
90 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
quickly run out, and which has to be backed up to disc
every so often, causing long pauses while it happens.
Furthermore, its implementation is not all it should be
- adding any data to memory slows the game down due to
its having more information to search. As is normal
with a new implementation, Prodigy is shaky at the
moment and prone to bugs and crashes. Its spelling and
punctuation are in need of being proof-read.
Fights are novel in that players can use two
weapons at once, but they are ultimately fruitless
activities because the worse that can happen if you
lose is a loss of 25% of your points. This makes
attacking powerful players unattractive - if you plan
an ambush and beat them, they're still pretty well as
powerful and can thrash you on their own terms as often
as they like at a later date. That said, fights are
complicated by weapons having different properties:
attack, defence, parry, speed and damage. They also
have an aura (ie. alignment), which if different to the
player's own will cause a degradation in performance.
It is therefore essential in Prodigy to choose the
weapon that best fits your needs - more realistic than
most MUAs.
Prodigy has parser capable of accepting
adjectives on the object (eg. "get tabby cat"), and it
has a pronoun ("me"). It will auto-abbreviate names,
which are unique in the first three letters (Avalon
does a similar thing to four letters), so "Geolin" can
be shortened to "Geo" in all cases. This would,
however, appear to limit quite drastically the number
91 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
of readable persona names Prodigy can accept.
Uncommonly among non-academic MUAs, Prodigy has
its own in-built mail/notes system as part of its
command set. Almost invariably in other MUAs, this
function is carried out by an external program, being
an activity not conducive to maintaining atmosphere.
Nevertheless, it does appear handy, and may find its
way into other MUAs after a while.
Summary:
Prodigy is an average MUA, pleasant enough but
nothing special. It will increase in popularity as it
is fleshed out, particularly because its author is the
MUA correspondent for Comms Plus! magazine.
Quotes:
"Parody is a fascinating game to play."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"The quickest way to get to Mage is to ignore
spells completely, IF you can survive without them!"
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"The story line is a strong one, and the senior
players are attentive and available."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"'Oh good,' I hear you say. 'Maybe we'll see
some serious additions to the game with someone else
writing.' But no - having seen one of her puzzles it
seems the game will continue in a similar vein to its
currently confused setting."
Blane Bramble [author]
"Memory is fairly limited on the current
machine, and if the memory limit is reached the game
will probably flame-out (crash and burn)."
Blane Bramble [author]
"If you are keen on fantasy and AD&D then you
should investigate this game."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
92 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
4.13 Quest.
Name: Quest
Importance: 2
Author(s): Phil Harling ("Amstar"),
Marcus Tyler-Moore ("Totty"),
Ady Parker ("Apollo"),
Ian Cumbers ("Legal"),
Pip Cordrey ("Pippin")
Location: IOWA
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Historical Notes:
Originally entitled Quest 1, written in 1986 by
Harling, then in his early teens. Rewritten in 1987 for
an Amstrad 6128, and again for an SBS PC clone. In this
latest incarnation, it was ported to IOWA.
Review:
Quest is a game permanently in a state of
never-progressing development. It has around 300 rooms
with more promised, and has had since 1988. Their
descriptions are brief (often only one line), and there
are numerous incorrect spellings. Object descriptions
are of a length that other MUAs would use as their
name, and they are folded together (eg. "You can see a
soggy snowball and a magic mushroom"). This all
combines to make the game rather unatmospheric.
The gameplay is clearly an attempt to
93 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
rationalise the idea of rolling resets. Instead of a
man in a white coat, Quest is run by a computer-
generated wizard called Taliesin. He creates and
recreates the world, recycling treasure by placing it
back in play. Points are scored by dropping objects
down a bottomless pit, or, for higher-level players,
giving them to Taliesin's apprentice. This mobile is
supposed to be a comic figure, and will either pass the
treasure on to Taliesin for reprocessing, drop it, or
give it back to the player.
Quest claims to be the first MUA with gambling,
since it has a system where players can bet points on
the results of gladiatorial combat in an amphitheatre
(although they can't themselves participate). When
players do fight, whoever is defeated will lose half
their points if they were attacked, or all their points
if they started it.
As with most MUAs, players can die silly deaths
in Quest, eg. by falling from a great height. The
standard practice in this event is to quit the player
from the game and to fine them a small percentage of
their points (possibly 0%). Quest makes them lose the
number of points since they last did an explicit "save"
command, since it has no automatic saving of score.
This can irritate players, who object to having to type
"save" every so often while they are exploring.
Players in Quest can pick up objects, mobiles
and each other. This latter feature is generally
regarded as inadvisable in MUAs except when undertaken
by wizzes, since it effectively renders a player
94 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
captive and immobile. Nevertheless, in Quest it is
thought to be a pretty nifty trick.
It is possible to send messages from Quest to
players in MirrorWorld. However, given the overall
shoddiness of Quest, prospective players will probably
be in MirrorWorld anyway...
Summary:
A shallow, narrow MUA that seems virtually
abandoned by its programming team. Were it given more
attention it could be one of the better Slate games,
but as it is it's fossilised in a state of neglect.
Quotes:
"There are some nice touches to the game."
ACE [magazine]
"Along similar lines to MirrorWorld, the game
has managed to introduce ideas of its own, and so has
avoided the problem of being thought a MirrorWorld
clone."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"It certainly is a step onward from the
original game he [Harling] wrote, including some very
imaginative features."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"The thing that is most unique is that it has a
strong storyline that makes the whole universe
plausible."
Confidential [magazine]
95 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4.14 Realm.
Name: Realm
Importance: 2
Author(s): Martin Hardcastle
Location: CompuNet
Pricing Structure: L1.50/hour
Brief Description:
MUD1 clone, Tolkienesque.
Historical Notes:
Launched with a fanfare in late 1989, but
little publicity since then. Its 17-year-old author
took two years to write it.
Review:
Realm is set in a fantasy world like that of
Middle Earth, where a once prosperous population has
been devastated by natural disaster and overrun by evil
creatures. Players are humans, elves, dwarves etc.,
whose task is to amass points in the usual treasure-
finding/puzzle-solving/monster-killing fashion until
they reach the wiz level ("Immortal").
The game has a reputation for good, atmospheric
descriptions, a usable MUD2-style hierarchy of object
classes, and a superbly detailed combat system.
Unfortunately, there is no guest account and you need
to be a subscriber to CompuNet to play it.
Realm runs on a 1mb Atari ST.
96 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Summary:
A good, traditional MUA, but without the
backing it properly deserves and somewhat overpriced.
Quotes:
"For my money, one of the best multi-user
games."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"Realm is just the sort of game I'd hoped to
see on CompuNet one day. A true, traditional MUG in the
style of MUD and Shades."
Alan Wright [player]
"I liked it because it is very fair to slow,
stupid beginners like myself."
Alan Wright [player]
"A world where magic works and heroes are as
common as the monsters they slay."
Martin Hardcastle [author]
4.15 Trash.
Name: Trash
Importance: 2
Author(s): Matthew Ward ("Ambushbug")
Location: Prestel
Pricing Structure: L4.80/hour 8am - 6pm
L1.20/hour 6pm - 8am
L19.80/hour on (0898) 100890
Brief Description:
Non-standard MUD1 clone, "humorous" setting.
Historical Notes:
With Shades' success, Neil Newell set up a
company (Third Millenium Systems) to design and market
MUAs. The first product to appear was Trash, written in
1989 using Newell's MUGICK language. Despite being on
97 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Prestel/Micronet, it has not been a hit.
Review:
Trash was deliberately written to be funny.
MUAs are meant to be entertaining, so Trash goes all
out to amuse with "wacky" descriptions and "weird"
premisses. Unfortunately, it tries too hard, and most
of it really isn't all that amusing.
The objective is to collect trash (as opposed
to treasure) and dump it in an atomic furnace. For
this, the players receive credits which can be spent on
restoring stamina, buying things, or on psionic powers.
Psionic powers are intended to be an encouragement to
role-players, so ones playing evil personae might
concentrate on increasing their telekinesis or
pyrokinesis psionics, whereas good personae might focus
on a power like faith healing.
Although this may appear to be a standard MUA
with just the names changed (psionics=magic,
trash=treasure, atomic furnace=swamp), there is
actually a fairly interesting structure lying beneath
it. Players go up levels not by accumulating credits,
but by increasing their "promotional prospects". By
solving puzzles in the game, a player's promotional
prospects are raised a few percentage points. When the
total reaches 100%, the player goes up an experience
level - there are 12 in all, the top being 'Lord/Lady'.
Although credits can be used to increase your chances
of survival, they aren't intrinsic to rising levels.
Because of this puzzle-centred outlook, and the
98 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
fact that higher-level players get no reward for
solving easy puzzles, Trash should attract the more
serious players who like ordinary SUAs, rather than
just pure MUA addicts. However, its self-conscious
humour tends to drive such people away. Nevertheless,
Trash does have a larger number of puzzles than is
common in MUAs, and ensures that players need to have
solved virtually all of them before they reach the top
level.
The game does have some background information
to justify why players are performing their trash-
seeking tasks, concerning endotropic levels of small
dimensions within the multiverse. These "small
dimensions" are actually pocket MUAs in the overall
Trash scenario, and have a theme running through them.
Some are generic, eg. "Heavy Citadel of Metal" and "the
Pyramid of Tutan", but others poke fun at specific
targets: "Shades of a land" spoofs Shades; "Cabbages
and Caves" does AD&D; "Off-Centre Earth" is Lord of the
Rings and "Starship Wantarise" is Star Trek.
So why hasn't Trash been as successful as
expected? Part of the reason is its gameplay - not
everyone is an adventure fan, and if there's no
alternative to problem-solving then they won't play.
However, the main reason is its setting - the forced
atmosphere of crazy (ie. unfunny) humour grates after a
few minutes, and the strange logic of the game is too
much of a departure from reality for many players to
consider fair. It may seem a good joke for players to
get a spaceship from a spaceship tree, but it's not
99 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
really the first thing you'd look for if you wanted to
undertake interstellar travel.
Trash runs an an IBM AT.
Summary:
A good, puzzle-oriented MUA with an interesting
alternative to convention experience points, totally
ruined by an inappropriate scenario.
Quotes:
"With a name like that, no-one can prosecute
it under the Trades Descriptions Act."
[Traditional]
"The whole game is puzzle oriented, and takes
one step closer to being an adventure game for multiple
players. Here, the distinction between a MUG and a MUA
becomes more pronounced."
Ace [magazine]
"The puzzles range from easy to incredibly
annoyingly difficult."
Confidential [magazine]
"Trash is one of the strangest multi-user games
around, combining fire-breathing cabbages and
inflatable hovercars with Matthew 'Ambushbug' War's own
inimitable style and humour."
Third Millenium Systems [promotional
material]
"Where else could you grow your own spaceship,
meet fire-breathing cabbages, teach machinery to hum in
tune, cause pink blancmange to rain from the sky,
clamber through a giant statue and drive around in an
inflatable hovercar - while clearing up rubbish!?"
Third Millenium Systems [promotional
material]
"Couple the puzzles with large doses of humour
and you get a game that's both satisfying and highly
enjoyable."
ACE [magazine]
"Anything and everything may happen in the
game, and though there is always a certain logic in the
background it may not be easy to find."
Confidential [magazine]
100 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
"Trash has been MUGICK's first big challenge,
and I'm very pleased with the results. Matt has really
made MUGICK do some very strange things indeed!"
Neil Newell MUGICK [author]
4.16 Void.
Name: Void
Importance: 2
Author(s): Clive Lindus ("Dirk")
Location: (0903) 700737
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Non-standard MUD1 clone, multi-setting.
Historical Notes:
Lindus was a player of Zone, who became
disillusioned with it and decided to write his own
alternative. Void was premiered two years later at the
Adventure 89 convention, and was launched in 1990.
Review:
Void, like Trash, is a multi-setting game. Its
linking scenario is that reality rifts are being caused
by the construction of an intergalactic throughway, and
that players can fall through these rifts into parallel
worlds. At present, Void consists of 450 rooms split
into 9 environments (with another due shortly)
including a fairground, a school, an ice palace, Dodge
City in the wild west, and Narnia. This idea of
connecting popular milieux together in one consistent
system has gained currency in face-to-face role-
playing, and will probably become one of the next fads
101 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
in MUAs, too.
Everything in Void is there as an aid to role-
playing. It is not really a game, since there is no
real goal; instead, it is a framework to promote
imaginative interaction between players. There is, for
example, no combat, and thus the speed at which players
progress through its twelve levels is dependent
directly on the amount of time they invest in
accumulating points. Alignment is explicit, either good
or evil, and is not monitored by the game (Avalon, on
the other hand, determines alignment by what players
do, not by what they say they'll do).
The emphasis on role-play is a pity in one way,
because Void actually has quite a good game system
underlying it. Players' stamina decreases with time,
and is replenished by food and drink. Magical power, on
the other hand, increases over time and is reduced by
the use of spells. Spells for each player are kept in
that player's personal spellbook, and even at the
highest level (arch angel or demon lady/lord, depending
on alignment) not all spells are available. Thus, other
players are unknowns - a rather attractive and
realistic idea. One-off spells can be obtained by
reading appropriate scrolls.
Points are of two types, magical and social.
The former correspond with points in other MUAs, the
latter are just things that players get a few of each
week to give to their friends - there is no gameplay
reason for having them. Magical points are obtained in
Gods-like fashion by offering them to the ruler (ie.
102 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
creator - usually an ex-Zone player) of the world
you're in at the time, at some appropriate location.
Void has more depth than you'd expect - it can
handle smells, for example - but it is selective in
that interaction between players is handled in a far
more detailed fashion than the rest of the game. It
has, for example, a modern switch facility, so that a
string containing, say, "/Fred" will expand to "Fred"
for everyone except Fred, in which case it expands to
"you". This can be used to good effect in emotion
commands, eg. "Growl at /Fred".
The reason for this degree of attention to
inter-persona messaging is because it is Void's raison
d'etre - the whole point of playing is to role-play in
imaginative ways with other players. Some of it is
sexual, but on the whole it is good-natured and fun,
rather than the sometimes sordid behaviour which goes
on in Zone. A side effect is that some desirable
commands usually left out of MUAs are present in Void
for effect - "dress" and "undress" are there, which
means "wear" is also present and is distinct from
"get". Cash is part of the game, and can be spent on
various services, such as the "ogram" (sending a
message to another player by means of a transient
messenger, eg. a kissogram). Perhaps surprisingly,
perhaps not, Void has a larger proportion of female
players than most MUAs.
There is some humour written explicitly into
the game, which can be intrusive. Players can create
their own prefixes, although there's no problem with
103 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
that because virtually anything they choose can be
fitted into the scenario, and even misspellings only
add to the general feeling of fun.
Player names can be abbreviated to minimum
uniqueness, although there are problems when this
conflicts with command names, and when other players
enter whose entire name is someone else's minimum.
Void's players form a small, tight-knit yet gregarious
community, however, and if people do mess it around
they can usually be persuaded in friendly fashion to be
a little more thoughtful. Whether that would be
possible with a larger user base seems unlikely,
though.
There is a bulletin-board in Void that can be
accessed from within the game. Normally, this would be
too dangerous for players to use - while they're in the
BB, their persona could be being attacked. However,
since Void has no fights, it's safe to have one there.
Void has an unfriendly rivalry with Avalon,
which it sees as poaching its players - the game was
deserted for a time when Avalon came out, and is only
now recovering due to Avalon's fragility. Some of
Avalon's programmers and gods are regarded as
particularly arrogant by Void stalwarts.
Void is hard-coded in Pascal, with text and
object/room definitions written externally in a simple
database definition language. It has just four external
lines, and runs on two IBM ATs.
104 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Summary:
Void is really little more than a virtual
reality to encourage role-playing, often of the
flirtatious type but by no means restricted to that.
With some concessions to gameplay and a few puzzles, it
could really get to be quite good, however its author,
Clive Lindus, seems happy with what he has - a light
piece of variety with a warm nose.
Quotes:
"The availability of different realms is an
interesting alternative to offering several different
games."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"There are quite a few touches of humour in the
game."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"I like it! Wonderfully inventive and
atmospheric."
Lizandith [player]
"The main idea of the game is enjoyment, and
how you achieve this (as long as it doesn't stop
someone else enjoying themselves) is up to you."
Void [promotional material]
"I try to take a back seat and let players get
on with role-playing. The best way is for me to play as
well. I think all this "I'm the coder" rubbish puts
people off."
Clive Lindus [author]
"This game is truly run for the players: no
charge to play, and relying on players' ideas to
improve it. Before you worry about Avalon, spare a
thought for Void - I think it deserves its fair quota
of players as well."
Clive Lindus [author]
105 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4.17 Zone.
Name: Zone
Importance: 2
Author(s): Chris Butterworth ("Gandalf")
Location: Lap of the Gods
Pricing Structure: L0.575/hour or
L11.50/month flat fee
Brief Description:
Non-standard MUD1 clone, debauchery setting.
Historical Notes:
Butterworth was playing Shades when another
player suggested that someone should write an adult
MUA. Zone was finished in 1987, and went live
independently (with only two external lines). In 1988,
it moved to the Lap of the Gods system.
Review:
Zone is short for Erogenous Zone. It is a MUA
deliberately written to be "adult" and controversial,
and succeeds admirably in both areas: over-reaction by
BT to the threats of self-styled "moral guardians"
could eventually lead not only to the removal of Zone
from the telephone network, but also of every other
MUA. Zone could then use its notoriety to flourish
abroad, but most other MUAs would simply die. That Zone
will best succeed in the long run by annoying the anti-
pornographic lobby and getting banned perhaps explains
its stalwart refusal to make all but the most token
gestures towards ensuring that people aren't offended.
106 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
In Zone's case, at least originally, it was
intended to be controversial only in that it was
thought-provoking; more cynical approaches to generate
publicity by explicit lewdness had been suggested,
however - most notoriously CompuNet's now-abandoned
After Midnight project. Zone has given way to pressure
to a minor extent in that it now asks players to state
their age, and won't let them play if they say they're
under 18; however, it has no way of verifying that
people are telling the truth, and there have been
suggestions that the question could really be intended
as more of a gimmick to entice new players than as a
demonstration of Lap of the Gods' responsibility.
The game itself (and it is a game) is set in an
old mansion, its grounds, and a temple (dedicated to
Sappho, a Greek poetess whose behaviour gave rise to
the word "lesbian"). Compared to other MUAs, Zone has a
small database and few items of treasure. Points can be
scored by taking objects to the temple altar and
offering them to Sappho, but the main way for players
to increase their score is to do just that - score with
the other players.
Zone has a command "make love to ... ". Players
have to get into the right mood first by use of
"cuddle" and "kiss" type commands, and the process can
be speeded up by consuming alcohol. Points are awarded
depending on location, participants, deflowering
virgins, and who issued the "make love" command. If a
persona is being made love to and doesn't want to be
(ie. is being raped), there is a "stop" command - but
107 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
it costs points to use.
Lovemaking uses up stamina, which can be
recovered by consuming food and drink. Alcohol intake
can have advantageous effects, but too much will cause
disorientation, and, beyond that, death. MUD2 has a
more complete treatment of alcoholic beverages (and,
since it deals with liquids properly, allows drinks to
be diluted), but there is no advantage gained by
drinking in that game. In Zone, it's practically
mandatory.
There are twelve levels, the top being
master/mistress. There are arch-wizzes for game
management purposes, although since mortals can do
pretty well everything except swear in Zone their
position isn't very taxing. A nice touch is that the
game leaves its own messages of congratulations on the
Zone bulletin-board when someone reaches master or
mistress. Although there is no combat in Zone, players
can lose points by seducing or being seduced by a
player of a much lower level. From a gameplay
viewpoint, then, lovemaking is Zone's equivalent of
combat.
Although Zone is a MUA in the traditional
sense, these aspects of it have been neglected in
favour of its role-playing side. New objects are added
occasionally, but as props rather than as tools or
treasure. For example, kittens are a recent addition to
Zone, but there's no way to score points from them.
Other objects have shared a similar fate. This is a
shame, because, like Void, Zone has some nice touches.
108 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Its parser is capable of distinguishing between "drink
cocktail" (meaning all objects present of class
cocktail) and "drink a cocktail" (meaning just one
cocktail). Furthermore, it doesn't execute all the
bindings at once: there's a time delay. Thus, if you
"drop all" and then move after two objects have been
dropped, the remainder of the "drop all" will be
abandoned.
Although shallow in areas of gameplay, Zone
provides many facility which can promote role-playing
by the players. As well as "dance with ... ", "dress",
"undress" and "hold hands with ... " commands, Zone has
the latest switch feature in its strings (as in Void,
but with possessives handled too). Magic is also like
Void's, with spells costing magical power, and magical
power replenishing with time. It has two first-level
spells, "where" and "summon"; "summon" doesn't work on
mobiles as they follow set paths when they move, and
would therefore become lost if derailed.
Atmosphere is therefore all there is in Zone.
The players, and the way they choose to interact, are
the only reason for playing it - as a game, it's very
thin. However, that makes it very vulnerable: 1990 has
seen many of Zone's customers departing for Void. They
can't be lured back, because this kind of sexual role-
playing is virtually database-independent, and Void has
a major advantage over Zone in that it's free. The only
way that Zone can survive in the long term is by having
more publicity than Void (eg. switching to the Playboy
bulletin-board), or by dropping its charges.
109 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Zone is written in SuperBasic and runs on a
Thor (a Sinclair QL clone with 3?" discs).
Summary:
There is definitely a market for games like
Zone, and a well-written MUA along those lines could
attract a large number of players. However, the large
networks won't touch it because of the moral backlash
of so doing, which could be expected from almost every
pressure group in the country - religious, social,
political, academic, whatever. Whether this is fair on
Zone is not for this review to determine, however it
would certainly be a gross error to tar all MUAs with
the same brush.
Quotes:
"In Zone, the idea is to make love, not war."
Lap of the Gods [promotional material]
"It is friendly in the Zone - make no mistake
about it. The nature of the game dictates that all
players interact to a great degree after all!"
Ace [magazine]
"I talked to a teenage girl who said that she
had never been pressurised into participating in
anything in Zone."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"Fi [a female Federation II player] wasn't very
impressed with Zone's being oriented around sex, rather
than its being a side-line as it is in some other
games. We wondered if perhaps young people came away
from Zone with inappropriate ideas about
relationships?"
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"In the first 6 hours of being on-line, the
game had a player logged in for 5.75 hours. ... Over
the next month, the players proved that even a game
with 65 rooms and a trivial amount of treasure could be
popular."
Chris Butterworth [author]
110 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
"Since some people are a little touchy about
the subject of making love, you must be 18 or over to
play this (and not touchy)."
Lap of the Gods [promotional material]
"(Almost) in the words of one famous MUG - 'You
haven't lived until you've screwed in Zone'!"
Jhary [player]
"[It is an offence to send] by means of a
public telecommunications system a message, or other
matter, that is grossly offensive or of an indecent,
obscene or menacing character."
[Section 43.1(a), Telecom Act 1984]
"British Telecom is concerned about the use to
which a network is put but it is not the guardian of
the nation's morals."
BT spokesman [quoted in Popular
Computing Weekly magazine]
"The whole process is a product of the state of
arousal of the players, how drunk they are, and the
state of their undress."
Ace [magazine]
"We are certainly going to go down this [on-
line pornography] route when we have cleared some of
the other things off the lines. At the moment, the
government is just washing its hands of this sort of
thing."
Terry Lewis [MP for Worsley]
"The game is ADULTS ONLY, as it involves large
amounts of drinking and sex - which can make for quite
funny games. A bit weird to get used to..."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"It is NOT a dating agency, and anyone using it
as such faces ... legal action."
Lap of the Gods [promotional material]
"On-line porn is freely available to
youngsters."
Headline in Popular Computing Weekly
[magazine]
111 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4.18 Chaos World of Wizards.
Name: Chaos World of Wizards
Importance: 3
Author(s): Pip Cordrey ("Pippin"),
Nat Billington ("Natso"),
Lorenzo Wood ("Penfold"),
Phil Harling ("Amstar"),
? ("Esoniq"),
? ("Birax")
Location: IOWA
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone with facilities for all
players to create rooms and objects.
Historical Notes:
Went live on IOWA in mid-1990.
Review:
Chaos World of Wizards (or Chaos for short) is
what Pip Cordrey terms a MUPEG - a 'multi-user player-
extensible game'. By that, he means it is a normal MUA
except that the players have the ability to create
their own rooms and objects. Although this is the main
type of MUA available on the academic networks, few
games in the UK industry work that way. As usual for
games on IOWA, a claim is made that the idea originated
there, and that those games which do provide facilities
for players to add rooms are taking on board IOWA's
suggestions. In actuality, the notion is not new: the
112 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
second version of MUD1 had it back in 1979.
Chaos is in its early stages at the moment, and
is therefore fragile and incomplete; however, even when
it is finished it is likely to be very shallow and not
especially broad. A manual for its design language is
promised, but at present the only information available
is the rather limited help coded into the MUA itself.
This shows that rooms and objects have two buffers, for
long and short descriptions. One buffer is selected,
and text is appended to it a line at a time. A "clear"
command will empty a buffer, but there are no other
editing commands. When both buffers are full, the
player can either "makerm" or "makeobj". Judging by the
small number of commands listed, it seems that the on-
line definition language works by currying object types
into the commands, eg. "killrm" works on rooms but not
objects. This implies that the system makes a
fundamental distinction between rooms and objects, and
thus is both inflexible and limited in the long run.
Given that this is the central feature of
Chaos, it is surprisingly weak. The only property of an
object that can be set is its value, and therefore the
only use objects can have at present is as treasure.
There are no instructions on how to link rooms
together, but there is a "rmexit" command mentioned
which may do it. All these features, and many more, are
present in MUD2; the two ways that Chaos differs are
that objects are created permanently, and that anyone
can create them, even novices.
Because the game is in its infancy, much of the
113 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
hype surrounding it is of the "eventually, you'll be
able to..." kind. Some of these claims are reasonable,
but others show a deep misunderstanding of how people
play MUAs. Chaos is envisaged as combining the object-
creation part of a MUA with the actual playing of the
game. Thus, players can fight one another
conventionally, but will have to create any weapons
themselves. They can create spells to use against one
another, and design counter-spells for defence.
Unfortunately, all this is idealistic nonsense: either
the spells or weapons will all be of maximum
devastation, or there will be a limited number of
predefined types which players can combine in strictly
determined ways. The suggestion that players will
willingly create low-damage weapons so that they can
role-play with them better is ludicrous - some players
may do that, but it only takes one not to and the whole
game is compromised.
Cordrey sees the game as evolving, unlike
TinyMUD, by introducing a form of meta-combat where
players can destroy or take control of one another's
creations. This seems a suitably grand thing to do, but
it reduces the MUA to a simple strategy game in a
godlike setting. It also makes the game very difficult
for newcomers who wish to build their own rooms yet are
powerless against the might of long-standing players.
People will also find it difficult to play the game
like a normal MUA if such large-scale events are
happening all the time, especially if they can't take
part in them at that level.
114 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
There is no requirement that Chaos rooms are
all from the same milieu, so SF worlds can coexist with
fantasy ones. This is attractive, but not when objects
from those worlds cross over - a SF weapon against a
roman shortsword would be no contest, for example. Some
of the other suggestions, eg. that players should
create room complexes and then play in them normally,
are also naive - the urge to cheat is too strong.
Besides, if people wanted to do that then they'd be
better served by a SUA-design program, of which many
are on the market.
Finally, Chaos is promised a means by which
players will be able to create mobiles, program them,
and give them their own personalities. Like spell-
creation, this involves writing program code, and that
involves either highly advanced exception-handling or
completely infallible programmers. Unfortunately,
neither solution is likely to be available.
Chaos World of Wizards runs on a Sun
workstation.
Summary:
Allowing complete novices to create rooms is a
dubious enough activity at the best of times. The way
Chaos hopes to merge such activities with those of
normal MUA-playing dooms it to failure. Its ideas are
attractive, but fly in the face of reality. Some good
will come out of it, for example talented writers will
probably emerge; however, without violent changes to
its basic premisses, Chaos will burn itself out after a
115 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
couple of years of intensive use.
Quotes:
"As well as a peaceful distraction from the
mayhem of playing a 'real' MUG, Chaos should be an
interesting long-term project as the game unfolds in
the way the players themselves wish."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"One of the problems with MUPEGs is that they
become disjointed and dog-eared if not adequately
controlled. Some of the games now have a committee
which authorises players to link their particular
development area with the body of the game."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
"If this [acquiring other players' creations]
is well implemented it could make Chaos extremely
interesting as alliances shift and diplomacy replaces
treasure-hunting."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"Since I first introduced the idea and later
wrote about it in Confidential, a number of traditional
MUGs have adopted some of the ideas and are introducing
MUPEG-like features."
Pip Cordrey [owner]
4.19 Rock.
Name: Rock
Importance: 2
Author(s): Phil Fox
Location: Essex University
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone in a Fraggle Rock setting.
Historical Notes:
The first game written for the MUD1 interpreter
by someone who didn't work on MUD1 itself, around 1983.
116 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Review:
Rock is 100 rooms of fantasy set in the Fraggle
Rock milieu. It includes most things present in the TV
series, along with some rather inventive weaponry that
stretched MUDDL to its limits (eg. an electric drill
you make yourself out of various components found lying
around).
Rock was lost for several years, but was
discovered on some ancient back-up tapes and
reconstructed.
For further details on MUDDL, see the review of
MIST.
Summary:
Small, quirky and surprisingly violent game in
a fun (but unlicensed) setting.
Quotes:
"Rock is based on ITV's Fraggle Rock, and is
generally regarded to be impossibly deadly!"
Micro Adventurer [magazine]
"Even at Essex University, different types of
MUD have sprung into existence, with Rock being the
first 'unofficial' MUD."
An Introduction to MUD [book]
117 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
4.20 Sector 7.
Name: Sector 7
Importance: 3
Author(s): Nigel Hardy ("Quinch")
Location: (081) 952 5128
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone, cyberpunk setting.
Historical Notes:
Demonstrated at Adventure 89 as Dark City, it
was originally an experiment in MUA-writing. It
presently runs on the author's bulletin-board, but as a
SUA as the system has only one external line.
Review:
Sector 7 was written in the three weeks prior
to the Adventure 89 convention. Its atmospheric
cyberpunk setting gained it many admirers, despite the
fact that at the time it had no fighting, no mobiles,
no way to progress, and few puzzles.
The main purpose of writing the game was to
learn how it could be done. Hardy had no wiz experience
in any games, and used Shades as a model. Nevertheless,
Sector 7 has some features beyond Shades' capabilities,
including on-line editing of objects and rooms.
Sector 7 is written in GFA Basic and runs on a
1mb Atari ST with a 40mb hard disc, multiplexed by an
IBM PC.
118 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Summary:
A shallow, narrow, simple game that
convincingly demonstrates both how easy a basic model
MUA is to write, and the enormous potential of a
cyberpunk setting.
Quotes:
"It was originally written as an exercise for
myself, to see if I could do it; the feedback at
Adventure 89 where I demoed it was enough to keep me
working on getting it going."
Nigel Hardy [author]
"It can be used as a simple introduction to
MUGs which won't cost much."
Nigel hardy [author]
4.21 Other MUAs.
The MUAs presented in this subsection exist,
but little is known about them - a flier, a message on
a bulletin-board, a magazine article. They are included
here in case they reappear in the near future. None
were available for playtesting at the time of this
report's writing.
Only those parts of the review header which can
be filled in are given. All are of the third rank in
importance.
119 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Name: AMP
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
One of the first (if not the first) MUAs
written by a MUD1 player. Last seen at Adventure 89,
but probably still running happily somewhere.
Review:
AMP's present location is unknown, and there is
no publicity material concerning it.
AMP pioneered the use of shape as a property of
objects to determine whether they fit inside
containers.
Summary:
Friendly (if dated) MUA with good depth.
Name: Daemon Adventure
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone, multi-setting.
Historical Notes:
Only known appearance - Adventure 89.
Review:
The flier for Daemon Adventure describes it as
one of a series of MUAs, based on 10 different play
areas combined together to form a games world with over
2,000 locations. These include Arthurian, Egyptian,
Western and Futuristic areas. Thus, it is similar to
120 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Trash and Void in combining several milieux into one.
That said, it concentrates heavily on magic, quests,
and (presumably setting-independent) combat.
Great play is made of the fact that the game
has many mobiles, and that these are programmed to
perform tasks. Some are friendly, others are not, and
they may even fight one another. None of this is new to
second-generation MUAs, so it hints at Daemon
Adventure's having been written by a player of Shades,
MirrorWorld or similar.
There are no resets in the game, and the
persona file keeps location and inventory details;
although standard practice in SUAs, this rarely works
in a MUA, as it removes objects from play and thus
renders some puzzles unsolvable. How areas are
reclaimed once played out is not explained.
Daemon Adventure boasts a fast response time
and "the latest in multi-user software techniques",
allowing it to support 50 players at once.
Summary:
Many of Daemon Adventure's claimed features are
probably vapourware. However, if they are fully
implemented the game may prove successful. Some aspects
of the game will need to be thought through more
deeply, however - overall, there is a decided aura of
"group of enthusiastic amateurs" about the project.
121 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Quotes:
"The multi-user, multi-world, multi-game
environment."
QuestRole [promotional material]
Name: Future Life
Author(s): Dave Mager ("Slime")
Location: Lap of the Gods
Pricing Structure: L0.575/hour or
L11.50/month flat fee
Brief Description:
SF setting.
Historical Notes:
Appeared late 1990.
Review:
There has been no publicity surrounding Future
Life. It appears to be in alpha-test at the moment, and
is therefore unplayable by outsiders.
Quotes:
"Future Life is a game written by Slime, which
nobody (least of all Slime) knows much about yet."
Lap of the Gods [promotional material]
122 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Name: Imperium
Location: Red Star BBS
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
SF MUA.
Review:
Imperium is advertised on several bulletin-
boards, but its host system has not been up for several
weeks, and no information about it is available other
than the fact it exists.
Name: Mage
Author(s): D. Harris ("Brangdon")
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
Only known appearance - Adventure 88.
Review:
Mage is a MUA with a strong plotline -
protecting a remote city from monsters in the absence
of its missing, magic-wielding feudal lord (the
"mage"). It consciously draws on ideas from face-to-
face fantasy role-playing games, and so includes
skills, money and magical artefacts.
The eventual goal of players is to find out
what happened to the missing mage. This is
uncharacteristic of MUAs - it would seem that once one
person has learned the secret, the game should be
123 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
effectively over for everyone. Even if it involves
elevation to a higher plane (ie. a wiz level), keeping
the secret will inevitably prove impossible.
Mage is written in C and runs on an unmodified
AT clone.
Summary:
Mage appears to be a single-user role-playing
game at heart. Nevertheless, it is interestingly
different enough to be worth a look if it ever does
make a public appearance.
Quotes:
"The very best may undertake the greatest
challenge - to discover exactly what has happened to
the missing mage."
Mage [promotional material]
Name: MUG
Location: Red Star BBS
Pricing Structure: free
Review:
MUG runs alongside Imperium. See the review of
Imperium for more details.
124 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Name: Spacers
Author(s): Pip Cordrey ("Pippin")
Brief Description:
MUD1 clone, SF setting.
Historical Notes:
First mooted in 1989, but yet to be
implemented.
Review:
Spacers a forthcoming game on the IOWA system.
It started off as an attempt to rationalise the idea of
rolling resets, and grew (but not very far) from there.
Its setting is a space station which has fallen into
disrepair and become inhabited by Mad Max vagrants and
hostile aliens. Players are rewarded for mending the
broken hardware, or replacing it with parts from a
store-room; after a while, whatever has been repaired
breaks down again, thus giving the rolling reset.
Points are also obtained for eliminating aliens.
Summary:
An interesting alternative to normal treasure-
collecting games: instead of moving objects from all
over the place to a central location, it involves
moving objects from a central location to all over the
place. A neat conceptualisation of rolling resets, but
it doesn't appear to address the main problem of such
systems - they aren't adept at handling complex
puzzles. If it's not written in Slate, it should be
worth a look.
125 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Quotes:
"Although still in its infancy, the game will
add another dimension to the growing world of Pip
Cordrey."
Confidential [magazine]
"Since the station is in a constant state of
breakdown, it is no surprise when the same equipment
repeatedly malfunctions, and the story holds together
very well."
Pip Cordrey [author]
Name: Strata
Author(s): Nic Alderton
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone, SF setting.
Historical Notes:
Only known appearance - Adventure 89.
Review:
Strata is another MUA built on promises. Its
main thrust is size: it is envisaged as having 8,000
locations with full descriptions, including sounds and
smells. To this end, Alderton has been soliciting for
location authors, and has managed to secure some fairly
big names in the MUA world (although none of them have
experience in writing their own MUAs). 8,000 rooms is
sufficiently large to make mapping virtually
impossible, and the descriptions will vary through
completely different styles; the game is likely to seem
as if it is a SUA rather than a MUA.
Mobiles are intended to have AI capabilities,
but Alderton is rather offhand about this, and appears
to labour under the misapprehension that a command
126 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
along the lines of "ask <mobile> about <object>" is
enough to ensure success in that area.
Full sensory abilities are hoped-for in Strata,
including scent, taste and audibility for all objects.
Along with many of the other features announced in the
Adventure 89 flier, these are only impressive to
players of first-generation MUAs - MUD2, for example,
has them already, and has had for some time.
An interesting suggestion is the inclusion of
pseudo-mobiles - messages appearing on the screen
appearing to indicate the presence of mobiles passing
through, but actually just there to give an impression
of a bustling, crowded environment.
Strata has a distinction between money and
score (similar to that of Empyrion - indeed, it is
possible that Strata actually is Empyrion under an
earlier name). Money is used to buy things, but only by
obtaining enlightenment points can progress to the top
level (entitled 'Etheral') be made.
Resets in Strata are of the rolling variety:
Alderton sought advice from the authors of MirrorWorld,
Zone and Gods before embarking on his project. The game
has humour explicit in its descriptions, which makes
them fun the first time you read them but aggravating
after the umpteenth. However, with a projected 8,000
rooms it is unlikely that rooms will be visited all
that often anyway...
Strata runs on an Atari ST with a 32 megabyte
hard disc.
127 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Summary:
If it delivers all the features it promises,
Strata will be a good, modern MUA. Concentrating on
having a huge number of rooms, however, is a bad move.
Hopefully, the author will realise that before he
launches 8 novels' worth of locations on an
unsuspecting world.
Quotes:
"I hope, when all is working, to have roughly
8,000 locations with full descriptions including smell
and listen. I have noticed people try to comfort me
when I tell them this, but I'm not insane (!). It is
technically possible..."
Nic Alderton [author]
Name: Wanderland
Author(s): Ted Greene ("Wanda")
Brief Description:
Standard, MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
One of the first MUD1 lookalikes, Wanderland is
a long-standing MUA which either moved or disappeared
sometime last year.
Review:
Wanderland is a traditional MUA with around
1,500 hundred locations in its fantasy setting.
Treasure is easy to find, and is scored for by placing
it in the Reclaimed Land. Strangely, 524,288 points are
required to make wiz.
The game runs on a DEC computer, most probably
a PDP 11.
128 Reviews - UK MUSE Ltd
Summary:
A game with a pleasant atmosphere, much-loved
by its players.
Quotes:
"It's a pity there aren't a few more players
around, although MUGs do tend to go through periods of
popularity. Even so, perhaps I'll make Wanderland the
site of my third witch."
ACE [magazine]
Name: Warlord
Author(s): Neil Newell ("Hazeii")
Brief Description:
Combat-oriented MUA.
Historical Notes:
Only known appearance - Adventure 89.
Review:
Warlord is a MUA where the only means of
advancing levels is fighting. There is a monetary
system overlaid on top, so that players can buy
weapons, armour and related services.
A problem with Shades (Warlord comes from the
Shades stable) is that players with fast modems have an
advantage over ones playing at slower baud rates. This
is something of a preoccupation with the author, and
hence Warlord is designed to reduce any such advantage
to a minimum. How this is done exactly isn't clear from
the flier, however.
The top level of the game is 'warlord'.
129 MUSE Ltd Reviews - UK
Summary:
The main thrill killer players get in a MUA is
in attacking players who don't want to fight. Since
fighting is, by definition, part and parcel of Warlord,
it probably won't have staying power except among
arcade-game lovers.
Quotes:
"The fighting tends to be fast and furious."
Third Millenium Systems [promotional
material]
"Preparation, skill and anticipation are all
vitally important if a player is to attempt to achieve
the role of The Warlord."
Third Millenium Systems [promotional
material]
???????????????????????????????
130 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
5. Reviews - Rest of the World.
5.1 British Legends.
Name: British Legends
Importance: 3
Author(s): Roy Trubshaw, Richard Bartle
Location: CompuServe
Pricing Structure: $12.50/hour plus
$9.40/hour for UK players
Brief Description:
Archetypal MUA.
Historical Notes:
The original MUD1 MUA, with modifications for
the American market. Launched on CompuServe in mid-
1987, but the core of it dates back to early 1980. The
name-change was because CompuServe thought "MUD"
sounded unattractive.
Review:
British Legends (or simply BL) is the American
name for MUD1, the very first MUA and the one from
which nearly all others are descended. Despite its age,
BL still compares well against many other MUAs,
especially those available in the USA. Almost every
feature present in MUAs, from wizzes to mobiles and
most of the vocabulary, comes from this game (although,
technically speaking, BL is MUD version 3B, a late
modification of version 3A; it is 3A, or Essex MUD,
which is properly considered as the root of other
131 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
MUAs).
Although it is now dated, BL is still fun to
play, continues to attract new players, and is well
managed. Its atmosphere is good, and its players
generally responsible (40% are female - the highest
published ratio of any MUA).
The MUDDL interpreter that underlies BL is
hardwired for a fantasy style world, and is limited in
the complexity of commands it allows to be defined.
Objects, rooms, mobiles and players are all stored
using different internal formats, which makes the
writing of generic routines difficult. Room
descriptions take no account of whether the player is
able to detect the sensations listed, so it's possible
to "hear" sounds when you're deafened and not hear them
when you're blinded. However, the system is still
capable of being expanded in certain directions - the
"act" command, for example, was taken from MUD2.
Despite its simplicity, BL's parser is
remarkably robust and user-friendly - better than
MUD2's, in fact. The game's depth is average, although
its breadth still beats that of most MUAs (on account
of its age - over the years, just about everything has
been tried in it).
Perhaps the worst thing about BL is the fact
that there is a 7-second delay between the processing
of commands. This condition was imposed by CompuServe -
BL works asynchronously, and is thus normally one of
the fastest MUAs, even though the DECsystem 10/20
hardware upon which it runs is hopelessly out of date
132 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
now. In the UK, a 7-second delay in a commercial game
would be intolerable - 4 seconds is about the limit -
yet since CompuServe impose similar constraints on all
their multi-player games, the USA market is presently
conditioned to accept such artificial limitations.
Due to its age and the size of the CompuServe
user base, BL is the single most-played MUA in the
world.
Summary:
Evergreen MUA which started off the whole
industry. It looks its age when compared to the newer
commercial MUAs, but is still surprisingly
sophisticated in places. A classic.
Quotes:
"The initial attitude of the Americans was to
be politely sceptical that any games software from the
UK could be worthy of their attention. But once they
saw the program running on their system they could
hardly believe their eyes. So far as I know, this is
the first British program ever to be taken by
CompuServe."
Simon Dally [MUSE managing director]
"British Legends is better suited to the
occasional user [than is Gemstone], with its simpler
entrance requirements and a universe small enough to
enable most players to get around adequately by
memory."
PC Magazine
"The kinder, gentler [than Gemstone] British
Legends makes a quick command summary available, along
with some rather general hints."
PC Magazine
"Solving a puzzle for the first time is the
most exciting part of the game."
Ron Fitzherbert [player]
"Adding a multi-user environment to the basic
adventure game adds a whole new dimension."
The Guardian
133 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
"The first time I found myself in the swamp, a
character called Monkey came up to talk and scared me
so much that I immediately quit the game. I didn't know
it was another person. I thought it was a monster about
to destroy me!"
John Starr [player]
"Todd Carter is 22, a computer addict from
Miami who was left blind by a gunshot wound in high
school. On CompuServe, he called himself Blinddog when
he played an adventure game called "British Legends".
He was so hooked on the game that he dropped about
$8,000 in on-line charges playing it."
The Miami Herald
"Not only are the wizards and witches helpful
to novices, but many mortals also can show a kind word
or gesture. Make friends!"
CompuServe [promotional material]
"British Legends is the most-played multi-user
adventure game in the world."
The Observer
5.2 Gemstone III.
Name: Gemstone III
Importance: 2
Author(s): ? (Simutronics Corp.)
Location: GEnie
Pricing Structure: $35/hour 8am - 6pm
$5/hour 6pm - 8am
(no UK access point)
Brief Description:
Multi-user adventure game, fantasy setting.
Historical Notes:
One of the few MUAs developed independently of
MUD1.
134 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Review:
Like MUD1, Gemstone III was inspired by SUAs.
However, despite this separation from the mainstream of
MUA development, Gemstone III is nevertheless uncannily
similar in many areas, particularly in its basic
"search for treasure, get points, go up levels and
become a wizard" attitude; levels and wizdom were never
a part of early SUAs.
Gemstone III is primarily a role-playing game,
which makes it popular among Americans. To this end, it
requires that people beginning the game flesh out their
persona by choosing between various personality
characteristics, races, occupations, and many other
details right down to eye colour. Few of these have any
real bearing on gameplay, but they do make new players
think they're getting value for money.
The game has a 25,000 word manual, which must
be downloaded and read because there is no on-line help
while playing. This, and the barrage of persona-
defining questions at the beginning, combine to make
Gemstone III very daunting for all new players except
those in whom a thick rulebook induces excitement.
There are many rooms in Gemstone III, including
streets and shops. As with the rest of the game, it
seems that size is regarded as the most important
facet, and that detail must be provided whatever the
cost and no matter how irrelevant it is. It's the
classic role-playing problem: whether to provide a
loose framework in which players can develop personae
their own way, or a tight one where players' options
135 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
are limited by strictures imposed by the game dependent
on the role they have chosen. MUD1's descendents tend
to favour the freedom of the former; Gemstone III comes
down heavily in favour of the latter, and in this
respect is more akin to Island of Kesmai.
Summary:
An interesting MUA, but one which requires a
certain doggedness on the part of its players to stay
the course. Not a game for dabblers, socialisers or
fun-seekers.
Quotes:
"Gemstone is the one for people who want to
escape reality and really get into playing a role in an
incredibly complex world."
PC Magazine
"The sheer number of options involved in
getting started can be so intimidating that a
simplified setup process is also provided."
PC Magazine
"In my roamings through Gemstone, I never saw
the same place twice. Drawing a map is definitely
necessary to navigate effectively."
PC Magazine
136 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
5.3 Other Commercial MUAs.
As in the last subsection of the section on UK
MUAs, the MUAs presented here are known to exist;
however so little information is available concerning
them that no detailed reviews or summaries are given.
Name: Kyrandia
Location: Galacticomm Bulletin Boards
Brief Description:
A basic multi-user adventure game.
Notes:
Bundled with the Galacticomm Bulletin Board
system. These are expandable MSDOS machines intended
for commercial, multi-user conferencing and the like.
Quotes:
"A version of Kyrandia is reachable via US
Minitel at "ALLA". I've yet to meet anybody in it, so
usage seems light. And at $0.20/minute, exploring the
world is very expensive."
John Nagle [player]
137 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
Name: Quest for Magic
Location: Galacticomm Bulletin Boards
Brief Description:
A basic multi-user adventure game.
Notes:
See Kyrandia.
Quotes:
"A multi-user, interactive text adventure
game."
Galacticomm [promotional material]
Name: Scepter
Author(s): Alan Klietz
Location: none
Brief Description:
A multi-user adventure game, fantasy setting.
Notes:
A game called Milieu was written in the early
1980's under Multi-Pascal for a CDC Cyber used by high-
school students in Minnesota for educational purposes.
Klietz ported it to an IBM XT in 1983, and renamed it
Scepter of Goth. Klietz later wrote a MUA called
Screenplay, which incorporated building, using an
interpreted command language reputedly more powerful
than those available on the InterNet today.
Scepter was influenced by AD&D-style role-
playing, and incorporated many of the ideas concerning
character classes and skills presently gaining
popularity in commercial UK MUAs like Avalon. Combat
was blow-by-blow, and multiple identical objects were
numbered (the same approach taken by MUD2).
138 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Scepter was sold to a company called InterPlay
in Virginia, which licensed out the software but was
liquidated after its executives were charged with tax
evasion. The game was sold off to creditors, and is no
longer available.
Although many players loved the game, Scepter
earned a reputation for enforcing artificial
friendliness among its players, with ruthless
consequences for "troublemakers". Thus, all sparks of
originality were snuffed out, but the game worked well
for people who didn't "misbehave".
Quotes:
"Scepter had the best atmosphere of any multi-
user game I've player."
Bill Wisner [player]
"In Scepter, you just offer an item for sale
several times to get an idea of the price, then sell it
when you hit the maximum again. Nobody I knew in
Scepter ever bartered. They just took the first offer.
They had better things to do with their time."
Andrew Thomas [player]
5.4 AberMUD.
Name: AberMUD
Importance: 1
Author(s): Alan Cox ("Anarchy"),
Jim Finnis, Leon Thrane,
Richard Acott, Rich Salz,
Brian Preble ("Rassilon")
Location: InterNet
ArkMUD engr.uark.edu
ButlerMUD butler.tds.kth.se
139 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
HackeMUD bass.vsect.chalmers.se
IlliniMUD speedy.cs.uiuc.edu
TempleMUD monet.ocis.temple.edu
The Underground mole,ai.mit.edu
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
Cox was a player of MUD1 who wrote AberMUD
while a student at the University of Wales,
Aberystwyth. The code was made generally available, and
was enhanced and added to by several people, most
notably Salz; Preble is the present AberMUG co-
ordinator. A commercial version of the game has been
running on Connect since 1989.
Review:
AberMUD was written in 1987 in B for a
Honeywell L66 mainframe under GCOS3/TSS. Its first
scenario was not a serious effort; its second scenario
is the one in present use.
In 1988, AberMUD was ported to Unix and
converted to C. Version 3.7.14 was distributed on JANet
and InterNet, and regular updates by the original
authors continued until version 3.9.8. The present
version is 3.12.5, but version 3.9.8 spawned a rogue
4.9.8 clone which, among other things, has combat
messages ripped out of MUD1. This is the version which
became most popular on InterNet. Despite its poor
design and implementation (eg. communication via shared
files), AberMUD became the first widely-available MUA
140 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
on InterNet, and most of the games presently being
written by academics are descended from it.
The game itself is not particularly special,
being a poor MUD1 lookalike in the Shades mould. There
are 10 levels, scaled slightly lower than is common,
and with fights scoring relatively higher than
treasure. Treasure is converted into points by dropping
it in a sacrificial pit in a church, ie. as MUD1's
swamp.
There is no "sleep" command to restore stamina
after a fight; instead, stamina is recovered
automatically over time. This is something MUD1 did not
have; although MUD2 does, AberMUD's rate of stamina
replenishment is much quicker.
AberMUD lacks polish, despite its commercial
standing and its erstwhile popularity (now waning, as
it's regarded as a CPU hogger). There are missing full
stops, spurious full stops, inconsistencies in uses of
commas, and the room descriptions are convoluted and
ambiguous. Objects and rooms are placed together
without reference to description clashes, eg. snow on
the ground, rain in the air and a rainbow in the sky,
all at the same time.
Abbreviations in AberMUD are not catered for
very well - the common "l" ("look") and "x" ("exits")
commands are missing, for example. The game is also
deficient in other commands - no "act" or equivalent,
and apparently only cardinal directions plus "up" and
"down". The game needs to be reset occasionally, but
doesn't do so automatically: an explicit "reset"
141 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
command is necessary.
Although fights play a big part in AberMUD,
they are not well implemented, initially being of "the
ghoul hits you" variety. This may explain why many of
the game's descendents eschew fighting altogether.
Summary:
A simple MUA that makes other InterNet MUA-
writers think they have less to do to become world
class than is actually the case.
Quotes:
"The main reason for writing it was because the
system manager said it wasn't possible on the
Honeywell."
Alan Cox [author]
"It now seems to have found a home at St. Olaf
University, where a few dedicated hackers are keeping
it alive despite its general grunginess."
Bill Wisner [player]
"The combat text has been greatly improved. ...
InterNet versions now offer more MUD-like multi-line
messages."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"I do have one fairly major quibble, and that
is the lack of information and help text within the
game."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"AberMUD has a sort of similar concept to LPMUD
(kill the monsters and such until you become a wizard),
but that's about the end of the surface similarity.
LPMUD is designed to be easily extended from within the
game. Once you become a wizard, you work on developing
new sections of the game, and a list is kept of which
wizards' sections are most popular. AberMUD can only be
modified by changing the source data files and
recompiling, and even then is far from easy (I know,
I've done it...)."
Jim Seidman [player]
Most of these MUDs have been eliminated in the
US because of the network traffic they cause."
Philip Cutone III [player]
142 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
"The best version on the InterNet was in
Sweden, and people in the US would play it but put up
with the link problems which would regularly disconnect
them."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"A problem with AberMUD, and to some extent
LPMUD, is that people with slower links are severely
penalised. Especially on some AberMUDs where the
wizards require everyone to go back to the church
before resetting, people with slow links have no
chance."
Jim Seidman [player]
"AberMUG is a fairly 'standard' game in its
setting and in its general feel, so existing MUGgers
should feel at home - although I did find the absence
of several abbreviations to be annoying."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"I wasn't too amused at the way people seem to
have lost the original AberMUD license, broken it in
several places, and even included copyright material
from other games systems (MUD1) in it."
Alan Cox [author]
"AberMUG is a multi-user adventure game in the
traditional mould."
Connect [promotional material]
5.5 LPMUD.
Name: LPMUD
Importance: 1
Author(s): Lars Pensjo
Location: InterNet
BATMAN batman.hut.fi
Boiling MUD frey.nu.oz.au
ClubMUD milton.u.washington.edu
Crossroads civeng.ua.oz.au
Darker Realms worf.tamu.edu
Dartmouth LP melchior.dartmouth.edu
DEATHMUD gauss.nmsu.edu
DeepTrouble MUD krikand.iesd.auc.dk
End of the Line ucrmath.ucr.edu
143 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
GENESIS milou.cd.chalmers.se
GhostMUD beowulf.acc.stolaf.edu
NannyMUD nanny.lysator.liu.se
NLD MUD chaos.utexas.edu
Phoenix galjas.cs.vu.nl
Sanctuary j.ms.uky.edu
Small Systems calvin.nmsu.edu
Sun MUD einstein.mpccl.ksu.edu
Thieve's World uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
Third World hardy.u.washington.edu
UCSB-GEOG LPMUD sherlock.geog.ucsb.edu
U Maine LPMUD mud.umcs.maine.edu
Vision watnxt2.ucr.edu
WARHAMMER MUD watnxt3.ucr.edu
World of Mizar mizar.dosc.uu.se
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone with object creation.
Historical Notes:
Pensjo obtained the source for AberMUD, didn't
like it, so wrote his own MUA instead at Gothenburg in
Sweden. It was distributed to other Unix sites across
InterNet. Late 1989, some American players modified the
code themselves (despite regular updates and technical
support by Pensjo), and the two LPMUDs diverged.
Several attempts to reconcile the European and American
sources is now under way, such as one being programmed
by Duncan Howard (a former MUD1 arch-wiz).
144 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Review:
LPMUD (named after its author) is one of the
more popular MUAs on InterNet, certainly in terms of
the number of sites that run it. Although immediately
descended from AberMUD, copies of MUD1 were sent to
Sweden in the early 80's, prompting some activity in
the MUA area by the locals; there was a project
possibly already under way at Linkoping to develop a
MUA called Asgaard, which eventually petered out but
left a body of programmers with experience in MUAs. It
seems likely that the lessons and ideas that emerged
from this effort may have had an indirect influence on
Pensjo.
LPMUD plays as a good MUD1 clone until wiz
level is reached. At that point, it allows players to
create their own permanent rooms, objects, mobiles and
(even) commands. The game's interpreter will accept
input in a C-like, object-oriented language called LPC,
and will save all creations across resets (unlike
MUD2). It was the first InterNet MUA with this facility
built in (although there is a good measure of cross-
fertilisation with TinyMUD), and is thus often credited
with inventing the idea; actually, most good first-
attempt interpreters can handle it (second-attempt
interpreters generally take their input preprocessed by
a database compiler, for speed).
Because each LPMUD has rooms created by its
players, the different sites on InterNet will all be
different; a common core of rooms is linked to a
network of new ones. However, room complexes are often
145 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
copied between different LPMUDs, so the difference is
not as great as it might be.
Resets in LPMUD are rolling. Initially, one
object was reset every 3 seconds, but this meant that
the more objects that were added, the longer the period
between resets. Now, objects are only reset in a room
when a player enters that room - a form of lazy
evaluation. This works well, but it has the
disadvantage of only working for very simple puzzles
that involve objects' changing locations, rather than
their changing other properties.
In LPMUDs, it's only a question of time before
a player makes wiz. The only penalty for death is being
subjected to a time-consuming sequence where the
deceased is taken to a room and meets Death incarnate.
Higher-level players even get a scar from this that
they can show to their friends. Recently a quest system
(similar to MUD2 tasks) has been added to make sure
players know something about the game before reaching
wiz, but performing such quests is not particularly
dangerous to personae.
LPMUD has experimental bots programmed in LPC
and running internal to the game. These are therefore
more properly referred to as mobiles, but this term has
not found favour in InterNet MUAs since most of them
don't cater for such sophisticated objects. LPMUD has a
client, LPTalk.
Versions of the European LPMUD are distributed
regularly, and improving the system is an ongoing
project programmed by Pensjo. There are some features
146 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
which need changes to the LPMUD interpreter before
they'll work, for example players' properties are hard-
coded and transient ones cannot be saved to disc.
However, with its excellent support and dedicated
players, LPMUD will doubtless be around for some
considerable time yet. Despite this, most LPMUDs are
based in Europe - American systems managers seem less
ready to tolerate CPU-intensive MUAs than their
European counterparts, and prefer light users like
TinyMUD and its descendents.
Summary:
An average MUA with object creation added on
top. Not as prone to criticism as the freer creation-
based games (if, indeed, games they are) like TinyMUD,
but still causing the usual problems of atmosphere,
editorial control and overall ownership that would dog
a commercial version of the software.
Quotes:
"Only wizards can create new objects and rooms.
By limiting creation like this, the feeling of chaos
that one is prone to encounter on Tiny-type games is
reduced."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"LPMUD: Lots of programming available. Mainly
an adventure setup where you are trying to advance in
level by solving puzzles and killing wandering
monsters. This gives users a 'carrot' to chase
(becoming a wizard) and could keep them in the game
easier."
Glenn Crocker [player]
"One of the advantages that I see with LPMUD is
that objects are continually being reset. There is one
object reset every 3 seconds or so, so that an object
will come back every 15 minutes or so. Therefore, a lot
of people have the chance to explore and see things."
Jim Seidman [player]
147 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
"Some rooms have been taken from AberMUD, but
the game is user-extendable."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
"The bad news about LPMUD is that the
programming language is very C-like, and that comes
back to the problem of whether your players know C...
They might not be willing to learn a language just for
the game. Of course, the same applies to TinyMUCK."
Jim Seidman [player]
"This [extensibility] introduced a considerable
level of depth into the choices open to wizards, and
brought some new problems too."
Bill Wisner [player]
"On LP there is massive amounts of building,
because after making wizard the whole point of the game
is to have most people visit your area. So, wizards
build their areas to attract people, and if a wizard
has crappy building, nobody visits. Therefore, the
wizard is forced to make his building that much
better."
Patrick Wetmore [player]
"Strangely enough, the LPMUDs are closer to
what the original TinyMUDs were: people wandering
around, exploring. Eventually, people start building
their own domains for people to explore. Granted, only
wizards can build, but in a way that's good, since it
really stops the casual builder who builds two or three
items then wanders off never to build again."
Martin Terman [player]
"Semi-recently, quests were added as a feature
of LPMUD. A certain number (or all) of the quests must
be solved before advancing to wizardry. Most quests
involve puzzle-solving and exploring (and most have
some hack and slash involved too). Suddenly, LPMUD did
not guarantee wizardry just by serving your tour of
duty as a player - thinking was involved."
Darin Johnson [player]
"The rate of new wizards on Genesis [the first
LPMUD] is ten per week, and Genesis is already crowded
(186 of level 20 and above...)."
Bertil Jonell [player]
"LPs are something worth checking. Think:
3,000+ rooms, 30+ players, running 24 hours - and not
arousing the [system owners'] administration. These
provide some challenge to the player - not to mention
wizards and gods, it's just a pity their efforts mainly
are used in building new rooms, not to make interesting
events for players."
Esa Kankaanpaa [player]
148 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
5.6 TinyMUD.
Name: TinyMUD
Importance: 1
Author(s): Jim Aspnes
Location: InterNet
DragonMUD naucse.cse.nau.edu
Eden unicorn.wwu.edu
FantaMUD sage.cc.purdue.edu
Islandia II apex.yorku.ca
MuseumMUD fuzine.mt.cs.cmu.edu
TinyMUD Classic planck.physics.purdue.edu
TinyWorld banyan.ssc.gov
Brief Description:
Object creation and inter-player communication.
Historical Notes:
TinyMUD was prompted by a 1989 discussion on
InterNet, and drew on LPMUD to abstract an idealised
notion of what made MUAs important. It rapidly spread
across InterNet, due mainly to its small size and low
CPU requirements. Aspnes' own TinyMUD was closed down
when he grew tired of it.
Review:
The MUD in TinyMUD stands for "Multi-User
Dimension." There is some debate as to whether the
system is a game. It was certainly written as a game,
with the idea that players collect 'pennies' which they
then spend on building new rooms. Pennies were either
left lying around, or obtained by dropping objects in a
149 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
pit. Combat is possible, just, but it's generally
discouraged for fear of frightening off players.
Everything else is very, very basic - even gender
pronoun substitution wasn't handled in the original.
This adventuring aspect of TinyMUD rapidly
disappeared. Objects were created with huge values, and
soon players could get as many pennies as they wanted.
This meant they spent all their time either building
rooms or socialising with other players. The key point
about TinyMUD is that anyone can build rooms. All they
need to connect their creations to the rest of the room
network is the co-operation of an existing player who
doesn't mind linking a free exit with one in the new
complex. Whether this is topographically correct is
immaterial, as is the quality or quantity of rooms so
joined together.
TinyMUD's creative capacities are strictly
limited to only basic objects, rooms and exits. Complex
actions cannot be defined, only room-related puzzles
(eg. hidden doors, missing keys, mazes). Programmers
found this frustrating, which is why the TinyMUD
sources were rapidly torn apart and put back together
with more powerful facilities at builders' disposal,
eg. in TinyMUCK and TinyMUSH.
There are wizzes in TinyMUDs, of a sort.
Really, they're little better than sysops, although
they do have some authority over building and can
remove or modify rooms. Game management is very
difficult, however, since anyone, friend or foe, has
full powers to add new rooms whether they have the
150 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
slightest idea of what they're doing or not. This
ensures that the only atmosphere a game possesses is
that due to its players, and that any pretensions of
consistency or depth swiftly disappear. Sadly, most
people are not good room-describers (in the same way
that most people aren't good novellists), and thus,
although the quantity of rooms in a TinyMUD can be
fantastically large, the quality is generally very low.
TinyMUD has several clients written for it -
most of which work with all its descendents - and half
a dozen or so bots. Some of these bots are tightly
coupled to the program, able to dispense pennies etc.,
and thus are prone to causing crashes.
Ardent TinyMUD players see their game as the
pinnacle of achievement for MUAs. At the bottom end of
the evolutionary scale are CB chatline programs; next
come systems with rooms, allowing local conversations
and some degree of privacy; higher up, basic commands
like "who" and "look" are present; higher still are
games, with objects, more sophisticated commands, and
rooms linked together so that they can be perceived as
a complete structure; most sophisticated of all are the
systems that allow the user to create rooms, objects,
and complete scenarios "limited only by the imagination
of the builder".
This evolutionary view of things completely
misses the point: in order for room-creation to be
worth anything, there has to be a user: commodities are
valueless if they cannot be sold. TinyMUDs have no-one
using the products of creation, and are therefore
151 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
little more than chatlines with rooms as conversation
pieces. They're no more games than would be an
illustrated on-line discussion of amateur artists'
latest masterpieces. TinyMUDs are indeed limited only
by the imagination of the builder - with heavy emphasis
on the word "limited".
TinyMUDs have a short lifespan, and operate
like slash-and-burn agriculture: once a site has been
farmed by a TinyMUD, thousands of players have been
either hooked on TinyMUDs or put off all MUAs forever.
The addicts will choose another site elsewhere, the
rest are effectively lost.
As an example, consider two related TinyMUDs,
Islandia and BloodMUD. They had the same seed, but grew
in opposite directions. The fact that they are both
regarded as "classic" TinyMUDs gives testimony to the
ephemerality of such MUAs on InterNet.
Islandia began as recently as January 1990. By
its close in November 1990, it was regarded as a
"tradition" among TinyMUD users. It had as its core a
1000-object (ie. rooms, exits and portable objects)
database called TinyBASE. This was put on general
release to make the task of starting up a TinyMUD from
scratch easier.
Islandia started at Berkeley, but was moved to
different sites as it increased in size. It was
constantly added to, and grew to be huge. In the month
of October, it had 1,503 players (from a total of
3,271) and 14,900 rooms - a phenomenal size for a MUA.
However, of those 14,900 rooms, only 7,503 were used
152 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
that month...
Islandia was a friendly place, with friendly
people, and famed for its many beautifully designed
rooms. Its maintainers scoured the database removing
useless or incomplete creations, trying to keep it to a
manageable size and reasonably consistent. However,
they finally decided to take the system down simply
because, despite their efforts, it had grown too large;
besides, they were wearying of trying to trim the
database in the face of its relentless growth towards
full capacity.
The maintainers also felt that the game was too
old. People were using the system as a means to annoy
others, which was taken as a sign of decay. Since
TinyMUDs offer no facilities for game management, this
fate eventually befalls all such programs, except in
the case where being nasty is the whole point of
playing.
Such was indeed the case with BloodMUD. The
TinyBASE database was taken as a starting point, and
developed along themes of blood, violence and sleaze.
Rooms were deliberately corrupted by other players,
with special attention giving to vandalising TinyBASE.
BloodMUD was a reaction to the "nice" atmosphere that
pervaded Islandia - and was a lot more fun to play. It
finally disappeared when the database was accidentally
deleted, but by then it had sunk into depravity.
By giving game-writing powers to anyone and
everyone, it was hoped that TinyMUD would be a means of
promoting individual expression and group interaction.
153 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
It was a brave attempt, but it didn't work. Instead,
TinyMUD has probably done more harm than good, at least
in the short term, with many American academics growing
up holding narrow views of what constitutes a MUA. On a
commercial network, a game like TinyMUD would rapidly
burn up as soon as it acquired a modest user base.
Summary:
TinyMUD is not so much a MUA as a forum for
conversation where participants have pinned short
pieces of prose on the wall for the benefit of anyone
with the inclination to read them. If this kind of MUA
gets a strong hold in the USA, it could set the
industry back several years.
Quotes:
"TinyMUD isn't a MUD in the classical sense of
the term; it isn't a game. In TinyMUD, all people can
really do is create things and interact with others. It
has built up a considerable following, and today is
perhaps the most popular MUD on the InterNet."
Bill Wisner [player]
"TinyMUD was written as a game. Jim Aspnes did
not go 'Gee, I think I will create a social environment
that will replace reality and have dozens of kids fail
out of school because they are so addicted by this
game.'"
Edwin Huang [player]
"The *primary* value of TinyMUD is as an
experiment in computer-mediated social interaction."
Michael Mauldin [Julia author]
"TinyMUD: mainly social. Little programming
available in objects, false exits and fail messages
being the main programmability. It's simple, but could
get boring."
Glenn Crocker [player]
"Combat, adventuring, levels etc. are not part
of this game. It is possible that you could add these
features to the game, seeing as the whole TinyM* series
is notably more flexible (and consequently less well
154 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
defined as a gaming system) than any other I've seen."
Duncan Howard [MUD1 arch-wiz]
"One thing which draws people to TinyMUD is the
dynamic room/object creation, but AberMUD would *never*
allow *everyone* to create things. There is also a
problem that AberMUD is a *much* more complex program
than I think TinyMUD will ever get to. Dynamic room
creation in an object-oriented type game is very hard
to implement because the game requires many more flags
and such than TinyMUD."
Michael Barthelemy [player]
"With many people allowed to build freely, you
get problems with non-finished parts of the world and
parts that are totally different in character from the
rest of the game. Walking from a fantasy castle to an
SF setting or finding a large joystick in the centre of
the castle may be fun the first couple of times, but it
kills the atmosphere."
Jorgen Holmberg [player]
"I have personally received pages from people
who're sorry that Islandia has to go and would like us
to keep it going."
Conrad Wong [Islandia maintainer]
"BloodMUD was a fun place, near anarchy, as
close as one could get. People did horrible things and
generally broke MUD taboos whenever possible. It was
not a MUD for socialisation or exquisite building, it
was a MUD for being nasty and killing. ... In short, it
was an excellent place."
Martin Terman [player]
"I put the kill command in when I was still
assuming ... it would be difficult to detect
disconnects. It was called 'kill' as a joke - and I
assumed that putting a 100p charge on it would keep
people from using it very often."
Jim Aspnes [author]
"Eventually they [TinyMUDs] are going to get
too big for their servers, no matter how large they
already are. ... Smaller MUDs are at the low part of
the exponential growth curve, and have a great deal
more life ahead."
Conrad Wong [Islandia maintainer]
"If you have a big MUD with 10,000 rooms and
things enough to keep you happy 'til doomsday, the
players won't look for them. After the initial fun
wears off, they stop playing and start chatting, never
to play again."
Jorgen Holmberg [player]
"Nobody pays attention to building on Tiny*s,
except for newbies occasionally, but they're lowly
peons and soon grow out of it anyway. So nobody builds
there."
155 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
Patrick Wetmore [player]
"I came across a room with an intriguing name.
When I looked, I saw "dir1 dir2 dir3 dir4 dir5". After
typing "dir1" I was then presented with another list of
about 35 names (trying the other directions, I was
presented with similar sized lists of different names).
I picked one name and typed it in, and was suddenly
taken into someone's domain. The size of each domain
was limited only by the owner's imagination and the
number of pennies they had available. When it dawned on
me that each room behind the numbered portals were
actually links to created kingdoms and the like, the
sheer enormity of the game took my breath away."
Comms Plus! [magazine]
5.7 TinyMUCK.
Name: TinyMUCK
Importance: 2
Author(s): Stephen White,
"Lachesis"
Location: InterNet
Brigadoon dante.cs.uiuc.edu
CAMUCK flounder.berkeley.edu
FurryMUCK hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu
MbongoMUCK mbongo.ucsd.edu
MedMUCK thesis2.hsch.utexas.edu
Pegasus l_cae05.icaen.uiowa.edu
QuartzPARADISE quartz.rutgers.edu
TinyHORNS bashful.cc.utexas.edu
Brief Description:
TinyMUD with better building.
Historical Notes:
Version 1.0 was written by White, however he
has left the project and there is now a programming
team developing the system, headed by "Lachesis".
156 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Review:
TinyMUCK is a version of TinyMUD that has been
drastically modified to make building more powerful and
controllable. Players need to have the "mucker" bit set
by a wizard, which enables them to "muck about" with
the game. Thus, visitors and casual players are denied
the ability to wreak havoc (although if they really
want to, there's little to stop them once granted the
mucker bit). TinyMUCK is very popular, and people
starting up their own MUA these days usually choose it
in preference to TinyMUD.
The big difference between TinyMUCK and TinyMUD
is programmability. TinyMUD provides users with very
basic creation facilities, but TinyMUCK has its own
interpreted programming language, TinyMUF ("Multi-User
Forth"). This is flexible and powerful, but has a
reputation of being difficult to use.
TinyMUF (or just MUF) is basically the same as
Forth, with a few new library routines. It has three
types of constant: integer, string and database
reference (an index into the database that is unique to
every game object). The language is stack-based, with
library routines that operate on the stack (eg. + pops
off two elements, and pushes back their sum). Variables
are static, and there are functions to set and fetch
them; variables' names (addresses) need to be
dereferenced to obtain the values they hold. MUF has a
limited "if-then" construct, but no "if-then-else". The
game-specific library routines do things like print a
string on someone's screen. There is some protection
157 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
offered to players' creations in that "important"
properties of objects cannot be modified except by
their creator.
To make programming easier, there is an on-
line, line-oriented editor built in. Source code is
stored, which means tried-and-tested creations can be
moved easily to other TinyMUCKs. MUF programs tend to
be longer than in most MUAs - a simple slot machine
(gambling pennies) is, for example, around 150 lines
long. TinyMUCK can read TinyMUD databases, but not
vice-versa.
TinyMUCK comes with plenty of documentation,
and compared to other building-oriented MUAs on
InterNet looks rather attractive. It works, and it can
perform many powerful tricks. Its problem is that the
people doing the building have little experience of a
thorough, well-written MUA. The best example of this
comes from TinyMUCK's own advertisement on InterNet:
under the headline "Can *your* MUD do this?" was a
short transcript of a TinyMUCK session where the player
created a "camera" object, took a "photograph" of
another object with it, and then "projected" back the
image. This is genuinely impressive, except the
photograph was of a red rose "with the fragrance of
spring". This lack of attention to detail ensures that
unless there is strict quality-control from above, any
MUA which allows arbitrary, unchecked additions to its
database is going to suffer severe problems maintaining
overall depth.
158 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Summary:
TinyMUCK is a decided improvement on TinyMUD,
but it's really just one short step on the long road
back to LPMUD-like MUAs. The sooner programmers of
TinyMUD derivatives realise this, the better.
Quotes:
"Why wait for 'more powerful' MUDs when you can
have all this?"
TinyMUCK 2.0 [promotional material]
"TinyMUCK 2.0 is better documented than any
other MUD in public distribution."
TinyMUCK 2.0 [promotional material]
5.8 TinyMUSH.
Name: TinyMUSH
Importance: 2
Author(s): Larry Foard
Location: InterNet
Sanctuary valkyrie.ecn.uoknor.edu
TinyCWRU solarium.scl.cwru.edu
TinyMUSH sigh.berkeley.edu
TinyTIM grape.ecs.clarkson.edu
ToonMUSH uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
TwinPeaks corona.ecn.uoknor.edu
Brief Description:
TinyMUD with modifications.
Historical Notes:
Another approach by the Berkeley group to
making TinyMUD usable.
159 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
Review:
TinyMUSH is an enhancement to TinyMUD that is
easier for beginners to use than is TinyMUCK, but which
irritates trained programmers. It differs from TinyMUD
primarily in that it provides daemons that can be
programmed to fire when an event occurs. This is
similar to an AI technique, production systems, however
in TinyMUSH the production rules are called V-
functions. They are short pieces of code that provide a
means of storing, changing and displaying information.
Some fields are expected for all objects, such as what
happens when it is dropped, killed, or listened to.
Recognising that in enormous databases players
rarely bump into each other by accident, and that
normal travel between rooms can involve a string of
thirty or more directions, TinyMUSH has more liberal
teleportation rules than TinyMUD, enabling players to
materialise in other players' creations without
permission.
TinyMUSH does have one kind of object that may
be of general applicability in MUAs - the puppet. This
is an item that can relay information to players.
Example uses in a fantasy setting would be a crystal
ball or a magic-user's familiar. Although some of the
advanced UK MUAs have similar objects, most do not.
TinyMUSH is a nice idea, and the notion that
one small change can cause great changes to occur
elsewhere in the database is attractive. However,
programming this kind of system and controlling the
interactions between daemons is a nightmare even if
160 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
there's only one programmer: with lots of people
programming objects, it will soon be virtually
impossible for anyone to predict the effects of actions
or figure out the cause of some change. The problem
goes away if the changes that daemons can make are
limited, but then so does all the power.
A version of TinyMUSH runs on a public-access
bulletin board in Toronto.
Summary:
A worthy attempt, but, inevitably, destined for
obscurity.
Quotes:
"When a user does X to Y, the MUSH can be
programmed to fire off all kinds of small 'programs'. I
use quotes, because these aren't so much programs as
one-line attachments to object Y. Qualities maybe."
Duncan Howard [MUD1 arch-wiz]
5.9 TinyMOO.
Name: TinyMOO
Importance: 3
Author(s): Stephen White
Location: Internet belch.berkeley.edu
Brief Description:
TinyMUD with better building.
Historical Notes:
MOO stands for "MUD, Object-Oriented". TinyMOO
is an enhancement to TinyMUD, written in 1990. White
also wrote the original TinyMUCK.
161 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
Review:
The main difference between TinyMOO and TinyMUD
is that it transfers the power to create objects away
from the system administrators and towards the players
who are builders.
Objects are implemented in a simple, C-like
language, and can easily be specialised (so that even
non-programmers can create). This is achieved by a
class hierarchy and an inheritance (ie. object-
oriented) approach.
TinyMOO is not yet distributed publicly.
Summary:
Another attempt to make TinyMUD safer, TinyMOO
is basically a means of allowing people to share a
programming experience, chat a little, and do nothing
else.
Quotes:
"The current version is stable, however I'm in
this bad habit of tinkering and tinkering with it
without releasing it."
Stephen White [author]
162 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
5.10 UberMUD.
Name: UberMUD
Importance: 3
Author(s): Marcus Ranum
("Jerry_Cornelius")
Location: none
Brief Description:
An experiment in MUA building language design.
Historical Notes:
Began as a project to improve on TinyMUD. It
was written from scratch, and generated a lot of
interest - Ranum was willing to give every idea a
hearing. A mailing list was established to organise
messages between interested parties, and when UberMUD
was completed the mailing list enlarged its brief and
stayed on. So far, most of the discussions on it still
concern UberMUD, however. The Uber part of its name
comes from the German, as in Ubermensch.
Review:
UberMUD was conceived as an alternative to
TinyMUD, with much improved building facilities. It
incorporated many ideas, some of which were clearly
ridiculous but others of which showed sufficient
promise to be included in many post-UberMUD InterNet
MUAs. In particular, its system of protecting objects
from misuse by others (using a form of permission
inheritance) looks like making an impact.
The UberMUD language - U - was low-level, a
163 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
cross between Forth and C (Forth semantics, C syntax).
There were no predefined data structures, as everything
was implemented directly in U, nothing hard-wired.
Objects were atomic entities to which properties could
be attached; that meant that things like inheritance
had to be implemented in U (MUD2's MUDDLE language,
which has the same overall aims as U, has inheritance
built in automatically: this helps with function
matching). U's only predetermined factor was the order
in which programming-language objects were searched to
find code to execute: verb first, noun second, player
third.
Despite all the ideas that were included in
UberMUD, some simple things were left out (gender
pronoun substitution being the most glaring omission).
It had the capacity to implement them, but no-one put
them in. The mistake made was to believe that by having
a flexible implementation language that allows pretty
much anything to be phrased in it, everything necessary
actually would be phrased in it. Definition languages
have to be either specific (ie. with much assumed, but
able to guide a new programmer in database design) or
general (ie. assuming nothing except that the
programmer knows what is to be programmed).
Nowadays, UberMUD is maintained as the focus
for discussions on MUAs in general, but it has signally
failed thus far to widen the topic of discussion beyond
UberMUD itself.
164 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Summary:
UberMUD is available as a teaching tool for
people wishing to write their own MUAs, but proved too
cumbersome itself to use in practice.
Quotes:
"The author seems to have mostly lost interest
now that the code is finished. Today, the code is used
more as an example of what can be done with MUDs than
an actual production system."
Bill Wisner [player]
"UberMUD has implemented the biggest advance of
all. It requires you to write the code on your local
machine and upload it to the game, thereby
automatically saving a copy that can be uploaded onto a
second machine just as easily."
Lauren Burka [player]
"The Ubermud mailing list is now, more
generally, called mudwiz. It has expanded its mandate
to include wizards from all MUDs, not just Uber."
Clay Luther [mudwiz postmaster]
"I'm pretty much tired of working on it, and
don't plan on doing much more with it than I have (I
wanted to prove it could be done, mostly)."
Marcus Ranum [author]
5.11 Other InterNet MUAs.
The MUAs here are either one-off systems not on
proper public release, or vapourware. Suspected spoof
MUAs (eg. CoreMUD) have been omitted.
Name: Cthulhu
Author(s): Bill Burdick, Mitch Adler,
Roy Riggs
Historical Notes:
The first version was written in Spring 1988 in
C by Riggs. It was essentially just a souped-up
165 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
TinyMUD. In autumn 1988, the game was rewritten in a
version of object-oriented Lisp. Spring 1989 saw the
first version of Mob, the game's database definition
language; this was based on Objective C, and was
scrapped. The second version of Mob came out Autumn
1989, based on Smalltalk and written in Lisp. The game
itself was written in Mob shortly afterwards; the Mob
interpreter was rewritten again in Spring 1990, using
C. The game was scheduled for release Summer 1990.
Review:
If Cthulhu, or whatever it is eventually
called, delivers all it promises it will roughly on a
level with a slightly above average UK MUA.
Nevertheless, this is good going to say that the
programming team has no access to these games for ideas
(except the rather obsolete AberMUD), and has developed
its system from scratch.
Cthulhu supposedly has intelligent mobiles,
weapons, armour, clothing, spells and glowing objects.
There is some depth insofar as containers are
concerned, since they can have a rigid (box) or floppy
(bag) shape, however there is nothing similar to MUD2's
transparency, for example, and the containers have no
lids. There is a powerful form of "attach" available,
although granting this to ordinary players is perhaps
rather foolhardy on the designers' part.
There is an on-line system for room building,
with players having control only over their own
creations. This appears primarily to be because such
166 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
functions are de rigeur on InterNet MUAs these days.
The wish-list of things on the drawing board
includes many standard-issue features from the better
UK MUAs. Using "look" to see in another room, and
printing text messages modulo a player's ability to
sense what they contain is nothing new in the MUA
industry. Nevertheless, if such seemingly "advanced"
features gained a foothold on InterNet MUAs, it may
hasten the day when the vacuous TinyMUD-like MUAs are
abandoned and more traditional games replace them.
Summary:
Sounds good, but as yet unseen.
Quotes:
"We can't sell anything written on a Purdue
machine. We haven't been giving out any sources either.
Basically, we are too dissatisfied with the old stuff
to release it to the public eye, and none of the new
stuff is finished yet."
Roy Riggs [author]
Name: DUM II
Author(s):
Location: InterNet
AdaDUM II legolas.cs.umu.se
Brief Description:
LPMUD-like MUA with no on-line building.
Notes:
DUM II is something of a reaction to the
unrestricted, unchecked building possible in TinyMUD
and, to a lesser extent, LPMUD. All wizzes have
privileges to build, however they may only submit their
167 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
designs to the game's maintainers ("gods"). These
people write any necessary code, make modifications for
consistency, and consult with the designer if they feel
their suggestions need significant change or are
inappropriate. New areas are then thoroughly playtested
before being opened.
This form of editorial control is, perhaps, the
best way to ensure that room-building progresses
naturally, and linearly over time. Its main
disadvantage is that the gods may not have the time
required to deal with every submission speedily or
fairly, and they need to be skilled programmers. Some
players may also be tempted to take advantage of them.
Quotes:
"This [gods editing suggestions], and the fact
that zones are not opened until play-tested, makes the
general quality of zones and puzzles high."
Jorgen Holmberg [player]
Name: MIDgaard
Author(s): Andrew Plotkin
Brief Description:
A shell of a MUA, meant for complex building.
Historical Notes:
Finished in Spring 1990, due to go up in the
Summer but so far nowhere to be seen. Designed to be
run as a commercial system.
Review:
MIDgaard is a basically empty game, like
TinyMUD, with the intention that players add to it
168 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
themselves. It is object-oriented with an extensible
classification system, and its power lies in the
ability of players to program objects.
The game has nothing substantial built in - no
spells, combat, persona details or the like. This sort
of thing is up to the game builders to implement. The
game is reported to have a tight security system that
ensures the zones people build are distinct from one
another and cannot be spoiled by other builders. This
implies that objects created by one builder cannot be
used in someone else's zone, although any game running
under those conditions would be infuriating to play.
MIDgaard's authors are obviously pleased with
their game, since they hope to run it commercially
(charging around $20/month flat fee - this is
comparable to commercial UK MUAs). Object creation, as
it uses limited hardware resources (disc space etc.),
will be surcharged.
However, MIDgaard's rationale is fundamentally
flawed. The authors think that because they have a game
which compares well with TinyMUD, it will attract
players in the real world. However, as has been noted
elsewhere, room building is not really an interesting
or fruitful thing for people to do - TinyMUD's success
is entirely down to the fact that it allows people to
communicate over a distance while being less of a CPU
hog than systems that do it a whole lot better. If
MIDgaard's programmers think they can sell a simple
chatline under the guise of its being a game, they are
in for a tragic surprise.
169 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
Summary:
Over-rated, and also behind the times.
Quotes:
"Since the maintainers of MIDgaard will be
employed by MIDgaard, we will have great motivation to
keep things running smoothly, and make interesting
stuff."
Andrew Plotkin [author]
Name: PennMUD
Author(s): Charles Hannum ("MycroftXXX"),
Michael Barthelemy ("Edheler"),
David Singh ("Cyric"),
Al Catalfamo ("Satan"),
and 10 others
Brief Description:
On-line AD&D.
Historical Notes:
PennMUD took the InterNet world by storm in
Spring 1990, when its incredible design was announced.
After a flurry of scepticism, which PennMUD's promoters
answered in disparaging tones that alienated them from
the rest of the InterNet MUA community, they took
umbrage and clamped up. Nothing has been heard of them
since, except that the authors are no longer at the
university (Pennsylvania).
Review:
Take the AD&D handbooks, enumerate all the
ideas without considering their implementation, and
you'll end up with a fair approximation to PennMUD
170 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
(also called NeXTMUD on occasion). Detail was
everything (but, for the most part, unnecessary).
There were to be 7 basic character classes, 6
different races, 9 basic statistics, an unspecified
number of languages, spells with verbal and physical
components, a game divided into "days" of 4 hours real-
time duration, encumbrance affecting speed of movement,
a currency with exchange rates for different coin
types, a barter system, wet/dry and temperature factors
for rooms, rolling resets, objects saved when you quit
(with periodic persona file searches to return
"special" objects that stayed out of play too long),
vehicles, and several towns. Object creation was to be
available, by extending the level system beyond god
(ie. wiz). And this list just scratches the surface.
Not all proposals were completely
unimplementable or totally undesirable, but most were.
One neat idea that may work in existing MUAs is
limiting the number of objects that can be seen in a
dark room depending on the intensity of the persona's
light source.
PennMUD combined all the worst things from MUAs
with the worst things from games like Island of Kesmai.
Fortunately, its specification team was so ambitious
that it will be many years before anything as complex
as PennMUD becomes publicly available. By then,
traditional MUAs will hopefully have a strong enough
toehold that when large, multinational games companies
enter the field they will not ignore the hidden-depth,
freestyle MUAs in favour of the explicit-bells-and-
171 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
whistles role-playing monsters.
Summary:
Archetypal vapourware. All impossible design,
and no substance whatsoever. The worst is, even if it
had been written it wouldn't have been much fun to play
due to the fearsome constraints it would have imposed
in the name of role-playing.
Quotes:
"We are still working on the god/demigod
commands and do not have a list made up as of yet. If
you can think of any commands that you would like to
see implemented at these levels, please note me on them
with a full description of the command."
Michael Barthelemy [project designer]
"To keep the game moving, you might consider
dilating time for rest and movement commands. The
amount of realism that is lost is not nearly as
important as the amount of boredom that is alleviated."
Andrew Thomas [would-be player]
Name: SMUG
Author(s): Jim Aspnes
Notes:
SMUG (Small Multi-User Game) was written by
Aspnes as a would-be successor to his own TinyMUD. The
primary goal was to include a programming language that
ran at a high speed, but which was safely accessible to
all players. The language includes an inheritance
hierarchy, but has fewer tools in general than either
TinyMUCK or LPMUD.
The project ground to a halt in mid-1990, so
Aspnes recently made the sources available as ideas
material for other MUA writers.
172 Reviews - Rest of the World MUSE Ltd
Quotes:
"A secondary goal was to show that you didn't
have to have 15,000 lines of code to do this."
Jim Aspnes author
Name: VAXMUD
Brief Description:
Standard MUD1 clone.
Historical Notes:
Written in 1987 by students at Strathclyde
University, and distributed in binary form only. It is
still being added to.
Notes:
VAXMUD is written in Fortran, and runs only on
VAX VMS systems. The scenario it comes with is hard to
customise, and the fact that source code is unavailable
makes it doubly unpopular.
The game saves objects carried when a player
quits, a practice which in general can lead to games
being tied up for some considerable time.
173 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Rest of the World
Name: YAMA
Author(s): Alan Cox ("Anarchy")
Brief Description:
A program for writing MUAs.
Historical Notes:
Alan Cox's latest project, based on his
experience in writing AberMUD.
Notes:
YAMA is intended to be used for writing MUAs,
and in that sense it is more properly described as a
database definition language plus interpreter than a
game itself. It was written to be fast, efficient and
powerful. It is also reputedly difficult to learn. It
is player-extensible, however its programmability in
this respect is not as good as, say, LPMUD.
YAMA is presently in beta-test.
Quotes:
"It has been aptly described as an assembly
language for MUDs."
Bill Wisner [playtester]
"It is a game in the spirit of the original
MUD; TinyMUD players need not apply."
Bill Wisner [playtester]
???????????????????????????????
174 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
6. Reviews - Non-MUAs.
Name: Air Warrior
Location: GEnie
Pricing Structure: $35/hour 8am - 6pm
$5/hour 6pm - 8am
(no UK access point)
Brief Description:
Multi-player flight simulator.
Historical Notes:
Written by the Kesmai Corporation, who also
wrote Island of Kesmai and Megawars III.
Review:
Flight simulators are usually best-sellers for
single-user computer games. Air Warrior is a normal
flight simulator with a comms package built in, a
client program of the most sophisticated kind yet
developed. Why the Kesmai Corporation haven't done
something similar for their other multi-player games is
a complete mystery.
All the work is done by the user's home
machine. Information is passed from the host computer,
and is assimilated into the user's machine's database;
the display is updated accordingly. Commands are
processed and passed back up the line to the host. The
user's computer is therefore acting as a front-end for
the game; furthermore, it is smart in that it generates
its display itself - sending complete screen images
down the telephone line in real-time is not yet
175 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
possible, given the narrow bandwidth of present-day
telephone networks. Indeed, even if it were possible it
might not be desirable - Air Warrior has an off-line
practice mode built in, which would be impossible to
use in a system that obtained all its graphics from a
host machine.
The terminal software necessary to play Air
Warrior is available for the Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST
and IBM PC. Fancy instrument displays can be downloaded
from an on-line database, or designed by the user.
Summary:
State-of-the-art IMPCG. The game itself isn't
particularly brilliant, but the graphics are stunning
and there's nothing else quite like it - yet.
Quotes:
"Where conventional multi-user games like MUD
or Micronet's Shades can only portray their game-world
using text messages, Air Warrior gives you all the
animated 3D graphics and sound you'd expect from any
single-player flight sim."
ACE [magazine]
"The first thing you need to realise about
aerial combat is that the main objective is to survive.
Shooting down enemies is just icing on the cake."
Cap'n Trips [player]
"One thing's for sure: US gamers are taking to
the game in their droves, joining GEnie and possibly
even buying modems just so they can play it. Let's hope
it - or something similar - reaches Britain soon!"
ACE [magazine]
176 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
Name: Astroid
Location: Minitel
Brief Description:
Multi-player on-line arcade game.
Review:
Astroid (formerly Astro) marks Third Millenium
Systems' entry into the non-MUA interactive computer
game market (they also produce Shades and Trash).
Unlike all other commercial games of this type except
Air Warrior, it was written specifically to be used
with client software. Players thus get quality graphics
and sound effects if they have the appropriate disc and
an IBM PC or an Atari ST.
The player's screen is a pilot's eye view of
the cockpit and the universe. This looks like a flight
simulator, but isn't - all action takes place within
two-dimensional planes.
The game itself is a standard arcade-style
shoot-em-up with exploration and mineral mining thrown
in. There is ship-to-ship communication that allows
players to talk to one another, but Astroid's fast pace
leaves little time for such pleasantries.
Summary:
A definite step in the right direction, but
it'll be a long time before such games are widely
available in the UK.
177 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
Quotes:
"Astroid is the most sophisticated game of its
kind today, and in its underlying architecture we see a
glimpse of the potential offered by developing network
and terminal technologies for interactive
entertainment."
Mike Brown [Third Millenium Systems]
Name: BattleTech
Location: Chicago BattleTech Centre
Brief Description:
Very high-technology arcade game.
Historical Notes:
Based on the BattleTech inter-robot role-
playing game.
Review:
BattleTech is unlike all the other games
described in this report. Rather than being played over
the telephone lines, players interact over an ethernet
LAN. Each sits at a console in a cockpit, and they
battle in real-time over a simulated 10 miles by 10
miles landscape in assorted weather conditions.
Although the system is not quite complete, and is LAN-
based, the point is that all it does could be
implemented equally well over a sufficiently wide-band
telephone network.
The BattleTech console has six audio speakers,
one of which is for inter-player communication. There
is a microphone, a numeric keypad for punching in
missile co-ordinates and a joystick for aimed laser
fire. Movement is via a hand-held throttle and two foot
pedals. Visually, there is one primary screen, several
178 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
secondary screens, and numerous illuminated
instruments.
Players work in teams, up to four a side.
There's only one BattleTech centre at the moment, but
others are planned.
Summary:
IMPCGs will only have come of age when products
like BattleTech are available to home users over the
telephone network.
Quotes:
"It drives like a tank."
Ross Babcock [technical director]
"This is the game of futuristic mechanised
combat we all know and love - but this time it's for
real!"
GMI [magazine]
6.1 Fantasy Sports.
Name: Football/Hockey/Baseball
Location: CompuServe,
USA Today Sports Center
Brief Description:
Simulations of sports leagues.
Review:
There are several Fantasy Sports available on
US networks, but as they are all basically the same
idea their reviews have been combined.
Fantasy Sports' players take control of a
sports team and guide it through a season of matches
179 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
against other players. Team members can be transferred
and new members drafted, paid for using game money.
Team selection is made before each match, and the games
are played to coincide with matches in the real world.
Participating in Fantasy Sports takes little
time - a few minutes a day. The overall goal is to win
the league title, and there is usually a real-life
prize associated with it - a stay at a baseball
training camp, for example.
Fantasy Sports are usually uncomplicated, and
they are not properly interactive. They do, however,
generate a lot of discussion among players, and were
the games displayed graphically they would attract an
even wider audience.
Summary:
Multi-user, but not really interactive. When
interactive versions do come out in the USA, someone
there will make themselves an awful lot of money.
Quotes:
"The most exciting part was when I won the
BERRA National League Championship in 1987.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to defend my title in
1988; I came in fourth. Other than that, it's exciting
when one of your pitchers throws a two-hit shutout, or
when your catcher hits two home runs and six RBIs in
one game, and you know that your team has been helped
in the overall standings as a result."
Bill Gallagher [player]
"When Boomer Esiason limps off the field with a
sprained ankle or Greg Swindell develops arm trouble,
the Fantasy Sports owner has to find a way to bolster
his team and continue to compete. Replacing Esiason or
Swindell may mean gambling on an unproven rookie,
signing a free-agent or putting together a trade for a
seasoned veteran."
CompuServe [magazine]
180 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
6.2 Island of Kesmai.
Name: Island of Kesmai
Location: CompuServe
Pricing Structure: $12.50/hour plus
$9.40/hour for UK players
Brief Description:
First-generation graphics game.
Review:
Island of Kesmai (or IOK) is Compuserve's best-
selling game - its popularity exceeds that of British
Legends, which came on-line later.
IOK is primarily a role-playing game. Beginners
have to select from various character classes and races
(each of which have their advantages and
disadvantages), and they are assigned 6 property values
(strength, intelligence, dexterity, wisdom, stamina and
constitution). The parallels with AD&D are clear.
IOK is in many ways like a conventional MUA.
Players move by typing in directions, and there are
commands to pick up, drop, examine and throw objects.
There is little breadth, true, and hardly any depth,
but it does have complexity enough to merit a 160+ page
manual. Subtle differences between character classes,
and a range of effects dependent on players'
statistics, do give an impression of realism.
The main point about IOK, however, is its
181 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
display. Rather than textual room descriptions, IOK
gives a bird's eye view of the area local to the
player. The game is grid-based, and players see a 6 by
6 matrix drawn using pairs of ASCII characters. This
may be incomplete, since areas not in line-of-sight are
not drawn.
The display is crude. Common features have
their own symbols (eg. walls are [], fire is **), but
mobiles (critters) and players are simply listed as
letters, with a key to decode them printed alongside
the map; this is necessary because players can occupy
the same square, and thus couldn't be drawn
graphically. There is some informational content in
mobiles' names, eg. !Nocha is of neutral alignment,
+Nocha would be evil (and likely to attack).
There are client programs available which make
playing IOK easier, and which tart up the display.
However, at present there is no software on general
release that produces quality graphics (an Amiga
terminal driver has been made available just this
month, but so far only 6 people have downloaded it).
This is something which must surely come soon - if IOK
were given Dungeon Master graphics, for example, it
would be almost irresistible. The game is structured
specifically for automatically-generated graphical
displays, and it's amazing that nothing beyond crude
ASCII is used.
The atmosphere in IOK is enforced friendliness.
Attacking other players, while possible, produces howls
of outrage and the attacker will become a pariah.
182 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
Communication over distance is not possible, so even if
there are 50 people playing you can only talk to those
in the same "room" as you.
Players in IOK progress by finding money, and
using it to buy equipment or training. There is no
overall goal - the players just try to keep alive.
However, since some people have been playing for years,
they can build up incredibly powerful personae, and it
is unlikely that they will ever die. Even if they do,
they will be resurrected automatically unless killed by
a flesh-eating mobile. In order to keep these long-term
players from getting bored, the game is continually
added to, with new sections of increasingly dangerous
monsters and bigger rewards. This does have the effect
of keeping high-level players interested, but it makes
the game even more daunting for newcomers. Because of
this, IOK has two games - basic and advanced.
The game does have resets, but they are over a
long period of time - 60 days or so. Individual objects
and puzzles can be reset on their own - necessary, as
players take them with them when they quit.
In many ways, IOK is like Rogue or Hack. It has
a similar display, similar commands, slightly more
depth (mobiles that speak gibberish, mobiles that can
only be damaged by weapons made of a certain material),
and is multi-player. Nevertheless, even Hack is
compulsive, and as IOK is multi-player that makes it
doubly so.
IOK appeals to people who like complex (yet
often arbitrary) interactions between objects, lots of
183 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
detailed rules, and no descriptive text. Were a large
games company to muscle in on the play-by-modem scene,
this is the kind of game they'd probably go for. In the
long term, it's a bad move because IOK makes many
mistakes - it can't go on expanding indefinitely, for
example. However, with a good client it could be very
impressive for a few years, and that would certainly be
enough to make a large amount of money.
Summary:
Basically, Island of Kesmai is an average,
role-playing style MUA, with a crude graphical
interface and not a great deal else. However, it is
tuned to perfection, and when a proper client is
written it should be very impressive.
Quotes:
"In 2.5 years of playing, I've never been on-
line when there weren't at least 3 other players, and
there are usually 10-60 players."
Dragon [magazine]
"When you become involved in Island of Kesmai,
you find yourself thinking of it not so much as a game
but as a place."
Randy Eichman [player]
"Expect your first dragon-slaying outing to
take a few hours. Your adventure could end in glory or
in a dragon's stomach, but chances are you'll have a
great time either way."
CompuServe [magazine]
"Kesmai's creators have fashioned a
revolutionary experience."
Dragon [magazine]
184 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
Name: MegaWars III
Location: CompuServe
Pricing Structure: $12.50/hour plus
$9.40/hour for UK players
Brief Description:
Multi-player space warfare game
Historical Notes:
Written by the Island of Kesmai team, MegaWars
III is a greatly enhanced version of MegaWars I.
Review:
MegaWars III is, at heart, a multi-player
version of the old Star Trek game that was popular on
mainframe computers in the late 1970s. More detail have
been added, with an economic system, troop landings,
planets, gas giants (for fuel), and an overall goal -
to become emperor of the galaxy.
Resets are several weeks apart. Players
colonise planets, raise revenue, build more ships, and
spread throughout the galaxy. Unlike Prestel's StarNet,
the game runs in real time and orders are not
"batched"; even experienced players must spend several
hours a day playing if they are to stand any chance of
becoming emperor. For this reason, players usually join
teams, so that other team members can protect their
growing empire while they're away.
The screen display is a simple ASCII bird's eye
view. It's only really essential for ship-to-ship
combat, so can be turned off at other times. Its size
is adjustable, up to 32 by 32 squares. Again, there is
185 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
no client software for users, so any ideas of sprite-
driven missiles racing across the screen and exploding
in vibrant colour must be dismissed: all you get on
MegaWars III is an exclamation mark if you're lucky.
CompuServe also have a very basic cut-down
space combat game called SpaceWAR. Unlike MegaWars III,
however, it does not feature inter-player
communication, just high-speed combat.
Summary:
MegaWars III is basically a simple core, with
lots of added detail that significantly changes the
gameplay. As with most cursor-addressing games, its
appeal would be greatly improved if it had specialist
client software that dealt with proper graphics,
instead of relying on ANSI escape codes.
Name: NetHack
Location: InterNet
Brief Description:
Multi-player Hack.
Historical Notes:
Hack is a development of Rogue, a single-player
game where the player wanders around a computer-
generated dungeon slaying monsters and casting spells.
NetHack is the multi-player version of Hack.
Review:
NetHack is one of a series of games developed
from Rogue, and shares many of the latter's features.
186 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
Players are given an overhead view of their dungeon
level, and move around using arrow keys. Players are
supposed to co-operate in their attempts to find the
lower reaches of the dungeon. There is no direct
communication between players within the game - it
works best when played by two people on adjacent
terminals.
Work is beginning on the USA academic MUA
circuit aimed at combining NetHack with standard MUAs,
eg. LPMUD. This should produce something along the
lines of Island of Kesmai, but with more traditional
MUA features rather than IOK's detailed role-playing
orientation.
There are already two NetHack lookalikes with a
MUA flavour. Myth was written by Per Abrahamsen in
Denmark using C++, and incorporates many classes useful
for such games; it is, however, rather primitive.
Strathclyde University has VAXMUF (Multi-User Fight),
with 100 levels, 100 spells and using ASCII graphics.
Neither of these is as widespread as NetHack.
Other InterNet games based on Rogue are Larn,
Moria and Omega, and multi-player versions of these
may be forthcoming in the near future. Galacticomm
bulletin boards already carry an ANSI-graphics game
called Androids!.
Summary:
Although there probably are people willing to
pay to play NetHack, the real developments will come
when the game is merged with existing MUA technology
187 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
and is given a proper server.
Quotes:
"I tried linking up a TinyMUD to Hack. One was
in ANSI C and the other was in C. Although it did some
really impressive stuff, it failed as a 'good attempt'
to get them to link up - but I believe it is possible
to do it."
Ashgon [player]
6.3 Sniper!
Name: Sniper!
Author(s): Steve Estvanik ("Yngvi")
Location: CompuServe
$12.50/hour plus
$9.40/hour for UK players
Brief Description:
Man-to-man World War II combat game.
Historical Notes:
Based on the TSR boardgame.
Review:
In Sniper!, players control not individuals,
but a squad of individuals, each with their own
strengths and weaknesses. This is a growing trend in
single-user role-playing games. The player takes on the
position of the squad's commanding officer.
The game uses IOK-like cursor addressing to
draw a 10 by 60 map on the players' screens, however
the game is difficult to play without having first
downloaded a copy of the full-sized map, of which the
screen display is only a part.
188 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
The game has a levels system: ranking points
are given for each engagement, and when a certain
number have been achieved the player is promoted.
Whether a brigadier general would actually be involved
in man-to-man combat isn't at issue...
Sniper! is a two-player game. Players can play
against the computer or against themselves, or even
watch other people play; however, they will normally
play against someone else. Missions can be either
patrol, infiltrate or specific, and can take place in
different areas (Sicily, Normandy, Ardennes), each with
its own map. A game will normally last between 20 to 45
minutes for players of similar rank, but if there's a
big disparity then it could all be over in 10 minutes.
Being a two-player game drastically reduces the
amount of socialisation that can take place. There is a
saloon bar for friendly discussion, but little to do in
the game itself. Sniper! is not for role-players.
Unlike modem-to-modem games, it does actually run on
CompuServe's computers, and therefore can only be
played there. It's not merely a place for players to
make contact and then call each other separately; if it
were, it wouldn't be as lucrative as it is at present.
Like IOK, Sniper! does not have graphical
client software. Since most American players use either
an IBM PC or a Macintosh, this is inexcusable. The
display it does have can be in colour, but it is
composed of single ASCII characters; it is even more
difficult to decipher than IOK's.
Sniper! has a reputation for intricacy and
189 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
complexity. As with IOK, experienced players like being
able to talk about fine, subtle details. It is
certainly possible to play Sniper! without being aware
of all the rules, but unlike normal MUAs there is
little fun to be gained in discovering them: they're
all available explicitly, and just have to be read and
learned. Battle tactics are the "exploratory" side to
the game.
Summary:
An adaptation of a boardgame that takes out all
the tedious manual-reading during play and replaces it
with tedious manual-reading before play. A good game
for seriously minded wargamers.
Quotes:
"Some people enjoy role-playing and use the
radio to send insults or jibes when they hit, or
complain when they miss."
Steve Estvanik [author]
"You have to think on your feet. While you're
in the game, it's a real battle. Things happen, and you
have to react. It's like a game of high-speed chess."
Peter Soehnlen [player]
190 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
6.4 The Spy.
Name: The Spy
Author(s): Blane Bramble
Location: IOWA and/or Synergy
Pricing Structure: free
Brief Description:
First-generation graphics game.
Review:
A budding IOK-style game. Players are espionage
agents armed with a gun and some grenades, who wander
around a maze attempting to dispose of one another.
Since there are no puzzles, playing The Spy alone is,
at the moment, pointless.
The graphics used are simple ASCII characters,
with screen addressing via VT52 codes. As with IOK,
line noise can badly trash a screen. Also as with IOK,
The Spy would benefit enormously from a client program
that took the simple ASCII and turned it into a proper,
high-quality pictorial display.
Summary:
A new game: playable, but badly in need of more
MUA-like features. Probably going nowhere itself, but
it may spark someone to attempt something more
sophisticated, along IOK lines.
191 MUSE Ltd Reviews - Non-MUAs
Quotes:
"The idea is to provide a multi-user game with
a semi-graphical user interface (similar to that found
in the games Hack, Moria, Omega and so on)."
Blane Bramble [author]
Name: You Guessed It!
Location: CompuServe
Pricing Structure: $15.50/hour plus
$9.40/hour for UK players
Brief Description:
Multi-player trivia quiz game.
Historical Notes:
Based on a US TV programme vaguely similar to
Family Fortunes.
Review:
You Guessed It! (or YGI for short) is a simple
multi-player quiz game with a now sadly diminished
following on CompuServe. Players are asked a series of
questions in turn by the program, and score points for
'correct' answers; the quotes are because the questions
are based on the most popular answer given by 100
people surveyed in the mid-west, and are not always
factually correct, eg. "Name a famous Italian opera"
was answered "Carmen" by more people than was any other
opera. Players can challenge the survey results, in
which case a majority vote by all players is required
for the new answer to be accepted.
Players can win bonus points for some answers,
and these can be added up and turned into real cash;
for legal reasons only US citizens aged 18 and over may
192 Reviews - Non-MUAs MUSE Ltd
do this, however. To pay for the prizes, there's a
$3/hour surcharge on YGI contestants.
YGI's main problem is sterility. At the moment,
its database contains around 2,000 questions, and some
players have seen them all and recorded the answers.
New questions involve taking surveys, which is
expensive, although 2,000 is still rather measily.
The main reason people play YGI is nothing to
do with the game itself, though. It has a lobby area,
where players go to wait for a game to start, and they
chat to one another there. Forming friendships in this
way is the real reason people play. YGI is therefore
really little more than a chatline.
The past few years have seen a decline in YGI,
as it has lost players to British Legends, which
provides better communication facilities with the bonus
of role-playing - something YGI's socialisers enjoy.
Summary:
YGI is an innocuous quiz program that was
successful for reasons its authors had not considered:
the game itself was merely a focal point to draw like-
minded people together, and it had no staying power of
its own in the face of opposition from a fully-fledged
MUA. YGI is now reduced to cult status.
Quotes:
"Will you have fun? Will you learn more about
your friends on CompuServe? Will you discover the
Meaning of Human Existence? - You guessed it!"
You Guessed It! [promotional material]
193 MUSE Ltd Discussion
7. Discussion.
7.1 Organisation.
This section contains a selection of
representative quotes on a variety of MUA-related
subjects. Some of the quotes presented are solicited,
unlike those in previous sections; most, however, are
taken without permission from public sources such as
magazine articles, bulletin boards, and InterNet's
rec.games.mud list.
Between quotes are connecting paragraphs
advancing the main points. At the end of each
subsection is a summary.
7.2 Why Do People Play?
The first and most obvious reason people play
MUAs is because it's fun to do so. In some cases, 'fun'
is perhaps too weak a word, however:
"There was little doubt that playing MUD was
exciting and stimulating. After one long evening
interview, wishing to experience the game first hand, I
agreed to join a player as he prepared to access Essex.
Not all who wished to play could, as it was strictly on
194 Discussion MUSE Ltd
a 'first come, first served' basis, and as the methods
of access were no straightforward much of the
excitement seemed to hinge upon whether one could gain
entry. While waiting to see if his efforts had been
successful, the interviewee thrust his wrist to me to
feel his racing pulse. He did not get in, but stated
that he always got an 'adrenalin high' before and
during play."
Margaret Shotton [Computer Addiction? A
study of computer dependency]
Many MUA players feel this kind of a buzz
playing the game - particularly killers, ie. those who
attack other personae with intent to cause them harm.
The 'thrill' of the hunt can be so strong that it
doesn't always matter who wins the eventual fight - and
in many ways, if the killer is taking a risk then it
can be an even greater attraction (like gambling).
Similarly, role-players can enjoy deceiving other
people into believing things that aren't true, although
realising that someone has attempted to trick you is
rarely as exciting as avoiding persona death in a
fight.
Contrast the heart-pounding excitement of the
above MUD1 player with the faint enthusiasm of a
TinyMUD veteran:
"Why do I MUD? Same reason you use the phone.
And it's a lot cheaper."
Bryant Durrell [Islandia founder]
Here, it's mere convenience that determines why
Durrell plays. TinyMUDs have little or no puzzles,
exploration is seldom rewarding, so they settle down
into chatlines. Players who met when the game first
started, and were learning to build rooms together,
195 MUSE Ltd Discussion
struck bonds of friendship. However, when the futility
of that activity sinks in, they just sit around
talking. New players don't get the same initial fun, so
don't play for very long, and older players are lost
through general attrition. Eventually, the
game/chatline is deserted.
(The reason it's cheaper, incidentally, is
because Durrell uses InterNet, so the costs are borne
by others).
So it seems there is a distinction between a
MUA that models reality in some way and one that merely
provides chatline facilities, with the former having
more staying power than the latter because the
emotional talons with which it holds its players are
stronger. Why is this so, though? Why should
interaction that occurs in a computer-moderated fantasy
world be any more gripping than straight CB-style
interaction?
"I remember the first time I was killed in MUD
- it was deliberate. I was in tears. I really knew what
it was like to be dead, the simulation was so real."
An interviewee (male) [Computer
Addiction? A study of computer dependency]
The reason is that a good MUA can be
believable. If it works the same way as the real world,
then the players use the same mind-set as if they were
in the real world, and hence emotional response to
events in the MUA world are as if they were affecting
the player directly in the real world. In a chatline,
196 Discussion MUSE Ltd
nothing happens; people don't interact, they merely
communicate. Whatever, there must certainly be some
other players - a SUA may be lifelike, but it's
essentially private. For a world to seem truly real, it
must be a shared experience.
"One thing is for sure, and that is that the
multi-user feature is very important."
Lars Pensjo [LPMUD author]
If, however, MUA worlds can seem to the players
like they are real, should events that take place in
these worlds be treated as if they were real-world
events? Or are they distinct? Should players shrug off
what happens to them? What if they can't?
"MUDs are games. Deal with it."
Clay Webster [player]
This is a popular view: people who are unable
to switch off when they leave a MUA ought to learn to
do so, because the bottom line is that a MUA is just a
game, and haranguing people about what they did in the
game is as pointless as haranguing authors about what
happened in books they wrote. This viewpoint is held
mostly by people who have never played a MUA, have
played but never let themselves become emotionally
absorbed by it, or who play killer personae in order to
get a kick out of annoying someone who doesn't hold the
"MUAs are games" viewpoint.
Surely, though, things which wield this kind of
emotional power over people can't be mere games? The
197 MUSE Ltd Discussion
passions roused in (traditional) MUAs have the kind of
fire to them normally reserved for religious or
political evangelism. People aren't so much playing the
MUA as living it.
"Ready for the shocker? Reality is a game. It
has rules (physics), players (life forms), and many
goals. ... I won't deny that MUDs are games, but if
that is so then reality can also be considered a game."
Ray Cromwell [TinyMUD player]
This argument is intended to show by reducto ad
absurdum that MUAs (or at least TinyMUDs) aren't really
games, because if they were then everything is a game.
However, perhaps it be applied in reverse: if real life
is as much a game as is a MUA, perhaps MUAs are as much
a reality as real life?
"My MUD philosophy is that it's more than just
a game, it's a virtual reality."
Bruce Woodcock [TinyMUD player]
Correct. Although the popular conception of
virtual reality is a mass of electronic headsets and
cybergloves containing Tomorrow's World presenters,
MUAs are precisely the same thing, only instead of the
images being generated by a computer they're created by
the imagination of each individual player.
The 'virtual' in 'virtual reality' is used in
the same sense as 'virtual image' in optics: the
appearance of a real reality is there, but it actually
doesn't exist. However, if it truly doesn't exist, then
nothing that occurs in it really happens either, and
198 Discussion MUSE Ltd
therefore it should have no effect on the real world
(which, we assume, does exist).
"All repeat after me: IT'S ONLY A GAME!"
Anton Rang [TinyTalk author]
The crucial point is that the virtual reality
does exist; not in the same way as real life, but as a
conceptualisation which can have an effect on people in
real life.
"I'm hesitant to label it 'just a game'. Sure
it looks like a game. It uses a text-adventure metaphor
for social interaction. However, that geeky phrase
doesn't even *begin* to convey the complexities of
'what mud is'."
Stephen White [TinyMUCK author]
When a player like Shotton's interviewee
controls a persona in a MUA and becomes absorbed to
such an extent that he is oblivious to the real world,
concentrating only on the virtual reality, then the
player and his persona fuse; he 'becomes' his persona
in that MUA. As far as the player is concerned, things
are happening not to the persona but to he himself. He
can do things that are impossible in the real world,
and be whoever he wants to be. That's the attraction.
Of course, a sudden change back to real life is
going to be jarring. The emotions felt by the player as
he lived in the virtual reality cannot be shaken off
when he leaves that reality any more than real life
emotions can be dismissed at the drop of a hat. No
wonder Shotton's interviewee cried when his persona -
199 MUSE Ltd Discussion
ie. he himself - was killed in MUD1.
MUAs are not merely chatlines with games
screwed on top; rather, they are a whole that is
greater than the sum of these two parts. Of course, a
good deal of their insidious attraction is that they
can lure not just people who want a virtual reality
buzz, but ones who simply like games and ones who
simply like chatlines. People who just like talking can
do that in a MUA if they want to. TinyMUD has a very
weak 'learn what to do' game about it when it is first
installed at a site, and then it rapidly degenerates
into a chatline; however, even then it has enough of a
virtual world about it to have prompted this recent
posting on InterNet:
"I was thinking about things today, and
realised that I was spending more than 8 hours a day
MUDding, skipping classes and ignoring homework in
favour of all the socialisation of the MUDs. It also
hit me that I was going to flunk out of college if I
didn't stop it. I'm addicted bad. Real bad. ... To all
of you who insist that MUD is a game, I disagree. MUD
is a socialisation tool that just happens to allow you
to go adventuring and solve puzzles. Problem is, that I
over-used it, to the exclusion of a real life."
Garth Minette [ex-TinyMUD player]
MUAs are very addictive. Chatlines can be
addictive, and games can be addictive, but neither
compares remotely with what a MUA can do to people. It
happens in all MUAs:
"The burnout player has a very clear profile -
he is a very active player who cannot be missed when he
is in the game, he is chatty and likeable, a fighter
(but not very good), and he sparkles, bubbles, burbles
and froths all over chat. Above all, he wants to be
200 Discussion MUSE Ltd
involved with everything. The symptoms are very obvious
from the outset: long hours of play every day may
gradually move into peak time, followed by a furious
activity towards the end of the first quarter, with a
'well I might as well be hanged for stealing a sheep as
a lamb' attitude just before the bill arrives. Then the
painful farewell to friends and enemies moments before
dad consigns the modem to the dustbin. Then, silence
forever. He is never seen again. Burnout."
Pip Cordrey [IOWA owner]
Apart from the predictable grouse about
telephone charges, Cordrey has a genuine point here.
People who like the world offered by a MUA more than
they do the real world will often spend a lot of time
there. If they are obliged to pay for their time after
having played, and are aware that they can't, they'll
play as much as they can before being cut off. This
will increase their addiction even more, and when the
phone is finally disconnect then the sudden wrench from
the MUA can be devastating. Players have described it
as 'cold Turkey'.
"MUDs are addictive, as we who play them are
well aware. Gibson and the rest were right about the
addictive possibilities of cyberspace. They were just
wrong about the magnitude."
Bryant Durrell [Islandia founder]
The intersection between game and chatline
which is so addictive is a form of role-playing. The
term is appropriate, however note:
"Role-playing games have attracted some
criticism; US religious fundamentalists have managed to
conflate them with satanism and other evils - such as
psychiatry."
Computer Weekly [magazine]
That's why these days, in discussing their
201 MUSE Ltd Discussion
relationship to their persona, smart American MUA
players stay on the virtual reality bandwagon.
"In my case, Sir Bruce Sterling is mostly me.
His words are generally my words in that situation, his
actions often the ones I would take. But there are
slight differences. I can do things in MUDs I can't in
real life, which allows options I don't have in real
life. And when I kill in virtual reality, it doesn't
mean I'd actually kill under the same circumstances in
real life, since no-one *really* dies or even ceases to
exist on MUDs if they are killed."
Bruce Woodcock [player]
Why is role-playing seductive? Its principal
attraction is that it allows players to be someone
else, to take on an assumed identity. They can be
themselves, but when things go wrong they don't feel so
bad about it. Anonymity is the key.
"Considering my MUD persona - and I only have
one, which probably says a lot in itself - there are a
lot of similarities. I definitely hide behind the
anonymity, but share a large number of traits (not all
good) with my MUD personality."
Mike Prudence [player]
Anonymity also enables players to take on
completely different roles, behaving outrageously, safe
in the knowledge that they can't be hurt in the real
world.
"Interaction can mean anything from kissing to
killing or stealing."
The Economist
Often, this involves sexual manipulation -
sometimes subtle, but not always:
202 Discussion MUSE Ltd
"The hozer: 'Yo, babe! I got this amazing ten-
inch love muscle. Wanna date? Lie down and spread your
legs.' Hozers are usually college freshmen with no
social skills who can't get sex any other way. They
tend to skew the male/female ratio on MUDs even further
by causing all female characters in the vicinity to
change to male or gender-neutral characters."
Lauren Burka [TinyMUD player]
The ability to live out sexual fantasies in a
MUA does attract certain people, especially to games
set up precisely for that purpose (eg. Zone). This can
cause managerial problems if it is uninvited. Something
common in all MUAs, though, is cross-gender playing.
Most male players play female personae (usually
admitting that they are really male if questioned) and
many female players play male personae (usually not
admitting it if asked). Sometimes, males playing
females will attempt to get themselves picked up by
players they think are male:
"The slut: 'Hey, does anyone here want a blow-
job?' The slut comes in all different shapes and sizes,
but her description always includes mention of her
luscious lips and prominent nipples. 95% of all sluts
are played by male players. Most of these used to be
hozers."
Lauren Burka [TinyMUD player]
Rarely will this totally brazen technique fool
anyone, but an accomplished role-player can build up
amazingly detailed on-line relationships over time.
Quite what the fun in this involves is hard to say -
it's probably to do with enjoying manipulation other
people, although the challenge of role-playing may be a
significant factor. Certainly, it can lead to tragic
cases where a player falls in love with a persona
played by someone of their own gender (almost
203 MUSE Ltd Discussion
invariably they're both male - females don't appear to
indulge in this kind of thing with quite the same
dedication). Most MUAs will have that happen to them at
some time in their history unless they're very well
managed.
Male players in some games have developed a
defence against the possibility that the female persona
that they are talking to is actually male:
"If you see a persona with a female name, it's
really a male. If they come up and talk all feminine
and giggle, it's still a male. If they phone you, meet
you in a park, chat for two hours about MUD and produce
logs of their games, it's still a male playing the
persona. If you actually see them sitting down, playing
the game, behaving just like they do when you've
snooped them, then they might be the real thing but the
chances are they're not. You can't be too careful!"
Richard Bartle [Comms Plus!]
Except in games with a near-even male/female
ratio, many women adopt the same attitude:
"Perhaps it's because women are so scarce on
the computers that some men haven't realised that they
don't have to talk any differently to us. I know that
some women conceal their gender from those who think
that just because someone says that they are female,
this is an invitation to be harassed. This loss of
freedom seems to be a high price to pay to get
respect."
Paola Kathuria [Comms Plus!]
The 'freedom' Kathuria is talking about is that
of being able to be yourself. Many new female players
will be scared off by male players trying to chat them
up all the time, and will not play as male personae
because they object to being forced into a role by the
attitudes of others.
204 Discussion MUSE Ltd
For those women who play openly as females, a
barrage of pick-up lines can be expected (not normally
meant to be offensive, just very numerous because there
are many more males per female player). Once this has
died down, women can play pretty much the same way as
men. By then, however, male players will often have
formed a visual impression of them that might not fit
physical reality.
"In my experience, unless I have got to know
someone well enough to call them a (platonic) friend,
after face-to-face meetings things are never the same
back on the talkers. I have therefore developed a rule
of not meeting people while I am getting to know them
and instead just relish wanting to meet them. I am
inclined to think that if I were male there would be no
problem. I put this down to my hunch that when men meet
women on a computer the way women are imagined to look
like tends to be more like an ideal than someone who
may be skinny or fat, spotty, six feet tall or four
feet short. I know that when I started to meet people I
had a real shock when I found out they wore glasses or
had a beard."
Paola Kathuria [Comms Plus!]
This reluctance to meet people face-to-face is
quite sad in a way, because whereas more men than women
get immediate pleasure from role-playing, more women
than men find that their true enjoyment manifests
itself in the way in which friendships and
companionship can form between players over time.
"The biggest attraction for me would have to be
the people here. I have developed many friendships that
I will cherish for years to come."
Stargazer [BL player]
In two games at least (Shades and British
Legends), players have married people whom they first
205 MUSE Ltd Discussion
met in the game. If female players don't want to go to
face-to-face meetings for fear of shattering their
friends' illusions of them, it can detract from their
overall enjoyment of the MUA. Long-standing MUA players
who may have jealously guarded their anonymity
initially will often gladly turn up at face-to-face
meetings to renew their friendships.
"One of the most interesting features of the
MUG phenomenon is their social aspect, not just in the
game but outside as well. Every game holds social
gatherings, and at these events all the players get
together and enjoy meeting the people behind the
personae. It's always amazing to see people who were
battling each other in cold fury the previous evening
sitting down together over a pint discussing tactics."
Pip Cordrey [Confidential]
To summarise, then: chatlines can be addictive,
games can be addictive; combining the two should
therefore be addictive, and yes, MUAs do attract people
who like chatlines and people who like games. However,
MUAs can exert an influence over a large number of
these players out of all proportion to that of either a
chatline or game alone. MUAs have an emotional hold
over their players which stems from the players'
ability to project themselves onto their game personae,
feeling as if the things which happen to the game
personae are happening directly to the players
themselves.
When persona and player fuse, as they do in a
good MUA, events are given an impact far beyond that of
the mere words that convey them. The game's virtual
reality becomes (temporarily) the player's reality.
206 Discussion MUSE Ltd
Players can do things and have things done to them that
are impossible in real life; they can experience
feelings and imbue feelings in others that real life
denies them. It's the belief that things are happening
to you, not to a game persona, that makes MUAs unique.
This must be understood by the reader. The
really exceptional thing about interactive, multi-user
computer games of the MUA variety is not that you're
chatting to someone miles away (although that can be
fun), and it's not that you're competing against a real
human instead of a machine (although that can also be
fun); it's that you're existing in another world.
That's the root of their appeal.
"You get very excited with adventure games.
Your adrenalin goes up and you get very tense. It's
fascinating that you forget you are hunched over a
computer and that others are - you feel you are all
together in the magic land of MUD. It's a further
extension from reading a book. It's totally engrossing
- the mind is focused on one thing and you don't notice
anything else."
An interviewee (female) [Computer
Addiction? A study of computer dependency]
7.3 Why Do People Not Play?
If MUAs are as entertaining as has just been
claimed, why do some people start playing them and then
give up shortly afterwards?
New players are the lifeblood of MUAs, as they
are needed to replenish the older players who stop
playing for personal or financial reasons. They also
207 MUSE Ltd Discussion
stop a game from becoming sterile. Hence, most MUAs
make some effort to keep new players for long enough to
get them hooked.
One of the things commonly cited as a reason
for not playing a MUA is that it is too daunting. There
is a class of person that finds huge amounts of pre-
game reading a real appetiser for the game, and who by
the time they've read all the documentation will be
raring to go. Many people do not like it, however. They
want simple, basic instructions, and they don't want to
be told just how much they'll need to know to play the
game in earnest - it's just too awesome.
The best way to achieve this is by means of on-
line help. Players can ask for assistance on specific
game-related topics, and the game will give them
details. Purists argue that this spoils the atmosphere,
but it's necessary if players are to learn gradually
rather than be put off by an initial flood of facts.
"Virtual reality is not hurt by being able to
find out how the virtual reality is mapped to the real
reality at any time. It's very unrealistic not to be
able to whisper to someone because I forgot the command
and the help command is not global. Sheesh."
Lee Brintle [player]
However, the crucial factor in ensnaring new
players into a game is how the other players react. New
players are often confused in their first session, and
longer-standing players can help enlighten them.
208 Discussion MUSE Ltd
"If you give people a little guidance, they'll
all pull in the same direction, rather than one zillion
different directions."
Mike Prudence [TinyMUCK player]
Unfortunately, the behaviour of other players
is as potent in its ability to scare off newcomers as
it is to welcome them. In male-heavy games, women have
special difficulties as outlined earlier. However,
everyone suffers verbal abuse from time to time from
anonymous personae. Older players will dismiss it
without comment, but newcomers (and especially
journalists looking for a story) are often shocked, and
can easily be driven away (which is, of course, exactly
what their abuser intended).
"One of the most annoying things is when I'm
sitting in a public (or private) place and someone
comes by and starts swearing and insulting me and
everyone else in there."
Gregory Blake [player]
Proper game management, especially the ability
of arch-wizzes to find out to which account any persona
belongs, can do a great deal to stop these practices.
However, they'll always be open to misuse by people
using guest accounts, where no link between a persona
and a real person can be determined.
Swearing and sexual innuendo can creep into any
public service with a chatline component - 'sleaze' is
the term used to refer to it. Due to mismanagement in
some MUAs, eg. Shades, an attitude has set in that this
is somehow inevitable, and that when anyone plays a MUA
the result is a transformation comparable with that of
209 MUSE Ltd Discussion
Dr Jekyll's to Mr Hyde. Since this can be used as an
argument against allowing MUAs at all, it is important
that it be recognised as fallacious.
"Computer interaction seems to make people
nastier and more obnoxious. It doesn't: it merely gives
the rude and ignorant more efficient and anonymous
means to display their rudeness and ignorance."
Lauren Burka [TinyMUD player]
In other words, MUAs don't make people behave
badly; all they do is enable people who want to behave
badly to do so. In a properly organised MUA, bad
behaviour by an individual will occur at most twice:
the first time, if they appear to have thought it was
OK to do what they did, they'll perhaps be let off with
a stern warning; the second time, they're ejected.
Games that allow wrongdoers to return have a harder
time of maintaining discipline. That said, when people
play MUAs their emotions are often difficult to
contain, so when disputes do break out they can
escalate rapidly.
Note that sleaze is not limited to MUAs, and
that BT is very sensitive about it:
"Should you receive offensive or abusive
material over any of our data transmission services or
feel that material on a database is offensive and you
wish to complain, please register your complaint in one
of the following ways. ..."
W. R. Broadhead [head of BT MNS
Customer Service Unit, in a letter to PSS customers]
It is impossible to deal with sleaze so long as
narrow-minded individuals have access to a system and
210 Discussion MUSE Ltd
know they cannot be traced. Automated censorship is
presently impossible - computers would throw out words
like 'Scunthorpe', and if they didn't then players
would use them as swearwords.
To summarise: new players will lose interest if
they find a game looks too complicated to play, or if
it is too sleazy for them. More experienced players
will leave if sleaze gets really bad, but otherwise
have a higher tolerance of it. Good game management can
reduce the amount of sleaze, in the same way as good
Home Office policing can reduce the amount of sleaze on
ham radio. However, it can't ever be removed 100%. You
can discourage people from breaking a code of
acceptable behaviour (eg. by throwing them out), but
you can't actually stop them from breaking it.
"If you think about it, you will realise that a
game is just a coded collection of rules. With a multi-
user adventure these rules are complex, and defy being
entirely coded. So some externally applied rules have
to exist. The purpose of rules in the game is to ensure
that the game is fair and enjoyable to all players."
Pip Cordrey [IOWA owner]
7.4 Why Do People Stop Playing?
MUAs do lose long-standing players. Sometimes
it's because the games are boring, or no longer games
(as with TinyMUD and derivatives). Other times, the
players or their circumstances change: they get older,
change job, die, move house, marry, have children.
However, in the UK at least, the main reason
211 MUSE Ltd Discussion
that people stop playing is because telephone charges
are too high. The evidence for this is overwhelming -
almost every professional article on the subject
complains about the cost.
"The main obstacle to MUD, and similar
programs, gaining a wider airing is the cost of making
a telephone call."
Popular Computing Weekly [magazine]
"The problem area with this way to play is the
cost and speed at which it operates. Current costs are
prohibitive."
New Computer Express [magazine]
"These games are expensive to play, habit
forming, and rapidly becoming big business."
PC Plus [magazine]
"No MUG is free when it comes to your telephone
bill!"
GM [magazine]
"Maybe the forthcoming changes to BT might lead
to a more enlightened attitude to telephone charges for
this type of service. For the home user, however, MUD
playing will be limited to the rich or the
resourceful."
The Times
The service BT provides is held in contempt by
everyone in the commercial comms field. Usage patterns
for MUAs are very different to those of voice users,
with players commonly sitting down for several hours at
a stretch playing a game. During that time they are, of
course, occupying slots on the same exchanges that
normal telephone users are paying full-price to use,
however since they have no choice in the matter it can
hardly be said to be their fault. Even the absolute
minimum price for a local telephone call in the UK
212 Discussion MUSE Ltd
works out at 5.06p per 240 seconds, ie. L0.759/hour;
for a long-distance call, it's 5.06p per 38 seconds,
ie. L4.794/hour. An evening of playing even a free MUA
would cost the players anything between L2 and L14
each. Even for commercial games, the bulk of the money
players pay ends up in BT's coffers.
BT is very complacent about all this; after
all, it's making money by doing nothing, so why bother?
Indeed, since there are some people who apparently
spout sleaze in these games, perhaps it would be better
in the long run if they were all shut down? Less hassle
for all concerned...
BT could make a lot more money from MUAs if it
dropped its prices. One large phone bill will drive a
person off a MUA, whereas they are likely to accept
smaller ones over a much longer period. L300 for one
quarter nets BT L300; L75 per quarter for two years
nets BT L600. People don't play less when the price
goes up, they either continue to play or just stop.
It's an issue for Market Research to determine the
exact trade-off point for maximum income, but it's
definitely below 75p/hour.
Another important point is that although BT
makes money from MUAs, they're commercially
unattractive to games companies. Players are prepared
to pay only a certain amount per hour to play, but if
BT takes the lion's share of that then there's little
213 MUSE Ltd Discussion
profit for the MUA authors. This means companies that
specialise in computer games prefer to invest their
energies elsewhere, and so the number of commercial
MUAs is small. The more games there are, the more
players, and therefore the more income due to BT
overall.
BT does provide alternative services for its
users. Most of these suffer from the fact that they are
distance-dependent: most telephone numbers may be local
to London, but MUAs often hold a special appeal to
people in remote areas, for whom a long-distance call
is 5 or 6 times as much. Present facilities and their
disadvantages are as follows:
- PSS
Allows inexpensive data transfer compared to
direct dial over a modem long-distance, but is still a
local call plus a high premium of several pounds per
hour (depending on the amount of data sent).
- 0800 numbers
Players don't get big phone bills, they get big
bills from the MUA owners, who in turn get the big
phone bills. If they are charged up front to use the
service, this can be beneficial - people don't get any
nasty surprises. Unattractive to MUA owners because
it's distance-dependent, and local callers subsidise
distance callers. If, however, all calls to the number
cost the MUA owners the same, and that amount was equal
214 Discussion MUSE Ltd
to or less than the price of a local call, it would be
a very satisfactory option - especially if the MUA
providers could claim back the VAT on their phone
bills.
- 0345 numbers
These are numbers that are a local phone call
from anywhere in the country. They're a cross between
0800 calls and normal calls - long-distance calls are
subsidised by the owner of the 0345 number. If local
call rate from pretty well everywhere in the country
could be guaranteed, with no hidden charges, this would
be a reasonable second-best option.
- 0898 numbers
These are the premium call-rate numbers, where
users pay enormous amounts per minute and BT gives some
of the resulting money to the 0898 number owner. This
would work well for MUAs if the prices weren't so
incredibly high - L19.80/hour. Bring it down to L1 or
L1.50 an hour and it would be more reasonable. Players
would get even larger phone bills to pay all at once,
however, and thus may be even more inclined to give up
their gaming.
- Midnight Lines
Midnight lines allow their owner to pay a flat
fee per quarter and make unlimited phone calls any
distance in the UK, so long as they do so between
midnight and 6am. Best used as a call-back system,
215 MUSE Ltd Discussion
where players dial the game, give their password, log
off, and the game calls them back on its midnight line;
this way, only the game needs the midnight lines, not
the players. The problem with these lines is that only
the most hardened of players will stay up so late
before they can start to play.
Given that BT's options are limited by its
charter, there probably isn't much scope for altering
these services or providing similar ones. As far as MUA
players are concerned, the best solution is to have a
service like the 0800 numbers where calls can be made
from any distance and don't appear on the users' phone
bill. Different prices for different times of day are a
reasonable thing for BT to ask, but they should always
be the same as or less than a local phone call. The MUA
provider would sell players 'credits', take these away
from their total at a certain rate depending on the
time of day, and ask for more when they ran out. In
this way, players can see precisely how much the game
is costing them, can budget in advance, and have no
nasty shocks when their phone bills arrive:
"In general, I think paying for credits in
advance is definitely better than running up a bill. It
allows players to budget, and avoids the problems a lot
of new players could encounter of a huge bill arriving
after the first month or so, which puts them off
playing and therefore loses the game a customer."
Phil Purle [MUD2 player]
From the MUA providers' point of view, the best
solution is a service like the 0898 numbers. This is
because they'll get more people playing during the day
216 Discussion MUSE Ltd
using their companies' resources; also, BT does all the
billing. However, the 0800-lookalike solution is
probably fairer.
A third alternative is for BT to charge the MUA
providers a flat fee for a number that can be dialled
by anyone without costing them anything - a sort of
0800/midnight/land line. This may be subject to time-
of-day restrictions, perhaps only working at cheap-rate
times. Provided the cost of doing this wasn't too
large, it would benefit both the player (free calls to
the MUA in the evening) and the MUA (daytime calls from
users on their company phones). However, as a service
it's perhaps a little complicated to operate.
All this assumes use of the existing telephone
network. There are likely to be problems, however, in
that providing new services primarily for transmitting
and receiving data doesn't ensure that they will be
used for those purposes. For example, if a company
bought a data 0800 number that only cost it local call
access outside business hours, there is nothing to
prevent its being used for voice communication. It
could, of course, be made a condition of having such a
line that there should always be a modem on the end,
but this may prove expensive to police.
Although at this stage there is probably
insufficient evidence to tempt all but the most
progressive of companies into setting up a data-
217 MUSE Ltd Discussion
oriented network, nevertheless that's probably the best
way to proceed. Certainly it will be needed in the
future, it's just a question of how long BT or their
competitors (such as they are) wait before implementing
it (or realising that they'll even need it - mind you,
Finland has it already, and it's free). Local phone
calls to a special data node will doubtless be with us
for some time to come, but a national packet-switched
data network that people don't require a special
account to use will come eventually. All they'd have to
do is dial the appropriate code for the data network
followed by the number of the recipient, and instead of
being charged on a time basis they'd be charged on a
data transmitted/received basis. If CompuServe can
knock up a system that gives local call access to their
mainframes from pretty well anywhere in the USA, BT can
surely manage something in Britain.
Of course, if BT is ever allowed to run its
services on a subscription basis like cable TV, other
avenues are open:
"I do feel that you're best off following the
example of US TV or radio - don't charge the end-user
if at all possible, and pull in the revenue someplace
else."
Bryant Durrell [Islandia founder]
Summarising this, then, there are several
options available for people who wish to use IMPCGs. A
very important consideration is the cost: if at all
possible, it should be standard countrywide,
irrespective of distance; also, it should be no more
218 Discussion MUSE Ltd
expensive than a local phone call - otherwise, why
would people a local call away bother with it?
MUAs are played most frequently in non-business
hours, which may give some leeway in implementing
changes to existing approaches. Of these, the most
favoured are where all the cost is borne by the
information provider, either as a flat fee per line or
time-dependent as at present.
Ideally, data communications should have their
own network which charges on a data sent/received basis
rather than for time used. Voice sends lots of data
over a short period, but on-line services send smaller
amounts over a longer period, and furthermore can be
carried more efficiently if their computer-oriented
nature is known. This, a datanet would achieve.
"The quality of networked services in the UK is
very poor, and I do not wish the work that we have done
up to this point to be swamped by poorly managed highly
commercial services."
Pip Cordrey [IOWA owner]
7.5 What Does the Future Hold?
"With the software industry definitely looking
for new ideas to keep home computer users interested,
the multi-user game is strongly tipped as being a hot
item."
Datamation [magazine]
"At a time when the microcomputer software
industry is entering a period of crisis - the number of
new ideas for computer games is painfully small - the
idea of multi-user games has been put forward as the
next big area for development."
Computing [magazine]
219 MUSE Ltd Discussion
MUAs are fun, rewarding to play, and
compulsive. From a software author's point of view,
they're a dream: the software is not made public, so
there is no danger of piracy; people pay for them
continually, they don't just make a one-off payment;
larger computers acting as a host mean that more
sophisticated games can be written than work on home
micros. A pity BT takes such a huge percentage of the
revenue. Nevertheless, MUAs are definitely the future.
But what exactly is that future? The present
trend in MUA design is for games that allow players to
add rooms etc. to it themselves. For many reasons, this
approach is unlikely to be successful commercially -
quality, security and the UK copyright laws are the
main objections. However, that is not to say that new
alternatives should not be examined; too many MUAs
these days are formula issues that use the old, tried-
and-trusted approaches.
"The main thing hampering game development is
the fact that the people writing them are content to
produce yet another Shades clone. It seems that whilst
there is a lot of enthusiasm for writing your own
games, nobody is willing to be a bit adventurous and
try and make things a little more complex."
Wabit [player]
To seasoned players, the older MUAs look very
dated. If members of the general public were given a
wider access to these games, then after a while they'd
come to feel the same way too. Unless work starts soon
on the "next wave" of MUAs, there'll be nothing there
220 Discussion MUSE Ltd
to take their place.
"Hopefully, they will be replaced by new games,
but who is going to write them? And who is going to
back them? BT don't need to replace Shades, it still
brings in the money..."
Wabit [player]
The authors are there, but the backers aren't.
Even CompuServe doesn't commission games, it merely
deigns to permit them on its network. Prestel will
allow companies access to its user base, but at L6,500
per entry point plus L260 per channel, both sums
charged annually, there are few takers. Unfortunately,
BT is too big an organisation for this to make much
difference to it, and its charter means that cross-
subsidisation is not allowed; thus, Prestel couldn't
let new services join it for free in the knowledge that
this would generate income for the telephone division,
because Prestel itself would have to pay for the
connection and would get nothing (or comparatively
little) in return.
MUA authors and carriers generally agree on the
next big step in MUAs:
"I see it splitting several ways. There'll be
the continuing MUD/Shades type games, there'll be an
increase in on-line chat/conferencing systems
concentrating on the 'social' side of MUGs as they are,
and there'll be the hard-edged commercial things,
probably graphical games."
Nigel Hardy [Comms Plus!]
Graphics are seen as being the key to bringing
MUAs to a wider audience; sound, too, if possible.
221 MUSE Ltd Discussion
Viewdata, sadly, is nowhere near good enough, despite
Prestel's doggedness.
"To market MUDs successfully, the interface
between host and client must be improved. It is a small
percentage of the buying public that will suffer
through typing and reading to enjoy a few hours'
escapism. If someone were to combine the ease of
watching television with the interactivity of MUDs and
make it available to the world at large, they would
soon put the passive networks (NBC, ABC, BBC, ITV etc.)
out of business."
Duncan Howard [author of An
Introduction to MUD]
Graphical MUAs are possible right now, it's
just that no MUA author has the financial clout to do
anything about it. The approach is not to send
photographic images down the line, but instead to
provide these on disc or multimedia systems at the user
end. The MUA host merely transmits a few control codes
that say "Print background 219, with a tree at co-
ordinates (314, 16), and Eric at (210, 101) with a face
using identikit image 12/11/23/1/92." This doesn't need
ISDN telephone links, and it's the way games like Air
Warrior work.
"Graphical MUGs won't work until the BT
monopoly is broken and 15 year olds can afford to play
shoot-em-and-run type games over the phone."
Graeme [Ripper author]
IMPCGs in the future will, in general, be one
of the following types:
- Arcade style.
These will appeal to people who like blasting
aliens. However, blasting aliens is a lonesome thing,
222 Discussion MUSE Ltd
and players will not take kindly to being blasted by
other people. When teenagers play such games over the
phone, it'll be because that's a way the computer
companies have figured they can make more money out of
it. Making people pay as they play is always going to
be more lucrative than making them pay once only.
- Strategy.
These are mainly going to be two-player games
between 'older' players of a generation that came too
early for AD&D. People enjoy playing things like chess
by post, and will enjoy playing such games by phone.
They are unlikely to come in their hordes, however;
this is a niche market. Networks will only be necessary
as a place to meet opponents before playing direct-
dial.
- Simulators.
The players take sides in a competitive
environment of fast action and/or skill. This covers
everything from flight simulators to rock climbing.
Doubtless there will be people who want to play golf
against a real human being in a laserdisc rendition of
the US Masters course, but whether they'll keep coming
back for more or grow tired when the novelty wears off
(or they keep losing) is uncertain.
- Chatlines.
Not really games, but such a socially useful
tool that despite the sleaze factor they'll eventually
223 MUSE Ltd Discussion
conquer all. They'll appeal to people who are prudish
about playing games but who don't mind a little gossip.
- MUAs.
Chatlines plus games. Unbeatable, except for
people who "don't like dragons and suchlike", ie. are
too old or set in their ways. With graphics and sound,
they'll be absolutely sensational.
There is going to be an enormous market for
IMPCGs. Although the UK has a significant lead in MUAs,
it'll disappear in a couple of years once the US
academics get working on it in earnest, unless the UK
industry is given support. If not, it'll be brushed
aside by the US and Japanese giants, particularly
purveyors of arcade games and simulators who have
suddenly become aware of "virtual reality" and may
implement such systems leap-frogging present-day MUAs
completely.
There is a demand for these simulator games,
unquestionably. However, the danger is that they will
constitute all the games on offer. There's a common
misunderstanding among company people discussing
playing games over the phone: they think that the
reason people do it is because they relish the
challenge of taking on a real human being in a test of
skill. They don't. People may have that idea initially,
but any long-standing MUA player will tell you that
it's not really this that keeps people playing. To some
224 Discussion MUSE Ltd
extent it's the social aspect of the game that holds
the key, but the real juice is the virtual reality.
To summarise: single-player games that are
modified merely by giving them more players will
probably have some considerable appeal. This will be
enough to satisfy their backers. However, shared
virtual reality is where the big bucks lie hidden, and
the first company to make a top-notch graphical MUA
available to a large user base will clean up.
"Business users pay for the system and we have
to look after them, but we get a lot of satisfaction
from the home users who come on the system in the
evenings. They are the lifeblood - no, the SOUL of
MicroLink"
Derek Meakin [MicroLink chairman]
7.6 Conclusion.
BT has been lucky enough to have the leading
technology for IMPCGs take root in its front garden. It
can nurture this young shoot until it is strong, then
plant its seeds elsewhere, or it can dig it up and wait
a few years until someone else sells one at the garden
centre.
BT can watch or participate - preferably the
latter.
"For adult educators and researchers, text-
based virtual realities offer an opportunity to enter a
synthetic society either as observers of the sociology
(and sociopathy) of a predominantly adolescent culture,
or as mission-oriented contributors to the informal
education and enrichment of the young people populating
225 MUSE Ltd Discussion
the ethereal world of Cyberion City."
Barry Kort [BBN scientist]
226