Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about MUDs.
Summary | What is a MUD? |
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Question | What is a MUD anyway? |
Answer | MUD stands for Multiple User Dungeon. A MUD is an interactive, text-based computer game - very popular. There are about 1400 different muds on the Net, with an average of 50 - 200 players each. A lot of people get hooked on them - they are highly addictive! :-) 
 
What makes MUDding interesting is the interactive thing. You actually cooperate and compete with other people on line, when you play, people from all over the world, in real time. It's not like a normal computer game that you play on your own. There is also a lot of chatting and socializing going on in the MUDs, some of them are more like Chat channels really... :-) Others are heavy on role-play, you choose a role for yourself and act it out in different ways as you play. 
 
There is normally no graphic at all in MUDs, they are completely text based. You could describe a MUD as a gigantic chessboard, with 2500 - 15000 squares. Each square is a room and each room has a description to it. All the "monsters" and objects in the rooms have a description too. MUDs are like most computer games, you run around killing monsters and gaining experience, and the monsters act and fight in different ways. 
 
Builders construct the areas people play in - that's what building in MUDs means. Personally I find building areas more challenging than just killing monsters - I got bored of that pretty quickly. Actually I'm a sort of "God" - they call them "Immortals" in the MUD world, and it's the goal of most players to become one... 
 MUDs are not commercial, at least only a few are. There are a few MUDs, that you have to pay to play in, but basically all it costs is the phone-bill. That can be quite heavy though, if you are addicted. 
 
Most MUDs still use the old code from the original MUDs, or derivates of it. The coders add more stuff to it and change the code in different ways as they go along of course, but basically it's the same. And a lot of MUDs still use the same old stock areas from the first MUDs too. There are however a few all-original MUDs, though, which have only unique areas, and use modified code-bases as well. 
 
- Submitted by Molly O'Hara of 4 Dimensions |
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