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[McDoomhammer]

I prefer MUCKs, or more specifically, a MUCK.  I prefer an environment where roleplay is not so much 'enforced' as 'the whole point' and the system is there to support it, not as an alternative.

[lumin]

Syntax sucks. It's really the worst part of MUD's. Also, any sort of payment plan or pay-to-win system ruins the game. And automated systems. Don't get me started.

Yes, please don't get started...not too long ago on this board we had a rant thread about MUD payment perks.  Let's talk more about the positive side of MUDding for a change.

I think some of the complaints here are a little exaggerated about syntax, it's not really that bad.  What's so hard about "get coins", or "kill Goblin"?  Sure, it does take getting used to if you've never played a MUD in your life, but they almost all have the identical syntax.  If you've learned how to play one, you've learned how to play them all.

Besides, I don't believe those who say they can't learn how to play a MUD, if they can learn to play Dwarf Fortress.

[Empty]

I play DartMud.

It has no levels ony skill levels

And your stats are mainly determined by your race.
Though the size of your body also determines a few of them.

It has semi permanent death.

Ie if you die you can deathtell someone where your body is so they can drag it to the healers hall and wait for a resurector to get awake.
The longer it takes for you to be revived the lesser skills you'll have on revival. It's even possible that if an evil player comes over your corpse that they butcher it. Forcing you to make a new character 
Though soul amulets can possibly protect for this.
You can also be changed to another race on death if you're in an amulet. Though a player who is hated by the healer hall might be the new owner of a squirrel body 

Well the game has many more fun points but you'd really need to play it yourself to see them.

[Rhodan]

That's why I like Discworld. No two places look the same unless they're supposed to. And if they do look the same, at least it mentions relative distances to nearby features. When you walk down a street every room is different, with unique features on each building you can look at, usually with something funny somewhere.

Discworld has the best syntax available. If there's a "tall man" standing somewhere, you can interact with him using "man", "tall man", "tall person", and if he happens to be from the Thieves' Guild "tall thief" would probably work too. "kick the tall man where it hurts" is a viable syntax that also works on players. Huzzah! I haven't found other MUDs with similar flexibility in the syntax, though. I tend to struggle with syntax on other MUDs now.

Discworld has a few blind players using text-to-speech and one I know who uses a sort of screen that can do braille. Pretty impressive.

I think the Disc used Hubwards/Rimwards directions in the olden days, but it's hard to do polar coordinates on a grid.

Oh, and there's Seamstresses. And I don't mean the clothes-mending kind.

[McDoomhammer]

Hem, hem.

[Muz]

Yay, I was thinking about making a thread on this But on some other forum.

I dunno.. I've been looking at a lot of MUDs for years, but I've never found one that I like. Some are hopeless - fight for 3 hours, get gold, buy things, discover that everyone has things worth 10000 times what you could afford. Some are boring - wander around rooms x200, with all of them looking the same and only meeting 4 or so people along the way. Some just expect you to spend a whole lot of frigging time on the server, playing a few hours a day just to survive.

I want just two things in a MUD:
1. Being able to go around low level and not have people discriminate against me. Games with permanent death is good for this
2. Something that gives some tweaks of excitement, instead of just boring grinding with no socialization.
3. And yeah.. some people to play it with. Single player MUDs are boring :/

For this, I found HellMOO to be the only game that has suited my needs. It's definitely not safe for work. But what I like about it is all the sudden death and the non serious nature of it. I got killed about 4 times in the first few hours I started. And for those who think losing is fun, which it is, I think you'll like that. The first times I died from zombies, being stupid enough to run into an alley instead of on the sidewalks. Then I died from exploring dangerous areas and getting eaten by monsters. Also, there was once where I didn't look where I was going and fell into the water and almost got eaten by a mutant shark.

But it was all fun, not repetitive

[lumin]

I started a char on Discworld and Dartmud.  Both of my characters are called "Jedel".

In Discworld I'm not sure what city I am at.  It's one of the desert cities.  I wanted to join the Assassins guild there.

In Dartmud, I met two players: Emerald and Dismal.  They helped me register.  I like Dartmud, very hardcore!

[Brendan]

Syntax is only usually a problem in Diku-derivative MUDs. Diku is a somewhat-archaic but easy to set up codebase for running MUDs, so that's usually what you find if you go to play MUDs made by amateurs (and the 'professionals', of which there are relatively few but with large rosters of players, tend to charge you real money for anything but the worst equipment, like any free MMORPG).

The other codebases, such as MOO, have better syntax and coding features but they tend not to be used for gameplay so much, usually regarded more as interactive chatrooms. The best MUDs have their own codebases tailored to suit the game environment, but almost all the MUDs you can find are usually run by people who downloaded the codebase, cut-and-pasted some game features into it, and then ran it on a server.

[wallish]

My "favorite" MUD has to be Materia Magica (here's the MudConnect page).  It's got hundreds of THOUSANDS of rooms, a good combat system (relatively standard but the output is great), an ASCII overworld map for when you're traveling outdoors, and a pretty good quest system.

Its interface and... I guess "command loosness"... is so great I think it's spoiled me. There's a nice 'exit compass" so you can quickly see which exits are available. Also, you can type "k r" instead of "kill rat" and it'll figure it out unlike many other MUDS which usually have fairly strict syntax.

It's worth a try as  it doesn't take much to get started and feel out the game.  There's usually around 150-200 people on at any given time and it's got a pretty newbie-friendly help staff.

[Vugor]

awwwwwww MUD's    goood times, some of my first online gaming experience, randomly enough, since it was only like 6 years ago

ill have to remember to go on Valheru again and start up that cigar smokeing clan,  or hope that my Carrion Fields character is not deleted yet.....

[lumin]

Speaking of good times, I remember the first MUD I played back in 1995.  One of my Computer Science class-mates told me about this text-based PK game where he needed help battling a rival clan.

So I signed on and started my own secret clan of Assassins.  I found a nice quiet place in the city sewers and started recruiting new players.  After a few weeks I was the leader of a small clan of about 15 players or so.  We called ourselves "Illuminati" (actually based on a real South-American crime organization).

So we would roam the streets using hit-and-run tactics, battling our rival clan called "Phoenix".  Since we were losing most of our battles, I went and implored one of the gods for a magically enhanced weapon.  A few days later, they gave me a dagger called "Stiehl" (based on the dagger in Shannara) and I started to slaughter our enemies.  Unfortunately, word got out to the leader of the other clan, and he also got a powerful weapon from the gods and I eventually lost my advantage...

Good memories...

[Soulwynd]

I've created a character on dartmud. *shrugs* Seems interesting, but time consuming.

[lumin]

I've created a character on dartmud. *shrugs* Seems interesting, but time consuming.

I started to play Dartmud, but all of the players on there told me that it is pointless to even fight creatures.  They told me I should get a "trade" instead.

I don't know...it seems like that would just be a little too boring to stand and carve wood or hammer metal for hours and hours on end for XP. 

So I took my character, in a state of madness, ran outside the town, and was instantly killed by some frogs.  I don't think I will return to Dartmud as a new character, but I hope "Jedel, the mad" will be honored in song and legend for his bravery.

I'm hooked on Discworld.  The skill system is really great AND the fact that you earn XP while just being logged in.  I wish other MMO's had a 'heart-beat' xp system, it seems to make sense.  The older I get, the smarter I become.  The cities are the best i've ever seen in a MUD, and the newbie area is really good.

[McDoomhammer]

... Killed by frogs?  Like, evil demonic mutant death frogs?

Or ordinary harmless ribbiting common-or-garden amphibians?

See, that's what I hate about MUDs, you can't take them seriously.  How are you supposed to sensibly roleplay in a world where humans cannot walk abroad for fear of one-pound pond dwellers?

[Empty]

Dartmud is hard if you don't listen to the already established people there.

And by the way you entered the swamp death trap. Those frogs are almost the size of a normal car.
My catfolk character once started fighting them until I saw their size. I promptly fled with the back command.
Stupid fuzzy detail eye sight 

And Dartmud is a game where it's best to be thaught by other players. Ie that's the whole point of the game.

And btw I'm pretty sure you're corpse is now resting in the healers hall with some pore healer online waiting for you to get back to revive your body.