Jiglu: The Blind Mudders information and discussion center: Discussion: Re: Please explain the MUD concept.

I suppose, in a roundabout way that is a rudimentary definition of a mud, but it's very different as well. The key in MUD is the first two letters, which stand for Multi User. It is similar to a text adventure, except that it is multi player and much more interactive. You can interact with players and non players (npcs) Most muds have races and classes, which is not a feature in text adventures generally. There are stats, combat, and a number of other things. Text adventures, at least the ones done with things like inform, adrift, and quest, don't usually have a combat system and when they do it's not the best. Quests in text adventures are extremely basic compared with muds and interactiveness is not nearly on as high a level as muds. I'll be happy to answer any specific questions you might have. I will say though that as a newbie to mudding, you will learn when to press the control, or shut up key on jaws because you can't possibly expect to read everything, especially in combat. that is the one advantage of text adventures, as they are single player you play at your own pace and can read and exploore everything. The trouble with this is once you have beaten the game, you are done. There isn't usually any reason to replay it or anything. You usually don't get more than a few hours of entertainment with one game, often less. With muds, especially the well written ones, you get hours and hours of continuous entertainment, and there are all sorts of muds to fit into your interests. I would recommend the mud I've been playing, as it is an extremely good mud, but it is still in development and missing some files and stuff, and therefore is probably not very good for a newbie to mudding in general. Lots of muds say newbie friendly, but either aren't, or are referring to newbies to the game itself, not mudding in general. I know this is long, but I want to help all I can. As for finding a good mud to start off as a newbie, I'd recommend asking a handful of real people for suggestions as it will give you a more accurate representation of the mud than their file on mud connector or whatever. Ask them to describe the mud they are referring you to, in terms that a total newbie would get. Far too often, experienced mudders forget that there are total newbies out there, and commonly use mud lingo which confuses the heck out of people. I'm guilty of doing it myself. But, if you tell people you are new and would like assistance finding a starting mud, I am sure people would be happy to oblige. Okay this is getting long and if you're not asleep yet, you probably will be by the end of this sentence. Feel free to ask any further questions you have. I'll be haappy to help if I can.

--- On Mon, 9/29/08, Brandt Steenkamp <...> wrote: