Whatis mud? is it a role-playing game? Help!  mail me.

28 responses total.

MUD stands for Multi User Dimension (or Dungeon depending on who you 
ask).  The only way I've been able to figure out how to describe them
is by asking "Have you played Zork?"  If so, You're on your way to
knowing what a mud is.  If not, it's gonna be REAL hard to explain.

Muds are all text.. there are rooms and things in them, such as
NPC's (non-player characters).  You can get equipment and armor and
stuff and wear it to help you fight NPC's better.  

Most muds are based on D&D to a degree also.  Usually, your character
will have stats, such as strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, and
constitution.  These all affect how well you fight.

The big attraction to muds is that even though there's a real big
virtual world there with lots to do, you can actively interact with
other players.  For example, one mud i play averages 50 players on at
a time.  You can talk to players, or gossip, which is broadcast to
everyone playing.

The BEST way to find out what a mud is, is to telnet to one and try it
out.  If you want to, sometime telnet to gizmo.bchs.uh.edu 6969 and
find aphrael for some help.  I'd be more than happy to show you around
and get you started mudding.

Help!!  I have just started using the internet and I think that these
MUDs sound interesting and I would like to play them.  If anyone could give 
me an address of one that would be good for a beginer I would appreciate
it. 

this is all for people who can telenet, what about those poor people (like me
ho dial direct?!?!?!

MUDs are pretty cool.
I usually play them on BBs's. I like LORD (legend of the red dragon for you non
mudderes) The mud that sucks the most is a game called `Moe's Mud'. It sux hard
donkey cock.

I have a small business in basic programming and I'm working on my first reeal
mud. Every thing else I've programmed has been stupid and cheezy. My MUD will
be called `ROT - the quest for the golden orb'. Cheezy Huh?
                                             -Ansur

PS - If you're looking for a good BBs for dialing dstraight in call iNSaNiTy
CeNTRaL at [8iio] err - [8io]6s2448o - tharts the number.

        (Though this item is a bit old....)

        The really *sad* thing is I saw a book on MUDs in a bookstore.
How to find them, how to play them. et cetera.  
        I mean, it's understood.  If they have books on "How to use Windows"
I'm sure some idiot can't figure out a mud.  It was bound to happen.

thanks for the help, since then i have joined many muds, and i like them alot,
see ya on them

 
How about MUDs where the game-playing aspect isn't emphasized as much
(or at all), getting to the next level and so on isn't as important,
and it's more like a comfortable environment to chat? I used to
be on a MUD (or MOO, I guess) called Lucidity, where doing things
was pretty aimless, but it was fun to converse . . . but unfortunately
it seems to be gone now, so I'm heading back to the well for recommendations.
 

Re #1:  As I understand it, the D doesn't stand for Dungeon *or* Dimension.
That is a misnomer.  It stands for Multi-User Daemon.  Daemons are the
communication programs that send e-mail and regulate talk.  You know how to
use talk, right?  Talk in UNIX is regulated by a talk daemon.  A multi-user
daemon is a particular talk daemon that allows a number of people to talk
together at the same time.  So technically, any chat room, including party
here, is a multi-user daemon.

What most people think of as MUDs is where a group of programmers coded an
adventure game in C while building it into a multi-user daemon.  The code was
conceived at DIKU, in Copenhagen, Denmark (DIKU is a university, btw).  I'm
sure the programmers intended it to have the feel of text-based adventure
games (including Zork) that were popular over 15 years ago.  D&D was
immensely popular too, I'm sure, so the DIKU coders probably drew from it so
users would have some familiarity with the game.  This is why the misnomer
"Multi User Dungeon" probably took root, and why people have since referred
to chat-only MUDs as 'talk MUDs.'

The DIKU source code is the basis for most MUDs, although I can think of two
variants.  DIKU II source code was created recently, and SillyMUD source code
was created in Florida during the mid-80's.  DIKU II seems to be quickly
replacing the original DIKU code, while the use of SillyMUD seems to have died
out.  The only two MUDs I found that used Silly code was The Crystal Shard
and Wintermute.  Only Wintermute used pure Silly code.  Shard used a
combination of DIKU and Silly.  Ah-- I remember two other variants.  CircleMUD
and Merc are the other two source codes.

I realize that if I had said any of this earlier when our friend originally
asked, I would have confused the heck out of him.  But I had to set the record
straight.  Is anyone confused?

Yes, where does LPC fit in your list of source code for muds?

<This item linked from mud to amalgam>

<suggests that the item be frozen since the question has been answered>

suggestion noted.  Let's see what orin has to say, 'k?

First of all, MUD means Multi-User Dimension.  Yes it does.  Second there are
far more code-bases then the ones mentioned.  SMAUG for example.  ROM for
another example.  Most people who run MUDs get a code-base, modify it, then
redistribute it, creating a new code base.

'Multi User Dimension' seems like a misnomer to me.  Everyone knows what a
talk daemon is, right?  (It's the program run by the 'talk' command.)  There
are talk daemons that work like conference calls-- hence, a 'Multi User
Daemon'.  It seems to me that's what was originally meant by MUD.  The
University of Copenhagen, Denmark (DIKU), was the first to build a code in
C over such a talk daemon to create a Net fantasy game.  Because it was based
on D&D, my hypothesis was that another misnomer-- Multi User Dungeon--
started, and the original 'talkers' were dubbed 'talk MUDs'.

The version of the story in #14 sounds a lot like what I've heard.  But I also
think the word's evolved enough that Multi User Daemon isn't what people use
it to mean anymore.

the sotry i heard was that the first system advertized it's self as a
MUD - a "multi user dungeon" based on the idea of Dungeons being adventures
in D&D

A.  It's never stood for "Multi User Daemon", or at least it certainly didn't
originally; it originally stood for Multi-User Dungeon, because the earlier
ones were multi-user D&D games.  Then some came around that weren't at all like
D&D games, so they started calling them Multi-User Dimension.  lumen, 
things just aren't always the way you think they should "logically" be; you
have to do your research as well before you preach.

Oh, and just to be stubornly factual, a talk daemon isn't what you think it 
is either -- the program that you run when you tyoe "talk" isn't a talk daemon
at all -- it's a talk CLIENT.  A talk daemon is the program which listens at 
a port for a talk request, and then forwards it on to the user that the 
request is for.  In fact, the talk daemon doesn't really have much to do with
the process at all; once the two talk clients (your and that of the person
you are talking to) are up, they merrilly ignore the daemon and just talk
to each other.  Now, while most talk clients aren't multi-user, several are;
look at ytalk, for instance.  However, all talk daemons are multi-user -- 
you can talk someone on Grex, and I can talk someone else on grex, and the
daemon will recieve both requests and deal with them.

Mind you, a MUD is a daemon -- a daemon is a program that listens on a port 
and waits for connections, which is exactly what (some parts of) the MUD do.

oh well, I guess I can be asinine-- I knew someone who knew what they were
talking about would finally speak up.  Take it as preachy arrogance if you
wish, but it is one of my tactics to worm the truth out of someone-- to
confirm what I've said or to tell me I'm full of shit.

you didn't have to be so pointed.

Well, if nothing else mneme gets points for accurate computer-speak.

yep-- I just *know* there's always someone out there who's definitely an
expert.  Unfortunately, they let us idiots make fools of ourselves before
talking.  Nice p.r.

<giggle> according to a happy puppy article, the D is for dungeon, 
a fortran version of zork which the guys were ripping off;)

yeah, I can see the Zork connection.

Actually, Dungeon (which is way cool, btw, and seems to contain the best parts
of all three of the original zorks in various states) while originally written
in Fortran, has been rewritten several times, at least once in C.  I'd
forgotten about Dungeon (probably becuase the last time I played it, I got
stuck Real easily).  I'm not at all sure of whether Dungeon predates the
commercial  release of Zork, but it's certainly quite old.  
        Sorry  about coming on a bit strong, Lumen, but I have a problem with 
constructions like "x is true" rather than "x is probably true" when the 
data really is an opinion.   
        Acually, we 'experts' (hey, I've only been on the net for 8 years; that
makes me a baby in comparisson to some) would love to stop everyone from making
fools of themselves, but we can't be everywhere at once.

8 years a baby?  Not out here, except maybe in Silicon Valley..

Or in Bahston, or various and sundry other places -- There are Plenty of people
on the net who have been around since the Great Usenet Reorganization, and I'm
not even close.

i am surprised that this topic have been alive for so many years. really
surprised, very well, MUD - vikingmud.org

All right, now I know what a MUD is, but where do I actually find one? I#m
totally new to this part of the internet I only used the WWW up to know and
I am really impressed of this 'text' part of it and really want to gt further
into it and think MUDs could help me in doing that.

My favorite, and one I'm on almost every day, is Realmsmud.

either telnet to realmsmud.org 1501
or get a mud-client and use that address.
I use G-mud, a free mudclient, but most people I know use ZMud.
When I can't get a web connection, I telnet in and just use the mud itself
for everything.

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