this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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If you've never tried a MUD, there are still a few out there that are alive and kickin'. Funny enough, I've been scratching that itch over the last few days and seeing whats out there. They're something like a pre-cursor to MMOs - online, text-based games. If you get really deep into stuff like PVP, you'll like wind up writing scripts that trigger actions based on what's happening since its quicker than typing out commands when things get hot and heavy.
If I had to guess, I'd say Aardwolf is probably the most populated and has the most users online at any given time. I have an old char on there that I occasionally log into and run some quests on:
Aardwolf
I just created a character in Alter Aeon and it's alright so far, but I haven't spent more than about an hour logged in:
Alter Aeon
I don't know how people generally feel about Iron Realms Entertainment. Some or all of their MUDs end up with you kind of having to spend some money if you get super engaged, but I'm pretty sure most of their games are perfectly fine without paying for casual players. They have a handful of MUDs that cover different themes (classic fantasy, vampire stuff, etc). I actually tried out Starmourn recently which is a sci-fi themed one, but I think they're no longer developing it actively - the servers remain up (for now, at least, I guess). Regardless, all of their games seem pretty polished and thoughtfully made.
Iron Realms Entertainment main site
Starmourn
The cool thing about IRE is that their games are all playable in a browser and the browser-based apps include some QoL UI stuff like maps and stuff. The others generally require a (free) MUD client like Mudlet. Aardwolf has a highly customized version of Mudlet that has frames/windows within the client that show you your characters stats, maps, a chat window, and some other stuff.
Talking of MUDs reminded me that some years back I discovered Shades (used to be on Micronet/Prestel in the 1980s) was still running. It took me quite a bit of searching to find a random comment, which said Shades is still running (a few years ago) on telnet://games.world.co.uk I just tried it and it's still there!
I lived on https://www.mudconnect.com/ for awhile back in the day, just trying out new ones. Looks like it still lists 683 of them.
Same, back when I played a lot more. There was a period of time where I felt completely unfulfilled and unappreciated at work. I was a Linux admin at the time so I spent 90% of my time in a text environment. One day, I installed TinTin++ which has a non-GUI version and I'd just keep one ssh connection opened to a VPS I pay for and would just MUD throughout the day (mainly just running quests over and over). This was years before "quiet quitting" was cool lol
Another that's been around forever and still has an active community: GemStone IV
Ohhh... This brings me back to my LPMud days in the '90s. Albion MUD, I think it was called.
I played Alter Aeon a lot in high school a long time ago! It had a lot of depth 25 years ago and it’s only grown since then.
I picked it back up a year ago and played for a bit. It’s still really fun! Highly recommended.
Confirmed Starmourn has been recently moonlighted to a "legacy" game. It's still playable and you can still make new characters and interact with everything in the game but it's no longer under active development.
Which is a shame, really, because Starmourn was cool as hell. It just apparently wasn't all that popular compared to some of the others, so it's being put on a back burner to preserve resources at Iron Realms, which is understandable.
I am a fan of Iron Realms MUDs personally though if only because of their Nexus user interface. I find it a lot more approachable and well put together than others I've tried (namely, Aardwolf, in fact). Very clear and concise and nearly infinitely customizable with user scripts. I haven't been invested enough into MUDs long enough to speak for end game though, so someone else will have to speak on that. But introductions and it would seem up through at least mid game on most iron realms games (which could consist of hundreds of hours, frankly, to even reach midgame sometimes) are totally fine and fun.
Yeah, they all definitely seem quite polished. Sometimes I get the itch to play a MUD, find one or return to one I've played before, and get hooked for a few months. Other times, I'm done after a few days... they'll always be an option for me though. IRE games are just fine for my purposes in that regard.