Multi-user dungeon facts for kids

This page is about a type of online computer game. For the first game called "MUD" or "Multi-User Dungeon", see MUD1.

A MUD (which sounds like "mud") is a special kind of online game where many players can play together at the same time. It's like a virtual world that usually uses only text or simple pictures to describe everything. MUDs mix parts of role-playing games, fast-paced fighting, player versus player (PvP) battles, interactive stories, and online chat.

Players can read about rooms, objects, other players, and computer-controlled characters (called non-player characters or NPCs). They can also do things in the game world, which are usually described back to them. Players often talk to each other and control their character (called an avatar) by typing simple commands, like talking to a computer.

Most MUDs are like role-playing video games set in a fantasy world filled with imaginary creatures and monsters. Players pick a class to get special skills or powers. The main goals are to defeat monsters, explore the fantasy world, finish quests, go on adventures, create a story by roleplaying, and make their character stronger. Many MUDs were inspired by the rules of Dungeons & Dragons games.

While fantasy worlds are common for MUDs, some are set in science fiction worlds or are based on popular books, movies, or even history. Not all MUDs are just games! Some are made for learning, while others are just for chatting. Because MUDs are so flexible, they're sometimes used for things like computer science studies or even medical training.

Most MUDs are run as hobbies and are free to play. Some might ask for donations or let players buy virtual items. Others charge a monthly fee. You can play MUDs using simple programs called telnet clients or special MUD clients that make the game easier to use. Many games are listed on websites like The Mud Connector.

Modern massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like EverQuest and Ultima Online got their start from MUDs. Even social virtual worlds like Second Life have roots in MUDs. Before the term MMORPG was invented, these games were often called graphical MUDs. Many famous MMORPG designers actually started out by making or playing MUDs.

How MUDs Started: A Look Back

Will Crowther's Adventure was a very early text game.

The Very First Adventure Games

The first widely played adventure game was Colossal Cave Adventure, made in 1975 by Will Crowther. It ran on a large computer called a DEC PDP-10. This game was greatly expanded in 1976 by Don Woods. Adventure had many features and ideas from Dungeons & Dragons, even including a computer that acted like a dungeon master.

Many similar games were made on the PLATO system at universities starting in 1975. These games, like "pedit5" and "oubliette", became very popular by 1978-79. They got much better with simple 3D graphics, storytelling, and more complex items and monsters.

Inspired by Adventure, students at MIT created a game called Zork in 1977. It became very popular on the ARPANET, an early version of the internet.

The Birth of MUD1

In 1978, Roy Trubshaw, a student in the UK, started making a multi-user adventure game. He called it MUD (which stood for Multi-User Dungeon). He named it after the Dungeon version of Zork, which he loved. Trubshaw later passed the game development to Richard Bartle in 1980. The goal of this game was to earn points and become a "Wizard," which gave players special powers.

MUDs Become More Available

The original MUD, also known as Essex MUD or MUD1, ran on the University of Essex network. It became available to more people when a guest account was set up. This allowed users on JANET (a British academic computer network) to connect during certain hours. In 1980, when the university connected its network to ARPANet, MUD1 became the first online multiplayer role-playing game on the internet. This was a huge step for online gaming!

MUD1 was eventually shut down in 1987. After that, MIST, a similar game, became very popular on the same university network until 1991.

In 1985, many new MUDs were created, inspired by the original MUD. These included Gods and MirrorWorld. Neil Newell, a big MUD1 player, made his own MUD called SHADES in 1985. It later became a commercial game in the UK.

Around the same time, another company started a science fiction MUD called Multi-User Galaxy Game, which later became Federation II. This game was eventually picked up by AOL and became very popular.

Other Early MUD-like Games

In 1978, Alan E. Klietz made a game called Scepter. It was later ported to an IBM XT in 1983 and renamed Scepter of Goth. This game was special because it was the first commercial MUD, meaning people paid to play it.

In 1984, Mark Peterson created The Realm of Angmar, which was similar to Scepter of Goth. He later rewrote it for BBS systems and called it Swords of Chaos. This was very popular until the internet became widely available.

Also in 1984, Mark Jacobs launched a commercial gaming site with two games: Aradath (a MUD) and Galaxy (a science-fiction game). Aradath later became Dragon's Gate and was available on AOL.

In 1980, college friends John Taylor and Kelton Flinn made Dungeons of Kesmai, a six-player game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. It used simple text graphics. An improved version, Island of Kesmai, launched on CompuServe in 1985. Later, a graphical version called Legends of Kesmai came out on AOL in 1996.

MUDs became very popular in the United States in the late 1980s. This was when personal computers with modems made it easier for players to connect to online services. People sometimes joked that MUD stood for "Multi Undergraduate Destroyer" because college students spent so much time playing them!

In 1989, Avalon: The Legend Lives was released. It was one of the first games where the world kept going even when players weren't online. It also introduced new ideas like player-run governments and player housing.

MUDs in Recent Times

By 2004, MUDs were used for online gaming, learning, and even just for hanging out and talking.

Popular Kinds of MUDs

AberMUD

The first widely used MUD codebase (the basic program that runs the game) was AberMUD. It was written in 1987 by Alan Cox. He had played the original MUD and was very influenced by it. AberMUD was first made for a large computer, but in 1988, it was rewritten in a language called C. This made it easy to share with many other computers, and it spread quickly after its release in 1989. AberMUD's popularity led to other important MUDs like TinyMUD, LPMud, and DikuMUD.

TinyMUD

Monster was another multi-user adventure game released in 1988. It let players actually build parts of the game world, like new puzzles or dungeons. This idea inspired James Aspnes to create a simpler version called TinyMUD, released in 1989.

TinyMUD led to many other games, including TinyMUCK and TinyMUSH. To show they were different from fighting-focused MUDs, people sometimes said the "D" in TinyMUD stood for "Domain" or "Dimension." This led to the term MU* to describe this family of MUDs.

Hourglass

The Hourglass system was first written for Avalon: The Legend Lives, which started in 1989. It was initially made for a special computer called an Acorn Archimedes. Later, in 1994, it was moved to Linux computers.

Even though it was made for Avalon, Hourglass led to other games like Avalon: The First Age. It continues to be developed today, and Avalon: The Legend Lives has grown to be incredibly huge, with millions of words and lines of game code.

LPMud

In 1989, Lars Pensjö created LPMud (the "LP" comes from his name). Pensjö wanted to combine the flexibility of TinyMUD with the gameplay of AberMUD. He created a special program called the LPMud driver, which ran the LPC programming language used to build the game world. LPMud was one of the most popular MUD codebases in the early 1990s. Many other MUD systems came from LPMud, like MudOS and FluffOS.

DikuMUD

In 1990, the release of DikuMUD, which was inspired by AberMUD, caused a huge boom in MUDs that focused on fast-paced fighting. DikuMUD led to many other popular game systems, including CircleMUD, Merc, and ROM. The original Diku team included Sebastian Hammer and Katja Nyboe. DikuMUD had a big impact on the early development of MMORPGs. For example, EverQuest was created by a big DikuMUD player and had very similar gameplay.

Simutronics

In 1987, David Whatley started Simutronics. They showed a test version of GemStone that same year. After a short-lived GemStone II, GemStone III officially launched in 1990. GemStone III became available on AOL in 1995, followed by DragonRealms in 1996. By the end of 1997, these two games were the most played games on AOL!

How to Play MUDs

A scene from God Wars II showing how text describes the game world.

A typical MUD will describe the room or area you are in. It will list objects, other players, and computer characters (NPCs) in the area, as well as all the ways you can leave. To do something, you type a command like take apple or attack dragon. To move around, you usually type the direction you want to go, like north or just n.

MUD clients are computer programs that make playing MUDs easier. They have features like coloring important words, setting up quick keyboard shortcuts, and helping you connect. Popular clients include TinyTalk and zMUD.

Different Kinds of MUDs

While MUDs have many different focuses and features, some clear groups have formed. These groups help describe the different ways MUDs are played and used.

Hack and Slash MUDs

Many MUDs are designed like Dungeons & Dragons games, but they focus more on fighting and making your character stronger than on deep role-playing. When these MUDs limit players from attacking each other (called player-killing or PK) and instead focus on players fighting computer-controlled enemies and completing quests, they are called hack and slash MUDs. This name fits because, in text-based MUDs, fighting from a distance is hard to do, so most characters use close-combat weapons.

Player Versus Player MUDs

Most MUDs try to stop players from fighting each other (PK). They do this with rules or by encouraging players to be friendly. MUDs that don't have these rules are known as PK MUDs. Some MUDs are made only for this kind of fighting, and they are called pure PK MUDs. The first one was Genocide in 1992, and its ideas greatly influenced online player-versus-player gaming.

Roleplaying MUDs

Roleplaying MUDs, or RP MUDs, encourage or even require players to always act like their characters. Some RP MUDs create a very detailed game world, while others are just virtual worlds without many game challenges. MUDs where roleplay is strictly enforced and the world is very detailed are sometimes called roleplay intensive MUDs (RPIMUDs). To show they are different from fighting MUDs, these games sometimes use names like MUX (Multi-User Experience) or MUSH (Multi-User Shared Hallucination).

Social MUDs

Social MUDs focus less on game challenges and more on being a place for people to hang out and chat. They are different from "talkers" because they still have some game elements, like letting players build things together in the world, and some role-playing. Software from the TinyMUD family is often used to create social MUDs.

Talkers

A less common type of MUD is the talker. This is mainly an online chat environment. Most early internet talkers were LPMuds that had most of the complex game parts removed, leaving only the chat commands. The first internet talker was Cat Chat in 1990.

Educational MUDs

Because MUD software is so flexible, some MUDs are made for learning instead of gaming or chatting. MicroMUSE is thought to be one of the first educational MUDs. Another early one was Diversity University in 1993. MUDs are great for learning because they let students build and create things as part of their education. The Mud Institute (TMI) was an LPMud started in 1992 as a place for people to learn about and develop LPMud games.

Graphical MUDs

A graphical MUD uses computer graphics to show parts of the virtual world and its players. An early example was Habitat, made in 1985. Graphical MUDs need players to download a special program and the game's pictures. They can range from just making the game easier to use to showing 3D worlds with detailed characters.

Games like Meridian 59, EverQuest, and Ultima Online were often called graphical MUDs when they first came out. RuneScape was even planned to be a text-based MUD at first, but graphics were added very early on. However, as computers got more powerful and the internet became common in the late 1990s, the term "graphical MUD" was replaced by MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), a term created in 1997.

How MUDs Are Made

The rules and world of a MUD are defined by something called a "mudlib" (short for MUD library). Examples of mudlibs include Discworld Mudlib and Nightmare Mudlib. MUDs that use object-oriented programming can add very complex features, like letting players add new things to the game world and interact with it in more ways.

MUD Communities

The history of MUDs has mostly been kept alive by community websites and blogs, not by big news sources. Since the late 1990s, a website called The Mud Connector has been a main place to find active MUDs. In 1995, a newspaper reported that over 60,000 people regularly played about 600 MUDs. The newspaper also noticed that MUD communities had their own ways of socializing.

In 2004, MUDs were quite popular in the United States, and most of them were still text-based. However, by 2009, some people felt that the MUD community was getting smaller.

Why People Play MUDs

Playing MUDs can be a way for people to explore different parts of themselves. Some players focus on achieving goals like getting experience points and levels. Others love to explore every hidden corner of the game world. Many players spend most of their time talking and interacting with other players. And some players enjoy competing or even fighting with other characters, if the game allows it. Most players enjoy a mix of these styles. According to Richard Bartle, a MUD expert, "People go there as part of a hero's journey—a means of self-discovery."

Research suggests that many things in MUDs combine to make players feel like they are truly present in the virtual world, not just chatting.