Multi-user dungeon: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Video game genre}}

{{About|a type of online computer game|the first game called "MUD" or "Multi-User Dungeon"|MUD1}}

{{redirect|MCCP|the class of chemical compounds|Chlorinated paraffins}}

{{use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}

[[File:Actsmudgnome.png|thumb|upright=1.35|A screenshot of a MUD]]

{{VG Role-playing}}

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==Early history==

[[File:ADVENT -- Will Crowther's original version.png|thumb|[[Will Crowther]]'s ''Adventure'']]

=== Origins ===

[[File:ADVENT -- Will Crowther's original version.png|thumb|[[Will Crowther]]'s ''Adventure'']]

''[[Colossal Cave Adventure]]'', created in 1975 by [[Will Crowther]] on a [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[PDP-10]] computer, was the first widely played [[adventure game]]. The game was significantly expanded in 1976 by [[Don Woods (programmer)|Don Woods]]. Also called ''Adventure'', it contained many D&D features and references, including a computer controlled [[dungeon master]].{{R|montfort|livinginternet}}

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''MUD'', better known as ''Essex MUD'' and ''MUD1'' in later years, ran on the [[University of Essex]] network, and became more widely accessible when a guest account was set up that allowed users on [[JANET]] (a British academic [[X.25]] computer network) to connect on weekends and between the hours of 2 AM and 8 AM on weekdays.{{R|wisner1}} It became the first Internet multiplayer online role-playing game in 1980 and started the online gaming industry as a whole<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Hosch |first1=William L. |last2=Ray |first2=Michael |date=2023-05-09 |title=Online gaming |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/online-gaming |access-date=2023-05-19 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref> when the university connected its internal network to [[ARPANet]].{{R|dogarpa}}

The original ''MUD'' game was closed down in late 1987,{{R|bartle-mud1-1987}} reportedly under pressure from [[CompuServe]], to whom Richard Bartle had licensed the game. This left ''[[MIST (MUD)|MIST]]'', a derivative of ''MUD1'' with similar gameplay, as the only remaining MUD running on the University of Essex network, becoming one of the first of its kind to attain broad popularity. ''MIST'' ran until the machine that hosted it, a [[PDP-10]], was superseded in early 1991.{{R|escape-from-the-dungeon}}numming

1985 saw the origin of a number of projects inspired by the original ''MUD''. These included ''Gods'' by [[Ben Laurie]], a ''MUD1'' clone that included [[online creation]] in its endgame, and which became a commercial MUD in 1988;{{R|bartle-mudreport2}} and ''MirrorWorld'',{{R|bartle-mudreport1}} a [[tolkienesque]] MUD started by Pip Cordrey who gathered some people on a BBS he ran to create a ''MUD1'' clone that would run on a home computer.

Neil Newell, an avid ''MUD1'' player, started programming his own MUD called ''SHADES'' during Christmas 1985, because ''MUD1'' was closed down during the holidays. Starting out as a hobby, ''SHADES'' became accessible in the UK as a commercial MUD via British Telecom's [[Prestel]] and [[Micronet800|Micronet]] networks.{{R|shades}} A scandal on ''SHADES'' led to the closure of [[Micronet800|Micronet]], as described in [[Indra Sinha]]'s net-memoir, ''The Cybergypsies''.{{R|sinha}}

At the same time, [[Compunet]] started a project named ''Multi-User Galaxy Game'' as a science fiction alternative to ''MUD1'', a copy of which they were running on their system at the time. When one of the two programmers left CompuNet, the remaining programmer, Alan Lenton, decided to rewrite the game from scratch and named it ''[[Federation II]]'' (at the time no ''Federation I'' existed). The MUD was officially launched in 1989.{{R|bartle-mudreport3}} ''Federation II'' was later picked up by AOL, where it became known simply as ''Federation: Adult Space Fantasy''. ''Federation'' later left AOL to run on its own after AOL began offering unlimited service.

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==Gameplay==

[[File:God Wars II screenshot of dungeon with MUSHclient pluginFurcShot2007.png|thumb|rightupright=1.3|GameplayGame sceneinterface fromof ''God Wars II[[Furcadia]]'']]

The typical MUD will describe to the player the room or area they are standing in, listing the objects, players and [[non-player characters]] (NPCs) in the area, as well as all of the exits. To carry out a task the player would enter a text command such as '''take apple''' or '''attack dragon'''. Movement around the game environment is generally accomplished by entering the direction (or an abbreviation of it) in which the player wishes to move, for example typing '''north''' or just '''n''' would cause the player to exit the current area via the path to the north.<ref name="movement">Basic movement commands: [http://evermore.de/index.php?id=87 The Lands of Evermore Manual] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420225439/http://evermore.de/index.php?id=87 |date=2013-04-20 }}</ref>

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===Educational MUDs===

Taking advantage of the flexibility of MUD server software, some MUDs are designed for educational purposes rather than gaming or chat. ''[[MicroMUSE]]'' is considered by some{{who|date=Januaryauthor 2020}}Lauren P. Burka to have been the first educational MUD,{{R|burka-mudline-micromuse}} but it can be argued{{weasel inline|date=January 2020}} that its evolution into this role was not complete until 1994,{{R|micromuse-charter}} which would make the first of many educational [[MOO]]s, ''[[Diversity University]]'' in 1993, also the first educational MUD. The MUD medium lends itself naturally to [[Constructionism (learning theory)|constructionist learning]] pedagogical approaches. The Mud Institute (TMI) was an LPMud opened in February 1992 as a gathering place for people interested in developing LPMud and teaching LPC after it became clear that Lars Pensjö had lost interest in the project. TMI focussed on both the LPMud driver and library, the driver evolving into MudOS, the TMI Mudlib was never officially released, but was influential in the development of other libraries.

===Graphical MUDs===

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==Grammatical usage and derived terms==

As a noun, the word '''MUD''' is variously written MUD, Mud, and mud, depending on speaker and context. It is also used as a verb, with '''to mud''' meaning to play or interact with a MUD and '''mudding''' referring to the act of doing so.{{R|hahn-verb}} A '''mudder''' is, naturally, one who MUDs.{{R|internetculture-mudder}} [[Compound (linguistics)|Compound words]] and [[Portmanteau word|portmanteaux]] such as '''mudlist''', '''[[Cybersex|mudsex]]''', and '''[[mudflation]]'''<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Chester |first1=Chris |title=Curing mudflation before it starts |work=[[Engadget]] |date=2008-05-05 |url=https://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/curing-mudflation-before-it-starts/ |language=en |access-date=2019-11-27 |df=mdy-all |archive-date=November 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127230026/https://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/curing-mudflation-before-it-starts/ |url-status=live }}</ref> are also regularly coined. [[Pun]]s on the "wet dirt" meaning of "mud" are endemic, as with, for example, the names of the [[ROM (MUD)|ROM]] ('''R'''ivers '''o'''f '''M'''UD), [[TinyMUCK|MUCK]], [[MUSH]], and [[CoffeeMUD]] codebases and the MUD ''Muddy Waters''.

==See also==

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| isbn = 978-0-7645-7003-2

| pages = 138

| quote = The MUD Connector at <nowiki>http://www.mudconnect.com</nowiki> has just about everything you could possibly need to get on a MUD. It has MUD-related links to FAQs, newsgroups and clients; as well as player discussions and forums about different MUDs. This site also has a listing of over 500 MUDs, with pretty useful descriptions of what you can expect to find on most games. You can even click on the MUD or home page you'd like to see and link right to it. If you're shopping for a new MUD and aren't sure what you're looking for, this is the place to park it. We're talking big time bookmark material here.

}}</ref>

<ref name="pantuso">{{cite book

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| isbn = 978-1-59273-000-1

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/developingonline0000mull/page/451 451]

| quote = 1989 [...] Lars Penjske creates ''LPMud'' and opens ''Genesis''. ''"Having fun playing ''TinyMUD'' and ''AberMUD'', Lars Penjske decides to write a server to combine the extensibility of ''TinyMUD'' with the adventures of ''AberMUD''. Out of this inspiration, he designed ''LPC'' as a special MUD language to make extending the game simple. Lars says, '...I didn't think I would be able to design a good adventure. By allowing wizards coding rights, I thought others could help me with this.' The first running code was developed in a week on Unix System V using IPC, not BSD sockets. Early object-oriented features only existed accidentally by way of the nature of MUDs manipulating objects. As Lars learned C++, he gradually extended those features. The result is that the whole LPMud was developed from a small prototype, gradually extended with features."'' &mdash;'''George Reese's''' ''LPMud Timeline''

}}</ref>

<ref name="livinginternet-lpmud">{{cite web

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| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130518113754/http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/various/Towell_et_al.1997.Presence_in_MUDs.htm

| url-status = dead

| url-access = subscription

}}</ref>

<ref name="hansen">{{cite thesis