Everyone Loves Playing in the MUD

All types of videogames have surfaced over the years. From the days of playing Pacman in the local pizzerias to now being able to enjoy seventh-generation console games that mirror your body's movements, gaming has evolved rapidly and drastically.

However, no game format in history can outdo one's imagination. And regardless of what new technology surfaces, MUD games continue to grow in popularity.

Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) games can be either text-based or graphical---or a combination---and are played via the Internet in a real-time virtual world. With elements of multiple genres and potential for a huge multi player base, MUDs take on a life of their own and are essentially limitless.

As far as one’s imagination can stretch dictates the course of most MUD games. Whether it's part of the hack-and-slash genre or straight up role-playing, there's a MUD format out there to fit anyone's taste.

The History of MUD

Long before anyone heard of a flash casino or a PlayStation, game designers Will Crowther and Don Woods were busy creating their groundbreaking journey game called Adventure. This computer game, the first of its kind, found influence with Dungeons and Dragons and took the idea of fantasy to a new level by making it infinitely more interactive.

1975's Adventure was the first time that fantasy role-playing games would find a home on the PC, but it was also the first time that the "dungeon master" was played by the actual game.

This permanent master feature provided a level of ironic realism that only a MUD lover could understand. It wasn't your bossy best friend acting as dungeon master; it was now the game itself. Credibility and playability were increased, and computer "ADVENT" games were on the rise.

The first genuine MUD game was called MUD and was written in 1978 by an Essex University student named Roy Trubshaw. Taking the genre to the next level, the original MUD was the first to introduce a legitimate multi-user platform. After converting the game to BCPL, Roy handed it over to Richard Bartle, who then expanded on the idea and helped to forge a successful genre that spawned similar games across the UK.

MUD was greatly influenced by predecessors like Adventure and 1977's Zork. These two games, although sharing similar themes, were miles apart in terms of features. But they both had one thing in common that Trubshaw changed: they were both single-player games.

The Evolution of MUD

Now that MUDs were commonplace, the technology of the 1980s allowed designers to take things a step further in the development process. 1988's AberMUD, the first true breakout adventure hit, was created at the University of Wales at Aberstwyth. This game quickly became widespread and found a home in North America.

TinyMud then surfaced a year later and expanded the genre by focusing less on action and adventure and more on problem solving. In the 1990s, MUDs started focusing on combat and were geared toward gaming with LPMUD; and by 1996, MUDs came equipped with a built-in object-oriented language -- MOO.

Today's MUD games take their influence from MUDs past and push toward the future using the Internet to connect people from across the globe. It's hard to say where MUDs will end up in coming years, but it's clear that they're still popular and that personal imagination is the one graphic no software developer can emulate.