Text Games - What are MUDs?
By Derek McCullough
Fiction fans love reading about their favorite heroes in the most exciting of circumstances; the mighty warrior defeating the armies of a dark sorcerer bent on enslaving a nation, or a heartless assassin finding the Light in his soul and using his skills for the greater good. Many people wish they could read stories about heroes of their own imagining. How do many role-playing game fans cope with such desires? They play a text based RPG, or Multi-user Dungeon (MUD).
It's very much like many of your current online role-playing games, sans the graphics. Why would anyone choose to play a video game without graphics? Think of the chance to create a hero, personality and talents of your choosing. Maybe he even has a piece of you in him. Within the realms of text adventure games, you can easily take part in adventures and create stories with other players who have created heroes for the same reasons as you. With all of these characters gathered together, you role-play your stories, individually or together. You can affect worlds with even the most minute actions. You, the player, make the story happen. Not an director, actor, or playwright. Just you, and the others who partake in the many adventures within these online text games.
Now, not every text based RPG out there today is a heavy role-playing text game. There are a large variety of text games to fit every type of play style. For instance, there are games based solely on player-killing, or PK, where players fight each other for rewards or experience. There are RPI, or role-play intensive, where it is required to stay in character while on-line. Also, there are some text games that only have the thinnest veneer of 'gaming' that focus on the social aspects called 'Talkers'. With a little bit of searching, it’s easy to find a large variety of online text games to enjoy for days, months, and years.
With each type of text RPG out there, a multitude of genres exist. Those based on movies, books, or perhaps existing role-playing games. There are those text games that are based on a purely unique, fictional world, with rich histories and interesting people. Sometimes, you can find text games based loosely on historical people, or places, and are able to take part in shaping what history ‘could have been’ for the world today. Regardless of your preference, be it Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Dark Gothic, Occult Horror, or Modern Realism, you can find a genre to suit your fancy.
The final question most people ask about text games: Why do you really play them? Many do for the simple fact that you don’t need a computer with three paychecks poured into it to play. Some for the social, chat-like, aspects of the text games themselves. But, there are those who do it for the joy of playing a very enriched, unique game like Achaea, Dreams of a Divine Land, where players create their online personas using a unique mix of races, classes, Houses and divine orders. Players in this online text game run the political arenas, the financial districts, the military forces. They interact with the gods of Achaea on a regular basis. Cities war amongst each other and empires crumble to dust.
So, if you’re really curious, give a text based RPG game a try. Many people around the world log onto an online text game every day, enjoying every moment spent playing. Maybe you could too. Go ahead, give it a try. You might find yourself the next player to change the world.
Put choose-your-own-adventure books to shame with some great online text RPGs.
Derek McCullough is a text game enthusiast and currently plays games from http://www.IronRealms.com.