I'm writing this today because I've played a lot of the recent MMORPGs touted as open world, player driven and sandbox, and have yet to be satisfied by any one of them. Truthfully finding the kind of epic roleplaying experience I'm looking for is absolutely impossible in today's MMORPGs; Mortal Online came really close to what I was looking for, but the constant ganking left me discouraged. I've been spoiled by MUDs, their sense of community and character customization mechanics appeal to my need to have complete control over my character. I like creating a description of my character instead of picking from preset face and hair options.
The best MUDs I've played had a playerbase of 300 - 500 people online, spread out across 6 player-ran cities (and some rogues). So each city would have maybe 20 - 40 people online. Because MUDs are in text, you're reading what is happening in the game, so it creates an extremely immersive environment if you're a book reader. For example, you could be standing at the entrance of your city, hanging out with friends. All of a sudden;
An arrow comes flying in and strikes Aktillum!
A look of horror overcomes Aktilum's face as his body stiffen into paralysis.
Your brain creates the most hi-resolution graphics, so it's really fun to play these kinds of games because technology isn't able to create the things that can be described through text. For example, other cities can raid your city and summon elemental explosions, creating environmental destruction and reducing entire sections of your city to crumbles and dust. Imagine the humongous lag if an MMORPG tried to have 40 versus 40 raids, with environmental destruction, explosions and swords and blood flying everywhere. The servers would lag so hard the game would be unplayable. But there's absolutely no lag on MUDs because any computer can run them.
I think any serious MMORPG gamer who has expressed desire for an open world, player driven MMO should give MUDs a try. Modern MMORPG mechanics aren't going to achieve what I want for another 5 - 10 years.
I'm writing this today because I've played a lot of the recent MMORPGs touted as open world, player driven and sandbox, and have yet to be satisfied by any one of them. Truthfully finding the kind of epic roleplaying experience I'm looking for is absolutely impossible in today's MMORPGs; Mortal Online came really close to what I was looking for, but the constant ganking left me discouraged. I've been spoiled by MUDs, their sense of community and character customization mechanics appeal to my need to have complete control over my character. The best MUDs I've played had a playerbase of 300 - 500 people online, spread out across 6 player-ran cities (and some rogues). So each city would have maybe 20 - 40 people online, and we will just raid the crap out of eachother. Because MUDs are in text, you're reading what is happening in the game, so it creates an extremely immersive environment if you're a book reader. For example, you could be standing at the entrance of your city, hanging out with friends. All of a sudden;
An arrow comes flying in and strikes Aktillum!
A look of horror overcomes Aktilum's face as his body stiffen into paralysis.
This is when you go "oh crap, we're under attack!", because the your brain creates the most hi-resolution graphics. It's really fun to play these kinds of games because technology isn't able to create the things that can be described through text. For example, other cities can raid your city and summon elemental explosions, creating environmental destruction and reducing entire sections of your city to crumbles and dust. Imagine the humongous lag if an MMORPG tried to have 40 versus 40 raids, with environmental destruction, explosions and swords and blood flying everywhere. The servers would lag so hard the game would be unplayable. But there's absolutely no lag on MUDs because any computer can run them.
Why I still play MUDs
I'm writing this today because I've played a lot of the recent MMORPGs touted as open world, player driven and sandbox, and have yet to be satisfied by any one of them. Truthfully finding the kind of epic roleplaying experience I'm looking for is absolutely impossible in today's MMORPGs; Mortal Online came really close to what I was looking for, but the constant ganking left me discouraged. I've been spoiled by MUDs, their sense of community and character customization mechanics appeal to my need to have complete control over my character. The best MUDs I've played had a playerbase of 300 - 500 people online, spread out across 6 player-ran cities (and some rogues). So each city would have maybe 20 - 40 people online, and we will just raid the crap out of eachother. Because MUDs are in text, you're reading what is happening in the game, so it creates an extremely immersive environment if you're a book reader. For example, you could be standing at the entrance of your city, hanging out with friends. All of a sudden;
An arrow comes flying in and strikes Aktillum!
A look of horror overcomes Aktilum's face as his body stiffen into paralysis.
This is when you go "oh crap, we're under attack!", because the your brain creates the most hi-resolution graphics. It's really fun to play these kinds of games because technology isn't able to create the things that can be described through text. For example, other cities can raid your city and summon elemental explosions, creating environmental destruction and reducing entire sections of your city to crumbles and dust. Imagine the humongous lag if an MMORPG tried to have 40 versus 40 raids, with environmental destruction, explosions and swords and blood flying everywhere. The servers would lag so hard the game would be unplayable. But there's absolutely no lag on MUDs because any computer can run them.
MMORPG.com writes:
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