A friend in Gemstone IV pointed me this mentioning someone mentioned me,  so figured I'd say howdy to all the MUD players around,  and give a thumbs up to Gemstone at the same time. 

And a Howdy to Celtar,  Typhus and Welan  all of whom I of course remember

Add me to the should have kept Sorrow club btw Jim.

Ardwen

16th year in Gemstone and counting.

although I happily play many other games with friends both old and new.

I think that there is no reason for MUDs not to be much more popular than they are.

Successful MMORPGs are inviting in ways that most MUDs are not, even when they could be.  MMORPGs tend to do a much better job of getting you right into the action.  MUDschool is generally long and very dull.  MMORPGs tend to do a much better job of keeping the momentum of your character's advancement moving.  MUDs tend to inflict XP debt for dying, often along with dull corpse runs, so you can easily finish a session significantly behind where you were when you started it.  Conservative as the MMORPG genre can be, MUDs tend to be bad at individuating themselves.  Plenty of official MUD descriptions barely even mention the setting - or mention it in passing.

Above all, MMORPGs do a much better job at allowing you to improve your character's equipment without having to scrutinize a lot of statistics.  It is common, for instance, for a MUD character to have to try on every piece of equipment and then study their own statistics to spot the changes.

I've been logging into Aardwolf at least once a day to play. It definitely scratches my fantasy mmo itch, and I've only noticed 1 type (which is very impressive given the amount of text I've read so far).

Update:

- As noted below, I meant to type "typo" instead of "type." So in my one line of text, I manage to make as many typo's as I've seen in Aardwolf since I started. Shame on me, and bravo to them.

Originally posted by Jimmac

I've been logging into Aardwolf at least once a day to play. It definitely scratches my fantasy mmo itch, and I've only noticed 1 type (which is very impressive given the amount of text I've read so far).

It's amusing to see so many different themed areas in the game,  then go on MUD forums where people are all butthurt like 'OMG AARDWOLF HAS NO THEME COHESION ITS A MESS THIS GAME SHOULD BE RANK 99999'.  There's a few people who think that every single MUD needs to be RP enforced with zero OOC or the game is shit. 

It certainly isn't the most creative combat direction, but it fits well into the game and it isn't a buggy mess with typos every single step of the way, like you mentioned.

Lasher fucked up with the whole Diku thing but he's so brave. He sticks his middle finger at copyright and forges on ahead, rewriting the entire codebase.  What a boss.

So the nostalgia bug bit hard, and I reactivated my Gemstone IV account (although it has been 10 years and it was Gemstone III back then).  So far I'm having a blast (but my typing skills need to improve).  Thanks for posting this article and making me have another bill.  ;-)

Speaking of articles, will there be another one with the review of the popular MUDs?

Thanks!