We'd love if you would share with us how old you were when you started MUDding

I was introduced to MUDs when I was around 12 or so years old. Back then it was *THE* *MOST* *AWESOME* *THING* *ON* *EARTH* (Hadn't discovered girls yet, of course!

I get the impression many MUDders start in university, at least traditionally. But I have, in my years playing, encountered many cases of MUDding being a family thing, with parents and kids MUDding together on the same MUD. (This is one of several reasons I'm against outright hardcoded bans of multiplaying from the same IP address)

Personally, I believe that the BEST stock of players, in the long term, are kids. In the short term, they'll often be.. well.. childish.. duh! But when they grow, they will have deep insights into the MUD and will be your finest players. When I am playing a MUD, I always keep my eye out for the most newbieish seeming newbies, hopefully to encourage them and guide them and nurture them I know that if they stick around, they will eventually surpass me a dozen times over!

[the_logos]

19. I was at university and visiting a computer science major friend in the computer lab. Walked past a guy staring raptly at a NeXT screen that had rapidly scrolling text and wondered what the heck he was doing.

That moment really changed my life.

--matt

Logos: as a big successful MUD admin, do you know if your Iron Realm MUDs have a lot of kids? Preteens? Know of any under-10's ever??

Also, do many people make your MUDs a family event??

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (erdos @ Jan. 25 2007,7:03) Logos: as a big successful MUD admin, do you know if your Iron Realm MUDs have a lot of kids? Preteens? Know of any under-10's ever?? Also, do many people make your MUDs a family event??

If I knew of any preteens, we'd ban them. You're not permitted to play unless you're at least 13. Our games aren't suitable for people under that age, and anyway, COPPA makes it illegal to gather and store information about people under age 13 without express consent from their parents.

[Fern]

Just a bit over 44 when I was introduced to MUDs, as I recall. Dinosaurs roamed the earth...

[Zhiroc]

Almost 46. (Though I've been RPing in PnP games since I was 18.) Played a MUD for about 2 months, then left for MUSHes.

[DonathinFrye]

I actually started player-killing other people when I was 6 on the old Hunt the Wumpus browser game(I'd hunt the humans instead of the Wumpus), when one day, when I was 8, I ran into what would be Simutronics. Roleplaying from MUDs got me into acting years later, which I've since made a career of - and I can only say great things about what the competitive spirit of player-killing has done for me, and how MUDing has only made me a more intelligent, sharper person.

Not to mention how fast one finds that they can type when they have been MUDing for years.

[KaVir]

Originally Posted by (erdos @ Jan. 26 2007,12:53) We'd love if you would share with us how old you were when you started MUDding

18, while at University...

But I still can't work out what this has to do with "Advanced MUD Concepts".

[Kallekins]

I first was introduced to them at 18 in college, but had a little more of a social life back then so didn't really get into playing until I was about 23.

[Esithae]

I was twelve, lunching in the math teacher's room with a bunch of other geeks, when I started watching some guy playing some text game on the school computer. It was about the -only- game you could play on the school computers. I didn't actually start playing on my own until a couple of months later, when I was thirteen.

[Ilkidarios]

Back in '98 when I started going to FAMU, my roommate had a computer and used to play MUDs along with other games. That's what really got me started, I hadn't really even used a computer until college.

[Jazuela]

I don't remember the exact year, but it was right after Simutronics first presented GemStone to Prodigy Online users, and it had just finished its beta front end there. I was around 31 or 32 at the time (depending on which year that happened to be). Somewhere between 1992-1994 if I remember right.

[prof1515]

I was 22 and it was Martin Luther King Day in 1997.  It was a ****ty H&S that I never played again but for years I toyed with the idea of trying a MUD again.  Wasn't until the first week of March of 1999 that I tried again, finding a H&S that I played for several years. Later in 1999 I played my first RPI.  Been playing those ever since....

[Fizban]

I was 9 when I began mudding, I'm now 18.

[ScourgeX]

Well, the first time I ever logged into a MUD was 18 (to annoy my roommate), but I didn't actually play until 20.

[Luvan]

I was 13, I played a game I cannot remember for about half a year and then Adventures Unlimited for 3 1\2 years. I then played Unwritten Legends off and on.

I could still probably navigate my way around most of AU and a good chunk of UL blindfolded, I think the terrain is etched into my brain.

I am now nearly 20 and am a programming major.

[Markov]

I was 19, back in the may of '99

[Winddancer]

I started in December '91, at the university, when I was 19. Was looking for Roleplaying games on the internet. Some Geek in the lab saw my search requests and pointed me to muds. Have been playing ever since.

Fizban: Wow! 9 years old??? That's impressive!!! *gives you a flying high five* I bet you must have been the top of all your English classes... unless you spent all your homework time on the MUD, that is

Luvan: I know what ya mean. I still know every inch of pre-shattering Realms of Despair, pretty much... though, now that they changed everything, I am like a newbie there once more That's good, change is always awesome to the max

[Crystal]

I was 20 (so around 2000). I ran a World of Darkness e-zine with a friend, so we did some vampire/werewolf RP online already. She told me to check ou this MUD thing, so I did.

It was a Rom 2.3 MUD, and I thought the boars in the newbie area were trying to kill me due to their long desc saying that they were charging (when they were really just standing still). I was a n00b.

A year later I wanted to try and create my own