How to find your MUD Home
 

I have noticed several new members of late posting about their favorite MUD closing and how they are searching for a new home. I thought it perhaps a time to give some ideas on how to quickly weed through the numerous MUD’s and find what you are looking for.

The seven steps to finding your MUD home:

1. Select 5 to 10 MUDs that appear to have the genre you are looking for. space, adventure, medieval, post apoc, techno, etc. Do not concern yourself with playerbase size, free or pay, or other options at this point: If it’s a crappy game, 2 players or 100 is irrelevant, it still blows. Anyone will pay for something they love (think of food and the internet. And your key in step one is to find games that speak to your imagination.

2. Spend a few hours reading the info page and visit the websites of those MUDs you’ve selected. Weed out those that obviously don’t fit your genre or idea of the game you want.

3. Create a character in your top 5 from your list, spending ample time reading help files and gaining a feel for the game during creation.

If creation annoys you tremendously, it is likely the game will as well, so STOP here and go to the next MUD. Remember that simple annoyance in creation may not represent the game features as many options may be changed when you get into the game so be sure about your decision here.

4. Spend a few hours in the game, looking at the features, testing commands, style, and functionality. As a new player, remember that you will not have access to many features, powers, commands, that you may enjoy later, so careful how you discount the game at this point. If, however, the experience is completely irritating and not enjoyable, STOP here and go back to 3.

5. Now you’ve committed to several hours of play. You should know how to function in the game and have gained some insight to the style and playability. Spend another several hours to make sure you remember this game and what you like about it. Forget about dislikes for now, because you are only concerned with what you like. Keep playing until you are comfortable with you knowledge of the playerbase, staff, and basic features.

Mark this game down and go back to the next game on your list.

6. When you have played, kept, and discarded the games on your list it is time for serious commitment.
Play each game left on your list for at least a week. Do not play them simultaneously. Log out of one if you play the other and never go more than two days without playing as this is the time you learn and become addicted to the positive features.

7. After your committed game play you will find that you gravitate to the game most enjoyable to you. Continue to play that game and keep the others in memory so you can return to them if you decide you want something different.

Enjoy, you found your home!

Re: How to find your MUD Home
 

And let me add.... Just for kicks. New Worlds is turning out to be a very nice place and it just might be my New MUD home! Hope it will be for someone else soon, too :)

Re: How to find your MUD Home
 

*bump for useful advice*

Re: How to find your MUD Home
 

I hope some new players found this thread useful. If anyone has tried this method or have tweaks to it, I encourage you to post.

Re: How to find your MUD Home
 

Man, that was a great little guide you put together there. I have to say that getting into muds at first was a bit disorienting but now I am getting the hang of it. However, I am still, as you call it, "finding my home", so to speak but think that I have come close. I am really enjoying Aardwolf right now and am planning on creating a character on Armageddon mud eventually.

I have been using your advice on the mud I am playing right now (Wheel of Time mud). I find that some of the things that you mentioned are happening (boredom, incomplete functionality, horrible statting system). The thing that is keeping me there the most is the promise of good, fast PK (which it seems like it would be due to the streamlined feel of the game's descriptions and interface) and a great community. Hell, if it wasn't for all of the cool people I have met on Wotmud I would probably already have quit.

Right now though, I am liking Aardwolf more and more. the support in that game is phenomenal, if there are any mud newbies reading this then I would really recommend trying Aardwolf just for the beginner friendly feel of the game.

I can't wait to try out more muds and find my true home :D

Thanks for the great post again and I look forward to seeing everyone around the forums.

Re: How to find your MUD Home
 

You are welcome Skaldi,

I'm glad you found some nice MUD's to find your home. I'm betting one or more of them will suit your ideals. Aardwolf is a decent game with a good playerbase and functionality. Armeggedon will be tougher, but you might enjoy the descriptiveness and strong roleplay.