What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

After seeing a few recent posts, I started wondering what others do when they are playing MUDS.

I tend to only play the game, with occasional jumps to the website for the game to get background info, but it seems like a lot of other people multi-task, even playing multiple muds at the same time. What's the norm?

And, if you do other things when you are playing, what type of stuff is it? Does it matter what type of MUD you are playing?

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

From an admin stand point I hear that alot of players are working in their office or doing work at school while mudding.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

I usually am writing while playing any MUDs. I love MUDs that allow for downtime so that I don't feel like I always have to be on the go and fully paying attention whenever I log in. Modern graphical games seem to think that your character has to be on crack and doing things constantly. I know that not everyone agrees, but I happen to love a game with built-in downtime.

When I am really settled in to play, though, I want to have easy and quick access to people and plotlines. At that point, I'm paying attention 100%, and I don't do anything else. It's been a while since I've had the luxury to play that way, though.

I used to play Kingdom of Loathing with some of my fellow mudders, so we would play our mud together and then giggle about KoL over IM and such. It was fun to play such a silly (yet very clever) game in contrast to the often serious scenarios on my primary mud. And yes, it does matter what MUD I'm playing. Some require much more concentration than others, some capture my attention more than others, and some I enjoy more than others only when I have friends online.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

I still play Kingdom of Loathing. Phear my level 30 sauceror and her meat trousers!

Ahem. Anyway. I only mud from home. We converted one of the bedrooms into my office when I used to run my own business. I gave up the business and kept the office, and that's where I do all my computer stuff.

If there's nothing to do in the game, I'll -usually- just log out and not play at all. But sometimes I might be waiting/hoping for some interaction so I'll idle somewhere. And while my character is sitting somewhere, my browser is open and I'm listening to youtubes, or participating on forums, or educating myself on one or another topic with google searches. But I can always see the game client at the bottom of the monitor so if anything happens, I can alt-tab or close my browser and be at the game immediately.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

I think there have been some games I've played where I've spent as much time idle waiting for something to happen as I have actually playing the game. On those days, I'd set my client to beep if something happened and I'd pick up a book and read. Unfortunately, too much idle time and I'd lose interest and move on.

Any games that have in game mini-games to occupy you while you might otherwise be idle?

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

I think that is always important. Not just to have mini-games but to have things to do for players to have fun with solo.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

I'm with you. When I played RPIs I tended to stay focused on my RP even if I was the only person in the room/game. In the early days I'd also have a browser open with the game's website up so I could make reference if needed as well as the usual email and messenger programs (the latter sometimes set to AFK though I tried not to do that since I always forget to remove it even when I'd logged off the game). Many who know me over AIM are probably familiar with my use of short initial responses like "?" which is a holdover from my RP days when I'd sometimes be unable to type a full sentence due to my attention being on RP in-game. I still tend to do that when I'm doing something else like playing non-MUD computer games, reading or watching a movie, etc.

The same was true when I played H&S though I was never much into leveling and gaining experience points so I rarely found myself in a situation for long that demanded my attention like that of RPIs or other RP MUDs. In fact, quite the opposite was true. I'd have the H&S up on the computer while doing something I was focused on and would just occassionally look over at the game to see if anything interesting was going on. I don't know how many papers I wrote in college with the scroll of a MUD flickering along the edge of the screen behind Word. :-D

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

Interesting question!

Me, I am a old mudder and thus multi mudding is not something I'm used to although I've tried it out. I'm not a multi tasker in any event. The Web also didn't exist when I started mudding so there were no web sites although on MUME I used a few of its numerous web sites to keep up to date on when sunrise and set were as well as shop opening closing times.

Mainly if I am playing an old fashioned mud where there's lots of resting time for your character as it heals I tend to chat with others on the mud. IF no one is around I tend to go AFK and have a spot of tea or something. ;)

Yes mud type has a definite effect on this. Diku style muds tend to be faster paced with mobs that chase you and quick death if you're not paying attention or unlucky. You don't really have much time for anything else on these as even healing is faster on them. LP's on the other hand are more sedate due to the larger HP's you get and the slower pace of combat and healing. You've got time to do other things here. Unless your guild has to taunt the monsters every 2 rounds... then you can be pretty busy. :)

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

Yes, quite a few have that. Both of our muds do, and I think they add a lot of fun. There's solo mini-games and there are interactive mini-games. You see that a lot in the big graphical games, also, but since those are so fast-paced already, few people engage in them.

In Darkwind, ones of the mini-games was enough fun that I just played it with friends instead of leveling. I think mini-games gets left out of a lot of game design nowadays. A mini-game doesn't have to be anything super complicated, and people forget that "mini-games" are more of a concept than a true game. For example, simply being able to collect pipes and tobacco that your character can smoke in game is a mini-game of sorts even if people might not consider it a true game. I know that a lot of my MUD buddies enjoy this aspect that can be found in several games.

Anyway, well-designed mini-games don't even show up as games in the traditional sense a lot of times. They are fun things for players to do inside the game itself that requires little effort but provides entertainment.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

I agree it's important to have activities that players can enjoy solo (particularly for a new mud, as if there's nobody else online when a new player connects, and they can't do anything on their own, you're going to have real trouble building up a playerbase).

However I don't like having minigames just "to occupy you while you might otherwise be idle". I find it much more effective when each minigame is added for a specific purpose (such as encouraging players to log on together at certain times of day, or giving them an alternative advancement route to hunting mobs), offers a reward that makes it worth playing, and is thematically tied into the main game in some way.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

That's kind of what I meant as well. I like theme based internal solo and multi player activities. That is how it is setup in NWA. Lots of those types of things like group sailing/whaling, tavern/parlor games and gambling, mining, crabbing, and on. These types of things I agree are helpful to any MUD be it heavily player filled or light.

Re: What do you do while you play a MUD?
 

Tetris on my psp.