Hello
 

I've been playing MUDs for about 9-10 years now. I haven't really stuck with a single MUD, so I just drift from one game to the next.

My biggest MUDding pet peeve is having to log in and make a new character before I can use the WHO command to see if anyone else is actually playing.

Re: Hello
 

Hello Dark Acacia!

Welcome to the Forums!

No need for that on Ateraan. If you are into in depth roleplay and adventuring with large groups swing on by, we always have over 150 players online.

If you do decide to come by choose the northern kingdom for creation though as the south is for advanced players who know the game well and is very difficult socially and with roleplay for new players to the game.

Re: Hello
 

Most games these days have a web interface, so just use that. The one for AA for example is:



An alternate source is to use mudstats.com, as it has real time graph data.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD

Re: Hello
 

I've got too, but I still like being able to type 'who' without first logging on.

There's also another option. If you use TinTin++, and the mud supports MSSP, you can type '#config {debug} on' before connecting and it'll tell you how many players are online (along with a load of other data about the mud).

Re: Hello
 

I made two characters on Ateraan a while back. The Northern Kingdom was just the usual drama role play I see everywhere with the occasional event (which involved sending nod emotes now and then just to look alive while someone gave an IC story info dump) and the Southern Kingdom was all about making money for someone else before even getting into a class. I don't think I can take another week of "plant seed" *wait 90 seconds* "pick corn" *wait 20 seconds* "pick corn" *wait 20 seconds* over and over again while my "owner" runs around with an auto-curtsey macro and gives half-baked rp.

I might try Alter Aeon again sometime. I played it for a while and got distracted by something, but I don't remember what.

Re: Hello
 

There's been a ton of changes in the last few years, and even the last few months. If you do stop by again and leave, I'd love to know your reasons - it's a lot harder to get good feedback as to why people bail than why they stay, and game hoppers like yourself usually have a much better idea of how things should be based on what you've seen elsewhere.

Good luck in your quest :)

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD

Re: Hello
 

For someone who seems to want serious roleplay I'm suprised you saw it that way. Player run events are seriously thought out and usually involve a lot of creation. Players "dump" info as you say, so you aren't sitting there for 20 minutes waiting for someone to type it out. Planning is very important to run a huge event with lots of players. As for the nods. People do that so as not to spam and distract. I'm suprised you didn't know that as well. I honestly think you likely never got into a guild or religion or politics or group adventure or social aspects of the game. This sounds like a one or two week player's insight.

Interesting, you chose to be a slave and your owner had half-baked roleplay. I'm skeptical. You say you did this for a week and couldn't take another week of it? Would you mind telling me your character and who the owner was? Quality control is important. You can send it in a pm if you would like as well.

Re: Hello
 

I played on the north end for close to a month and the only big event was some other person joining some religion and having to type out a long game lore info dump to a bunch of people to get accepted. People sitting there for the shebang were nodding or giving some other basic emote, and I remember that it reminded me of something like the Proms where people make a point to cough between movements whether they needed to or not. I think the most exciting thing I did in the northern kingdom was use the global shout command to humiliate this one guy who was breaking the "don't pick up newbies for sex" rule.

It was something like a week of corn picking until the slave term period was up. I think I had the option of panning for metal, but it wasn't any better. During that time the owner hardly ever was around except when it was time for her to collect the money I had earned, and she had a trigger set up so that she could automatically curtsey to people whenever she entered a room so that she didn't ruffle any feathers. The day before the term ended she took me to different class representatives who regurgitated to me the same class information that was found on the website so that I could choose a class and get right into what the owner OOCly called "the real game" once I was manumitted.

I spoke to two different people involved in hearing player complaints and explained to them how the whole slavery thing was working out, and they both apologized profusely and told me that the slavery system in the southern kingdom was its own unbeatable monster and the master/slave relationship rules really couldn't be enforced because feelings were hurt in the past and it was just a bad situation in general.

It's not that I can't do slave role play (I played a male Drow on a Drow-by-the-book game before), it's just that it was practically OOC grind slavery to precede what I was told would be the same game as in the northern kingdom.

Re: Hello
 

Don't take his comments too personally. Here's the thing with any mud (versus a freeform mush or tabletop RP session or something like that): You're going to have to do a lot of the same stuff over and over again, and there's only so much you can affect and do without the mud owner doing something special.

That means that in a roleplaying mud, 99.999999% of all RP is just going to be people talking, and other people listening, nodding, reacting, whatever. NWA suffers greatly from this because it tries to pass itself off as a bastion of incredible RP, and due to no fault of its own, falls a little short. It has a great playerbase who, for the most part, is dedicated to an in character experience, but there's only so much you can do. I've tried NWA on and off (currently off) and I think where it's lacking is the same place every so-called roleplaying mud is lacking: the players just aren't that interesting.

When I'm in an RP game, I need players who are smart (way smarter than I am). I need people who will say things in character that aren't obvious, that I wasn't expecting, and that will surprise me and really make me think. I need people who will say things in character that make me want to change my character to be more like them (or change my character to more strongly oppose them). Anything I see on my screen that isn't making me think and change is just wasting my time. NWA's playerbase (and this isn't unique to NWA) has gravitated toward a very ineffectual playing style. Most RP muds are vaguely in character chat rooms, rather than the roleplay-driven worlds they're advertised to be.

Re: Hello
 

I disagree with you emphatically. The entire month of October, most of September, and some of November were so roleplay intensive I had to set rules on roleplay event timelines. I am baffled at the imaginations and ingenuity of players of this game. They are incredible. Yes, some will not be as schooled or tailored in RP than others, but it is a great realm for roleplay.

There is a BIG caveat however. And that is what you say here SnowTroll. It is epic failure for a roleplayer to use the words you the two words you used above so often. That is "I need". I need this, I need that, gimme gimme gimme I need I need I need.

When you begin to roleplay for others and not for yourself you will find the excitement you have been looking for.

p.s. Good response, Dark Acacia

Re: Hello
 

You've basically described in a few paragraphs what I've been trying to nail down in my mind for the past few years. I've been to a few places which try to convince themselves just as much as visitors that they are the final word in role play, and no matter what the game lore is, it all boils down to the same talking stuff you described here. It actually gets pretty silly to see a game like Threshold take that kind of attitude while pushing the collection plate at the same time. Threshold is the same thing except with the added drama of who broke whose religious icons.

The problem with this assertion of yours is that individual people DO have their own needs which have to be fulfilled before they themselves can really flourish and help to provide others with an excellent experience. If a person is not engaged in a setting, how can they roleplay? I've found places with great experiences, and I've found places where it's just the same old people talking about the lore stuff and maybe something happens, or maybe people bicker among themselves and make things happen that way. Sadly, the latter case is much more common, and it was my experience on Threshold, Ateraan, and other places.

Re: Hello
 

We've already met in a way, but I wanted to say hello again, on your turf. Welcome to the forums! I look forward to enjoying your feedback on things.

Re: Hello
 

Here's the thing. Your mud, and most muds for that matter, are very, very limited games. There are three kinds of content: 1) the things the game is programmed to allow people to do, which include the standard acquisition of money, items, and experience points, and the ability to chat/emote with others and at times, engage in player killing; 2) special content and events a mud administrator creates and runs on occasion; 3) "player-run special events."

You've always placed a huge amount of emphasis on #3, as have most of your players, when really, #3 is just a very minor extension of #1. In your mud, for example, you do #3 by doing a whole lot of #1 to get whatever money, items, or experience points you need, then setting up a #3, which is really just a whole lot more acquisition, chat/emote, and/or player killing that's just colored slightly differently but is still the exact same content. For example, "Enter a poetry contest about why my religion is awesome and win this incredible piece of armor! Meet on Saturday at midnight to recite your poem, as everyone else passively listens, nods, reacts, and chats! Cash prizes, too! I did a lot of #1 to get all of this together, so you can do a lot of #1 while you're there, but because we're styling it as a poetry contest and not regular chatting, it's a special event and counts as #3. If the administration is watching and causes some special global text to be output while we're doing it, we can upgrade it to a #2." I'm picking on you a little bit, but this is true of every single RP mud, not just yours.

The one and only thing that makes an RP mud different and better than other muds, and a different experience for its players each day, is the chat/emote of the other players. And the only thing that makes that experience worthwhile is if the other players do something that's more than just ineffectual chatter, that actually forces you to think and react and change. That's a rare find. You can give and give, but if you don't get that back, the game's not much fun.

Re: Hello
 

You may not have been on a quest with a group, in a clan, been in group intrique (murder plans, religious chaos, political strife), or been involved in serious roleplay in NWA. I'm assuming here, because the countless numbers of players that have done this are the dozens that are committed to this game and the feedback the staff gets from those players.

Nothing against you SnowTroll (I think I might even have a snow troll placed into the game in your honor just send me a description), but I'm a bit skeptical of someone who may not have gotten into the depths of Ateraan and talk in depth about the issues there. I could be wrong of course and you could be a fully in depth multi year player.

Re: Hello
 

I think you're just selling us a bill of goods now. You just want people to spend 2-3 years playing your game to finally find out for themselves what your game is all about just so that you can have more warm bodies sending commands to your game. Why wasn't my month in the north kingdom long enough to get into what you call "serious roleplay?" I didn't see any "serious roleplay" going on, and picking corn and fishing were some serious baloney.

Re: Hello
 

We here at tgMUD have an online interface: However, I've been thinking of adding a who command to the login screen at the account page, so that it's more accessible when I'm deciding who I want to log on and play.

Also, if you give us a try, as long as someone's on, you can find serious roleplay immediately. The difference between a MUD and its other MU* counterparts, however, is that the MUD includes gameplay elements. If you're turned off by "#1," i.e. the mechanical components of the type of MU* that is known for its mechanical components, perhaps MUDs are not for you.

Re: Hello
 

A month would be fully adequate in my opinion for a normal roleplayer. I'm just suprised you didn't get involved in any intrigue in that time frame. You certainly don't have to play years to get that. If you tell me who you played, I can give you good feedback on why or why not this didn't work for you.:)

Re: Hello
 

It's been at least a year and a half since I played. If I remember the name I will let you know.