I've just got to laugh at some of the absurd claims listed by some of the muds here. Take these example quotes:

"The #1 MUD on the 'net"

"the most realistic combat system ever"

"the largest and longest running massively multiplayer text-based game ever"

"be a part of a game that helped start the MUD'ing craze over 10 years ago"

Do these people actually believe their claims, I wonder, or are they supposed to be tongue-in-cheek remarks in reference to each other?

Also, has anyone else noticed that Realms of Despair has dropped to 29th place?! Strange - when you connect to their website it says "We're #1 by 405 votes!".

That's what a good salesperson is best at...

Outrageous claims.

And sales is all it is.

I think its kind of crappy that muds like the one I IMP on, where it is just a few of us who do it because we enjoy it, have to compete against the corporate muds. You know - the ones that charge you $35/month plus more for the full gamut of activities.

What if there were some sort of "regulating" body that we could use to investigate some of these claims, and if true give some sort of stamp of approval, certificate of authenticity or just a general "thumbs up" for quality.

Along this line, I would like to see someone actually go through and rate some of these MUDs that follow specific themes to see if they actually do follow the theme, and how exact, or if they are just a hodge-podge of different code snippets and areas slammed together with a claim that they are "100% true to the books" or whatever. An example that I notice the most is Wheel of Time MUDs that still have elves and orcs running around.

It is just too easy for someone to claim something, even if not true.

Standard marketing.

You want the blurb of text for your mud to be interesting, to attract players, entice people to play and preferably, to stay (as paying costumers). So reality is often expanded a bit in marketized blurbs, so what? Like it never happens IRL or anywhere else on the net...

By the same token, shouldn't there be a body that monitors MUDs for cheating of votes, and takes action as necessary?

Of late, there has been a certain pay-to-play MUD added that is OUTRIGHT cheating, and flaunting it to the boards. Giving exp to the character of the person who votes? That's just...wrong. That's Medievia-esque (If anyone remembers THAT MUDs actions to get votes, that is.)

-D

While I can't comment about the rest of the games "claims", I will say the following from the Dragon's Gate listing:

"be a part of a game that helped start the MUD'ing craze over 10 years ago"

Is entirely true, it's 12 years ago going on 13 now I believe, if you go check out the history of MUD'ing website (not sure where that link went, but it's out there) you'll see the who's, how's, why's and what's of one of the original GEnie MUD games, and how it's one of the precious few left with ties to the early days of MUD'ing! With everything else up there, an understandable confusion =) I do think it'd be a good idea if TMS both investigated the claims made by the listed games (and removed those permenantly with false claims), as well as took a look at certain games handing out experience, etc. for voting, seems a little against the spirit of it all!

Best!
Colin
Co-Lead GM
Dragon's Gate Staff

Dragon's Gate was launched in 1990, the same year as Avalon , Shattered World, DIKU mud, FurryMUCK, TinyMUSH, TinyTIM, TeenyMUD, TinyMUCK, LambdaMOO, Islandia, etc. TinyMUD and LPmud were out a year earlier, AberMUD was out 2 years before them, and MUD (the original) was developed in 1978 - 12 years before Dragon's Gate appeared.

I don't think we need any sort of regulatory commitee for MUD's and such.

Really, it's like shopping for cars. You just have to decide for yourself, no matter what the ad says.

99% of the time, the people are not serious. If they were the best MUD on the net, they would be smart enought to advertise the MUD, not their ego.

That's an excellent point, Enzo.

There's a quote from the MUD I play..

"If you were the best, you wouldn't have to tell me. Others would tell me."

Well, that's also true with some Star Wars MUDs that are RP enforced. I ventured into one, picked a twi'lek (because the Official Character Guide [Revised]" mentioned that there were some..) and was told that twi'lek cant be Jedi that a noghri would be a better choice. (btw..noghri are lizard type but not Bossk he was a different race.). That would be akin to being human in a Tolkien MUD and being told Ranger isnt an available class.
But yea, there should be some regulation per advertisement that covers the "We're voted #1 in the world!" claims as well as also what their listings say..like it's PK rampant but the listings say it's Restricted.
Speaking of listings, there should also be more different descriptive taglines about the Theme, etc. Take "Fantasy" for example..is it "Conan" type fantasy or "Army of Darkness" fantasy or even "Dragonriders of Pern" type fantasy? Funny how some say RP Enforced and they're fantasy and you spend hours making, leveling, and equipping say, a half-ogre berserker, in a medevil setting, only to get mowed down by a halfling with a vulcan mini-gun and cyber-implants. Sure the listing said Fantasy but if nothing was said about futuristic items, etc, then the player sometimes feels like it was a waste of their time. Same goes for "Newbie Friendly" especially when your Newbie Status goes away at level 2 and Whoops! You picked up that canteen and it just raised you to level 2. Oh well.
Now mind you, not all MUDs do this, but still, there are some out there that just plain ruin a person's time when looking for "that great MUD" if they havent found it already. Just because some MUD has a 500+ playerbase (like Aardwolf which is just a MUD that could be stuck into a catagory called Twink's Fest IMO) doesnt mean it's good. There should be other considerations. Informative webpages, easy to understand help files (if any), etc. Just because 20 people kept voting every 5 minutes for 3 days straight, doesnt make a MUD good or the Best.
Anyhoo..I'm off to play around in the MUD I hang out in where though it isnt listed here, or even ranked anywhere in some MUD mag, imo, it's still a great MUD to be in.

Since this is a thread on bragging and exagerating claims, I thought I might ask a question. Our newest addition, Gemstone III claims to have 'hundreds of thousands' playing it. Is this like when you add all the times every player has logged on or what? I really have a hard time believing that hundreds of thousands play any MUD. I certainly have not heard much, if anything about the game if it is actually this popular. Also, if hundreds of thousands play it, why do they only have a few hundred votes after the last reset?

I don't know where they came up with the hundreds of thousands, unless they're including everyone who's ever had an account with them since their inception when they were still available only on GEnie.

But I can say with fair certainty that they *probably* have tens of thousands of current accounts, though many of them are probably on hold, while many others are multiple accounts all held and paid for by the same person.

They truly *are* a "massively multiplayer" text game. That you've never heard of them is actually pretty surprising. They're the most popular commercially produced online RPG, and the company Simutronics was written up in one of those Fortune-type magazines for revenue growth a few years back.

No, I don't play there anymore (haven't in a couple of years), and no, I'm not offering any opinion on the matter. I've already submitted my review where it belongs. Just wanted to clarify that one point.

Thus the "helped start" rather than single-handidly was responsible for =) You'll also notice barely none from that time are left (or have since moved on to sequals) except for Dgate! I'm more than open to suggestions of a better way to word "hey, we've been here longer than almost anyone and don't plan on going anyplace" than that if you'd like to suggest something! I don't find anything wrong with the comment, but if others do, i'm sure we can change it easily enough, i'd like to think we try and listen to everyones opinion and treat them all fairly regardless of our own!

Thanks!
Colin J.
Co-Lead GM
Dragon's Gate Staff

But how did your mud even help start something which predates it by 12 years?

Probably the same way the world-wide-web helped start the "internet craze" even though the internet had been around for a good 20+ years. They didn't say they helped invent MUDs, just that they helped start the craze. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's certainly a plausible claim.

--matt

Show me another single persistant world that's been around longer than GemStone.

You can't say "there were MUDs before GemStone so GemStone's not the longest running" as no one has said anything along the lines of "GemStone was the first MUD ever!"

I believe this one as well. DGate was instrumental in bring MUDs to the mass-market, along with GS.


I happen to believe this one too, then again, I'm biased.