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Old 02-27-2012, 09:53 AM   #16
SnowTroll
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 183
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Re: Player looking for unique PvE

I can't figure out which of the two priorities are more important to you. It seems like you've had some bad experiences with the "yet another generic fantasy mud" process as you try to find a game you can really enjoy. But at the same time, you've titled this thread "looking for unique PvE" and are mixing your dislike for non-unique swords and sworcery elf/dwarf muds that follow D&D rather than pure mythology with a search for unique gameplay. Are you looking for a unique genere, or a unique combat engine?

Some of the best muds I've played, both due to gameplay aspects and roleplaying aspects, have been fairly nondescript, generic, Elf/Dwarf fantasy muds. Some of the most simplistic, boring, lame PvE muds I've played have had really unique worlds, settings, and backstories that don't have the slightest hint of Elves, Dwarves, and swords and sworcery magic in them. For example, I messed around on CoreMUD (coremud.org) for awhile. It's a mud past it's prime that's lucky to have 5 people logged in today, and combat is about as simple as it gets, but the futuristic mining colony genere kept me interested for awhile. I played this RPI-type MUSH/MUD hybrid (infernorpg.net) that's also lucky to see 5 logins, that mostly follows the White Wolf racial archtypes (vampires, mages, werewolves, etc.) and takes place in modern day New York, but lets players pretty much custom-design their characters and pits them in arena-type combat with range and melee options nad grouping/strategy options, rather than traditional area exploration and looting. There's this new-ish Final Fantasy based mud (eotmud.org) that's getting a lot of good buzz even though it's technically not officially open until they've released their next batch of content (it has more players online than a lot of muds that are). I guess it's got dwarves in it, but no elves. Either way, each race there makes for very different gameplay (races get some unique core racial skills rather than just some minor stat modifiers).

I guess where I'm going with this is kind of what Kavir said above. Don't discount a mud because it seems like a fairly generic Elf/Dwarf fantasy mud. Look a little deeper before coming to a final opinion. With that said, I'm heavily in favor of one of your suggestions that every single mud owner out there should take to heart: make it 100% clear why your mud is unique and why I want to play it on your website. Let us know what you're offering. I don't want to read a description on TMS or the Mud Connector about how your mud is 10 years old, or back after a long break under new ownership, or what a great community you have (unless your selling point is being a good chatroom), and especially not some paragraph inviting me to come try the adventure in your vaguely described dark fantasy world. I want to read 10-20 sentences that tell me the type of gaming experience I should expect.
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