Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - An Observation regarding muds and country

KaVir · 05-18-2010, 06:17 AM

When I started mudding (in the UK), the geographical location of the mud was pretty important - I had a superb connection speed when playing UK muds, a passable connection for European muds, and a really bad connection to US and Canadian muds. Even playing muds in Australia was faster than playing muds in the US.

This was in fact the reason I created a US mirror of my UK mud in 1995 - because the US players had so much lag that they couldn't viably compete. But even before then, the vast majority of my players were from UK Universities.

I remember frequently filling all three of my University's terminal rooms with players! Other people would want to join, and there'd be no terminals left, so they'd have to go upstairs and find a free PC. It was a similiar situation in other universities as well - one person would start playing, he'd tell all his student friends, and within a day or two you'd have a dozen new players.

A couple of years ago I caught up with an old friend from back then, and he told me that our University has banned muds. And thinking over it, I don't recall the last time I had a player connect from any UK university IP address.

But connection speed isn't really an issue these days - I don't notice any difference between a UK and a US mud, so there's no longer much need to differentiate between geographical location. A more international playerbase also seems to have given rise to a more international mix of admin - perhaps in part because admin are often recruited from the playerbase, but also because if you've got players online 24/7, it's advantageous to have staff living in different timezones.

It's also worth noting that most mud hosting services are based in the US, so even if you are based in Europe you might still host your mud in the US (I did this for a few years, until eventually moving to a dedicated UK host).

So in my opinion, the shift is more to do with globalisation and internet speed. These days, the geographical location of a mud is little more than a footnote for the curious.

05-18-2010, 06:17 AM	#2
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	Re: An Observation regarding muds and country When I started mudding (in the UK), the geographical location of the mud was pretty important - I had a superb connection speed when playing UK muds, a passable connection for European muds, and a really bad connection to US and Canadian muds. Even playing muds in Australia was faster than playing muds in the US. This was in fact the reason I created a US mirror of my UK mud in 1995 - because the US players had so much lag that they couldn't viably compete. But even before then, the vast majority of my players were from UK Universities. I remember frequently filling all three of my University's terminal rooms with players! Other people would want to join, and there'd be no terminals left, so they'd have to go upstairs and find a free PC. It was a similiar situation in other universities as well - one person would start playing, he'd tell all his student friends, and within a day or two you'd have a dozen new players. A couple of years ago I caught up with an old friend from back then, and he told me that our University has banned muds. And thinking over it, I don't recall the last time I had a player connect from any UK university IP address. But connection speed isn't really an issue these days - I don't notice any difference between a UK and a US mud, so there's no longer much need to differentiate between geographical location. A more international playerbase also seems to have given rise to a more international mix of admin - perhaps in part because admin are often recruited from the playerbase, but also because if you've got players online 24/7, it's advantageous to have staff living in different timezones. It's also worth noting that most mud hosting services are based in the US, so even if you are based in Europe you might still host your mud in the US (I did this for a few years, until eventually moving to a dedicated UK host). So in my opinion, the shift is more to do with globalisation and internet speed. These days, the geographical location of a mud is little more than a footnote for the curious.