Re: Are MUDs still popular?
Even that can be difficult - it's hard to reach critical mass, because most players won't give your game a chance if there aren't any other players. So the first player connects, sees nobody else on, and quits. The second player connects, sees nobody else on, and quits. And so on...
Of course that doesn't mean it can't be done, but the days of "build it and they will come" are long gone. There are too many muds for that, players have a lot of choice and it's very easy for them to find new muds to try. You need to grab their attention and keep it, or they'll move on to the next game on the list.
God Wars II, yes. 16 months of design, 11 months of closed development, 9 months of closed beta, 21 months as a separate spinoff game (to test the engine), and 5 years of open beta. If you're interested, you can read through the .
There's another mud called ConQUEST that recently opened for testing - after 5 years of development.
Here are some examples (in alphabetical order, with screenshots when I could find them):
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