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Old 05-27-2005, 12:19 AM   #1
Earthmother
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Home MUD: GateWay MUD
Posts: 68
Earthmother is on a distinguished road
I began mudding in 1993, on NannyMud. Phear it.

My college boyfriend was heavily into Nanny, so he taught me the ropes. Had he not, I'd have been wandering around penniless and clueless. He and his buddies, a group of about 11, 12 guys and a few random chicks (mostly GF's like me, who were literate, if you can imagine) used to take over the Sun Workstation labs meant for engineering students, and turn them into terminals for MUDding. For a while, they had NannyMud by the cajones.

However, questing on Nanny is like ****ing into the wind. The syntaxes are things that only Swedish Engineers *would* think of, and the frustration level got pretty high. So a couple of the guys set out on a quest to find a new home. They came across TimeWarp... I don't think this MUD is still a going concern, and if one by that name is, it's not the one I played back in '93. I loved that MUD. I believe it either went down or we all got disgusted over some piddly thing, and we decided to find yet *another* home.

Enter GateWay MUD.

Summertime, 1994. Most of us didn't go home from college that summer, opting instead to work at McJobs and MUD. Our parents raged: the could never get through to us, as our phone lines were always busy, or we were not at the house, opting to utilize the Sparc labs again, just to annoy the summer engineering students. We didn't return their phone calls, because if we actually logged off, we were at the point of physical exhaustion, and *had* to sleep for a couple hours.

We ate, slept, drank, and breathed GW.

Eventually, most of my buddies drifted off the MUD, into that fabled land of RL. My boyfriend and I broke up, and I couldn't bear to go on the MUD we shared. I found new friends and new addictions... but something in my heart ached for the thrill of the kill.

Eventually, I found Mr. Right, got hitched, and got bored being at home while he worked. The siren call of Hack-N-Slash beckoned, and back to GW I went.

All my old posse was long gone. I was a nobody once again, couldn't remember my aliases, and had never been *that* great a player in my own right, anyhow. Friends can carry one a long way. I felt lucky to remember my password.

Clueless chicks always get help, so, yeah, I played that card. I'm not particularly *proud* of that fact, but there it is. Luckily, GateWay folks strive for retention, and the fact that I had some history there (and flirted like a crazy idiot) got me some MASSIVLY informative help from a few of the top-end players.

I was sucked in, again... my husband HID MY KEYBOARD one day, because he wanted some attention from me, and I was LIVID. ;>  Didn't stop me, though. I kept playing until one of the Admin busted me, playing an illegal multi-character. How embarassing. I left in shame for another 2 years. I wasn't mad, you see... just... ashamed. I didn't really *mean* to cheat, I just wanted to replay the newbie areas without 'ciding. But it was still cheating, wrong, and I had been busted. I slunk back to RL, tail between my legs, never expecting to show my face there again.

Then came 9/11.

The grief, the shock, the horror... alcohol just wasn't helping.

So, I went back to the one place I knew my mind could stop watching people jumping from burning skyscrapers. A place where I wouldn't cry, a place where things only change subtly. A constant place, one that, wherever I moved in the world, I could always call 'home'. A place where I had some modicum of control.

I have never left since. This makes me pathetic, to many people. Many still "just don't get it," how a game that has no pictures can be something I've been involved with for over 10 years. My husband *used* to be one... so, I finally convinced him to play.

Now, we have a hobby we can share, a group of people we both know, and we can take care of our children at any time. We don't go out and spend money on (too many, heh) other vices. We are home with our children, and we *always* have something to talk (gossip, heh! ) about. He's a better player than me now, too (growl). He even came up with the most *clever* mapping system, using MS Excel. (Many client auto-mappers don't work with GW, so he had to work around it. I truly believe what he's done in Excel beats to the ground any auto-mapped map, anyhow. It just took him a WHOLE lot longer. ;> )

I've looked at many MU*S, just to see what else y'all have out there. RPI isn't really my thing, I'm a Hack-n-Slasher. However, in my world, I really *do* play a role. I am sure the "we doan' need no steenkin' CODE!" crowd would disagree as to whether or not what I do *is* 'play a role,' but when I build a character, she is designed, from race choice forward, to be a Guild loyalist, and to fulfill the 'roles' that Guild choice is designed to illicit. Creative writing is just 'not my thing,' repetitive killing and refining/filling out my knowledge base about the Game I play IS my thing.

In 12 years, I have come from a completely clueless n00b all the way up to a person who is considered a living help file on my Game.  I can PK with the best on the MUD, and PK on GW is NOT a picnic. I've learned a lot of life lessons from MUDding, especially how to listen to others and consider their concerns. I've also developed a much 'thicker skin,' because the wiles of the 'net are now, and always will be, wild.

And, I can't lie, MUDding *has* impacted my RL in both positive AND negative ways... it *is* an addictive behavior for me, and when the game is not taken in moderation, my RL has and does suffer. I finally talked to my mother about this 'thing' just the other day. She has worried and fretted for years, as she watched me struggle through college because of my MUD addiction.

She is concerned for my children, that they play computer games and that this is a 'bad' thing. I told her that this is a new age, and in many ways, I feel like a pioneer. The internet is still a frontier, yet, it impacts almost everyone on the planet now. I believe my children *need* to be computer literate, and I have no problems with them learning from software. They will *need* computer skills for the rest of their lives. If nothing else, MUDding has given me more than just a basic knowledge of computers. It also allows me a community of highly intelligent people to interact with: a difficult game 'weeds out' people who can't cut it. We have no need to tell our Newbs to 'stfu,' because, if they can't figure it out with all the help we give them, they'll wash out in a couple of weeks. That means that the ones who stay are people I *want* to interact with, generally.

It sure as heck beats the bar scene. Plus, I can kill them if they really tick me off. How can one argue with logic like that? How can that *not* capture a person's heart?

I've lurked around TMS for a long time, and I figured my lucky 13th post should probably be an introduction of some sort, so I can quit putting disclaimers in my posts here. ;>

My Hack-n-Slash background and love isn't really what TMS is all about, at least, not the boards. But my game is as much a part of my life as any RPI MU* could be, and my characters are as rich in storied history and player interaction as I really think I want. I'm *damned proud* to be Earthmother of GateWay MUD. It is a huge part of my life, and it impacts me every day. I'm exceptionally glad for it, too. No matter what negatives come from MUDding, I truly believe almost anything in life one chooses to devote time and energy to ends up being worth the sacrifice.
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Old 05-17-2010, 08:52 PM   #2
Tristan1992
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Join Date: May 2010
Home MUD: GateWay
Home MUD: Rocky
Home MUD: MUME
Posts: 77
Tristan1992 is on a distinguished road
Re: Lurker comes out of the Closet

Wuf! I thought about posting a complete MUD bio for my intro post. Interesting to read one. :-)
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