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View Poll Results: What should MUD stand for? | |||
Multi-User Dungeon |
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22 | 70.97% |
Multi-User Dimension |
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3 | 9.68% |
Multi-User Domain |
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4 | 12.90% |
Other - please post your preferred acronym. |
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2 | 6.45% |
Voters: 31. You may not vote on this poll |
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#21 |
New Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 22
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
I recall the term "MUDD" being the predecessor of "MUD," referring to Multi User Dungeon Dwelling. It was just shortened after a period of time.
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#22 | |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
"I promised to get in touch with Roy Trubshaw and nail this "how did the D in MUD come to be there?" question once and for all. I've now done so, and having exchanged a few emails and jogged each other's memories, here's the Authorised Version: The D came first. As Roy says, "We wanted to call it something and DUNGEN was the best adventure game that we had played up until then. (I was never really very keen on Haunt!)". The D has always stood for "Dungeon" and the fact that the acronym was also a word was a secondary (though not unimportant) consideration. He didn't start with an acronym and work backwards; he wanted to write something that was like a multi-user DUNGEoN. It wasn't the case that Roy thought Adventure games would be called "Dungeons", because even then they were being referred to in the context of ADVENTure. He might have named it after that program if it had been better than DUNGEoN, but it wasn't. The "MUDD" title in the listing I have from 1979 was because someone else (Keith Rautenbach, an undergraduate in the year above Roy) went through commenting the code and put in two Ds, probably because he thought it was a reference to Dungeons & Dragons. It never was, and the file that refers to "MUDD" is itself called MUD.MAC (.MAC for the MACRO-10 assembly language). |
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#23 | |
Legend
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,399
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
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#24 | |
Member
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
Last edited by iovan : 01-30-2011 at 06:55 PM. Reason: Bleh typo'd use as user. Too much coding and not enough sleep. |
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#25 |
Legend
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,399
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
From my perspective, Dungeon at least leans toward D&D and roots back to the start of Text games (all being dungeons and the first really being just DM's computer method of building a dungeon). Domain reminds me of an Internet Domain, a network, anything but gaming.
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#26 |
Member
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
From my perspective, Domain is all encompassing and can fit a variety of themes while Dungeon sounds limited to hack'n'slash fantasy. Why should a large expansive non-fantasy MUD be labeled strictly as Multi User Dungeon? It just doesn't seem to apply to a broad enough theme range in my view. What will those who have never experienced MUDs think of the name in regards to the text game that uses the label? Their first impression will be pretty much as you describe for the word Dungeon in the context of games. That may be woefully inaccurate to the text game in question who identifies itself as a MUD but not a fantasy MUD with any roots in D&D.
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#27 | |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
But the original MUD is named after the single-player adventure game Dungeon, and our genre is named after the original MUD, therefore we are running Multi-User Dungeons whether we like it or not. |
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#28 | |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Home MUD: Lost Souls
Posts: 199
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
On Wikipedia there's necessarily a sourcing dimension to the argument, but that's the ethical dimension from my point of view, minus the usual fight I have with Scandum about his Dikucentrism and pooh-poohing anything he sees as Tiny-related, such as the Domain and Dimension expansions. While we're here, I think a far better poll would have been a multiple-choice one that allowed you to select all expansions for MUD that you consider valid. Edit: So I made one; let's see how this poll does. It also includes every bizarre expansion for MUD that I've ever heard of. Last edited by chaosprime : 02-01-2011 at 01:34 PM. |
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#29 | |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
Supposing that MUDs are just Joe's hobby - professionally, he's the founder of a company that manufactures palmtop computers. If he decides that the word "personal" is too icky-touchy-feely, and that for him "PC" stands for "palmtop computer", then he can certainly use that in his marketing. Or he can even make up a new name entirely if he wishes. But his product is a PC, and will still be categorised by others as a type of "personal computer". |
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#30 | |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Home MUD: Lost Souls
Posts: 199
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
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#31 |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Sure, "Domain" and "Dimension" are both quite commonly used, and I think it's fine to document their usage. But I also think it's important to remember the original meaning, and where it comes from. I find it kind of sad when I hear people say things like "We don't have a dungeon, therefore we can't be a Multi-User Dungeon". Perhaps it would have been easier if Trubshaw had used Dungeon's original name instead...then we could all be happily running Multi-User Zorks!
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#32 |
Member
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Is "Joe Socializer" an insult directed at me (as slight as it may be)?
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#33 | |
Member
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Quote:
The history of it may point to that (I do not dispute that at all) but enough history also points to the other two uses mentioned in this thread. |
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#34 | |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Home MUD: Lost Souls
Posts: 199
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
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#35 |
Member
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Re: MUD - What do you think it should stand for?
Ah well that's good then. I wasn't really offended by it even if it were directed at me. Just didn't want my argument being tarnished by any misconceptions about me or my position.
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