A few thoughts about MUDs and MMORPGs based on points raised in this thread on the Zuggsoft forums.

I hate time-based advancement. I’ll agree with Yahtzee (note:sweary) here – “seriously, why I am being rewarded for not playing the game?”. Give me levels any day. The only thing you need to do to turn a tedious grind into fun is to take some people along. There’s a reason MMORPGs are social games, and that’s it: things are more fun with more people. It’s simple to make a grind fun: bring someone along who you can trash-talk, chat to, someone you can help through the challenges and someone who can help you through them. The funnest part of WoW is the instances, for exactly that reason.

Now, the reason my MUD palette is quite tightly-focused: I can’t stand combat in most MUDs (or MMORPGs for that matter). It’s mentioned in the above-linked review, actually, that most MMORPG combat is about clicking on an enemy to start kicking him in the shins, and then waiting while he kicks you back until one of you dies. The KILL command is not my friend: it’s the reason why I play Mages and Rogues (and, to a lesser extent, Druids) rather that Warriors and Paladins. I think this combat snobbery (because that’s what it is – clearly there’s plenty of fun to be had in a MUD that uses KILL, or so many people wouldn’t play them. I don’t know what my shortcoming is, but I just don’t get it.) stems from the first MUD I played: Achaea. And then the second MUD I played: Imperian. And then the third MUD I played: Lusternia. See a pattern here?

Combat in IRE muds has no kill command. I mean, sure, PvE combat is generally repeating POKE SPIDER IN FACE and DRINK HEALTH POTION until one of you dies, but at least pressing a macro every couple of seconds makes me feel involved. I remember trying out WoTMUD one time, largely because I’m a gigantic Robert Jordan fan, and actually typing KILL SPIDER or whatever, and going to get a glass of apple juice and some hobnobs while my character happily bashed the scoundrel in the face. A game like that isn’t fun after playing something where you’re actually involved in the fighting.

And the PvP. Oh lord, the PvP. I love it to bits. My hands actually shake sometimes during a particularly epic fight, my pulse races when another guy comes into the room and tries to team up with the one I was already fighting. I’m gasping as I try to flee to safer ground, breathing a huge sigh of relief when I get there. This isn’t an exaggeration – it sounds it, I know, but it isn’t. The combat really is that good, and really does evoke that kind of reaction.

So which would you rather do: fight a battle so intense you actually have to go and have a lie down afterwards, or type KILL SPIDER and go and get a cuppa? That’s why I can’t play most MUDs: I’m spoilt.

Now, having said all this, I would love for someone to extol the merits of combat in a MUD like Aardwolf. I’ve tried, I really have, to like Aardwolf. So many people enjoy it that I felt it was unfair not to give it a chance. I tried playing a spellcaster, in the hopes that the fighting would be a bit more involved and it was, a bit, but something just didn’t work for me.

Perhaps it was because IRE MUDs – what I was brought up on – force you into some kind of social interaction. The whole game is designed to pretty much make you socialise, by forcing you to join a group to get any skills, and then strongly encouraging you to join one of the city-states that can never get along. Aardwolf, by contrast, seemed… empty. In an IRE MUD – any IRE MUD – it’d be quite common for a higher-levelled player to take a bunch of lower-levelled players killing stuff they wouldn’t be able to kill on their own. This was fun times, because there was a real sense of danger – if you weren’t careful, these guys could really mess you up. A few hits and you’d be dead.

Aardwolf, by contrast, doesn’t link you up immediately with a bunch of other players who might want to join up with you to get your twenty bear faces for your quest. You’re left to do the asking yourself, which feels, I know know… rude. It seems hard to break into the communities that have formed in Aardwolf, as well – in IRE games, everyone’s always looking for new members, and all you need to do is do HELP <orgname> to be given a list of people who are able to induct you and will be able to tell you how to go about it.

So yes, the two things I want from a MUD: Plenty of social interaction, easy to get into and easy to enjoy; and combat that really makes your blood pump. For that reason, I play Imperian and, to a lesser extent these days, Lusternia. Any recommendations are welcome, especially ones from players MUDs with a kill command – like Aard – who can explain what it is about combat that works well for them.