DartMUD

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DartMUD
DartMUD title partial.png
Developer(s) Jonathan "Desla" Clemens, project community
Engine LPMud
Platform(s) Platform independent
Release1991
Genre(s) MUD
Mode(s) Multiplayer

DartMUD is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, started in 1991 at Dartmouth College. It pioneered several interface and game play innovations which were later used to greater popular success by games such as Ultima Online .

Contents

Notable Contributions

A screenshot from DartMUD DartMUD screenshot.png
A screenshot from DartMUD

DartMUD "Firsts"

The actual dates of the first implementation of these ideas in MUDs or MMORPGs are not well documented and competing claims exist, but DartMUD was first, among the first, or an early adopter of the following:

Reception and influence

Game designer and industry author Raph Koster has mentioned DartMUD as an influential game in general [6] [7] and regarding many specific topics, such as hex mapping, [8] simulationism, [9] player-run economy, and crafting. [10] Other mud developers have occasionally mentioned DartMUD on MUD-DEV, the MUD Developers' mailing list. Koster and others often cite DartMUD as an innovative MUD that failed or fell short in execution. [11] [12] [13] [14]

DartMUD was one of twelve MUDs selected, by virtue of its Google search ranking, to receive player surveys by authors Anthony Faiola and Alexander E. Voiskounsky while researching their paper "Flow Experience of MUD Players: Investigating Multi-User Dimension Gamers from the USA". [15]

Design Considerations

The primary limitation on character actions is a 'concentration' system. The exercise of player skills reduces the chance that a subsequent skill check (of any skill, not just the same skill) will be successful. This penalty goes away fairly quickly, but it serves to prevent abuse based on the speed of prepared (e.g. client-side macro) input.

The founders of DartMUD decided to try to capture the unpredictability of the Rolemaster RPG's open-ended die rolling system using a custom implemented Cauchy distribution function. The unpredictable extremes of the Cauchy function have occasionally resulted in very memorably improbable results.

DartMUD also uses a seeded random number generator, which allows for certain similar "random" events to produce identical results, simulating the pointlessness of attempting certain actions twice: if an action failed once, it will fail again unless something has changed in a subsequent attempt.

Creatures in DartMUD possess "shapes" — a creature's shape file determines how many limbs it has, how many objects it can hold, natural armor, relative size and durability, and effects when one or more limbs are disabled. [16] Players may choose races which have from four to eight limbs, including one to four hands. [17]

Game World

Skills

DartMUD is a classless system, which means any skill may be learned by anyone. However, only some skills can be self-taught; others must be learned from a non-player character (NPC) or player teacher. Many skills aren't taught by NPCs, forcing a greater level of player interaction. Skills are improved by practicing relevant tasks of increasing difficulty, not by spending experience points. [18] While DartMUD doesn't have classes, requirements to practice skills to improve them and positive feedback for learning similar skills provide incentive for characters to specialize, encouraging player interdependence.

Due to the player-run economy, crafting skills provide greater game rewards than thief skills. In fact, since thieves mainly prey on other characters in DartMUD, they are generally hunted and killed if discovered. [19] Since combat is not required to advance, some players thrive despite avoiding violence altogether.

Role Playing

In DartMUD, roleplaying (RP) is not enforced by the staff. Rather, a confluence of factors — prominent among them permadeath, player interdependence, and the desire for wealth — create an unsimulated political system. "An armed society is a polite society" (Robert A. Heinlein) is a good summation: characters behave themselves in public and do their scheming behind closed doors. Using out-of-character communications to influence game play is against the rules, [20] and the creators reserve the right to delete and even ban problematic abusers. [21]

Players new to DartMUD have been advised to use a "disposable" character for their initial learning process, anticipating that they will make mistakes in their early socialization; a fresh start once the initial learning curve is past allows for community engagement with a clean reputation. [22]

Organizations

In DartMUD, magic items are rare and characters rarely gain special abilities; consequently, more mundane objects gain greater significance. As characters accumulate wealth, they require a place to keep it. Like other LPMuds of its era, DartMUD initially had no facility for equipment storage. As available disk space and processing power increased, storage facilities were added to the game in the form of collective resources for which players could strive: Castles, Guild halls, and Inns.

Castles and Guilds form factions; tensions arise from wars and shifting alliances.

History and Ancestry

DartMUD is maintained by donations from staff and players alike — since 2004, more than half of operating expenses have been covered by player contributions using PayPal. Unlike many other MUDs which encourage player donations, DartMUD never has conveyed any in-game reward or recognition to players who donate.

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ "About Dartmud". dartmud.com. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  2. ↑ "Death". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  3. ↑ "Hexes". Dartmud Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  4. ↑ "Text versus Graphics". Raph Koster's Website. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  5. ↑ "Crafts". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  6. ↑ Koster comments that at one point he listed DartMUD as one of the most influential online worlds
  7. ↑ "Definitions of Online Terms".
  8. ↑ Raph Koster discussing Dartmud's innovation in wilderness mapping for online games
  9. ↑ "Terra Nova".
  10. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-09-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Koster post on DartMUD's influence on Ultima Online's crafting system
  11. ↑ Archived 2007-05-15 at Archive.today MUD-Dev message, RE: [MUD-Dev] Seminal Designs, WAS: Alignment
  12. ↑ "Groups - article". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  13. ↑ Archived 2008-05-02 at the Wayback Machine MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: after the plague: mud report
  14. ↑ MUDDev Archive :: View topic - Room descriptions [ permanent dead link ]
  15. ↑ Faiola, Anthony; Voiskounsky, Alexander E. (2007). Flow Experience of MUD Players: Investigating Multi-User Dimension Gamers from the USA. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 7000 (2011). Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 4564. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73257-0. ISBN   978-3-540-73256-3. ISSN   0302-9743.
  16. ↑ "Body Parts". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  17. ↑ "Races". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  18. ↑ "Skills". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  19. ↑ "Intro to Thievery". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  20. ↑ "Basic Rules". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  21. ↑ "Punishments". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  22. ↑ Berge, Zane; Collins, Mauri P. (1998). Wired Together: Writing, Reading, and Language Acquisition. Hampton Press. p. 50. ISBN   1-57273-092-7.
  23. ↑ "Intro". DartMUD Helpfiles. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  24. ↑ http://www.aloha.net/ Archived 2010-02-10 at the Wayback Machine Hawaii On Line
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