Rent (MUD)

Last updated

Rent, in MUDs (primarily DikuMUDs), is a mechanism for both enabling and limiting persistence of a player character's possessions. In the "traditional" rent paradigm, in order to keep belongings between game sessions, the player must travel to an inn and use the rent command there, and is assessed a price, in game money, for each inventory item; items that cannot be paid for are not persisted. [1] If the player simply uses the quit command rather than rent, inventory items are not kept, and fall to the ground. [2] Many evolutions of this approach exist: the rent command is often made to be performable anywhere rather than only at an inn, sometimes costs are removed or made negligible, and so on. [3] [2] At times, in MUDs where inventory is made to simply persist automatically when the player quits the game, the conceptualization of inventory persistence as "rent" is sufficiently ingrained that this is referred to as "autorent". [4]

Rent is often considered an annoyance to players, which is a factor that drives the many variations seen on the concept. [3] [1] [2] On the other hand, the need to pay to retain one's items can provide an impetus to engagement with the game, though this may be seen as unduly coercive. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

A MUD is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat. Players can read or view descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, non-player characters, and actions performed in the virtual world. Players typically interact with each other and the world by typing commands that resemble a natural language.

Pawnbroker

A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been pawned to the broker are themselves called pledges or pawns, or simply the collateral. While many items can be pawned, pawnshops typically accept jewelry, musical instruments, home audio equipment, computers, video game systems, coins, gold, silver, televisions, cameras, power tools, firearms, and other relatively valuable items as collateral.

Twinking is a type of behavior in role-playing games which involves deceiving other players about one's playing abilities or achievements in the game. A player who engages in such behavior is known as a twink. The precise definition of twinking varies depending on the variety of role-playing game:

DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of multi-user domain (MUD). It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Stærfeldt at DIKU —the department of computer science at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Online creation

Online creation, also referred to as OLC, online coding, online building, and online editing, is a software feature of MUDs that allows users to edit a virtual world from within the game itself. In the absence of online creation, content is created in a text editor or level editor, and the program generally requires a restart in order to implement the changes.

The MUD trees below depict hierarchies of derivation among MUD codebases. Solid lines between boxes indicate code relationships, while dotted lines indicate conceptual relationships. Dotted boxes indicate that the codebase is outside the family depicted.

<i>Discworld MUD</i>

Discworld MUD is a popular MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, set in the Discworld as depicted in the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett.

A MUD client is a computer application used to connect to a MUD, a type of multiplayer online game. Generally, a MUD client is a very basic telnet client that lacks VT100 terminal emulation and the capability to perform telnet negotiations. On the other hand, MUD clients are enhanced with various features designed to enhance the gameplay of MUDs.

Key money is one of several forms of payment made to a landlord. The term has various meanings in different parts of the world. It sometimes means money paid to an existing tenant who assigns a lease to a new tenant where the rent is below market. It sometimes means a bribe to a landlord. In other parts of the world, it is used synonymously with normal security deposits, which are used to cover nonpayment of rent and excessive damage to a rental unit.

A mob, short for mobile, is a computer-controlled non-player character (NPC) in a computer game such as an MMORPG or MUD. Depending on context, every and any such characters in a game may be considered to be a "mob", or usage of the term may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack.

TinyFugue, or tf, is a MUD client, primarily written for Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the earliest MUD clients in existence. It is a successor to the earliest MUD client, TinyTalk, through a never-officially-released improved version called TinyWar. It was developed by Ken Keys until 2008. Like the name suggests, it is primarily geared toward TinyMUD variants, but can easily be used or adapted for most other MUD types.

<i>Powermonger</i>

Powermonger is a real-time strategy game developed by Bullfrog in 1990 for Amiga and Atari ST. It derived from the Populous engine but presented using a 3-dimensional game map.

<i>GodWars</i>

GodWars is a family of MUD engines derived from Merc, created in 1995 by Richard Woolcock, also known as "KaVir". GodWars' setting is influenced by White Wolf's World of Darkness.

Microtransactions, often abbreviated as MTX, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions are a staple of the mobile app market, they are also seen on PC software such as Valve's Steam digital distribution platform, as well as console gaming.

The Mud Connector

The Mud Connector, abbreviated TMC, is a computer gaming website that provides articles, discussions, reviews, resource links and game listings about MUDs. The site lets MUD owners, administrators and enthusiasts submit information and reviews about specific MUDs. The site contains over 1000 MUD listings and designates a subset of virtual communities suitable for children. Mud Companion magazine praised the site.

<i>LegendMUD</i>

LegendMUD is a text-only MUD game founded by a group of friends including virtual world designer Raph Koster. It features historically significant story elements and award-winning gameplay. It opened publicly on February 14, 1994. It has received critical praise for its research and attention to detail in reconstructing past cultures within the game context.

An immortal, in MUDs and particularly DikuMUDs, is an administrator and/or developer of the game, often a player who has achieved "immortal" status by achievements within the game world. It is frequently abbreviated "imm" or "immort". Some MUDs have an option for players who have become immortals to "remort", returning to mortal status with advantages.

Consider is, in MUDs, a player character capability, usually implemented as a command, for evaluating the likely outcome of engaging in combat with a potential enemy. It is often abbreviated con.

Muddy Waters, frequently abbreviated MW, is a long-running MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, founded in 1993. It has received positive critical response.

<i>AVATAR</i> (MUD)

A.V.A.T.A.R. MUD is a free, online, massively multiplayer, fantasy, text-based role-playing game, set in a real-time virtual environment. It combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games, adventure games and social gaming.

References

  1. 1 2 Benedikt, Claire Lisette; Ciskowski, Dave (1995). MUDs: Exploring Virtual Worlds on the Internet. BradyGames. p. 177. ISBN   1-56686-246-9. Keeping Your Equipment Don't forget to find an inn and rent before you leave the MUD. If you just quit, your character probably will lose his equipment, so make sure you rent. This action can be one of the most annoying things about Dikus. If you have a new character with little or no gold, you are in trouble. You can also have a hard time if you find an item that's quite powerful. It's great, until you have to rent. The rent on your magnificent item may be well beyond what you can afford, forcing you to choose between going out in search of more gold and giving up the item.
  2. 1 2 3 Towers, J. Tarin; Badertscher, Ken; Cunningham, Wayne; Buskirk, Laura (1996). Yahoo! Wild Web Rides. IDG Books Worldwide Inc. pp. 157, 163. ISBN   0-7645-7003-X. [pp. 157] To Rent or Quit: That is the Question [...] Some MUDs will allow you to simply type quit to log off. That's it. Will you have your stuff when you come back? That depends on the MUD. On some you'll keep your stuff, on others you'll only return with part of it, and on some really painful ones you won't come back with anything. (You'll return with your money, though, so sell the stuff you have before you leave.) Other MUDs may require that you rent at an inn. This will usually allow you to keep your stuff, but if you're a long way from the nearest hotel you could be in trouble. Some rent is free and some will cost you a certain amount of money per item. This can be a pain, but sometimes it's your only choice when you think the MUD is worth it and you want to keep your stuff. [pp. 163] Also, make sure you rent instead of typing quit or you'll drop all your stuff.
  3. 1 2 3 Shah, Rawn; Romine, James (1995). Playing MUDs on the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 68. ISBN   0-471-11633-5. Rent One of the main factors that some Muds still have not dealt with is called rent. Rent is the game money you pay to keep your equipment safe until you return. Not all Muds have this ability. Some Muds, you simply quit on, and your equipment is stored. Other Muds make you rent, but the cost is so small as to make it negligible. Then there are Muds that actually make you pay for every item you wish to keep, which can be a major problem to play on. Cash becomes a severe problem because, every time you leave, it costs you money to stay away. Some people dislike Muds who have expensive rent, because it forces them to play or lose all their hard-earned equipment. This can be a major drive to play.
  4. ↑ "Idle, Autorent". Worlds of Carnage. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.