The Best Mud Games in 2021
Mud games are a type of game that was popularized in the 1980s but is still played today. They are usually mud-based multiplayer games where players can run around and build things together or play against each other in multiple modes. An avatar will represent the player’s character on their computer screen to interact with the mud environment. These games were developed independently from MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). However, there has been a crossover between some mud developers and MUD developers since muds use similar code to create worlds for users to explore.
There have been many dirt games throughout history, such as Oubliette, Neverwinter Nights, Legends of Future Past, Eternal Lands & LPMud.
Muds are unique from other multiplayer games because grounds have a virtual space where players can roam freely and interact in real-time. While most action-based online games limit player interactions to keyboard commands or mouse movements, A mud’s world is not designed around combat like many modern video games but instead exploring the environment and socializing with other players through role play.
Players usually start as newbie characters who do not have any special skills or abilities, making them weaker than existing established veteran players on the mud who already have character profiles built up over months of playing. Players must engage in grounds to build up their character’s skills and abilities as they play.
Dirt games are not as popular nowadays because of how much time it takes to develop a mud world. However, with the rise of virtual reality becoming more common in video gaming, there is an opportunity for mud worlds to make a comeback.
Popular mud games in 2021
They include Oubliette, Neverwinter Nights, Legends of Future Past, Eternal Lands & LPMud.
Oubliette
Oubliette is a dirt game set in the fantasy world of Algath. It was created by John Buehler and released publicly on March 15, 1991. Oubliette’s name comes from the French word “oubliette,” which means literally “a place of forgetting.” In medieval times an oubliette was usually a dungeon accessible only from a hatch or hole (for example, at ground level) located high up in one wall; prisoners held there were lowered down via this opening and left to die of hunger and thirst. The first muds with graphics appeared around 1996 after Roy Trumbull started work on his MUSH server software called TinTin++, which allowed users to connect to soils with a telnet client and see the mud worlds they are exploring as simple ASCII graphics. Other mud developers were inspired by this example, leading to many new grpund games being developed soon after, including Neverwinter Nights in 1991, one of the most popular grpund games ever created.
LPMuD
LPMud stands for LambdaMOO, the virtual world it powers. It was created by Pavel Curtis and named after his then-favorite object-oriented programming language (Lisp). LPMud is a mud engine that allows users to connect via telnet or an IP*Works! A client such as McMaster and explore multiple mud worlds hosted on one server. The first muds with graphics appeared around 1996 after Roy Trumbull started work on his MUSH server software called TinTin++, which allowed players to connect to grounds with a telnet client and see the mud worlds they are exploring as simple ASCII graphics. Other mud developers were inspired by this example, leading to many new dirt games being developed soon after, including Neverwinter Nights in 1991, one of the most popular mud games ever created.
