Free Quality Text Muds
Why?
There are almost two thousand MUDs out there on the internet. Of these, the vast majority are nearly stock clones, poorly redesigned or poorly run by a sub par staff. At the other end of the spectrum are MUDs created by dedicated gamers who have decades of experience and take pride in the details. Yet, these free, quality text MUDs have no advertising budgets and thus find it impossible to create a real presence on the internet in the face of animated banner ads from pay MUDs and have no way of distinguishing themselves from the hundreds of other MUDs.
Who?
We are the designers, builders and coders of some of the above mentioned ‘quality’ games. We have joined together as a community effort to create this site and promote games which embody the ideals of quality, fairness and sharing. We’ve each spent years striving to build a quality game environment, realised the difficulties, seen our own shortcomings, and thus can admire the work of others and recognise their triumphs, even if it’s a game we wouldn’t play ourselves. We wish to applaud the efforts of others and give them the recognition they deserve. It is our intention to be inclusive, not exclusive. Games of all kinds, from traditional ‘hack and slash’ to pure roleplaying, with themes from history to the future, are all welcome.
How?
The decisions will not be made by a small group of individuals, i.e. the List Admin. All listed MUDs will provide at least one volunteer auditor to help with this task. Naturally, no MUD will be allowed to audit themselves. Apart from that, who judges who among the listed MUDs will be decided by lot, and new applicants will be audited on a revolving schedule.
Where?
All audit reports will be public. They will provide a valuable outside view to the game staff, perhaps giving insights on possible improvements. These audits will also give potential players in search of a MUD more background information about the MUD prior to trying it. The criticism given will be constructive in nature. MUD administrators and members of the message boards will both have the opportunity to comment on the audit reports. MUD owners who do not wish such criticism perhaps should not apply to be listed.
What?
For our definitions of MUD, quality and free you may click on those words, or read the entire FAQ. We have certain criteria we consider essential to be considered a game of quality, but excellence, by its nature, is a moving target. Below, features that have been marks of excellence in the past are listed as examples of what you might find on the games we list.
To be a Free MUD, a game must:
- require no fees, initial or ongoing.
- not provide in game benefits available for money.
- be created and maintained entirely by volunteers.
To be a Quality MUD, a game must:
- comply with all codebase and area copyright and license restrictions.
- have a demonstrated uptime stability.
- have been up and running for minimum 12 months and be fully functional.
- have a coherently designed world.
- have a dedicated and accessible staff.
- provide a positive experience for new players.
- have a website designed to promote and connect to the game.
- have a working, up to date help file system.
- utilize correct punctuation, spelling and grammar.
Examples of Excellence
(Naturally, no MUD is supposed to fill all the listed criteria, some of them are even contradictory. They should be regarded as examples of different factors that might be present in a quality MUD.)
World Elements
- possess an all original world of consistent quality.
- offer built-in zone quests.
- offer different forms of extra descriptions.
- offer a consistent and apparent MUD theme.
- support readers and/or raw telnet.
- include effective use of dynamic descriptions.
Gameplay Elements
- run from an original codebase.
- possess significant modifications from the stock codebase/MUDlib.
- provide multiple forms of advancement within the game.
- offer active Clans/Guilds/Factions.
- provide equally interesting play at all levels.
- offer purely skill-based advancement.
- offer spell checking.
Roleplay Elements
- provide an IC only environment. Enforced.
- provide an IC only environment. Honor system.
- provide clearly separate areas for IC and OOC behavior.
- provide “playback” capability for missed poses.
- provide broadcast facilities for RP sessions of public interest.
- post edited logs of important sessions.
- provide options supporting and promoting roleplay within the MUD theme.
- offer training for new players of any level.
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