''LegendMUD'' is a text-only MUD game founded by a group of friends including virtual world designer

Raph Koster Raphael "Raph" Koster (born September 7, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of ''A Theory of Fun for Game Design''. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of ''Ultima Online'' and the creative dir ...

. 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.

Game characteristics

The thematic structure of ''LegendMUD'' is based on a literal interpretation of historical legend, with content based on real locales at various points in history, but with mythological elements included as concrete reality. ''LegendMUD'' was derived from

DikuMUD 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 (''Datalogisk ...

. At present, it features over 8,000 rooms contained within 60 areas. ''LegendMUD'' features several innovations, one of which was that

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

s were not required to select a

character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is a job or profession commonly used to differentiate the abilities of different game characters. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes aggregate several abilities and aptitudes, ...

such as mage or warrior. Rather, a skill system is used, which has been noted as extensive and original. The player selects a hometown affecting the types of skills which are then able to be learned. For example, a character from the industrial period San Francisco has the opportunity to learn about guns, but cannot learn magic. In contrast, a character from ancient period Ireland is capable of learning druidic skills, but can never learn about more modern ideas such as field surgery. To further innovate on the learning of skills, the character must through interaction with non-player characters learn whatever that NPC had to teach, with some of these requiring a small form of quest.

History

In October 1995, ''LegendMUD'' was selected as The Mud Connector's Mud of the Month. Koster wrote "", a short essay and epitaph about the death of a ''LegendMUD'' player named Karyn. An investigative journalist later disproved evidence of Karyn's death.

Richard Bartle Richard Allan Bartle FBCS FRSA (born 10 January 1960) is a British writer, professor and game researcher in the massively multiplayer online game industry. He co-created ''MUD1'' (the first MUD) in 1978, and is the author of the 2003 book ''De ...

considered the incident to be a key event in the development of virtual worlds' ethics, similar to " A Rape in Cyberspace". The 'death' demonstrated that people can develop feelings for each other via the virtual world medium, thus experiencing real emotions about somebody they've never met, even an entirely fictional persona. ''A Story About a Tree'' is considered as a major counterargument against the "it's just a game" point of view on virtual worlds. Furthermore, it showcased that while being a very real object of grief to one party, it can indeed remain just a game for another.

References

External links

* {{MUDs 1994 video games MUD games Video games developed in the United States