[bovermyer]

It's much easier to support off-the-wall interactions and new game systems naturally in a MUD.

By that, I mean... adding a new race (for example) in a graphical game requires art assets, animation rigging, sound design, and ALSO the programming side of it. There may be follow-on work too, like producing equipment models that suit the new race's dimensions.

In a MUD, you just program the new race, and off you go.

This ability to iterate quickly, with a lower barrier to ideas, means that you can try all kinds of things on a very low budget.

[danielmarkbruce]

These seem like good reasons to build a text based game. I'm wondering what the reasons are to play one.

[muzani]

Just take DF for example:

"The necromancer managed to raise both a skeleton and a hollow skin, which I'll keep because it makes as much sense as a walking skeleton"

"My adventurer fought through around sixty zombies in the tower, killed the necromancer, learned the secrets of life and death, and then raised various limbs (not my own). Then I talked to one of them, and it told me that it was peasant. It was flattered but had no need of my services. I imagine its little fingers were shaped into the form of a mouth and they flapped back and forth while it spoke with a high-pitched voice. I guess there's still work to do."

"Of course, you might prefer raining "blood", but we don't have generic blood anymore and I don't think it's proper to add it now that we've got real alternatives, though perhaps a slurry of some kind would be appropriate later. It didn't even work out right with the rodent man blood — the indexing was screwed up, and we ended up with "a dusting of rodent man skin"... dandruff snow."

Other bug fixes: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-most-ridiculous-patch-notes-from...

[bovermyer]

The same thing! Imagine getting new features, new content, and new systems at a far more rapid rate from a far smaller developer.

And most MU*s are free. The paid ones, like GemStone, are even better... though the subscription price might be hard to swallow for people who are used to AAA graphical games not costing anything (at least on the surface).

[danielmarkbruce]

This seems like a fair enough value proposition i guess.

But, how do people get interested in the first place? Is it just one of those things you see your friends doing and do it for social reasons and then a few weeks later you actually enjoy it for it's own sake and the cycle continues?

[bovermyer]

I don't know how people discover MUDs these days. I discovered them in the mid 90s because I was bored and happened to find out about them on a Usenet feed.