From: exile@pogo.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Heresiarch) Newsgroups: rec.games.mud Subject: faq Message-ID: Date: 16 Jul 91 23:33:17 GMT Sender: news@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu Reply-To: exile@silver.lcs.mit.edu Distribution: rec Organization: The Torch of Chaos and Doubt Lines: 234 note the first: i'm posting this because everyone seems interested. some of the information in here is out of date. don't complain. you are warned. *NOTE* this post reflects the bias of the author towards playing tiny* muds. while the standards for behavior will be the same for tinymuds, abermuds, lp muds, et.al, any and all of the technical information may be incorrect for lp and abermuds. if someone else writes up information for other muds, i'll include it. Q. what's a mud? MUD usually stands for multi-user dimension. or multi-user dungeon. or mauve ugly ducks. these are games that you telnet or otherwise connect to. if you don't know what telnet is, go look it up. you can explore imaginary places, kill monsters, collect treasure, build new realms, or interact with other players. you usually access a mud by telnetting to the address or the address plus port number. Q. where are the muds? there is a compiled list of current muds posted here on a semi-regular basis, as well as frequent announcements of new muds and changes in old ones. i have nothing to do with the list, so don't bother me if it hasn't been posted recently. Q. ok, so i telnetted to a mud. what do i do now? [hint--if you don't know what telnet is, and can't find any information about it on your system, you may not be able to connect to a mud. sites that have an .edu extension probably have telnet; .com might; and .bitnet probably doesn't. .uucp won't.] usually you need a character to play a mud. the mud welcome message should tell you how to get a character. if you are checking out a mud for the first time, please try using the guest character before you create you own. this saves space. many muds are restricted. this means you have to send a mail message to the wizard and ask for a character. (muds end up restricted because the wizard had a bad experience with someone trying to crash their mud or otherwise be a pain. don't do this.) Q. how do i find my way around? once you are connected, try typing help. you may also find information on where to ftp the latest documentation on that mud, or where to find a client server that makes connection easier. most muds have libraries with extensive help built right into the game. some even have robot tour guides. try ftp'ing doc files and clients from groan.berkeley.edu, spamalot.ecn.uoknor.edu, or lancelot.avalon.cs.cmu.edu. *note* the source for programs discussed on this group are often available on these machines, if they are for public consumption. Q. what's a client? a client is a program that can replace telnet. clients offer vastly increased editing and macro capabilities. clients can hilite important people or gag (suppress output) from people you'd rather not see. you will usually have to ftp, uncompress, and compile a client program if you want to use it. if you don't know how to ftp, uncompress, and compile, don't bother us. go read your manual. one more thing. clients (like any other program) will be written to run on a particular configuration. in practicality, this means that a program that does not state that it will run on system V, vms, an hp or a pc jr. with 128k ram, it won't. Q. what is the easiest way to annoy players on the mud when i connect for the first time? try whining to everyone that you don't understand how to play when you haven't typed 'help' yet. Q. what's the most annoying thing an existing player can do to a new player? try shouting 'get a desc' at the poor person. let them get oriented or figure it out themselves. a description isn't mandatory equipment to play a mud. if they have a clue, they will figure it out. if they don't, you've just dumped more confusing information on the new player. or maybe they would rather leave themselves up to your imagination. ever thought of that? Q. what things should i not do on a mud? never behave on a mud as you would not in real life. computer interaction seems to make people nastier and more obnoxious. it doesn't. it merely gives the rude and ignorant more efficent and anonymous means to display their rudeness and ignorance. if you are tempted to behave rudely to someone, remember that you may meet these people in real life. they may break your nose. on any mud disruptive activities, threats or sexual harassment are usually grounds for getting you thrown off. don't hog resources. on muds with a limited number of players, don't leave yourself logged in when you're not playing. on muds which permit building, don't create lots of empty objects which other mudders will not be able to play with. this clutters the database. most tiny-type muds may suffer eventual death due to database bloat, so clutter is a serious problem. don't litter. take your objects home with you, and don't disconnect leaving your character in a public area. use designated areas to post signs. if you build something on mud, whether castle or puzzle, remember that the administrators of the mud have no obligation to save, maintain, or back-up what you built. there are many reasons for databases to get deleted or trimmed. they can be corrupted by a system crash. it is not uncommon for a database to be thrown out or recycled to make space. if your stuff gets deleted, don't take it personally. if it were really important to you, you'd have made a backup, right? don't expect privacy. you're on the internet. some bored cia agent somewhere is logging your every word, and some mannerless frosh is probably stealing your password even as you read this. Q. what's a wizard? a wizard, also called a tinker (or more accurately 'janitor') is usually the person who set up and runs the mud. wizard means something else in lp-type muds. remeber that the wizard has gone well out of hir way to make the resources of hir machine available to play on. you are a guest. you have no special rights when using someone else's machine. if you don't like the way a mud is run, then leave. be nice to wizards. send them birthday presents. and remember, phoning a wizard at 4 am to ask them to reboot their crashed mud is considered to be in extremely poor taste. if you feel that you have been mistreated by a wizard, i would suggest talking to the person or the wizard #1 of the mud _before_ you complain to rec.games.mud. Q. what's a bot and how do i run one? a robot is an external program run on a client machine that logs into a mud as a player. usual bot functions include mapping, passing messages, quoting people, and generating money for the players (more easily done by asking a wizard). bots can also be parts of puzzles or mud scenery. some bots are fairly complex expert systems and can hold up a reasonable conversation. there are a couple of problems with bots. a poorly programmed bot may crash a mud, and if they are let loose in public places, they generally piss the players off by creating lots of 'noise' as they spout error messages. that's why many muds have some sort of restriction on bots. don't try running a bot unless you have lots of experience in both muds and programming and are willing to supervise it as if it were a destructive three year old in a restaurant. Q. how do i run my own mud? get serious. you couldn't possibly want to run a mud. it's a pain in the ass, as many retired wizards can attest. a mud of any decent size requires at least a small workstation to run on, and it tends to hog the entire machine. an unrestricted mud is an invitation for ignorant, bored, and sexually frustrated frosh from all over the net to log into your machine, insult you, solicit sexual favors the thought of which will make you ill, and attempt to steal your password file. you think i'm kidding, don't you? getting a mud up and running requires significant expertise. most muds are written in c and designed to run on an internet-connected machine running unix. if you can't at least write, compile, and debug a c program on your own, then be satisfied playing on established muds. by the way, if a mud program doesn't say it works on your machine, it doesn't (see note on 'client' above). Q. running and playing muds is not permitted on my site. how can i get around this? go play ping-pong. unfortunately, the net and your site's computers probably don't exist just to supply you with free games. running a mud on a system without the administration's permission is a fast way to lose your account. playing muds during peak hours when this isn't permitted will slow down the whole system and ruin things for other players who are more polite than you are. don't patronize a non-sanctioned mud. remember that as soon as the site administration finds it, it will go away, taking your character and everything you built into the bit bucket. Q. can i mud if i'm not on the internet? most of the muds discussed on this group are telnet-access. people have mention a mud they wrote which does dialup access. mudding is obviously too much fun to be restricted to the internet. if all you have is a computer and a modem, why don't you build your own? do you use any commercial game software, either on your own microcomputer or on compuserve? Q. why are muds so popular and addictive? my personal theory is that with computer text adventure games, the thrill comes mostly from interacting with the authors. in other words, someone designed a world, and now you get to wander in it, defeat their puzzles, kill their monsters, and marvel at their imagination. eventually, however, you finish the game and get bored with it. muds are constantly changing, adding new areas and new challenges. meanwhile, you get to interact with real live people, not just compiled code. Q. what's the easiest way to annoy ashne? send me mail asking me something i didn't cover here. if it isn't here, i probably don't know how it works either. Q. why does ashne type in lower-case? because the capitalists will be first against the wall when the revolution happens! any questions? happy mudding. -- _______________________________________________________________________ all the time you know she's smiling, exile@silver.lcs.mit.edu you'll be on your knees tomorrow -steely dan lburka@eagle.wesleyan.edu lauren@ikaros.harvard.edu