Garfield Freeman

Garfield Freeman

David Hakanson

Josh Jost

Eli Stevens

Joan Qiong Wang

Project WGMud

You only wish real life were this cool.

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1.0 Project Background

1.1 State of the Industry

In 1997 Ultima Online (UO) brought graphical Massively multi-player Online Games (MOGs), a.k.a. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), to the forefront of the commercial gaming industry. UO's scale was something that the industry had not seen at that time in the United States. The Korean market is not covered here, as NCSoft’s Lineage, the Blood Pledge has more active accounts than the entire US market. Thousands of players have logged into UO and interacted, creating stories and generally enjoying the shared experiences. Since then, Everquest (EQ), Asheron's Call (AC), Anarchy Online (AO) and World War II Online: Blitzkrieg (WWII) have all added to what the general public perceives as groundbreaking games.

Figures from

Fig. 1.1a: UO screen shot depicting a crypt.

Fig. 1.1b: A dragon and zombies in a forest (UO).

Fig 1.1c: Talking with Lord Brittish, the in-game persona of the Ultima series (UO).

Being the first, UO’s technology seems the most dated. Of the MOGs listed, it is the only one with a 2D interface. The land available is also limited, while the geography dwarfs most single player games of its type and can hold several thousand players at once, the feature that allows player-owned housing means that much of the countryside is devoted to residences. However, its age also contribute to its ability to tweak the rule set that governs each collection of servers (called a “Shard” for in-game reasons, it has since spread to other games without the same game fiction). Several shards have variations on the standard rules, including shards that allow full player vs. player (PvP) conflict and shards that are much more role-play oriented.

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Fig. 1.1d: A dragon, one of EverQuest’s most powerful creatures.

Fig. 1.1e: An upcoming expansion pack will allow players to ride horses (EQ).

Everquest was the second of the “big three” (the third, Asheron’s Call, is discussed below). In terms of game play, it is considered one of the least innovative MOGs currently turning a profit. Game play consists of little but a leveling and equipment treadmill, where players battle monster after monster honing in-game abilities in order to face more powerful monsters who will leave behind better equipment. It has a very strong resemblance to one of the more popular text MUD codebases, DIKU Mud, so much that there was some question as to whether EQ incorporated some of the DIKU Mud code. However, the game was published by Sony, and their legal team out maneuvered the limited resources of the DIKU Mud license holders, so this issue was never resolved. Despite the criticism, EQ currently is the biggest American MOG, hands down (400,000 current subscribers).

Figures from

Fig. 1.1f: The Asheron’s Call magic system in action.

Fig. 1.1g: A character wielding claw weapons (AC).

Asheron’s Call, third of the big three and probably the most ambitious at its release, has failed to capture similar market share. It was the first project that the developer Turbine worked on, making it remarkable that a project of a MOG’s scope even saw the light of day.

Figure from

Fig. 1.1h: A tank on the European front in World War II Online: Blitzkrieg.

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Fig. 1.1I: An example of Anarchy Online’s sci-fi setting.

Fig. 1.1j: A map of a city, represented as in-game VR (AO).

The next two big games on the MOG scene were World War II Online: Blitzkrieg and Anarchy Online. Both produced by smaller developers, they have had very rough times post launch. WWII shipped with so many bugs that the developer did not start charging players for the typical month of free play until well after a month past launch (meaning they went for about two and a half months before they saw any revenue other than the box price). Anarchy Online has released several patches since launch, some drastically changing play balance. The lack of polish is causing some to question MOGs’ feasibility. However, the root of the problem lies in misunderstanding the nature of the software – MOGs are not simply multi-player games “done up big” any more than multi-player games are single player games “done up twice.”

However, the MOG is not dead: several more companies are planning on releasing other MOGs in the next year or so. Some of the most anticipated are Dark Ages of Camelot (due out very soon), Shadowbane and Horizons (both due to hit the shelves in 2002) and Worlds of Warcraft (since it is a Blizzard title, it will be released “when it is done”).

1.2 Text-Based Roots

However, UO was not the first. Not even close. Other companies had graphical worlds online and other organizations (both commercial and private non-profit) have hosted shared worlds. The First incarnation of the text-based precursors to UO was MUD I (Multi User DUNGEoN, after the ADVENT variant of the same name), created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle.

Since then, thousands of MUDs have appeared on university networks, BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) and the Internet. Codebase families have developed as popular systems are modified and expanded. New codebases have also been developed, sometimes becoming popular enough to spawn families in their own right.

Figure from

Fig. 1.2a: Examples of the branching that MUD codebases undergo, in this case the DIKU MUD and its derivatives.

1.3 Stagnation

The amount of prior art is huge, yet surprisingly stagnant. The ease with which one can obtain and administer a MUD using one of the standard, popular systems (DIKU Mud, for example) ends up being a detriment. Hundreds of almost cookie-cutter identical MUDs end up diluting the pool, making it very hard to find the few quality MUDs out there. They do exist – some very creative people are working on making the MUDs they run interesting and entertaining places to spend time. However, liberal (and sometimes plain wrong) use of phrases like “all original codebase;” “no stock areas;” “heavily modified” and the like in MUD listings can make it very difficult to tell which is which.

1.4 MUD Description

Most MUDs fall into a fairly general template that can be used to describe the genre as a whole. Of course, many MUDs deviate from this template in various ways, some significant, some not. In the following description, the term “MUD” refers to the template, not hard and fast rules that apply universally.

MUDs are semi-persistent state worlds, meaning that some changes affected on a world are permanent until some other effect changes them. Almost every MUD has persistence of character – the avatar that represents the player’s agent in the world keeps track of possessions, abilities and statistics that are saved when the player stops playing and are reloaded when s/he returns. MUDs also feature item persistence in that items placed in the world will stay there until the system recycles them or another avatar moves it. Often, item persistence does not last across server reboots. The use of “semi-persistent” applies to how most MUDs handle computer-controlled avatars (also known as moblies, mobs or NPCs). In general, each mob had a base state that it is reset to if the mob is changed too drastically from its base state (a typical mob would do so when “killed”). Often, large swathes of the game are returned to the base state at once in an event known variously as “resets” or “repops.”

Most MUDs draw their setting from any number of sources, but typically they come from a fairly predictable set of materials. Dungeons and Dragons, J. R. R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan are probably the biggest contributors, but any sword-and-fantasy author has probably influenced at least one MUD at one time or another. Ageless Elves, surly Dwarves, all sorts of Humans, stupid Ogres, angry Trolls, ancient Dragons, enchanted forests, soaring castles, magic swords, strange beasts, stout warriors, arcane wizards and nimble rogues are all standard fare.

2.0 Project Concept

2.1 General Ideas and Motivation

We want to break away from the cookie-cutter MUD codebases and develop something original and unique. We would like to make a MUD that uses some of the best ideas of the existing codebases, while adding features that have not been widely accepted. Our project will be live, with real users from (possibly) around the world playing, chatting with friends, forming social bonds and generally having a good time.

This is a key point - we will be developing software used by real people. It will not be a beta, or proof-of-concept, or feasibility research. It will be actually used by the public at large. The features used will be innovative, possibly implemented for the first time, but the “throw-away-code” implication will not apply to our system.

2.2 Base Feature Set

The core of the project will be a system that supports a few basic features. Access will primarily be through some kind of telnet client, one of which will be provided as a web application, presumably in Java. It will have an internal spatial locality (possibly based on the “room” paradigm, although others are being explored). It will provide a persistent avatar for the player that will be available for multiple play sessions and that will be recognizably unique (other players will be able to tell other avatars apart). The system will also integrate any persistent in-game messaging capabilities with a web interface. We will be examining the “web portal” concept and seeing what ideas from sites like can be used to enhance the player experience and help keep retention rates high. Like the traditional portal, we plan on offering customizable news, messaging (e-mail style), access to the help system and personal space for displaying character history and the like.

We would like the web to be a communication medium for the players; an effective retention device by allowing players to stay in touch with the game during periods they cannot log in; and as a means of building community. Entry and exit times for looking at the web page should be very low – they could check it from work or between classes if they wished, to encourage the above-mentioned retention.

2.3 Possible Project Extensions

Unlike many projects, the goal for a successful game is very nebulous. Player fun cannot be quantified, and since our system will differ from traditional MUDs in significant ways, not all comparisons will be valid and determining which ones are valid is not trivial. For example, we could not use hours logged by the players, as we will not be enticing the players to spend long ours playing. That will also affect our peak number of players online at once. Oppositely, we will most likely have many more characters per player, since those who do devote long hours to the MUD will be encouraged to have several.

Hence, we have only one objective: provide a captivating and entertaining experience for the players.

Unfortunately, there is no magic button that we can push to produce such an experience. The core system described (which contains more than many of the cookie cutter systems) could provide such an experience by itself if administered properly and seeded with the right player-base. However, we believe that by increasing the richness of the world provided to the players, the task becomes much easier. To that end, we have a list of possible extensions to the core idea that will be examined for feasibility and utility as the project goes forward (the list contains references to the MUD-Dev mailing list, a repository of knowledge and ideas related to the subject).

2.4 Candidate Extension Features

Integrate with other electronic communication schemes (like e-mail)

Downplay free time devoted to the MUD being equal to advancement in the game (use other measures, like player skill, age of the character, fixed resource allocation, etc.)

Interesting, non-repetitive combat

Detailed and varied magic system

Use a coordinate system for overland or outdoor movement, instead of using rooms

Political system with support for both admin- and player-defined social groups (guilds, sub-guilds, royal families, warlords, religious orders, cults, kingdoms, mercenary bands, etc.)

Allow the above groups to engage in warfare, either with military or politics and to ally with each other through military support or trade, etc.

Allow players and guilds to decorate and build their own spaces in the MUD (like constructing and owning a home, castle, wizard’s tower, or taking over one of the above from it’s previous owner)

Make guild system based off of territory controlled (if a thieves guild controls the docks of a particular city, they would receive most of the income from the docks in the form of payoffs, protection money, etc. If the city increased the patrols in the area and regained control, they would get most of the income in the form of taxes and tariffs)

Allow user created items

Have interesting, challenging and well-integrated elder games (for very old / powerful players)

Allow rooms and areas to be dynamic, based on factors such as controlling guild

Provide for items and equipment that benefit the above groups as a whole (like a holy relic improving the healing abilities of the all priests in a church)

And other good reading:

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