Richard Bartle Awarded the GDC First Penguin Award

TerraNova has the story that MUD1 co-designer Richard Bartle has been awarded the annual First Penguin Award. The award is given for exhibiting "the courage and bravery of a developer who is the first to test the proverbial waters, in the face of uncertainty of success or failure. Receiving a 'penguin' serves as an inspiration and lesson to the community."

My first muds

[ackthpt]

My first muds were played on un*x systems. Funny that.

I hope Darl and his goons aren't reading this. If so, don't you have some paperwork or hearing to worry about?

Darl McBride is massacred to small fragments by your slash
Darl McBride is massacred to small fragments by your slash
Darl McBride is massacred to small fragments by your slash
Darl McBride is dead! R.I.P.

Muds

[Primal_theory]

They are really fun too, almost as addicting as an mmo, but sometimes even more!

Anybody know of some good ones? Post them here!

Re:Muds

[petsounds]

MUDs/MUSHes/MOOs *are* MMO games. The only real difference between them and modern MMO is the interface -- graphical vs. text. In fact, I would venture to say that some of the MUSHes and MOOs were more sophisticated and engaging than the more mainstream MMOGs of today. MOOs especially offered more ability for users to create complex objects through its own scripting language to enhance role-playing. The MMOGs of today are based on the MUD concept of gameplay, which always focused more on hack-n-slash and item collection than role-playing, with social interaction limited to parties banded together to make treasure hunting easier. Of course, MUDs in turn were heavily influenced by such early single-player games as the Nethack/Rogue/Moria variants on Unix systems.

There are still quite a few text-based MMO games out there, just google for them.

Re:Muds

[schild]

I'll save you the trouble and tell you exactly where this conversation will go. The following has comments on this exact subject from Raph Koster at SOE and Matt Mihaly at Iron Realms (they make big MUDs).

Link to the conversation [f13.net].

Re:Muds(MTrek returns)

[jtrek]

In the early 80s, Mulit-Trek or just MTrek (a real-time multi-player, player-kill space combat simulator-not a rpg)was created by Tim Wisseman(VGA Planets) and Chuck L. Peterson. Chuck eventually took completely over the game administration. Over the decades, tens of thousands of people have played this game. In 2001, the game was taken offline so Chuck could have more time to pursue his career in gaming design, and is now part of a large gaming firm. In 2003, several of the players actually re-wrote the ga

Re:Muds(MTrek returns)

[Arch D. Bunker]

mtrek and gameplay is a bit like radio plays vs TV, by concentrating on the game play with a text interface it actually heightens the sense of combat in space (I'm thinking of the famous Orson Welles radio play of "War of the Worlds" that caused a panic in the 1930s :) ... its a great game for the technically minded because you create keymaps (macros) of sequences of commands, which can help you get an advantage over an opponent, as well as letting you lay out the command keys of your ships as you like.

Re:Muds(MTrek returns)

[rumour_1999]

The game play of mtrek can get pretty intense even though it's "just text". One of my favorite aspects has always been the competitive nature, so it was a sad 'day' for me when the server was pulled. Man, I'm glad it's 'back'!

I think I'll go play for a bit :)

Re:Muds(MTrek returns)

[jtrek]

For anyone interested, here's a url with screenshots, so you can see what the game looks like these days. http://mtrek.game-host.org/screenshots.php/ [game-host.org]

Carrion Fields!

[Mongoose Disciple]

I'll take this rare opportunity to make an on-topic shameless plug of my MUD of choice, along with some explanation as to why it should be yours.

I will forego explaining all of the basics. Suffice to say that Carrion Fields has all of the things you would expect from a MUD that has prospered for over ten years.

Some highlights that should be important to players thinking about trying another MUD:

- We're a roleplaying MUD. The only OOC channel in the game is used for answering questions for new pl

Re:Morphine has good uses

[bladesjester]

Not all time spent on things like games would otherwise be spent working.

There is, after all, this thing called recreation. Assuming that you are defined by what work you do is a foolish and dangerous thing.

That being said, I think I'm going out for the day.

no kidding

[jtrek]

What about the guys that made the highly successful MMOGs before his came out? MTrek? Nettrek? ect..Not that _he_ isn't deserving, but there are others who are much more deserving of an award; rue visionaries who made the Online Multi-Player Game thing happen when there was nothing else like it- not some guy that just happened to be one of the first 500 or so to jump on a new bandwagon. :P

Annual "First Penguin Award"

[Anm]

This is not the first annual, nor is it the "Penguin Award". It is the First Penguin award and this is the fifth time it will be given out:
http://www.igda.org/awards/archive_penguin.htm [igda.org]
http://www.igda.org/awards/penguin.htm [igda.org]

Anm