andrew cowan : muds

As the Internet becomes a more notable source for research and more important to businesses as a marketing vehicle, I like to take the time to emphasize the entertainment value which the internet can also provide. For many years a genre of online multiplayer gaming has remained a part of the net's underground. I am referring to MUDs (multi-user dungeons), which are predominantly text-based RPG style games, though many variations exist. The first mud created in the late 1970s and today there are thousands of MUDs running, and hundreds of thousands of gamers enjoying them.

In 1995 I created a website called The Mud Connector (or TMC for short). to help people learn more about MUDs and to provide an easier way for gamers to locate a specific MUD based on their interests. TMC currently lists over 1100 free MUDs and there are over 80,000 members registered to the website. TMC proides several ways to find a MUD, including simple and advanced searching, categorical lists as well as a purely random-generated mud picker. The website also has numerous discussion boards for the community, resource listings and both staff and player-submitted MUD reviews.

If you are a gamer looking for something new that requires the use of your imagination I recommend visiting TMC and reading the information available. Additionally the Wikipedia MUD page is another source of information to help get started.