3 ms·

History is complicated. Scepter of Goth (SoG) preceded MUD commercially as the first commercial multi-player role playing game. But Scepter of Goth disappeared

History is complicated. Scepter of Goth (SoG) preceded MUD commercially as the first commercial multi-player role playing game. But Scepter of Goth disappeared while MUD continued to be around for longer, so SoG is not as well remembered. Bartle's book is great, it's highly recommended. People are still developing interactive fiction ("text based adventures") today.

freediver 5y ago
Interactive fiction is not to be confused with MUDs though. Both are a subset of text based adventures. Typical IF is more of a single-player closed system with linear progression while MUDs are open world, multiplayer (but still text-based) systems.
- dwheeler 5y ago
  I agree, interactive fiction != MUDs. Thanks. It's a little sad that this has to be explained today :-).
rjsw 5y ago
Essex MUD wasn't commercial.
brianstorms 5y ago
Bartle inventing "MUD" is like the has-so-many-PhDs-guy who claims he invented "EMAIL". Bartle was unaware of the PLATO system, which had numerous MUDs up and running and mature by the time his was released online.
- dreyfan 5y ago
  If two people invent or discover a similar thing, independently, they’re both inventors.
- dannyobrien 5y ago
  I see you've written a book on PLATO -- I'd love to know some of the examples of these early MUDs. I believe the deal with the noted jurist who claims to have invented email is that he may have had an earlier version of a text delivering system called email, except that there is very strong disagreement that his version of email has any living descendants. If we assume that he's wrong, then the right inventor of MUDs is the one whose creation has many (more popular) descendants. I played on the original Essex MUD in the early 80s, and it had a lot of distinctive qualities that directly inspired many of the other MUDs, including I believe LambdaMOO. And, unless you have any competing evidence, I think it might be fair to say that Bartle and colleagues predecessors at least coined the term "MUD".
- wodow 5y ago
  I see DVW discusses PLATO's multi-user games in the section "The Fifth Age", at least Orthanc and Oubliette pre-MUD1 (Essex MUD; 1978), saying "the interaction it allowed between characters was very limited; it was almost there, but not quite". Were there other world games on PLATO in the 1970s? (Same section adds "In late 1979, the first ever fully-functional graphical virtual world was released [on PLATO]: Avatar.")

freediver 5y ago

Interactive fiction is not to be confused with MUDs though. Both are a subset of text based adventures. Typical IF is more of a single-player closed system with linear progression while MUDs are open world, multiplayer (but still text-based) systems.

dwheeler 5y ago
I agree, interactive fiction != MUDs. Thanks. It's a little sad that this has to be explained today :-).

rjsw 5y ago

Essex MUD wasn't commercial.

brianstorms 5y ago

Bartle inventing "MUD" is like the has-so-many-PhDs-guy who claims he invented "EMAIL". Bartle was unaware of the PLATO system, which had numerous MUDs up and running and mature by the time his was released online.

dreyfan 5y ago
If two people invent or discover a similar thing, independently, they’re both inventors.
dannyobrien 5y ago
I see you've written a book on PLATO -- I'd love to know some of the examples of these early MUDs. I believe the deal with the noted jurist who claims to have invented email is that he may have had an earlier version of a text delivering system called email, except that there is very strong disagreement that his version of email has any living descendants. If we assume that he's wrong, then the right inventor of MUDs is the one whose creation has many (more popular) descendants. I played on the original Essex MUD in the early 80s, and it had a lot of distinctive qualities that directly inspired many of the other MUDs, including I believe LambdaMOO. And, unless you have any competing evidence, I think it might be fair to say that Bartle and colleagues predecessors at least coined the term "MUD".
wodow 5y ago
I see DVW discusses PLATO's multi-user games in the section "The Fifth Age", at least Orthanc and Oubliette pre-MUD1 (Essex MUD; 1978), saying "the interaction it allowed between characters was very limited; it was almost there, but not quite". Were there other world games on PLATO in the 1970s? (Same section adds "In late 1979, the first ever fully-functional graphical virtual world was released [on PLATO]: Avatar.")