Research past MUDs - Githubissues

I'd like to get a really good sense of the full diversity of MUDs/MOOs/MUSHes that existed. Like, what is the difference between a MUD and a MOO? I played a few MUDs as a teenager, and have written a couple of simple ones that implement the most basic features of fantasy RPG MUDs. But my understanding is that the were quite a few different ones with very different gameplay features.

For example, all the games I played and wrote organized space into Rooms connected into what is called a "Directed Graph". The Rooms had Exits to other Rooms, and those Exits could be unidirectional. But that's not the only way to organize space. Apparently, there were sci-fi themed games that had full two-dimensional planes representing space and you had to execute navigation commands to get from planet to planet.

There is a wiki associated with this repo, just use the navigation tabs at the top of the page to get to it. You'll see that I have started a Table of Contents with a section for Research. None of the pages are started yet, just fill them out however you see fit.

This issue is not a technical task. I'd like for it to be left for contributors of backgrounds not centered on programming, scripting, or software development.

Feel free to create a number of sub issues linked to this task. Look up "GitHub Flavored Markdown" for how you can make checklist boxes and refer issues to each other. You might do a high level of research h to identify a set of games to analyze, then create individual issues for analyzing each game. Ideally, I like to break issues down until they either can't be broken down anymore or they represent less than half a day's worth of work.

Bonus points if you track down some original developers of the old games and interview them. We could start a blog series about that.

capnmidnight / small-town

Research past MUDs #84