Introduction
Many of the problems associated with making an MMO, a Massively Multiplayer Online game, come in large part from the very first term: Massively. An MMO is notably tricky to build due to technical issues involving server scaling, as well as design issues involving scaling economics, politics, level design, pacing, persistence, and progression. A rule of thumb is that development costs grow exponentially as the number of players increases, but for many years, theres been an unquestioned assumption that bigger player numbers are inherently better and therefore worth pursuing.
Yet we see clear counterexamples. Many early MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) involved populations of dozens-to-thousands of people and still have vibrant communities to this day [1]. Multiplayer Minecraft is wildly successful, despite its reliance on relatively small, instanced servers. And many modern hit games, like Fortnite, are online games that successfully limit their focus to matches of 100 o
50 Years of Text Games
Original Version: December 1978
Online Until: 1987 (original Essex MUD); 1999 (British Legends)
Language: MACRO-10 (version 1 and 2); BCPL/MUDDL (version 3)
Platform: PDP-10
PATHOS
This persona already exists - what s the password?
Password
Yes!
Your last game was today at 6:24:32.
Hello again, Pathos the champion!
Narrow road between lands.
You are stood on a narrow road between The Land and whence you came. To the north and south are the small foothills of a pair of majestic mountains, with a large wall running round. To the west the road continues, where in the distance you can see a thatched cottage opposite an ancient cemetery. The way out is to the east, where a shroud of mist covers the secret pass by which you entered the Land.
By Lambert Strether of Corremte.
Everybody know what mud is, right? Here’s a picture[1] of mud in season from the Bangor Daily News:
The reporter writes:
Mud season in Maine, sometimes called the state’s “fifth season,” generally occurs between March and late April or early May. It happens when the snow and ice start melting. All that extra water leads to a lot of mud…. The mud is deep, the texture often seems more like
Jello than hardpan and the damage it can do to your car or your peace of mind is real.
Sadly, I see I have given way to my tendency to be too optimistic about the approach of Spring I learned to hard way never to plant before Memorial Day when two days of snowish rain rotted all the seeds I’d planted two weeks early because Mud Season begins in towards the end of March, not the beginning. In fact, it’s still winter, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.