Member Discussions

MudGamers

Bringing the best of MUDs and online text gaming to your browser, MudGamers is a new community gaming site with a fresh modern design. An integrated Flash client enables players to connect immediately to their chosen game.

I've posted some more details on the project on my blog. I'd appreciate any feedback and of course I'd love for people to begin to list their games. Once I am happy with the site features and we have enough content I will begin to market the site to players with an emphasis on attracting new gamers to mudding.

Odd timing, but it feels right. MudMagic dies and a new
site is reborn on the same day.

I think this has a lot of potential. The site looks good, except for the colors -- please, not so much green :D.

My only question at the moment is whether there is some provision for listing games with completely custom clients. I understand you want to make the muds accessible, but is there some way let a link to an off-site Flash client count as 'the Flash client'? With the recent proliferation of Flash clients for muds (a good thing as you'll probably agree) I don't think it's a good idea to limit the site only to muds that accept a basic Flash telnet client.

(Comment added by Idealiad on Tue Sep 9 21:24:23 2008)

Odd timing, but it feels right. MudMagic dies and a new
site is reborn on the same day.

Yeah, interesting coincidence.

"Odd timing, but it feels right. MudMagic dies and a new
site is reborn on the same day."

Boy, I'll tellya. Just *blink* and you'll miss another
load of mud drama. It smells off to me, but having
been banned from 3 major mud sites, I could be biased.

I mean Kyndig's meltdown seems off. I have no reason
to doubt the legitimacy of MudGamers, and indeed, I
like the flash client a lot.

-Crat
http://lpmuds.net

Aww damn, now it's saved in history that I was blamed and
umm, apologized to at the same time.

Kudos Matt, you have done the very thing that Vladaar, myself and others have discussed a few times. The site looks great and i hope that people start to list there games with you and that it can grow into a great community site.

Idealiad wrote:
My only question at the moment is whether there is some provision for listing games with completely custom clients. I understand you want to make the muds accessible, but is there some way let a link to an off-site Flash client count as 'the Flash client'? With the recent proliferation of Flash clients for muds (a good thing as you'll probably agree) I don't think it's a good idea to limit the site only to muds that accept a basic Flash telnet client.

I think that's something that would have to be looked at on a case by case basis as I don't think I'd be able to incorporate it into the automated submission form. I also want to expand the client with features such as global chat that wouldn't be compatible with a custom client.

Btw, I rather like the green in the header, but I am going to lose the green border on the client in the next update!

Yeah, bit too green.

I think that's something that would have to be looked at on a case by case basis as I don't think I'd be able to incorporate it into the automated submission form. I also want to expand the client with features such as global chat that wouldn't be compatible with a custom client.

I think this would be a great idea for the games that already have a custom client (java or flash), since they've obviously customized the client for their games.

Other than that, I'd say it's a really great idea to offer a flash client that potential new players can use right from your site.

For some future ideas you could look into reviews (done by yourself or "trusted" members, not any old player as that can easily learn to flaming by pissed off players), Another idea is having a place owners/players/etc could post things like RP/event logs and such to give potential players more of a feel for what that game is all about.

Over all, looks like a pretty good idea, good luck with it!

MudMagic dies and a new site is reborn on the same day.

It's the circle of life...

Kitkat -

I would just like to state that I have worked with 'bcdev' for a couple of months now. Extremely professional, I expect his site will be well done.

One more note, on each games page you have the big flash window for the client. Might want to, in a smaller font, label it in some way so people know what it is. Obviously I don't mean for the normal people, but some use FlashBlock (like I do) so all I see is a big white window that would normally assume is an ad and never choose to look at it.

Thanks that's an excellent idea. I am using the bare minimum of code right now to embed the client just so I could make sure it was working ok, however I really should add in some kind of alt text and a download link to Adobe for anyone without Flash installed.

Just my opinion but maybe you should go a little easier on the commentary to people who use your listing service. You'll forgive me for bringing some of the issues to the forums but I'm at work and I believe this is something that involves the community in general.

[quote]
I'm not sure how close this game is to stock GodWars, but there is clearly a lot of work left to be done.
[/quote]

Just so you know, you'll find few GW Muds as close to stock as my own. I've done 99% of the work myself and right now my rl job is my life.


[quote]
Creating a new user seemed to be very in-depth. On irritating thing (for me at least) was that my password had to contain a capital-letter and a number as well as small-caps characters. This may very well be necessary for businesses such as banks or large corporations, but isn't it a little overkill for a text-based game? Think of it this way: If your bank account is hacked, the bank itself has to replace your money. If your game account is hacked, no one is to blame but you. Is it really necessary to force someone to a level of security that is beyond their own needs?
[/quote]

To each their own. My password security level has absolutely nothing to do with my listing on your site.


[quote]
"To see the obvious exits in a room, type 'EXITS'."
"[0][Hit: 1,000 Sta: 1,000]> exits"

"Huh? 'exits' is not a command."


And just in case it really is case-sensitive...

"[0][Hit: 1,000 Sta: 1,000]> EXITS"

"Huh? 'exits' is not a command."
[/quote]

I appreciate you pointing that sign out to me, I'll get around to fixing it sometime this year when I have a chance to work on the source. There is no exits command.

[quote]
In that same area...

"Try going into each direction from here. When you are done, go down."

"[0][Hit: 1,000 Sta: 1,000]> down"

"Alas, you cannot go that way."

Turns out, they really wanted you to type "descend stairs" which doesn't really fit in with the regular ordinal directions most gamers prefer to map their keypad to.
[/quote]

Again to each their own. Your opinion of my use of descend/ascend has nothing to do with my listing. Up/Down directions only exist for the sake of the few legacy areas that load and that have not been converted to the mapping system. In my opinion there are enough clients that support macros where players can rename the commands if they so desire.

[quote]
A little further on it told me to go north and kill some drakelings, I was hit with this...

"[0][Hit: 1,000 Sta: 1,000]>
A gold drakeling's golden scales glitter in the dim light as it swoops towards you.
A gold drakeling flies swiftly around you, talons raised in preparation for battle.
A gold drakeling's golden scales glitter in the dim light as it swoops towards you.
A gold drakeling flies swiftly around you, talons raised in preparation for battle.
A gold drakeling breathes out, scorching the wall behind you."

"[0][Hit: 1,000 Sta: 1,000]> kill gold"

"Huh? 'kill' is not a command."
[/quote]

I guess you missed the 3 or 4 times on newbie login that there was no 'kill' command... :) Gotta love when people don't read MOTD and newbie hints... :)


At this point I'd appreciate you stop sending me e-mails pertaining to your listing service. At this point in time I have no plans on using it as I see little point in running yet another back ground process just to be listed on your site.

And thank you for the few nice things you did include in the e-mail, I know I haven't posted them.

Just my opinion but maybe you should go a little easier on the commentary to people who use your listing service

I think you are confused. Those comments about your game weren't posted by me.

So is the plan to fill out the listings a bit and then get the Flash client running for all of them? At some point will you require the mud to host the policy file to get listed?

I would like to see the site offer a Java client, as well as that fine Flash client. Not all hosts are willing to add the server policy needed to use the Flash one.

I understand that the site owner makes the call, but limiting MUDs based on their willingness to install a server policy seems a little draconian. In the end it is up to them.

Just my opinion.

Great site, by the way. Wishing you much success.

Ideally I would like to get the Flash client working on as many games as we can, yes. When you submit your game you tick a box to say if you're compatible with the client or not so it's not a requirement.

Once the site goes live the main focus will be on games that are playable in the browser using the client. That doesn't necessarily mean other games won't still be listed however.

I can understand why people want to see an alternative to the Flash client, however presenting a simple and consistent connection path to players is crucial to what I want to achieve with the site. There are also things I want to integrate into the client such as chat, as well as rankings and badges and the like, that I cannot do with a java client.

I am setting up the site specifically to appeal to non mudders and once ready I plan to market it to general gaming sites and communities as well as to gamers that may not have ever heard of MUDs. It's vital for the success of the site that the interface for players is as simple, familiar and consistent as possible.

I understand people may be concerned about security or wary of something new, but I am willing to work with MUDs and hosts to help them get a server policy file set up and answer any concerns they may have.

> I think you are confused. Those comments about your game weren't posted by me.

Don't know...

I received 5 or 6 e-mails from the MudGammers site yesterday after I submitted my Mud the night before

I sent the info to Dale at Wolfpaw and asked if we could get it going on Wolfpaw's mudservers. Would be nice to have another portal into Muds.

Hey Matt, did you have a 'banner' to use as a link on the site? I like to link back between useful sites to help with people finding stuff.

I can make one (pro graphics by trade) up if you don't.

- Dave.

I sent the info to Dale at Wolfpaw and asked if we could get it going on Wolfpaw's mudservers. Would be nice to have another portal into Muds.

Indeed - we've spoken with Matt also, and a few other customers :)

We will be installing the requested policy server as a non-priv user, and forwarding the priv port to it. I had a look at it, and I see no harm in doing so :) I expect it will be done this weekend, or early next week :)

-D.

You the man Dale!

The mudgamers client appears to work fine with
version 9.0r124 of the Adobe Flash plugin.

However, I cannot connect to the same games when
using version 10.0r12.

The most recent version of flash that Adobe is
serving appears to be incompatible with your client.

-Crat
http://lpmuds.net

(Comment added by cratylus on Thu Oct 16 12:57:09 2008)

Clarification: The first connection occurs, but then
the client hangs.