Review Submitted By: AlphaGeek
Author Status: Player
Started on Dragon's Den: 1993
Submission Date: Jun 20, 2003
TMC Listing: Dragon's Den
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [AlphaGeek]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
I've been a player on the Den (our common name for The Dragon's Den)
since early in 1993 with long breaks from time to time. I've seen
the Den change in many ways, mostly for the better but truth be
told, I do miss some of the anarchy of the early years. That said,
the Den gives players amazing latitude and with only a few other
rules beyond 'your right to swing your fists ends at the tip of my
nose'.
The Den is a rich, immersive text-based MUD which, given its
long history, is surprisingly newbie friendly. I've witnessed
players (and have done so myself) help a newbie for literally hours
in a single session. All in all, a very friendly group of people
from all over the world. Of course, there's always the occaisonal
jerk just to keep things interesting!
The Den has a very intricate Guild system with four guilds currently
each of which is very distinct and clearly delineated. Add to that
19 different races, each with their own abilities and penalties, and
you get some pretty interesting combinations. Some might not like
the Den because the players tend not to be 'character driven' in that
they don't 'roleplay' as much as in some other MUDs. For instance,
it's very rare to have someone chat only in archaic English. Still,
for many that has its advantages as it can get extremely tedious
having to type 'dost thou' and 'Hail, good Sir' all the time!
It has a royalty system as well which is controlled by the players
themselves. Belonging to a royal house is optional and doesn't
really mean much in the scheme of things, except for bragging rights
(and impressing newbies with a title like Baronet Alphageek, The
Highlord of the First Blood).
The Dragon's Den is a very large MUD with many, many areas to explore
and great opportunity for advancement. Quests are an integral part
of the Den; these range from easy newbie quests to hair-pulling,
mind-numbingly complex ones that can take weeks to solve. There are
hundreds of interesting NPC's (non-player characters) some of which
are quite interactive. Humour is a fundamental here; most of the
Wizards are really quite clever and funny and some of the room
descriptions and NPC responses are really hysterical.
Player Killing (PK) is allowed but is very restricted; It's hard or
impossible for another player to off you unless you consent to combat.
Besides, the culture of the Den is not anarchic and most players are
extremely well behaved and cooperative. If you're looking for an
Everquest-style environment, where true anarchy rules, the Den is not
for you.
If I had to say one negative thing about the Den, it would be that
players tend not to 'party explore' as much now as in the past. It
used to be quite common for several players to get together to take
on monsters far beyond their individual ability to defeat; that seems
to happen less these days. Still, I've played many other MUDs and
keep coming back to the Den because there's allways something new to
explore and it has the smartest, funniest, nicest players I've had
the pleasure to play with.
