Review Submitted By: Yuffie
Author Status: Player
Started on Discworld: Summer '98
Submission Date: Mar 23, 2005
TMC Listing: Discworld
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Yuffie]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
I first started playing Discworld years ago, back when I thought
MUDs cost money and I got to it by searching Yahoo for 'free MUDs'
and got 'Discworld MUD - Where wombles roam free' as the first result.
I suppose people have a bit of a bias towards their first MUDs, but
I can honestly say I've never seen anything that comes close to
Discworld.
Generally if there's less than a hundred people logged on, it's
either right after a reboot (or crash), or something is wrong. Years
ago, there was a player cap at 120 or so and people would literally
queue up to get in. Most of the players are friendly, and there's
always the ignore command for those extremely rare annoying ones.
There is a MUD-wide channel available to newbies to help them with
their questions, and every new player gets a voucher for a free talker
that allows them to ask more specific questions on more specific
channels.
If you're tired of playing the same old Fighter with a Sword on all
the other MUDs, you'll be happy to know that not only does Discworld
offer a wide range of guilds and guild specialties, you can also
custom-order swords, armour, scabbards, and just about any item of
clothing you can imagine from a wide array of NPCs and specialty
shops. You can get your hair spiked at a hair salon, wear an eyepatch
and a peg leg and walk around thumping and clicking and going 'Arrr!'
like a pirate, learn how to play a musical instrument, go questing,
set off fireworks to the annoyment of everyone, start a club, start a
family, venture off on one of the wide array of quests, or have any
number of other fabulous adventures without ever having to fight
anything. Using commands you learn gives you experience points, and
just standing around gives you a little bit of idle xp.
Of course, the fighting system is great as well, with a ton of great
NPCs to hack to bits, a wonderful skills system, detailed (sometimes
too detailed) combat messages, lots and lots and lots of combat
commands, spells, rituals, and whatnots, and a ton of strategy
combinations.
It's hard to imagine it's been seven years since I first logged on.
Through the years, I've seen a continuous series of improvements,
from a sophisticated club system, to the rise of player-run guilds,
player-run cities, player housing, player shops, nationalities, and an
enormous world that spans from one city gate and over a literal ocean
to another. There's really no way to list all the features Discworld
has to offer, and there's always a new improvement waiting just
around the corner.
Over the years, I've tried to kick the habit countless times, but I
always seem to get dragged back into it like it's a bad drug
addiction. Except that Discworld doesn't cost as much as drugs. In
fact, Discworld is free! So if you've never connected to the Disc
before, you're in for a treat. If you've browsed it before and it
just didn't stick, you might want to give it another look. And if you
find yourself lost in strange lands, there's always the 'godmother'
command to get you back to a familiar spot.
