Review Submitted By: Anonymous
Author Status: Player
Started on Aardwolf: 2006
Submission Date: Sep 11, 2009
TMC Listing: Aardwolf
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Anonymous]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
The last couple of reviews were written by Aardwolf Staff or people
who later on became Staff, and those reviews appear to be promo
pieces like so many mud reviews these days. I have never been a
Staff member of Aardwolf, nor am I attempting to become one nor
receive any perk in the writing of this review.
Aardwolf is stereotyped as a hack-n-slash mud because it began as a
ROM (Diku derivative) mud and has at least 14,070 levels
(not counting pseudo levels where a player can increase their
power). In March 2008, Aardwolf was reborn and no longer is a ROM
mud. Lasher wrote a custom codebase from scratch that still
provides enough of a Diku look and feel to keep existing players
comfortable with the mud interface.
In addition to gaining levels, players gain power by collecting
quest points and a different type of point system known on Aardwolf
as trivia points. These points can be used to purchase weapons,
equipment and other player enhancements.
Some in the mudding community would consider Aardwolf to be a
pay-for-perks mud because players can donate money in exchange for
a small token item (a donation pin) that will boost their stats
slightly and they can choose to receive either quest points or
trivia points as compensation. The amount of quest points or
trivia points received depends upon the size of the donation.
To this player's knowledge, there are no limits on how much an
individual player can donate, though double donation rewards are
limited to specific times each year.
Quest points and trivia points can be earned through regular
gameplay without a player needing to ever donate and players and
staff do not hassle players who choose to not donate.
Having played other muds prior to Aardwolf, I consider the leveling
difficulty to be easier than most 'Dikuesque' muds. Still, with
thousands of levels to obtain, most players don't reach max level
very quickly.
One reason for this is that the mud has alot of activities to
divert most players from straight hack'n'slash leveling. For
example, the mud has optional hard-coded quests built into areas
known on Aardwolf as 'Area Quests' and more recently a newer
hard-coded quest system referred to as 'Goals'.
These quests are generally optional, but there is some peer
pressure for players to try to complete them and much player angst
is generated over this. Many of the quests, even ones the Staff
has designated as easy, are not easy to complete for most players
without receiving help from other players. Assistance on
quests/goals is not given to players equally, therefore much of a
player's success can hinge upon which clans they chose to join
and/or which set of friends they made, if any.
Despite having a couple of hundred players logged in at a time,
a significant proportion of players are builders and immortals
or former builders and immortals. Competitive play on this mud is
by no means a level playing field and it would be impossible to
make it so. Aardwolf attracts new players who have never played a
mud before and who do not understand this reality.
Providing further player frustration are features such as random
mazes and quests in which needed items only appear randomly and
unless a player knows the right people, they can be stuck for
hours when hitting these roadblocks. Many in the long term
Aardwolf community consider these features to be desirable, but
this player has met many potentially cool new players who try
Aardwolf, love the mud at first, and then quit when they aren't
receiving the support they need to succeed.
There is a sizeable group of players who delight in griefing other
players and attempt to control who is given the knowledge and
support necessary to succeed.
Aardwolf tries to appeal to a broad array of playing styles with
the exception of hardcore player killing (PK is restricted) and
roleplay is not encouraged, most players will likely ignore or
laugh at a roleplayer.
Lasher has difficulty keeping up with all the plans to improve the
mud and some feature changes that have been promised to players
years ago have yet to be coded.
Lasher does not have an easy task, he has a diverse group of
players who clamor for different changes to the game and there is
usually a significant faction who is dissatisfied that their
desires have yet to be met.
I continue to play Aardwolf. If one has decent inter-personal
skills one can make friends who will help a player succeed. Also,
a very healthy dose of patience goes a long way too if one plans
on sticking with Aardwolf!
