Caine

Yeah, I'd have to say that you would have to pay some kind of monthly fee. MMORPGs have to pay for the manhours that go into maintaining the servers and updating the content. I believe that the latter is most important to me though. Because, unless they bought all their servers from the local pawn shop or thrift store, they will probably be reliable. Its the content I want to pay for. So, if I am paying a monthly fee, but nothing is ever updated, as in, there are no new quests, equipment, areas, etc.; I will be upset. However, seeing that the game publishers are in the business of making profits, so the question is, what is the % of markup? My personal opinion is that many of current MMORPGs (with the exception of Guild Wars, because online play is free) probably charge more money than they really need to. I would like to say that $10/month is plenty enough, though I would really like to see somewhere around $5/month for games like EQ, WoW, or SWG, especially if I have to shell out $50 for the original game as well as money for any expansions.There are other options though, I like the idea of different levels of accounts: free and premium. I also like the idea of letting people running their own servers with custom content, and they could charge whatever they like. That of course would bring up the nasty lisence issue, but perhaps they could sell an optional developers package for a couple of hundred dollars.

There is a group of us that play just about every weekend, and we usually have about 6-8 people show each game. We usually take turns DMing (or GM/ST), so we have a broad range of systems that we play. The majority is usually from the d20 system, Greyhawk (stock D&D), Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and even a Dark Sun campaign modified for 3.5. I run a World of Darkness game and someone runs a Mutants and Masterminds game as well. It sounds geeky (ok it doesn't sound, it is), but Indianapolis is home to GenCon, so we go there every year as well. PnP gaming is alive and well, I assure you.

Well, for about four years I was US Marine Infantry, though I did plenty of other "side jobs," force security, anti-terrorism, marksmanship instructor. Now, I go to school at Indiana/Purdue University of Indianapolis as a New Media major. I occupy my free time coding my own MUD.

Not much to say really, I'm currently a junior attending Indiana University/Purdue University of Indianapolis, after having served 4 years active duty (and another 4 IRR) in the US Marine Corps. I am a New Media major, but my other interests include my wife, old school hot rods, heavy music, RPGs, and MUDs. Well, just figured I would do the introductory thing (even though I've already posted elsewhere).

I am pretty new here, and I was scanning the topics in this board, but most of them appear to be for individual text based games. So I figured that maybe we could expose people to the different codebases that are out there.First off, I would like to state my disclaimer: I am in no way a MUD authority, however I do have about 6 years experience playing and building on MUDs, and just less than a year programming (hacking up the code more precisely) one.I figured in my first post, I would highlight a few of the more popular codebases and then detail my codebase of choice.I would have to say that the most popular codebases reside in what is called the Diku tree. The reason is because all of the bases used the venerable Diku code as their foundation. Some of the more commonly used bases include Circle, Merc, ROM, and Smaug (the latter two actually being derivitives of Merc). However, my favorite codebase is realated to the Dikue tree only spirit. As the Diku derivitives are programmed in the C/C++ language and the one I speak about is programmed in Java. However, it retains much of the feel of the popular codebases, primarily in its interface, so that MUD veterans can easily adjust.So what is my favorite MUD engine (or codebase)? It is called CoffeeMUD, and its developed by a fellow named Bo Zimmerman. Let me list of the features that makes it my personal favorite engine:*Live Codebase (as in its still being developed)*Friendly Support Group, that ANSWERS questions!*ANSI, MSP, MXP support*Web Server for administration, building, maintenance*SMTP for mailing lists*Includes built in Flat File DB*Supports full blown DBs*Over 1200 stock Abilities*Support for MOBPROG or Javascript*Web-based visual on-line area editing tool*On line creations, don't have to reboot*Import CM, ROM, Smaug, Circle, Icey and other area files*Ranged Combat*Banking/Postal systems*Factions (Alingments, Guilds, Clans, etc.)*Crafting Skills*Item Durabilities*Fully documented, Programming, Building, and Scripting Guides!*Built in Java client for the webserver*Its Java, so it platform independent!There really are many more things I can't think of off the top of my head, if some of you are thinking about running a MUD, take a look at this codebase first.

Yes, 3030MUX is a BattleTech based MUD, using the MUX codebase. There are probably more than a hundred codebases and derivatives out there. And probably more than a couple of thousand MUDs running off those different bases. I know there about 1810 MUDs just listed on the MUD Connector alone.But for the topic at hand, my current favorite MUD is CoffeeMUD, mostly because I am using its codebase as the foundation for my own creation. CM is mostly used by its owner, Bo Zimmerman, as a testbed for development. After that, I would probably say that Shadows of Isildur is my next favorite MUD, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Tolkien.