Dead MU*s you remember fondly

[bear_necessities]

Back when AOL had their free MUDs, I played Modus Operandi and Dragonrealms. It was my first real introduction to online roleplay. But damn I miss MO a lot sometimes; I still very fondly remember the excitement when staff would announce that they’d make you a CUSTOM ITEM(!!!) if you were one of the first like 100 people to find them in some obscure room. I got one once and it was the BEST THING EVER.

[Ashkuri]

Other than fondly-remembered, actually-crazy Fort Bloodshed, I miss a tiny Firefly game called Into the Black.

We didn’t have a functioning economy, xp system, items, anything. However we did have HSpace and people managed to die in it or get lost all the time. People loved to run cargo between planets even though there was literally nothing to do with the money you earned from cargo.

It was objectively terrible but I had a great time there.

[TNP]

City By The Bay. At least for the first year or so I was on it. Then it turned into more of a My Little Werewolf game.

Crucible City and the second one as well.

The 100 (which is where I met Ixokai).

[GF]

Daedal Macabre, a Diku MUD that was incredibly heavily modified and added onto. It’s been decades since I played but these days I look back fondly at the utter silliness of global IC channels and eternally respawning inhabitants.

[oknow]

@imstillhere I have nothing to add other than I HATE HSPACE.

[Third Eye]

@oknow said in Dead MU*s you remember fondly:

• Chicago MU* - I got too busy rl to do much but a setting in prohibition-era Chicago was brill.

Man I loved Chicago MU. I was 19 and my RP was probably terrible but I had a ton of fun playing a penny press reporter.

[IoleRae]

REDEMPTION (original fantasy/scifi)

god I loved that game so much

Also, Leading Edge and Second Pass. I’d add Norcon too but that one might still be online. (Pern)

Purgatory (the cyberpunk WoD game).

Dark Metal (also a cyberpunk WoD game)

I don’t really miss any of the other WoD games, but I do miss the times and the people. The Reach was such an experience.

[Wizz]

Banyan Tree and its successor, both Buffy games that only ever had like twenty people at one time.
There was the occasional odd duck there but man, that was a fun group and a great headstaffer. Good memories.

I also miss the Final Fantasy MUX that ran for like fifteen years or whatever it was. They had a fantastic metaplot and I really miss some of the players, who were to this day some of the kindest and most talented people I’d met in the hobby. I never managed to run into any of them anywhere else to my knowledge, which makes me sad!

[Eleret]

@Wizz said in Dead MU*s you remember fondly:

Banyan Tree and its successor, both Buffy games that only ever had like twenty people at one time.

Banyan Tree is definitely on the list for me.

Also Bleaker and Devil’s Orchard, speaking of tiny little niche MUCKs.

[Roz]

@IoleRae said in Dead MU*s you remember fondly:

Also, Leading Edge and Second Pass. I’d add Norcon too but that one might still be online. (Pern)

I’ll second (hah) Second Pass! Had some really good RP there for a good while.

[Pavel]

This might be a lukewarm take, but Firan.

Way back before I knew any of the garbage around staff, or any of the corruption or any of that, I really earnestly enjoyed my time there. It was something different for me, something exciting. I really enjoyed it.

Which makes all the negatives all the more bitter to swallow.

[Jennkryst]

@oknow said in Dead MU*s you remember fondly:

@imstillhere I have nothing to add other than I HATE HSPACE.

In part to spite you, I fondly recall the HSpace 5.0 testbed, with it’s mostly newtonian physics with the ability to turn off acceleration and just drift at a set speed and vector, and variable acceleration rates due to cargo mass, and and and…

Look, I just want a cargo truck simulator to keep me distracted in-mush between poses, instead of distracted in another window between poses (which inevitably leads to me forgetting poses are happening, whoopsy)

[Rowan]

Requiem for Kingsmouth (before Shava stepped away). I loved the territory system, the fact that ghouls were actually important and just. Yeah. If you didn’t play there, you’d probably not understand.

[oknow]

@Jennkryst I just want a space/cargo system that doesn’t become a grindy time sink and with cool stuff I can actually buy.

I’d also like the moon on a stick, please.

[Testament]

I didn’t play it long and life got really busy for me at the time, but I recall a game called Elan Vital in the…hm, mid-2000s(?) that had a really interesting concept. And when I think about it now, it had kind of a Horizon Zero Dawn vibe to it, long before that game was ever created.

I never knew what happened to it, nor can I remember the character I played for what I remember was only a handful of scenes, but it was super cool. It had mech-suits.

When I think about it now, it always struck me as one of those ‘the game that got away’ feelings. Like, I really wanted to play it, but life and time just never lined up right to devote time to it. 3rd shift jobs will do that.

[Polk]

FTA Detroit. Hard working, fun STs, good little player base.

But the little player base got a little too big and the whole game burned out.

[Rathenhope]

@Testament 2008-2009ish I believe. The theme was interesting and honestly I wish we could have explored the early days of the colony more, rather than after it was settled. We wrote ourselves into a bit of a corner early on and made some compromises that I don’t think any of the staff were overly happy with because we all wanted different things.

I was in my third year of my degree which frankly is a terrible time to try and run a game, other staffers were in similar boats, and interest waned. We tried to reboot the theme at one point, in an attempt to kick it back to life, but it didn’t work out.

I think I still have the database somewhere, along with the forums, though.

[Testament]

@Rathenhope It seemed like a good game with a small, but active playerbase. If you ever decide to bring it back, I’d probably jump back into it. The only thing I remember from the theme is there were things out there that could and would absolutely wreck humanity, hence mech suits.

The only plot I can honestly recall was something to do with unearthed plane? Ship? All I can recall is a bunch of the players were trying to get it running or working or whatever.

Regardless, I remember being really intrigued by everything. It was a really engaging mystery to want to sort out. Just a shame I couldn’t play more. It was this weird blend of fantasy and sci-fi(which is why I liken it to the Horizon series), which I think was the thing that stood out the most to me. Oh right, there was some sort of magic, but like magic explained scientifically. Maybe I’m misremembering.

And while I’m thinking about it other games that I wished I had actually played instead of being a gigantic flake with RL responsibilities, I wished I had more time to devote to Ithir while it was active. Another lost opportunity.

[Evilgrayson]

I do miss Aether, on occasion. Original Theme fantasy.

Chicago MU* was fun. So was PokeMUSH: Evolutions. And Denver: Dark Destiny by Night. But for most of these games it was the people, far more than the game itself - and the stupidity that some of those people got up to, that’s what really made the memories.

[Luna]

Emerald Dreams
Um…that one ran by the two terrible women…Shadowed Isles? Shattered Isles?
Mednights
The larryghost one who’s name I’m also blanking on with the shattered veil
AmberMush
The one where I played October the Moros.

I’m bad with names. And remembering them.