First and foremost, this site exists as a blog about MUDs, or Muli-User Dungeons. These are many different things to many different people.
MUDs themselves are as varied as modern MMOs. They are simply a style of game: that is, a multiplayer text-based games. There are hack-and-slash MUDs with little to no roleplay, cyberpunk MUDs with mandatory roleplay and detailed skill trees (these are often called MUSHes or MU*s, though for the sake of brevity I will stick with MUD), and everything in-between. Which brings me to the next point that might be of interest.
While MUDs undoubtedly have relevance as a historical form of gaming, and are the reason modern MMOs exist today, it might come as a surprise that there is still a community numbering in the 1000s playing them.
The most obvious reason might be nostalgia. Many MUD players are in their 40s and 50s at the time of writing, and wish to relive the games of their past.
Another reason is accessiblity. As entirely text-based worlds, MUDs are inherently accessible to those that are not sighted.
But what's the draw to younger players? While I cannot speak for everyone, as a younger player myself (and as someone who was lucky enough to begin playing not long after I turned 18), I can outline my reasons, and reasons that logically might appeal to others. While this may read as an ad, and to some extent is, the majority of this blog will not be about recruitment. It will be about the historic and cultural value of MUDs and other virtual worlds: in short, my love letter to the genre.
Thanks to my brother getting me the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Manual at the impressionable age of 10, I grew up immersed in storytelling and role-playing. As the one who was trying to convince my friends to play, I was the de facto Dungeon Master; the one who ran the campaign. This suited me just fine. I loved weaving worlds for my friends and the wacky adventures they would go on. Though the Dungeon Master is, without a doubt, playing the game, it is a very different type of play than the players. I wanted the luxury of experiencing the world without getting a peek behind the curtain, and so, I turned to MUDs.
The first MUD I tried, I rushed through the tutorial at 11 am, playing on my phone during a school field trip. Though it was during the work day for most, I was greeted with characters sitting in the next room over, who gave me an introduction to the world and setting. This was unbelievably cool for me at the time, and is still the biggest draw for me. The world is persistent; always there. I could (and have) logged on at a very sleepless 4 am, and found someone sitting in that room to chat with. Truly, one of my fondest memories is logging on late at night just to have my character sit in the library and flip through the (readable) books it had to offer.