How did you discover text-based gaming?
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Started playing Gemstone on AOL back in 1994, ran around killing monsters, getting PK'd for loot, didn't really get into it because I was a sixteen year old that was more into chatting, but it was a nice diversion and it planted a seed.
Went to college the next year, got involved in a DnD group and immediately got hooked into that, since I was an English Lit/Drama major. I was still into chat and got introduced to ISCA bbs from an Intro to Computers class (remember those?). Somebody on there suggested, I try muds and I was like "Oh that thing like Gemstone? Ok..." Still didn't grab me, then I read something about Armageddon Mud on Isca. You had to create a character, apply for the character and people actually RP'd on it. Well back then it was pretty much a PK game with some RP, but I had fun playing it. I played for a couple years..but it didnt scratch that itch.
Then I discovered mushes, by then I was familiar with enough table top RPGs to play those and they actually had even more RP than Armageddon. So I bounced around on a few Star Wars, Shadowrun, DnD mushes.
I still go back and forth between Mud and Mushes to this day.
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I found it by branching out from IRC RPG. I was doing a Beast Wars IRC RPG on EsperNet which was awful. I ended up searching for Beast Wars RP and came across the old Beast Wars MUSH.
The rest is history.
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My girlfriend introduced me to a MUD (I was 13), and I started playing on Neopets, wound up in a random neopets/anime guild thing that had a large forum attached to it with a RP section. (I'd also been verbally telling random weird stories with friends for a couple of years previous). I moved from RP forum to a chatsite (chatalot), and played there for a few years. Went back to the MUD I'd been introduced to, RP'd there some but then friends from there were like: You should come play on LAmush!
And I was like... where are the mobs? How do you PvP? There aren't mobs? You don't PvP? SIGN ME UP.
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I was a pen and paper gamer nerd, not a computer one. But my university ended up creating the Blacksburg Electronic Village (everyone at the school plus most of the town was wired to the Internet, one of the first places in the US to do so--I could order a pizza off the internet and have it delivered to my dorm in 1994) so there was a lot of buzz/excitement about using computers for more than just word processing and floppy disk games. Being a stupid teenager, of course I got into a new weird thing called a chat program (PowWow, which for you youngsters is like chat roulette with no video of boobs or jacking off, sadly) and moos. Then one of my campus role playing guild friends told me about mushing. I played on an original theme place for the first time soon after that. Found SR Seattle in 1995. Along with some Star Wars games and a couple of WoT places soon after. Somehow I managed to graduate, and then in 96 I found a changeling game (TCtTT) which started me on the path to hating Ling but enjoying WoD.
Took a long break between 2002-2008 (with a few false starts) because 3 kids in 17 months means you're busy like whoa, when i dipped my toe in after that everything had shifted to nwod and there were wikis and all that and it was like a whole new world.
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@mietze said:
PowWow, which for you youngsters is like chat roulette with no video of boobs or jacking off, sadly
You can't really be sure about the latter one, can you...?
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If I didn't see it, it didn't happen!!
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What I'm noticing here is what I suspected: most people on MUSoapbox appear to have discovered text-based games (at the latest) in the 1990s-2000s. Have any of you discovered them after 2010, or do you know anyone who has?
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@Shayd My fiance was introduced to them a couple years ago, by me. I also know a couple other people who are new to them recently. Not a metric ton though.
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@Shayd
I know someone who found them IN 2010, I believe. She was 21 at the time and we were all amazed there was someone that young around. Slight change from when I started... -
@Shayd said:
What I'm noticing here is what I suspected: most people on MUSoapbox appear to have discovered text-based games (at the latest) in the 1990s-2000s. Have any of you discovered them after 2010, or do you know anyone who has?
A buddy of mine did (I think BSG Kharon might've been his first game, and that was back in 2009-ish). I ran into a 19-year-old this year who was new to MU*ing, which tickled me. I think the hobby's main problem now is that there are fewer gateways to randomly stumble onto it.
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Someone on the Exalted WW forum had a link to the Heroes of Creation javachat game in their signature and I didn't have anyone to play TT with so I tried it out.
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I have run into a couple of 20 year olds and a 25 year old that got into mushing in the last 5 years (all through tabletop groups) but that's it.
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I started on MUDs, and then discovered MUSH. I don't remember how I found MUDs, only that they had pretty colours, numbers, and lovely descriptions of orc-brains splattering over my fist.
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I started in like, the prehistoric times. My bff started just within the last couple of years though, pulled in through somebody he plays tabletop with (I think).
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Hey it's 3:49 a.m. and it's real interesting! I love that IRC is (or was) still being used as a medium for communication. Anyone here played Ultima Online? We had an IRC channel there on many "shards." That was my first RPG for 5 years until someone mentioned Mush-Mudding to me. Not anything specific either, just that word. I googled it and next thing I knew, I was writing and found it way more flexible than the 2D graphic game system that only allowed a pose the length of a tweet. Still, Ultima was Fun but Mushing is the Best!
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I also started on MUDs in 98. Little late to the game I suppose. My favorite thing I found in there was finding a message for thieves if you scored a killing blow with an eye gouge it would send a graphic description of you jamming your fingers onto their eyes and driving them back until you hear a crack and find your fingers covered in brains... then it increased by about 50 percent your chance to spawn brains or an eyeball. Both of which could be cooked and eaten
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@Duntada said:
I also started on MUDs in 98. Little late to the game I suppose. My favorite thing I found in there was finding a message for thieves if you scored a killing blow with an eye gouge it would send a graphic description of you jamming your fingers onto their eyes and driving them back until you hear a crack and find your fingers covered in brains... then it increased by about 50 percent your chance to spawn brains or an eyeball. Both of which could be cooked and eaten
Forgotten Realms, ftw. Illithid Psionicist.
Eating your brains.
...I wonder if Toril is still active.
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I was a pixie thief instead. Liked being the most adorable and terrifyingly savage character.
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Back (I want to say 1995) when the dew of creation was still fresh upon the internet, before browsers and pictures (which is why I believe it was fresh dew...), my brother and I stumbled onto DSMuse (Deep Space Muse), out of... Binghamton, if I recall correctly. Star Trek: DS9. I was way into the RP side of things, my brother liked commanding ships and getting into space fights - I didn't have the head for imagining where I was in relation to everyone else, and he couldn't have given a hot damn about being a character if he tried). So, we shared a character named K'lemtoQ. That was fun.
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I think the mid-90s to about 2000 could be considered the golden age of Mu*. There were hundreds to choose from and not all of them were good. Obviously mmorpgs funneled a large amount of new players from mu*s, but things like Reddit and hipster "retro" love are bringing in new players again.
