Community

Pleased to report that I've just run my highest altitude MUSH. 35,000 feet, over Pennsylvania, thanks to American Airlines in-flight wifi, a win32 penn binary, and the power of reverse ssh tunneling.

Because at some level, all text-based games are related, I thought it appropriate to share this link with the community.

http://nickm.com/post/2010/01/a-note-on-the-word-zork/

From the article:

The lowdown on Zork’s name, inasmuch as a lowdown has been provided in print, was given by authors Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, and Tim Anderson in 1979 in the article “Zork: A Computerized Fantasy Simulation Game,” Computer 12:4, 51-59 (April 1979):

There had been a spate of spam comments on c.p.o lately. As a temporary measure, I've turn off automatic comment approval, but that leaves me having to approve comments for long-time users, and slows down the experience for all of you.

So, improved strategy. A new role, "verified user", is now allowed to post comments without approval. You can become a verified user by choosing the "My account" link and the "apply for role table". I'll verify anyone who I can reasonably assure myself is an actual MUSHer and has been around the site for a while.

Log available at http://walker.pennmush.org/logs/itbg_2009.html

After a hiatus last year, the Innovations and New Directions in Text Based Gaming Conference (ITBG) is back! This year, ITBG will be hosted on M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org:4201) the morning of October 17th, and boasts a handful of most interesting presenters.

M*U*S*H will once again be hosting the annual MUDtoberfest, a celebration of our shared pastime, through the month of October. You -- yes, YOU! -- are invited to stop by, partake of the festivities, and even run something should the inspiration strike you.

Currently scheduled events can be viewed with '+gda 10' on M*U*S*H. If you'd like to run something, schedule it with +gda (+gda/help for details). Don't be shy!

On a related note... The Innovations and New Directions in Text-Based Gaming Conference will be held on October 17th! Have you thought about where text is going? If you have ideas about the future of text gaming (online or offline), whether they're practical considerations or wild half-baked theories, we want to hear them! @mail Zebranky on M*U*S*H or email andzew@mezcuzic.net (replacing z with r) with your ideas!

So, here's currently what I'm doing.

September:

• Working with the Star Trek: From the Ashes Administrative Working Group to develop basic theme, systems, and wizard level code for the game Star Trek: From the Ashes.
• Working on modifying Talvo/Mike@M*U*S*H's TCMS System for Star Trek: From the Ashes globals code.
• Begin sourcing information for MUDtoberfest Lecture on the following topics:
  • STAFF: Separating the WIZARD from MUSH Administration

This is a proposal sparked by a guest logging onto my game yesterday to propose an ad exchange. It made me think about this practice, which seems to have fallen by the wayside more and more over the years. Instead, it has been replaced by advertising on various community sites, either in the form of MUSHes or on the web.

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

• [00:39] Game Design Concepts, a free online course
• [02:35] Connecting with the media fanbase
• [04:10] Why MUSH is a good platform for RPG

What is the answer to the question of life the universe and everything... in MU?

Are social movements (the linux community, for example) collectives which could be described as "forms of life"? What, then, about the MU* community? Does this loose-knit band of hodge-podge-kins constitute a social movement; does this social entity have a life of its own? ...is it a separate being which is greater than the sum of its parts?

In this MU-niverse, what is 42?

And, by the way... has anyone seen Waldo?

Comments encouraged...

Ok, this topic has a tricky name. I shall explain.

My idea of the game I want to do is a mix of socializing but also I want a little built in snippet of sorts to have at least a battle system so people will win experience from slain certain mobs. I'm afraid that PennMUSH doesn't have a built in battle system of sorts (I'm ignorant of what PennMUSH features by default) but I think PennMUSH is enough flexible to allow some extra coding to make space for a battle system. Correct me if I'm wrong here.