Playing Muds on the Internet

By Jim Romine and Rawn Shah

Everything you need to know to stay alive, win, outfox, and dethrone experienced Mudders Luke Skywalker had Yoda. Now, you have your own cyber-mentor with this behind-the-scenes guide to successfully stalking the dark, haunted corridors of today's most popular online games. This book shows you how to avoid instant death--Muds are notoriously rough on newbies, and you can just forget about asking any of the wizards for tips or strategies. They'd rather blow you away than show you the ropes. You have to learn how to survive in a game against 100 people from all over the world before you jump in and become sword fodder. This ultimate Mud companion reveals the lore as well as the intricate customs and commands you need to thrive in these imaginary worlds. Playing MUDs on the Internet: Shows you where to find Mud games and how to join them Describes several Muds in depth and includes maps Provides a complete guide to all the commands needed Gives you proven hints and strategies for winning Warns you about what dangers lie ahead of you and gives you hard-won tips on how to keep your cool and stay alive Right now, you might not know a Mud game from a mud pie. But with this book, in no time at all, you'll be mudding your way into some really cool adventures in a wild, fast-paced new world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471116335
• ISBN13: 9780471116332
• Release Date: May 1995
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Jim is the man

Having played MUDs for years with Jim Romine and some other chaps at the University of Arizona in the early 90s, I've seen the kind of damage he can do firsthand. Jim knows the ins and outs of MUDs so completely, it's almost scary to the beginner. Even though most text-based MUDs have been replaced by games like Everquest or Worlds of Warcraft, text-based games are still out there, and Jim and Rawn's book is an excellent primer on how to go from newbie to elite.

Good, atmospheric overview of MUDs.

This book certainly took me back to my days as a University student, idly whisting away some time gathering gold and slaying semi-human creatures while swapping idle banter and tales of daring-do with fellow students halfway across the world. For those "not in the know", MUDs - or multi-user dungeons - are a form of text-based adventure game where the play is not limited to a sole user, but rather may consist of combatants from around the world via the internet. The game is not confined to a pre-designed and static "world", but is rather constantly in a state of upheaval and reconstruction with enhancements and new areas always under development.The authors are both survivors of the early days of MUDding and have written this book to share their combined experience and knowledge with the ordinary public. Indeed the book is most engrossing as the MUD equivalent of "case studies" are given, both in terms of how various MUDs developed and in terms of previous exploits the authors have had. Useful tips gleaned only from years of experience abound, such as interacting with other characters, soaring the ranks, how to best utilise the set of commands on the MUD, to even such things as assigning macros to programmable function keys to perform useful functions at high speed. For those who do not have access to a MUD but whose taste is whetted by the prose, a list of anonymous ftp sites is given whereby one may obtain their very own MUD for their own system. The book is most atmospheric, suiting its topic well, from even the very physical dimensions of the book to the tense and sweaty text contained inside. Any MUD fan or fanatic would do well to obtain this book - not for the bookshelf, but for alongside the very next MUDding session ! David Williams