Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "AVATAR MUD" in English language version.
Farside was established in the summer of 1991 by three PhD students at Newcastle University on their free time. Since then, it has been moved to Swansea University.
Diku-MUds, Aber-MUDS and LP-MUDs usually involve armor, weapons, gold coins and the killing of ogres, giants, and sometimes other players. In contrast, MOOs, MUSEs, and Tiny MUDs are primarily social, often have a space-age theme, and have little in terms of the adventure game component.
Farside is continuously evolving; new towns and lands suddenly manifest, and outdated spaces disappear without a trace. The world is in a perpetual state of magical flux. In the space of a few weeks absence from the system, I found that a new combat system had been implemented, a new "Gotham City" environment was added, in addition to a "Newbie Forest."
When forming groups to go hunting in the MUD universe, no one cared that Eric and Nate were in 5th grade. People did care if they couldn't do their job, which included spelling reasonably well. Further, the mechanisms for advancement were transparent and well articulated.
The most obvious benchmark of learning was spelling. This may be surprising, but not if you are familiar with most 5th-grade boys' spelling. In order to be understood by the machine or the people grouping with you, you had to at least approximate the English language.
Two 5th graders (Eric Weiner and Nate Berger) wrote an area based on the Hundred Acre Wood (from Winnie-the-Pooh). This area, which was nearly 50 pages long, included maps, room and area descriptions, action-and-response triggers, and monsters and their items (including statistics). They turned it in as a writing assignment and got feedback.
What kids remember most was the chance to be taken seriously by adults as competent peers and the experience of writing something played by thousands of people around the world (including many in their school).
In fact, many of our 20-odd kids who played Avatar produced content or became immortals.
Nate used this experience of writing his 100-Acre Wood as the basis for his entrance essay into Dartmouth's creative writing program. For Nate, the experience was about becoming an author.
In addition to becoming an "immortal" (the highest possible level), she later contributed to several major designs. For example, the angel system enabled level-50 players to morph into angels, giving up their celestial bodies (and goods) to become permanent helpers who specialized in doing nice things such as corpse runs for newbies.
What was innovative about the games of that period (and this is still true today for games that allow mods) was that immortals like Janet created entirely new content. Janet, for example, created a "MUD School' to teach players how to play. Any player—even kids—could invent new creatures and author new areas or suggest changes to the underlying rule structure or administrative policies.
What is restricted, however, is the number of characters that one can run concurrently on a particular combat MUD. Otherwise, a number of virtual characters connected with a particular biological body could collectively gain unfair advantage, ganging to attack a monster or another player. Disposable adjunct characters could die sacrificial deaths in order to consolidate experience points and treasure in a single primary character, creating a monstrous collective organism that defies socially acceptable subject boundaries. In other words, most combat MUDs require characters of a single physically located self to be either spatially or temporally distanced each other.
Here at the British Council, we have provided Browsealoud, a speech tool that reads aloud the contents of each page. This service helps users with low literacy and reading skills, where English is not the first language, dyslexic and with users who are mild visually impaired. Our audience (mainly from overseas, with English as the second language) will benefit hugely from this service.
A MUD usually includes "channels" for discussion that allow one to talk to other players, either individually or as a group. Thus all the time that one is playing the game, messages from other players are flashing across the screen. MUDs are filled with social rituals.
Farside is a fast paced merc mud with 1000 levels of play.
Morphing allows evolution through 999 Hero, Lord, Legend and Titan Levels
When I first started playing Farside, the primary mud that I have been studying, it resided on a machine at an English university, where it had been set up by some computer science doctoral students in their free time. Since then, it has changed sites to a couple of different machines in the US.
Soon after, the university that Farside was residing at announced a ban on mudding.
Muds are anathema to many universities because they take up valuable space on computers, slow down network responsiveness, and tie up terminals in computer labs. They have been banned at various universities across the country, yet they continue to proliferate.
When first creating a permanent character, you are asked to choose a character name, a gender (usually male or female), and a race (such as elf, dwarf, human etc.), and begin playing as a first level player. Your character has certain attributes and assets that improve as you accumulate more treasure and kill monsters and other players, and solve quests on the mud.
Connectivity to the mud server is enabled by the Internet, and for the particular mud that I have been following, access is open for anyone that has telnet capabilities on the net.
MUDs are also friendly to disabled players, something that has concerned me for a long time. There are even blind players in many MUDs, players who use tools that read text out loud and respond to voice commands. Imagine if you could listen to your favorite audiobook and give it commands. That's the beauty of MUDs. These games are also good for people with colorblind issues, mobility issues or for people who cannot afford gaming PCs.
Or, as it is officially known, "Advanced Virtual Adventures Through Artificial Realities."
Back in the olden days, before Avatar was called Avatar, my fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students rushed home from school each day to play a text-based game that involved creating characters and slaying all manner of ordinary and extraordinary beings.
He was stunned to know that a PRINCIPAL was playing on his mud, intrigued by the fact that I had so many proficient players who were so young, and that I had willingly followed them there. Thus began a wonderful friendship, and my custodial care of younger players on Avatar. I've been here ever since, although most of my students are long gone.
When I became an Immortal, my life actually changed very little. I did the same things I'd been doing for a year, standing in the meadow, just a few steps away from Nom. When I finally got an office, it was in the Tree of Knowledge, and was an exact description of my [real life] kitchen, including my faithful dog, Max. I have not become a computer whiz, I don't code or write areas, although I did write Mudschool. My job is to deal with the interpersonal parts of Avatar, watching over young players, trying to keep language and manners civil and appropriate in public places, and protecting those who need protecting. I sometimes function as a mediator, and often have to use patience to deal with sticky situations. In addition, I do some education-related things, work with the Immortal staff, and act as an advisor to Snikt.
Morphing allows evolution through 999 Hero, Lord, Legend and Titan Levels
MUDs are also friendly to disabled players, something that has concerned me for a long time. There are even blind players in many MUDs, players who use tools that read text out loud and respond to voice commands. Imagine if you could listen to your favorite audiobook and give it commands. That's the beauty of MUDs. These games are also good for people with colorblind issues, mobility issues or for people who cannot afford gaming PCs.
A MUD usually includes "channels" for discussion that allow one to talk to other players, either individually or as a group. Thus all the time that one is playing the game, messages from other players are flashing across the screen. MUDs are filled with social rituals.
