MUDs Are Still Fun

A few years ago, having grown jaded and disenchanted with most modern video games, I resolved to mix a handful of retro games in my play time. At this point in time, I consider anything pre-PS2 to be retro. Sometimes I'll fudge a little and count some early PS2 or Xbox titles. It's not a hard line.

One retro game I remember spending hours in is a multi-user dungeon, or MUD, called Merentha. In high school I spent untold hours using the public library computer and Internet connection playing this game after school and sports practice, waiting for a parent to pick me up. MUDs are text-based role playing adventure games. You've probably seen one before.

Merentha, a text-based role playing adventure game

There are no graphics. It's all text-based. It's like reading a book you can interact with (remember those build-your-own adventure books). Though the text bears some responsibility for drawing you in and creating the world, you have to use your imagination. I find the world of Merentha so much more engaging than most modern games, say, Army of Two. The ability to relay narrative, engage the player, and build suspense is far greater in a MUD because the developers are not restricting the player to a predefined image of what the world should look like.

Beyond the interesting possibilities to build an engaging game world, I think MUDs make players smarter. Players need to develop certain skills in order to survive. For example, consider navigation. In Merentha the world is navigable in many directions: North, East, South, West, sometimes In, Out, Over, Under, and occasionally Up and Through. As a player, you are required to map this out in your head or else you'll quickly become horribly, irreversibly lost. The ability to successfully navigate the world and build a map in your head is utterly invaluable, particularly if you find yourself stuck for a week in the enormous, indoor, labyrinthine hotel-casino compounds in Las Vegas with a group of people who have no sense of direction.

Best of all, Merentha is still online, still free to play (long before F2P became a business model), and still easily accessible from any telnet client.