Before MMOs, There Were MUDs | Forgotten Worlds

[@caulifloodle]

The visual style here is so good. The work that was clearly put into this absolutely paid off. Looking forward to more in this series!

[@chiguire]

Wonderful homage to MUDs!

[@edwardnewtonLA]

ChaoticMu*, I will never forget you.

[@aspenmayer]

I used to play Ancient Anguish, and it’s still up! I’m glad. MUDs are so cool.

[@johnmurphy2721]

Oh wow, what a blast from the past. MUDs were my first online games, back in the early 90s. I spent hours on a game called BatMUD that I think was run out of Finland. I had a friend who could get us into the local university's computer lab (which was nearly always empty except around exam time) and we'd hang out there until shift change. Wow, I haven't thought about that in years. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, and I love the art style!

[@wmanadeau7860]

Well done! I still get back into mudding for a few months every few years. There is nothing so consistently immersive. Being a Tolkien fan I like t2tmud. Cheers!

[@mary_syl]

Love the subtle FFXIV marketing at the beginning lol :)

[@JoshForeman]

holy moley that's a lot of custom art! Great info as well, thanks!

[@icurnvs776]

EverQuest came and changed the genre forever, it being the grandfather of the 3D MMORPG. It was straight-up magic for a 13 year old kid.

[@danielrutherford8775]

I started EQ back in '02 and it was awesome. I was spoiled with a second phone line for the house, because some updates took *FOREVER* to download over, if you were lucky, a 56K connection 😅

[@bungle6334]

DragonRealms is a great MUD that's still up and running. I played it again recently after 20 years

[@User_38745]

This was so great! Please keep working on the series!

[@bearsdotzone]

One of my middle school teachers ran a MUD! Part of the programming class was adding to its world.

[@SABlister]

Man, I miss the transitional period of MUDS to MMOs, I played Meridian 59 in High school and tried The Realm. They were definitely unique games, fun, and fostered communities really well (Having a strict limit of 100ish people online at a time does that) and even had world chats that weren't dumpster fires.

[@JoseHiggor]

underrated video. It's very detailed

[@edwardlwittlif]

Excellent stuff! I'm starting a MUD-oriented video project myself, and this was a very succinct series of answers to a lot of my questions about the format. Instantly subscribed.

[@JohnEternal]

I really enjoyed this. I played a number of MUDs Ian the early days, but the game that changed everything for me was Ultima Online. I was there in the first 4 years, but those were magical times. I would love to see a Forgotten Worlds on the early days of UO. These days I still log into fan servers like UOsecondage.

[@davidchandler5432]

Oh man, I devoted countless hours to a MUD ran out of Germany during HS in the late 90s/early 00s (I'm from the west coast of the USA), and while I'm glad I'm not into anything that time consuming now it was still a great game that I don't think can be matched by current MMO type games. So many different mechanics, everyone "roleplaying" and taking the game seriously, endless content just from the inherent relationships between the competing guilds and the freedom/power the mechanics gave, etc etc, I dunno how you do it in a modern multiplayer game (if more people played the MUD it would've been easily destroyed by trolling, so I feel like it only works with a few hundred people, like ya note in the video). I even later traveled to Germany to meet lots of the players, it was such a big part of my life, but I'm not in contact with anyone from back then these days. Until something reminds me (like this video), I even half forget how much time I spent in it. It sure made me an extremely fast typer though! One dumb thing is that it made me use British spellings for lots of commands since the game used that sort of English, so it took forever for me to stop adding a U to things.

[@ceicocat]

Please keep making video essays!! This was so good💕

[@gamerswift13]

this rules! i’ve heard merritt talk about MUDs on podcasts before but this video was super cool how she explained them in-depth. i wish i knew these were a thing when i was a kid bc the only online-capable game i had access to in the early 2000’s was Age of Empires 2. i’d love to know if you have any experience with online role-playing forums! i spent a bunch of time in a Yahoo! group that was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer role-playing thing where everyone would log in whenever they could and write something their character did or said, and then everyone else would respond to it. idk if that was common or not lol but i liked it. anyway please keep making these!!!

[@FredGobber]

Oh my god, I love your Visual style on that computer, I would love to do something similar on my content!! Thank you for the inspriation!!!!!

[@MaxNewland_]

I was so obsessed with MUDs as a kid for largely the same reasons. Love the little BonziBuddy in the corner :)

[@wwklnd]

I definitely remember in the early-mid 00s a friend of mine convinced me to try a few Swedish MUDs, it was cool as hell tbh. Definitely miss those days a bit. It would be cool to see a video on browser-based games from the late 90s to mid-00s actually, like the strategy/RPG game Utopia, or the vampire vs. werewolf game Bitefight.

[@cinnabarlab]

this video style is so cool!! i'll look forward to any more video essays in the future!

[@Eganworks]

This is such a great video! Love the art & sound! I never knew about MUDs!

[@socialsiege]

great video, Merritt!!!!!

[@legoislife6832]

Hello im looking for this MUD game from i think i played it around 2004-2006 where you explore by clicking some directional arrows and sometimes you get to fight with other users while other times i think just monsters. Do you perhaps know what the game is called? I recall there is a quest about a chisel. Another thing i remember is that there is this apothecary shop that is run by a woman. Thats all i can remember unfortunately

[@brianlong9100]

Love this!