[MUD-Dev] RE: A Brief History of Commercial MUDs

[Klimon]

For commercial (or those striving for commercial viability, or at
minimum commercial quality) text MUDs, you have (in no particular
order):


  Company   (Game Name(s))
  __________________________

  Simutronics (GemStoneIII, DragonRealms, Modus Operandi, Hercules and Xena)
  Skotos.net (Castle Marrach, Galatic Emporer: Succession)
  VR-1 (Crossroads)
  ICE9 (Inferno)
  Aephir's Den (Aeternity)
  Worlds Apart (The Eternal City)
  Ember Software (Winter Reach)
  Online Gaming Company (Terris, Cosrin) [UK]
  Achaea LLC (Achaea)
  Avalon (Avalon) [UK]
  Dnai Corp (Unwritten Legends)
  Mythic Entertainment (Dragons Gate)

That's the list off the top of my head.  As for numbers, GS3 and DR
have between 1000-2000 players at peak times...probably ten times that
many subscriptions.  Terris was on AOL for awhile, and I would think
that they have in the multiple thousands of registered users.  Eternal
City has 100+ at peak times.  Achaea is supposed to be the #1 Most
Popular MUD in the world according to PCGamer some time back.  I know
that Aeternity gets a few thousand hits a day on their site and they
haven't opened for beta.  Unwritten Legends claims to have gotten some
2000+ applications for their beta process.  Crossroads was on AOL for
awhile as well, but are now off on their own again (probably a product
of the EA/AOL deal?).  These are what numbers I can remember or make
an educated guess at off the top of my head.  In no way do I mean to
slight a commercial (or commercial quality) MUD that isn't on this
list, just trying to provide that information that I have.

[Disclaimer: I worked for a time on GemStoneIII and Hercules and Xena,
and did the core design for Aeternity.]

--------------------

Ian C. Klimon
Design Lead

ian at timegatestudios.com

TimeGate Studios, Inc.
6001 Savoy, Suite 400
Houston, TX  77036

http://www.timegatestudios.com/

--------------------


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