Sunday, September 20, 2009

Selecting an Online Text Based Game

There are a hundreds of MUDs and online text based games. Sometimes the process to finding a good game can be overwhelming at times. Having tried more than my share of new games, I know that can be it can be overwhelming at times. But every game has an ideal type of player it is suited for. There is a perfect (or near perfect) game out there for you!

The first key to finding a new game is to determine what is the most important things you look for in a game and what are your "deal breakers". (This may change in time as you try out new games.) Both Top Mud Sites and The Mud Connector have advanced search options that allow you to eliminate the games that don't fit your criteria. Some of the main catagories on both sites are world size, average online players, RP environment, if player killing is allowed, how a character "levels" on the game, and whether it is a free or subscription game.

Please keep in mind that the game owners and admins chose what areas that they game fits into. You won't truly know if the game fits the bill until you try it. I personally keep the search criteria fairly broad and add more until I get a manageable list.

After get a manageable list begin to read the player reviews. Personally, I believe the best place to read reviews at this time is The Mud Connector (TMC) though you can read older reviews at Top Mud Sites (TMS). You will get a much better idea of games from what players say about them. I tend to take the overly glowing or overly critical reviews with a grain of salt, but you can gain some valuable information from player reviews.

If an active playerbase and/or game administration is important to you then a way to confirm this is to see what the ranking of the MUD is on both TMS and TMC. If the game administration is active and wants to see their game promoted they will regularly encourage their players to vote for their game. If the playerbase is active and passionate about the game they play then they will vote for it.

Using this information will give you a good idea of what games might be a good fit for you. But like a lot of things, you don't really know until you try!

Happy Hunting!

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