Introducing MudGamers.com

In my last post I made the case for a new type of mud portal site that would be more accessible to players who may be new to mudding. In one of those “I’ll do it just to see if I can” type moments I decided to put together MudGamers.

The two main areas I wanted to improve on over existing mud portal sites were presentation and accessibility. MudGamers is simple, modern and clean looking (IMHO) and presents players with familiar lists of games such as highest rated, most rated, recently added etc, as well as a changing random selection on the front page. Players may also browse all games or sort them by tag and of course there is a search facility as well.

To make the games as accessible as possible, every game listed on MudGamers will be playable directly on the site using an embedded Flash client. Players will be able to find a game to play and then connect immediately.

Game owners can submit their games to the site using a simple form that records the connection information, game website and contact details, as well as a description of the game. This form creates a page for the game on the site and embeds the client with the correct connection information. Game administrators will need to serve a socket policy file that allows connections from mudgamers.com as required by the latest versions of Flash player. I’ve put together an archive with a sample policy file, python script and instructions here.

I want to keep the site as open as possible, so games will not be personally vetted for inclusion. However, any game submitted must be both playable and original. This simply means the mud must be open to players and sufficiently modified from stock that it has something original to offer.

Anyone may play the games on the site but only registered users can submit new games or post comments on games. In the future I hope to expand the community aspects of the site with the addition of forums, chat, profiles, friends, ladders, competitions etc.

Initially I want to try and encourage administrators to list their games and once there is sufficient content I will begin marketing the site to a wider audience, particularly to gamers who may not be familiar with muds.

MudGamers is heavily influenced by Flash game sites and other casual web game portals, and while I am aware there are some key differences in the way these types of games are played, I think it’s worth a try to see if such a site can widen access to mud games.