It’s been suggested that New Worlds Ateraan is using uncredited artwork on its website. I spent a couple of minutes on google image search and it looks like pretty much all the art on the New Worlds website has been taken from other sources. Perhaps New Worlds have permission from the artists to use their… [more]

Someone on TMS has been getting stick for their ad offering to pay $100 for a coder for their new MUD, so as a public service I’ve put together this handy list of dos and don’ts when looking for a coder. Do have a design written out. It doesn’t have to be a formal design document, but… [more]

There was a recent thread at TMS asking if MUDs need to be brought into the 21st century. A few years ago my answer would have been a resounding “Yes!” and I’d have gone on about accessibility and web clients and user interfaces and blah blah blah. Nowadays I tend to think that there’s not… [more]

The folks over at TMS love their books vs movies analogy when it comes to MUDs and graphical MMOs, but I’m not so sure that it’s very accurate. If World of Warcraft is a movie then your average text MUD is not a book. Fallen London is a book. Mafia Wars is a book (albeit a children’s book… [more]

Here’s a funny/sad/shocking (delete as appropriate) MUD log that came my way recently. The MUD in question has a two tiered subscription model where new subscribers pay at a lower rate than old players. The administration of the game track this across characters so if you’ve ever been on the higher rate with one character… [more]

Albion Online is a new free to play sandbox MMO with a rather odd business model. Here’s some copy from their website: Imagine the following situation: Someone is spending real money to get in-game currency. Next, he buys a crafted sword from another player with the in-game currency. Afterwards, the guy who bought the sword… [more]

Bigpoint publish over 70 online games including quite a few MMO titles, most notably Dark Orbit, Battlestar Galactica Online and the upcoming Game of Thrones MMO. As a company they get quite a lot of stick from players over their “free to play” charging model which relies heavily on the sale of virtual items. Despite this… [more]

A quick recap; in 2010 38 Studios relocated to Rhode Island in order to take advantage of a $75 million loan backed by the State economic development fund and this month defaulted on the repayments amid reports that staff hadn’t been paid. It’s since been reported that the loan payment has now been made but the studio… [more]

I was wondering how long before the Kickstarter bubble bursts and now we have the less than edifying spectacle of a studio with AAA pretensions scrabbling around for funding for a tech demo. Yep that’s right, it’s not the actual game they want funding for, just the demo. Goblinworks was formed in 2011 and has an… [more]

Commercial MUDs are already a minority within a tiny niche market and with many quality free games struggling to attract players, who in their right mind would think that a commercial MUD could be successful? This certainly seems to be the prevailing view over at TMC, but I believe commercial MUDs are far more viable… [more]