User:PSIMedia

The Land of Karchan (LoK) is an online Multiple User Dimension role-playing game created by Software Designer Maarten van Leunen in March of 1995. Equal parts writing-workshop, Improv, and adventure game, LoK was released online in the summer of that same year, by way of a large series of inter-linked HTML pages. This original incarnation, Version 0, was loosely based on the idea set forth by CyberMUD

Having gone through a number of changes, the game has been upgraded through a many different programming languages and format since it's inception, maintaining a strong 'cult following' of loyal gamers throughout.

The Early Years
The server for the game was originally located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in the Eindhoven Institute of Technology (at that time named Eindhoven Polytechnic), while van Leunen was a student, as a member of the InternetUsersAssociation Interlink there.

The second implementation of the MUD (Version 1), was written using a number of Perl-programs as CGIs which processed information sent to them by Forms in an Internet Browser. This was soon followed by Version 2, the entire program being rewritten in common C, for reasons of performance and memory. For the game's fourth implementation (Version 3), the program was upgraded to make use of a database, by use of the Linux based My Standard Query Language (MySQL). The fifth and most recent version of LoK (Version 4), was rewritten from C into Java, retaining use of a MySQL database.

After I graduated, there was the problem of what to do with my server. I hired a server together with one of my friends in the US at one time (this was the first time that www.karchan.org became registered) but it was too expensive. After a year I switched to WideXS, an ISP in Hoofddorp (near Amsterdam) in the Netherlands. Right now this little server is in a 19" rack with a lot of other servers, in a server room in Hoofddorp, quietly chugging away at your websiterequests. In 1989, TinyMUD began to allow players to easily participate in creating the online environment, as well as playing in it. The TinyMUD code spawned a number of descendants, including TinyMUCK and TinyMUSH, which added more sophisticated programmability. (TinyMUCK versions 2 and higher contain a full programming language named MUF, or Multi-User Forth, while MUSH greatly expanded the variety of commands and functions available and allowed them to apply to all objects.) Some use the term MU* to refer to TinyMUD, MUCK, MUSH, MUSE, MUX, and their kin; others simply allow the term MUD to apply universally. MUVE is a recent coinage, intended to stand for Multi-User Virtual Environment. UberMUD, UnterMUD, and MOO are some other MUD servers that were at least partially inspired by TinyMUD but are not direct descendants.

Also in 1989, and inspired by TinyMUD and AberMUD, LPMud was developed as a more game-oriented MUD built around a C-like programming language, LPC. 1989 also saw the development of Avalon, using its own code base run through the Hourglass compiler. Developed in complete isolation from all other MUDs, Avalon adopted an object-oriented approach using the powerful British Acorn Archimedes computer technology. In Europe it was very popular for MUD writers to write in isolation. The three largest commercial examples would be Avalon, Shades and the Terris/Cosrin Engine.

In 1991, the release of DikuMUD, which was inspired by AberMUD, led to a virtual explosion of hack-n-slash MUDs based upon its code. DikuMUD inspired several derivative codebases too, including CircleMUD, Merc, ROM and SMAUG. Meanwhile, Avalon had become a commercial game operating in the UK on up to 16 simultaneous modem connections.

In 1994, Mark Peterson rewrote The Realm of Angmar, adapting it to MS-DOS (the basis for many dial-in BBS systems), and renamed it Swords of Chaos. For a few years this was a very popular form of MUD, hosted on a number of BBS systems, until widespread Internet access eliminated most BBSes.

At this time, AOL US already ran several highly successful games, including Dragons Gate and Darkness Falls (by Mythic Entertainment, which later launched Dark Age of Camelot), Federation (game) (a space trading game) and Gem Stone III (Simutronics, which later launched A Hero's Journey).

MUDs can be accessed via standard telnet clients, or specialized MUD clients which are designed to improve the user experience. Numerous games are listed at various web portals (see External Links).

Next phase?
Online graphics-based games (MMORPGs), such as EverQuest, Lineage II, and World of Warcraft, as well as graphics-based virtual worlds like Second Life, are arguably analogous to MUDs, and are sometimes referred to as "graphical MUDs" (see next section) or "next-generation MUDs".

Similarities include the basic goals and objectives of the games and the society of the environments. One difference is that the majority of MMORPGs and social avatar worlds are commercial ventures. The Business of Social Avatar Virtual Worlds