MudDesignArticles

Articles on Muds, Games and Design

[A Common Sense Guide to TinyPlotting]

Interested in coming up with a TinyPlot?? Want to learn more about what makes a TinyPlot? tick? You've come to the right source!

Habitat Papers

[F. Randall Farmer's notes, papers and stories] about the Habitat multi-user virtual world.

Gamasutra

[Gamasutra] is an online game developers magazine.

[The Psychology of Cyberspace]

Dr. John Suler's web page exploring the psychological dimensions of environments created by computers and online networks.

Seductions of Sim: Policy as a Simulation Game

Article by Paul Starr that discusses SimCity? from a viewpoint of the use of simulations in forming public policy.

This can be found at http://www.prospect.org/archives/17/17star.html .

JOVE

Formerly The Journal of MUD Research, our publication has been renamed. We are now The Journal of Virtual Environments.

This can be found at http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/.

MUDS: MUD Design Concepts (forum topic: http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/)

A brief and general look at various concepts that are important when designing and writing an actual MUD *server* from scratch. Some of the topics mentioned may be key to the actual game you choose to run on such a server.

http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/bbshowpost.php?id=5959&page=1

http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/bbshowpost.php?id=5959&page=2

The Hub

Taking an academic approach to the psychology of MMORPGs. Includes studies, essays, interviews, etc.

This can be found at http://www.nickyee.com/hub/

I Have No Words & I Must Design

Thoughts on games, their appeal and general design.

This can be found at http://www.costik.com/nowords.html.

On the Proper Care and Feeding of Mushes

Document on mush administration and design of role-playing worlds.

This can be found at http://www.reocities.com/Area51/Corridor/1815/carefeed.html

Richard A. Bartle's Web Page

Contains interviews, articles, papers and historical documents on mud development.

This can be found at http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/

Raph Koster's Gaming Links

Essays, links, and a collection of design information.

This can be found at http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/

The 36 Basic Plots

Loren Miller's interpretation of a book by Georges Polti called The 36 Basic Plots or something similar.

This can be found at http://www.io.com/~jlockett/RPG/HEGGA/Stuff/frp-plots.html

Miscellaneous Research Papers

[A Love Affair with MUDs: Flow and Social Interaction in Multi-UserDungeons] by Katelyn McKenna? and Sangchul Lee.

The Sid Meier Legacy

This is a [Gamespot interview] with Sid Meier designer of dozens of great games.

Skotos Articles

A large collection of [articles about virtual worlds] from authors such as Richard Bartle, Jessica Mulligan, and Shannon Appelcline. The articles include topics on design, implementation, storytelling, and just about every other aspect of creating and maintaining an online virtual environment.

Talzhemir's Treasure Trove

[Talzhemir's Treasure Trove] contains some interesting notes about the about the nature of online roleplaying. Associated with Furcadia.

TechnoMagi

The [Techno Magi] site contains some information on graphical game development and artificial intelligence in games.

Textuality in Cyberspace

Jeffrey R. Young's thoughts on the social and language impact of muds.

This can be found at http://www.earthmud.org/misc/paper/paper.index.html