Very interesting, thank you! I always love seeing MOOs get attention.
There are actually still active projects to extend the server and create a new 'social MOO', of sorts, where people continue to develop interesting things. The MOO itself is called ChatMUD: https://chatmud.com/
The server part is, I think, interesting. But I was always more interested in the technical aspects than the socializing. The originally LambdaMOO server, after years of not being updated, was forked into Stunt. That added things like multiple inheritance, maps, some code base cleanup, etc. Then Stunt stopped getting updated and a fork of that was created called ToastStunt. That's the one actively being maintained. If anybody cares about that, it's: https://github.com/lisdude/toaststunt
It would be amazing to see some kind of resurgence of interest in MOOs. It really is an interesting platform.
As someone who was born at the dawn of the 21st century, I find IF and MUDs in particular fascinating. This article in particular rekindled a longing I’ve had for a long time, that being a virtual world that feels like a real place where you can do whatever you want. Modern MMOs are so focused on combat, but I just want to become a virtual shopkeeper and have fun socializing with other players.
It seems like that idea was tried, first with games like LabmdaMOO, then with MMOs like Ultimate Online or Star Wars Galaxies, but publishers and developers ultimately found the increased revenue from the World of Warcraft formula too appealing, and now that’s all they make. Such a shame in my opinion. There are times I wish I was born 15 years earlier, just so I could have participated in things like LambdaMOO when they were at their peak.
I really appreciate this article. I'm doing something similar in spirit and these insights are invaluable, especially when they're delivered in such a well-written manner.
Very interesting, thank you! I always love seeing MOOs get attention.
There are actually still active projects to extend the server and create a new 'social MOO', of sorts, where people continue to develop interesting things. The MOO itself is called ChatMUD: https://chatmud.com/
The server part is, I think, interesting. But I was always more interested in the technical aspects than the socializing. The originally LambdaMOO server, after years of not being updated, was forked into Stunt. That added things like multiple inheritance, maps, some code base cleanup, etc. Then Stunt stopped getting updated and a fork of that was created called ToastStunt. That's the one actively being maintained. If anybody cares about that, it's: https://github.com/lisdude/toaststunt
It would be amazing to see some kind of resurgence of interest in MOOs. It really is an interesting platform.
As someone who was born at the dawn of the 21st century, I find IF and MUDs in particular fascinating. This article in particular rekindled a longing I’ve had for a long time, that being a virtual world that feels like a real place where you can do whatever you want. Modern MMOs are so focused on combat, but I just want to become a virtual shopkeeper and have fun socializing with other players.
It seems like that idea was tried, first with games like LabmdaMOO, then with MMOs like Ultimate Online or Star Wars Galaxies, but publishers and developers ultimately found the increased revenue from the World of Warcraft formula too appealing, and now that’s all they make. Such a shame in my opinion. There are times I wish I was born 15 years earlier, just so I could have participated in things like LambdaMOO when they were at their peak.
I really appreciate this article. I'm doing something similar in spirit and these insights are invaluable, especially when they're delivered in such a well-written manner.