JediMUD

JediMUD is a Multi-User Dungeon (MUD), or text-based roleplaying game, with users from all over the world. There are many MUDs on the Internet now, but JediMUD is one of the longest-running [citation
title = The Virtual Community
first = Howard | last = Rheingold
chapter = Chapter 5 http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/5.html] [citation
title = The Oldest DikuMudshttp://www.dikumud.com/Family/Oldest.aspx] . The game has been open to the public since August 1992 and is derived from the very popular DikuMUD code-base. Through this time, literally thousands of players have visited the game at one time or another.

In its infancy, JediMUD was actually created by the Department of Psychology at Johns Hopkins University in an effort to study human behavior. On occasion, one of the original creators of the game would recruit people for more specific studies. Since then, many MUDs such as JediMUD have been included in technical, psychological, philosophical and historical whitepapers, found all over the Internet. [citation
title = Historical Analysis of MUD Servers
first = Giovanni | last = Rhuffini http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/HTML/v3/ruffini.html] [citation
title = Virtual machine design http://textfiles.poboxes.info/digest/MUD-DEV/9987.html] [citation
title = The Medium of the Video Game
first = Mark J. P. | last = Wolf
chapter = Chapter 6 - Genre and the Video Game
publisher = University of Texas Press http://www2.ccr.buffalo.edu/anstey/TEACHING/intenv_F03/games/genre_and_the_videogame.htm ; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/029279150X/robinlionheartsb]

Today, the game has evolved into an online community independent of any type of external study. The game still sees regular players from North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Many of its players are college students, as predominated in the game when it was initially created, but it is also populated by numerous professionals, including doctors, lawyers, engineers and entertainers. Some have been playing JediMUD since its inception 16 years ago. In addition, the game serves as a live, fully-functional example of the origin of today's MMORPGs. Players can experience, first-hand, how people of the 90's played and interacted together online. In many ways, the game is like walking into a museum and not only seeing how cultures like the Mayans or Aztecs interacted but actually having people from those cultures there to interact with you, personally.

Although in name JediMUD appears to be a themed mud, it actually is not. JediMUD has a wide variety of areas to explore and classes to play grounded in a number of genres, most notably fantasy and sci-fi but also history and contemporary pop culture. The reasoning behind this is to allow players to focus on the areas which they like most and to allow them to develop their alternative personas as they see fit.

While text-based games like JediMUD lack the graphics of today's common MMORPGs, the trade-off is the ability to allow normal people to more easily contribute to the enjoyment of the game. JediMUD is not run by a company, which might require employment in order to contribute. Instead, the game has a team of administrators who take player-submitted ideas and use them to create the code, areas, mobiles and everything else required for the game to run.

Administrators

Playing the game

In order to log in to JediMUD you can either use raw telnet or a MUD client. Using raw telnet is very accessible, especially for those using Windows. On the other hand, a client often allows for players to create macros. These macros enable them to type one command to execute several within the game.

To log in to JediMUD using telnet and Windows, click "start", then "run", then type in the command:
telnet jedimud.com 4000

To log into JediMUD using a client, simply download your favorite MUD client, enter the address:
jedimud.com and the port: 4000. It will do the rest.

Notability Resources

'95 mud of the month - Prior to the creation of todays MMORPGs, MudConnect was one of the premier resources for MUD reference.http://www.mudconnect.com/motm/motm-0995.html

'93 The Totally Unofficial List of Internet Muds - This is moreso a reference to the longevity of the game. Unlike most MUDs, it has survived the trial of time.http://ftp.ccs.neu.edu/pub/mud/docs/mudlists/vol6/mudlist.v6n9

Jeremy Elson, CircleMUD - Due to sharing of the same software developer, JediMUD has often been tightly tied to the evolution of the popular MUD code-base, CircleMUD.http://www.circlemud.org/general.html also http://www.circlemud.org/cdp/wtfaq/chap5.html

International Recognition - There have been many people across the globe who have found and enjoyed JediMUD. While many MUDs of the past have primarily had an US or UK-only audience, JediMUD has enjoyed the presence of players from the US, UK, Germany, Norway, Austria, Australia, Sweden, Brazil, the Phillipenes, Costa Rica and many others.http://www.tolkien.co.yu/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=11158 also http://www.abfx.com/mashpipe/Internet_in_Egypt

Reviews of the mud on topmudsites.com - Still used today, topmudsites is often a resouce for finding what MUDs are hot and serves as an area where people can give feedback on these games.http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/reviews/robboard.cgi?action=dbsearch&keywords=JediMUD

JediMUD on Youtube - One former contributor to JediMUD created a YouTube video to illustrate the tight ties to history that several zones in the game have. Whereas some games focus on their own imaginary world, many JediMUD contributors have added zones based on historical figures and occurances, such as the life of Emperor Honorius Augsutus.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUc-kqMGkUU

Historical Analysis of MUD Servers, by Giovanni Ruffini - Examines MUDs in general, citing JediMUD as an example in many references.http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/HTML/v3/ruffini.html

JediMUD in "The Medium of the Video Game", ISBN 978-0292791503

References