Dark and Shattered Lands

Infobox VG
title = Dark and Shattered Lands


caption=
developer=Allen Games
publisher=Allen Games
designer=Allen Games
engine=DSL 3.03 ROM 2.4
version=3.03
released=April, 1996
genre=Role-playing,MUD
modes=Text Telnet MSP
platforms=
requirements=
input=

Dark and Shattered Lands is a free online multi-player game, known as a MUD. It can be played via standard MUD clients or telnet.

History

Dark and Shattered Lands was created by Tony Allen in 1996. Since its inception it has been awarded with Chosen Game of the Month by MudMagic in September 2006, and is consistently a highly ranked game on Mud Connector, which allows players to vote for their favored MUD. [citeweb|url=http://www.mudconnect.com/top10.html|title=TMC: Top 10 Ranked Muds]

Game overview

Races and Classes

DSL, like many other MUDs offers a variety of races, over 35 in total, including elves, dwarves, humans, and a variety of animal based races, such as humanoid felines and humanoid canines. Remorts, which are typically created at the discretion of the implementor, are also offered, such as dragons, demons, and giants.

It offers a variety of classes including warriors, mages, clerics, and bards and a number of advanced classes such as paladins, shadowknights, and necromancers.

Clans and Guilds

DSL supports clans, which war each other based on both race vs. race and good vs. evil.

It offers a form of a guild system which it calls a "kingdom" which, in the role-playing sense, is a guild in the DSL world generally based on the idea of a domain of rule more akin to a nation as opposed to an affiliation based on skill or clan.

Controversy

Dark and Shattered Lands, along with other MUDs, was drawn into the DikuMUD license controversy [citeweb|url=http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/02/22/2343218.shtml|title= Why Is Free MUD Development Lagging?] [citeweb|url=http://sul-dl-dlib2.stanford.edu/gsdl/collect/sts145/index/assoc/HASH26f5.dir/doc.pdf|title=The Impacts of Medievia and Medthievia] [citeweb|url=http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/browse_thread/thread/8b8c22a9decea45c/e0bae0630a94fa93?lnk=gst&q=diku+hall+of+shame+dsl-mud#e0bae0630a94fa93|title=The DikuMUD Hall of Shame] which had been hotly debated in USENET and on the Internet. The controversy centers around the wording of the DikuMUD licenseciteweb|url=http://www.circlemud.org/dlicense.html|title=DikuMUD license] , which states that an implementor "may under no circumstances make profit on *ANY* part of DikuMud in any possible way." Historically MUDs, which are generally ran free of charge, accept donations to cover the cost of the resources required to sustain themselves. DSL is rare in that it has discontinued its practice of accepting cash gifts and hardware donations, as it has become so successful that its bills are paid with advertising revenue.

References

External links

* [http://www.dsl-mud.org/ Official Dark and Shattered Lands website]
* [http://dsl-mud.wikispaces.com/ DSL Wikispaces Site]