Status of the GreaterMUD

[Vitoc]

I realized while reading the Awaiting Status thread I've done a terrible job of communicating what WebMUD is, what it is not, and its relationship with GreaterMUD.  Here's my attempt at explaining it.  Sorry, but there's a lot to cover.

Here's the pickle I'm in after supporting and maintaining this game for nearly a decade.  I work full-time.  I spend 8+ hours a day sitting in front of a monitor typing code only to come home tired, and then?  I'm expected to do it some more ... for free.  That was much easier in my late 20's with fresh eyes without any kids living in an apartment with my gf with two incomes and family nearby than it is now with worn down eyes, a wife, a mortgage, and kid on a single income with no family to help out within hundreds of miles in my mid-late 30's. 

I could keep putting the occasional night and weekend into this old telnet game, but what am I getting out of it?  Other than predominantly bitching and complaining, not much.  The few private "thanks" I get over telepaths when I am at the keys are much appreciated, but they became the exception long ago.  The jerks have overrun this place.  I get it.  It was a choice I had to make, spend the time on this place or spend it on the next generation on something larger than this.

The reality is telnet is dead.  It's the reason I never got serious about trying to make money on GreaterMUD.  Tell your average non-techie sometime to telnet to some domain, and watch them fumble around in Windows trying to find telnet.  Hell, the telnet client doesn't even come installed by default with Windows anymore, and hasn't for several years (which is pretty freaking stupid considering the telnet client executable is a whopping 130KB, but I digress...).  Over the years, I've shown my wife how to install it a few times.  To this day she still couldn't do it without my help or Googling it.  The absolute maximum we'd probably hit is probably around 300-500 characters through telnet and we'd have to spread them across at least another realm or two.

If there was ANY chance of me making a living working on MUD, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.  The passion is still there, just waiting for the opportunity.  But guess what?  Nobody is in a position to pay a developer at my level the kind of salary I need to support my family working on a MUD.  That opportunity is never going to come.  So what's a developer with 15 years of experience working on web sites, web apps, WinForm apps, sockets programming, databases, networking, IT, with a little bit of money saved up, an entire MUD codebase created from scratch, and a passion for MUD to do?  Work on this small project that has already plateaued?  Work on a telnet game?  Blow through my savings working full-time banning all the jerks dealing with all the drama and working on a telnet-based game that might make a few hundred bucks a month, tops?  Sorry, but I care too much to do that.  I've got bigger plans.

Why limit our user-base to people who are forced to rely on an old obsolete protocol?  Why rely on 3rd party clients and force the scripting task onto the player who may or may not have programming experience?  Why force people to run their computers 24/7 to host said clients?

WebMUD is GreaterMUD v2.0

Let me say that again, with some more emphasis:
WebMUD ***is*** GreaterMUD v2.0

Who is in a better place to lead this transition to web than me?  Who is in a better place to earn an actual living working on MUD?  I've got a vision.  I'm living through one of those Kevin Costner "if you build it, they will come" experiences, in real life.  I kid you not.  I'm out there in a ****ing corn field out in the middle of nowhere building a baseball field and everyone thinks I'm crazy.  Maybe I am.  I was crazy to build GreaterMUD. ;D

People have told me all my life "that will never work" or "you'll never pull it off" (as an example, people SWORE c# / managed language wouldn't be fast enough for a MUD) and each and every time I've gone and done it and proved them wrong.  If I've got my mind set on something I'm going to do it.  Whenever I make a suggestion and any of my bosses ever asks me "can you do that?" I shake my head and laugh because they don't know who they've got working for them.  Two weeks ago I walked out of a contract gig that paid better (far better in fact) than any position I've ever worked in my life.  I could have taken the safe path.  I  easily could have spent the rest of my career working there, earning a damn good living.  But I'm taking a chance on MUD.  I quit my job and have been working full-time on this, 10-12 hour days pretty much every day.  I'm taking that big of a risk *because* I care that much and I am *that* passionate about MUD.  I'm all-in on MUD. 

I don't have any delusions of grandeur.  I've run the numbers.  I've calculated the risks.  I'll accept the consequences of taking those risks, good or bad.  In case anyone was wondering, my loving wife is with me 100%.  I wouldn't have (and couldn't have) done it without her support.

I encourage you all, please, go and take a look at WebMUD.  Give it a chance.  It's basically GreaterMUD on the web, and any device with a browser can both play and script in it.  I'm literally copying code (the good bits, and updating/revising the bad/old bits) from the GreaterMUD codebase into the new WebMUD codebase.   It's everything I've ever wanted GreaterMUD to be, and then some.  In addition to that, people will be able to host their own realms with their own content (if you've ever wanted to host your own GreaterMUD realm, now is your chance).  WebMUD isn't just a game; it's a platform.  It's got a built in web Editor, no need for a third party app like NMR.  What more do you want out of GreaterMUD?  The first version, the telnet version, has served it's purpose.  I'll keep it around for nostalgic reasons, probably throw it in the cloud on one of my WebMUD servers (so I can finally turn off my poor machines here in my hot stuffy home office).  Maybe even spin up another realm on an Australian server for the Aussies, unless they're too busy playing in a WebMUD realm on a server in Australia.  I have that power at my fingertips right now.  That's possible today.  It's full steam ahead.  Although we still have many features to add (stealth, magic, parties, banking, etc.), we launch on Thanksgiving of next week.  We should have most of those completed by then.

Instead of fighting me and shaming me into working on the old telnet version with no hope of drawing in new interest or ever making a dime, why not pitch in and help the next version be even better?  Why not share the MUD experience we've loved and been addicted to for so many years with other generations that haven't seen it and experienced it themselves?  And if I can eek out a living, some kind of living, off of doing that, is that really that bad of a thing?  Is asking for a buck or two a month per character to offload the scripting CPU cycles and electricity from your computers running 24/7 really too much?  Imagine being able to check in on your characters and issue commands from your mobile phones or tablets.  Imagine getting push notifications on your devices when your character is ready to level or when they've disconnected or died.  That's all within just a month or two of reach.

Finally, I still haven't given up on getting the rights or permission to use Metro's old content.  We may have a new opportunity, we'll see.  It's not outside the realm of possibility we'll have one or more WebMUD realms running that content.  How freaking cool would that be? 

I'm asking you all, if you've ever enjoyed GreaterMUD at any time over the past decade and, regardless of how you feel about GreaterMUD now, please give WebMUD a shot.



Please help make the next version and the evolution of GreaterMUD better!
http://forums.webmud.com/
http://webmud.com/
https://www.facebook.com/webmud
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378678029/webmud-mud-evolved

[Greater]

Having checked it out, I do see endless potential for this new platform.

I'd encourage everyone to at least check it out. Throw in 5 or 10 bucks and you get half a year's access. This is pretty damn reasonable.

[jim gilmore]

so when will we get access ????

[Greater]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378678029/webmud-mud-evolved

Go there and toss in a few bucks and you get access.

[jim gilmore]

i though i did but maybe i did something wrong??

[bigwood]

The Webmud does look pretty awesome, but I am weary to donate the $5 or $10 because it does not look like it will be funded... Is there another path/login to purchase a subscription? Maybe through the webpage itself?

I guess my question is, how would someone log in/subscribe after the kickstarter campaign is over, and is it available now?

[Vitocsbetterhalf]

i though i did but maybe i did something wrong??

Did you get a message through kickstarter with the web addresses to go to and the instructions?

[Vitocsbetterhalf]

The Webmud does look pretty awesome, but I am weary to donate the $5 or $10 because it does not look like it will be funded... Is there another path/login to purchase a subscription? Maybe through the webpage itself?

I guess my question is, how would someone log in/subscribe after the kickstarter campaign is over, and is it available now?

Any money you donate to a project on kickstarter is given back to you at the end if the project is not funded.  There's no risk there.  The game will go live on the webpage the night of Thanksgiving and there will be a way to pay for a subscription through the site at that time (although not as good of a deal as with kickstarter).  What kickstarter funds get us is faster development and a better deal on paying for the AI feature.