November 2001
- Digimask Technology. Matt Owen
- Digimask Technology. Ian Macintosh
- Call for submissions to Game Programming Gems 3 Andrew Kirmse
- Virtual environments for education? Edward Glowacki
- Virtual environments for education? Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Virtual environments for education? Bruce Mitchener
- Virtual environments for education? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual environments for education? Dr. Cat
- Virtual environments for education? Mats Lidstrom
- Playing NPCs Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- A Hello, and thanks... o. rchaeus
- NPCS Mr Dylan Tovey
- Story in MM*s [was ] Joe Andrieu
- player-driven content? Sasha Hart
- player-driven content? Paul Schwanz
- player-driven content? Bruce Mitchener
- (no subject) J C Lawrence
- (no subject) Koster, Raph
- (no subject) Peter Tyson
- WebRPG Travis Casey
- [TECH][SURVEY] non-mainstream languages? Bruce Mitchener
- [TECH][SURVEY] non-mainstream languages? Brian Hook
- [TECH][SURVEY] non-mainstream languages? Nathan F. Yospe
- [TECH][SURVEY] non-mainstream languages? Mats Lidstrom
- [TECH][SURVEY] non-mainstream languages? Bruce Mitchener
- "sweeping change"? Sellers, Mike
- "sweeping change"? Michael Tresca
- "sweeping change"? Sellers, Mike
- "sweeping change"? Michael Tresca
- "sweeping change"? Freeman, Jeff
- "sweeping change"? Matt Mihaly
- "sweeping change"? Sellers, Mike
- Re[4]: Expectations of in-game reality Travis Casey
- Cynical at a young age T.A.J.BARTON
- Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject) Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject) John Mariotti
- Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject) Matt Chatterley
- Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject) Sean K
- Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject) Don Healey
- Some survey results... Andrew Wilson
- Some survey results... Matt Mihaly
- Some survey results... Jeremy Noetzelman
- Some survey results... Andrew Wilson
Matt Mihaly:
>> 325 ******************************** tapestries.fur.com 2069
>> 257 ************************* muck.furry.com 8888
>> 174 ***************** lambda.moo.mud.org 8888
>> 152 *************** discworld.imaginary.com 4242
>> 106 ********** achaea.com 23
>> 75 ******* spr.ctrl-c.liu.se 23
>> 68 ****** shangrilamush.com 9999
>> 48 **** resort.org 2323
>> 46 **** treyvan.com 4999
>> 46 **** mush.elendor.net 1892
>> 41 **** mud.lysator.liu.se 2000
>> 40 **** merentha.com 10000
>> 39 *** pern.mccr.org 4201
>> 36 *** aetolia.com 23
>> 32 *** btech.betterbox.net 3065
>> AVERAGE NUMBER OF USERS CONNECTED
>> Here are some trivial observations on the table relating to the
>> nature of the muds surveyed.
>> o Two of the top 10 muds out there are run by Achaea LLC.
> Your numbers are surprisingly accurate for Achaea and
> Aetolia. They're within about 3% of the actual averages, based on
> total minutes online. Our usage seems to vary more than most MUDs
> I've seen, incidentally, with the peaks being about 33% higher
> than the troughs (we're currently in a trough, after being at a
> peak in mid-October due to much new content going in), and with a
> gradual steady rise of both peaks and troughs.
In another world I run a little games website. Looking at the
traffic on that webserver I'd see daily cycles of traffic, weekly
pulses - it gets quieter at the weekends, and a slower wave that
follows the progression of major holiday periods, seasonal
variations and college terms.
> However, I don't believe that those are the top 10 muds in terms
> of usage. I can't imagine that Dragonrealms and Gemstone III would
> not be the top 2 text MUDs. (I'm assuming you're excluding
> graphical MUDs on purpose.) Their numbers are significantly higher
> than the #1 MUD on your list.
I can only grab information from sites that let me connect to a
single socket and send a 'WHO' command. This rules out a lot of
sites at the first hurdle. I've no idea how to grab information
from the shards of a system like UOL, and I'm less inclined to try;
one of the reasons I'm doing this is to find out more about the
types of site I could get the tkMOO-light client to talk to. I
don't think I'll be tacking a 3d graphics library onto the client
any day soon ;)
> Also, I can think of a number of MUDs off the top of my head that
> easily beat out the numbers listed above. Duris, Two Towers, Wheel
> of Time, Materia Magica, Aardwolf, Batmud, Arctic, Realms of
> Despair, Medievia, Terris, etc. I'm sure there are others. Achaea
> MIGHT make it into the top 10 in terms of players online in a list
> of all text MUDs, but Aetolia definitely would not at this stage
> (it's only been open a month and half).
I'll go looking for these sites now you mention them. Batmud I
already knew to be big enough to make a dent in the 'top-10', so it
was a pity I couldn't grab any information there.
>> o 3 of the top 20 are in Linko:pings University in Sweden. o
>> The top 2 and a 3rd also in the top 10 are Furrys.
> The top text MUDs in terms of usage are definitely not
> Furries. Most of them are of the monster-bashing variety.
So what's 'usage' defined as? I'm agnostic, and agree that just
counting heads is a pretty crude way of judging the popularity of a
site. If popularity is a function of (number of people * time each
player spends online being active) then a head-count is only useful
when you compare similar sites. The 2 big Furry sites in the table
clearly either force idle players to disconnect or perform a daily
reset, either way the sites dwindle in the quiet hours. LambdaMOO
for example doesn't have idle-player booting so the site's rarely if
ever less than 100 users. But clearly, 100 idle users doesn't make
for a 'busy' site. All this reiterates your first paragraph...
Looking for a metric to compare different sites is an interesting
puzzle, but one only needs to look at the way website metrics are
compiled to see how tricky it can be. Comparisons are only really
meaningful when the user-demographic, 'usage' (sum of active hours),
and those weird little cycles are the same. You might be able to
make meaningful comparisons between places like Achaea and Aetolia
because they're perhaps still very similar. I wouldn't know where
to begin when comparing a place like LambdaMOO and FurryMuck.
Why compare at all? Well I don't run a mud of my own (yet), but I'm
more than curious to derive some elements of best-practice from the
various offerings out there.
Cheers,
Ay.
andrew@awns.com
Cell: 07889 61 61 44 Voice/Fax: +44 (0) 1865 513 091
- Some survey results... Dr. Cat
- Some survey results... Andrew Wilson
- Some survey results... Dr. Cat
- Some survey results... Derek Snider
- Some survey results... Andrew Wilson
- Some survey results... Matt Mihaly
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Michael Tresca
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Dave Rickey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Ryan S. Dancey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Leland Hulbert II
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Matt Mihaly
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Paul Schwanz
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Dave Rickey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Sellers, Mike
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Ryan S. Dancey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Valerio Santinelli
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Koster, Raph
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Michael Tresca
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Brian Hook
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Lars Duening
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Phillip Lenhardt
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Lars Duening
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Matt Mihaly
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Travis Casey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Matt Mihaly
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Travis Casey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Don Healey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Michael Tresca
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Matt Mihaly
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Paul Schwanz
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Travis Casey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Phillip Lenhardt
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Don Healey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Koster, Raph
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Ling Lo
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Ryan S. Dancey
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Paul Schwanz
- Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead Michael Tresca
- [DGN] The Human Condition Kwon Ekstrom
- Multi-protagonist stories. Paul Schwanz
- Multi-protagonist stories. Matt Mihaly
- licensing Adam Martin
- Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject) Sami Kosonen
- Licensing PnP RPGs was "sweeping change"? Brian Hook
- Licensing PnP RPGs was "sweeping change"? Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Licensing PnP RPGs was "sweeping change"? Freeman, Jeff
- Good Writing (was: Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead) Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Marian Griffith
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) John Buehler
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Bruce Mitchener
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Marian Griffith
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Bruce Mitchener
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Marian Griffith
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Mark Eaton
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Marian Griffith
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Travis Casey
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Travis Casey
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Andrew Hefford
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Paul Schwanz
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Matt Mihaly
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Marian Griffith
- New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) Paul Schwanz
- Storied Games Paul Schwanz
- Storied Games amanda@alfar.com
- Storied Games Lee Sheldon
- Storied Games Dave Rickey
- Storied Games Travis Casey
- Storied Games Paul Schwanz
- Storied Games Marian Griffith
- Storied Games Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Storied Games Lee Sheldon
- Storied Games John W. Pierce
- Storied Games Lee Sheldon
- Storied Games jsmithn@hotmail.com
- Storied Games Matt Mihaly
- Storied Games Miroslav Silovic
- Storied Games Derek Licciardi
- Storied Games Matt Mihaly
- Storied Games amanda@alfar.com
- Storied Games Matt Mihaly
- Storied Games amanda@alfar.com
- Storied Games Matt Mihaly
- Player Manipulation of Environment/New Laws Paul Schwanz
- Player Manipulation of Environment/New Laws Bruce Mitchener
- Player Manipulation of Environment/New Laws Paul Schwanz
- Player Manipulation of Environment/New Laws Marian Griffith
- Player Manipulation of Environment Paul Schwanz
- Player Manipulation of Environment Paul Schwanz
- Player Manipulation of Environment Matt Mihaly
- Player Manipulation of Environment Andrew Hefford {Coregen}
- Player Manipulation of Environment Eli Stevens
- Player Manipulation of Environment Jasper McChesney
- Player Manipulation of Environment Paul Schwanz
- Player Manipulation of Environment Adam Martin
- Player Manipulation of Environment Jasper McChesney
- Player Manipulation of Environment Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Player Manipulation of Environment Ling Lo
- Player Manipulation of Environment rayzam
- Player Manipulation of Environment Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Player Manipulation of Environment Marc Hernandez
- Fw: AVATARS2001 this weekend Frank Crowell
- [NEWS] Lineage: The Blood Pledge Interview Dave Kennerly
- [NEWS] Lineage: The Blood Pledge Interview Dave Kennerly
- Storytelling and Professionals (was: ) Kathleen Foley
- Storytelling and Professionals (was: ) Lee Sheldon
- Storytelling and Professionals (was: ) Dave Rickey
- Storytelling and Professionals (was: ) Lee Sheldon
- not about telling stories Joe Andrieu
- not about telling stories Freeman, Jeff
- not about telling stories Travis Casey
- Storytelling and Professionals (was) Lee Sheldon
- A Non-Cumulative Character MMORPG? Heresy! Paul Schwanz
- Storytelling and Professionals (was) Ananda Dawnsinger
- Asheron's Call, Story and Population Density. Zak Jarvis
- Asheron's Call, Story and Population Density. Sasha Hart
- Asheron's Call, Story and Population Density. Christopher Kohnert
- Asheron's Call, Story and Population Density. Sasha Hart
- Asheron's Call, Story and Population Density. Christopher Kohnert
- Asheron's Call, Story and Population Density. Lee Sheldon
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Sanxion
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms vognsen@post10.tele.dk
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms David Bennett
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Sanxion
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Christopher Kohnert
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Per Vognsen
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms David Bennett
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Eli Stevens
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Christopher Kohnert
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Nicholas E. Walker
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Marcus Johansson
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Tech: Pathfinding with Rooms Leland Hulbert II
- [NEWS] Lineage: The Blood Pledge Interview - Richard's blunder :) Mathieu Castelli
- Subject: New laws. (was: Player Manipulation of Environment) John Robert Arras
- Meridian 59 purchased by developers Andrew Kirmse
- Meridian 59 purchased by developers James C. Nugen
- Meridian 59 purchased by developers Frank Crowell
- [STORY] Story and population size Adam Martin
- [STORY] Story and population size Derek Licciardi
- [STORY] Story and population size Christopher Kohnert
- [STORY] Story and population size Timothy Dang
- [STORY] Story and population size Derek Licciardi
- [STORY] Story and population size Vincent Archer
- [STORY] Story and population size Christopher Kohnert
- [STORY] Story and population size John Buehler
- [STORY] Story and population size Derek Licciardi
- [STORY] Story and population size John Buehler
- [STORY] Story and population size Jeff Freeman
- [STORY] Story and population size Travis Nixon
- [STORY] Story and population size Wells, Thomas
- [STORY] Story and population size Matt Mihaly
- [STORY] Story and population size John Buehler
- [STORY] Story and population size Matt Mihaly
- [STORY] Story and population size Jeff Cole
- [STORY] Story and population size John Buehler
- [STORY] Story and population size Jeff Cole
- [STORY] Story and population size John Buehler
- [STORY] Story and population size Michael Tresca
- [STORY] Story and population size Matt Mihaly
- [STORY] Story and population size Dave Rickey
- [STORY] Story and population size Jeff Cole
- [STORY] Story and population size Dave Rickey
- [STORY] Story and population size Paul Schwanz
- [STORY] Story and population size Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- [STORY] Story and population size Andrew Hefford
- [STORY] Story and population size Bryan "Cyngon" Helmkamp
- [STORY] Story and population size Bobby Martin
- [STORY] Story and population size Marian Griffith
- [STORY] Story and population size Bobby Martin
- [STORY] Story and population size Bruce Mitchener
- [STORY] Story and population size Sellers, Mike
- [STORY] Story and population size Bobby Martin
- [GENETICS] Evolving prey populations Adam Martin
- Stories, why? Ian Collyer
- Stories, why? amanda@alfar.com
- Purchase of Meridian 59 by Near Death Studios Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Purchase of Meridian 59 by Near Death Studios Rob Ellis II
- Purchase of Meridian 59 by Near Death Studios Lee Sheldon
- Purchase of Meridian 59 by Near Death Studios Sellers, Mike
- Community Building Sanvean
- doesNotUnderstand behavior in C++ (was: Spoofs) Eli Stevens
- Importance of player roles Sasha Hart
- RTS aspects in MUDs (LONG) lhulbert@hotmail.com
- RTS aspects in MUDs (LONG) John Robert Arras
- RTS aspects in MUDs (LONG) Leland Hulbert II
- RTS aspects in MUDs (LONG) holding99@mindspring.com
- RTS aspects in MUDs (LONG) Dave Kennerly
- RTS aspects in MUDs (LONG) Takis Kalogiratos
- Agora, a Wiki for MUD topics Bruce Mitchener