You've been logged out of GDC Vault since the maximum users allowed for this account has been reached. To access Members Only content on GDC Vault, please log out of GDC Vault from the computer which last accessed this account.

Click here to find out about GDC Vault Membership options for more users.

close

The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: MUD: Messrs Bartle and Trubshaw's Astonishing Contrivance
Speaker(s): Richard Bartle
Company Name(s): Professor, University of Essex
Track / Format: Design

Did you know free users get access to 30% of content from the last 2 years?


Get your team full access to the most up to date GDC content

Overview: Almost all today's MMOs are direct descendents of MUD, yet few developers have played it. This talk, by one of MUD's two co-authors, describes the thinking behind its design and corrects some of the commonly-held misconceptions about what it must have been like to play. It also explains why it is that although MMO development has advanced dramatically since 1978 there are still some areas where early MUDs were more capable than today's behemoths. The present can learn from the past; the good old days are yet to come.

GDC Online 2010

Richard Bartle

Professor, University of Essex

free content

Design

Design