Forbidden Realms

Blane Bramble looks forward to post-exam activity in the Multi User Games scene...

In tho distance a battered figure rises, cloaked in charcoal grey, the worries of a hundred worlds line his face. Leather armour stained with the blood of countless enemies, an old but trusty sword flaps athis side. Rising to his full height, he glances about himself before slowly making his way to his newest weapon. Sitting down before the strange altar-like device, he produces a flat plate and reverently places it into a receptacle carved in it. Clicking and whirring sounds emanate from deep within. Strange runes glow from the stone face. The figure waits patiently, looking bored until the final message 'MS-DOS 3.2' appears...

The MUG world has slowed down recently with the intrusion of exams all over the country, however with a long hot summer ahead (well, long anyway), the updates should be flying about. Due to this quiet period, I thought I would ramble on a bit about what seems to be happening in the MUG world in general...

The future

Firstly (and most important), with the advent of machines with plenty of memory and power, online updating of games has become a reality. Objects and locations can generally be added (or altered) whilst the game is running, and it shouldn't be long before the actual game code (and hence commands and puzzles) can be altered without having to take the game down. This ability is of significance to both players and operators. For the players it means (hopefully) smoothly updated games without any significant down-times, and a more constant feel to things. For operators it provides any easy way for several people to work on the game at once (especially useful when MUGs these days are often the work of more than one person).

Secondly the games themselves are getting much more sophisticated and seem to be slowly pulling away from the 'glorified adventure' genre towards a more free-form role-playing setting. This tends to be evident in the decreasing emphasis on combat and treasure gathering in games, and increasing emphasis on other aspects such as character formation and progression in other ways than just simply that of increasingthe player's score. Agaln, this is partially tied in with the increased power (and updatability) available and hopefully will reduce the 'swords and sorcery' stigma that is often attached to games.

Parody

Well, there should be a big update in the offing for Parody 'real soon now' (hopefully before July/August), as I've finally found a wondrous person to help with the upkeep of the game. Hopefully there should be over 100 extra locations, more puzzles, more objects, as well as a number of changes to the actual game to correct the play defects that have become apparent (too hard at low levels, too easy at high levels). "Oh good" I hear you all say, "Maybe we'll see some serious additions to the game now someone else is writing". But no - having seen one of her puzzles it seems the game will continue in a similar vein to it's currently confused setting.

Titan

Sadly, at the time of writing the Titan system is not up and running due to unforoseen problems. However, until these are sorted out (which, hopefully will be during the 'lifetime' ot this issue of COMMS PLUS!), a bulletin board will be running on one of the lines to allow people to keep in touch - and to ask any questions that they may have.

The Void

The void still seems to be under construction with more realms being added over the next few weeks, bringing the total number of realms to seven or so (new realms to be added include Narnia and Isostellar, so keep an eye out for them). The system still only has 4 incoming lines, although it has been tested with 8 users on, and more lines might be forthcoming if the money is available. The availability of different realms is an interesting alternative to offering several different games, allowing players to choose from a number of sub-worlds - each with it's own unique style of play - whilst maintaining an overall consistency for the actual game (and allowing you to use the same character for all of them). The Void is based in Bognor Regis (although it may be moving to Worthing, but more details on that if and when the time approaches), so if you're interested, give it a call.

Into the Crypt... A run-down of MUG details.

• The Void
  (0243) 862216 ** Free toplay.
• Connect/AberMUG
  (081) 863 6646/081 861 5522 ** Part of the IBM PC User Group.
• IOWA
  (0883) 744044/(0883) 744164 ** Free to play. 3 MUGs and a mail system.
• Gods/Zone/BB (081) 994 9119 ** Log in as GUEST to have a look around.
• Shades/Trash
  (0342) 810 905 ** Free to play (Shades test port)

BLANE BRAMBLE