What are muds?
Mud stands for Multi User Domain, or Multi user Domention. A mud is generally a realtime online multiplayer game, but that isn't always the case. Some muds actually are online chat rooms, sort of like IRC chat. Muds are places in which a visitor experiences a vertual reality type thing. Each mud is a vertual world where visitors can generally do a lot more than chat to one another. The really neet thing about muds is the realtime multi-player aspect. There can be a number of people connected to one mud, interacting with one another and NPCs in a viriety of different ways. It''s a realtime thing. Visitors have a user name, a password and a chosen character. They just log in using their favorite mud client and enjoy! Visitors might kill mobs, (mobiles) Another words (also known as NPCS (Non Player characters)), or they might fly star destroyers through space to obtain their next piloting level. As far as I'm concerned, there is no lemit to what kind of activity one can find themselves involved in when playing a mud. Furthermore, there are hundreds of muds out there, some charge monthly fees to play, some are free, some charge to create new accounts, some are just ridiculous, some aren't.
on some muds, players can group with other members to make it more probable that they will not get killed. On most muds I know about, the main objective is to do stuff that will bring in experience points. Once a player has enough experience points, they can obtain a new level.
Some muds now have graphics and sound. Of those muds, I have only found one that is accessible for blind players (Sound MUD). World of Warcraft, Runescape, Diablo, etc, are all, at least in my point of view anyway, fancy deviations from the traditional text mud. Most graphical muds, which I suppose aren't actually considered to be muds, but which are similar in manner, are not as deep. They often don't have as much to get into as a text mud does. This is likely because it's harder to make a graphical mud actually contain as much information as it is to display words on the screen that visitors can read and come up with the desired immage on their own. However, there are many many text/sound based muds out there, which windows screenreaders sutch as Window eyes and Jaws can read aloud to you just brilliently. All one needs to play muds are a mud client, an internet connection, an interest in muds, and a little time off!
Three of those you are likely to find somewhere in the mud section of this site. Enjoy!