BatMUD is a MUD, established in 1990. BatMUD is Finland-based and operated and owned by a non-profit organisation, Balanced Alternative Techniques Ry, which was formed in December 1992^[1]. By 2006, over 100,000 players had frequented the game, making it one of the largest text-based multiplayer games on the Internet. In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social chat rooms. ...

History and development

BatMUD was one of the first LPMuds and has been online with only a few minor breaks since 14 April 1990. The game was initially created by a wizard (a term used to describe some of the world-building staff of a MUD) called Jaf. The name originates from the name of the server the game was initially installed (batman.cs.hut.fi). LPMud (sometimes shortened to simply LP) is a MUD variant developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö that separates the mud game functionality between a virtual machine (known as the driver) and world-building components in the LPC programming language (known as the mudlib). ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 261 days remaining. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...

In 1996, BatMUD received the Finnish Oiva award, and the game has also been prominently featured in many mainstream computer gaming magazines. Through the years, BatMUD has also been voted "Game of the month" by several Internet gamingsites.

Like most other MUDs, BatMUD is also constantly developed. Over the years there have been over 200 coders contributing to the codebase. It is expected on BatMUD that a coder will actively work on development of the MUD, with those who are not productive being periodically purged. For other uses, see Programmer (disambiguation). ... Codebase is a term used in software development to refer to the aggregate of all source code used to build a particular application or component. ...

The game can be played enjoyably for no cost, but donations of money are rewarded with in-game benefits which allows the donator to have a character with enhanced characteristics (the pay-for-perks model). Money raised from donations is spent on improving and maintaining the game. These benefits can also be gained by completing in-game tasks, but donations are the easiest way.

In February 2007, BatMUD released an official game client. What makes this BatClient significant among the many MU* communities is the many steps it takes towards the more modern, graphical gaming environments of recently developed games. The Game Client is a lightweight, Java-based desktop application. See Features and Screenshots at http://www.bat.org/batclient/ Also what is notable, is that the development continues rapidly towards an even more competitive game GUI - to overcome the MMOG generation's barriers of playing text-based games. The Game Client is solely dedicated for BatMUD.

Gameworld

In BatMUD player initially creates a fantasy character by choosing a race, background (civilized, magical, evil religious, good religious or nomadic), alignment and a name for the character. As usual in role-playing games, there is no specific goal in the game. Players get experience points for various things their character does in the virtual environment of the MUD. For example, player character gets experience points from finding new rooms. BatMUD has over 15000 unique rooms, plus a moderately large outerworld. Many fantasy stories and worlds call their main sapient humanoid species races rather than species. ... In Dungeons & Dragons and some similar role-playing games, alignment is a categorisation of the moral and ethical perspective of the player characters, non-player characters, monsters, and societies in the game. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... Experience points (often abbreviated as exp or xp) are a representation of a characters advancement and improvement in skills in role-playing games. ...

It is not allowed for a player to have multiple characters in BatMUD, for reasons of fairness. Because BatMUD doesn't require a special client program beyond a TELNET-capable computer (although specialised MUD clients do exist), it would be relatively easy for a player to multiplay effectively (leading to experience/virtual currency inflation) compared to other types of modern multiplayer online games. In December, 2006 the outerworld was reconfigured with areas scattered across several continents. [3] In January, 2007 the first version of a Java based BatClient developed with the assistance of Mythicscape was released. An Alternate character, often referred to in slang as alt, alt char, or multi, is a character that a player creates in addition to his or her primary player character. ... For the packet switched network, see Telenet. ... A mud client is a piece of software used to connect to a MUD. Generally a mud client is a very basic telnet client that lacks VT100 terminal emulation and the capability to perform telnet negotiations. ... World of Warcraft, a popular MMORPG A Massively Multiplayer Online Game (also called MMOG or MMO) is a computer game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. ... Java is a programming language originally developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 1995. ... Founded 2003 in Sweden, Mythicscape Online Entertainment is a small company focused on developing online games and Java based user interfaces. ...

In 2000 a separate version of BatMUD was launched using a hardcore or permadeath ruleset. Though less populous than the normal (often referred to as flower BatMUD) it remains a unique and challenging game world. Several attempts to raise the playerbase, draw more interest from Arch's or synchronize both games has yet to be achieved. In RPG terminology, permadeath, permanent death or PD describes games (or parts of games), in which player characters, who die, are not always brought back to life. ...

A classic version (an older version of game lib and world) also exists as a separate game.

Races

BatMUD has a wide variety of races. There are 44 races in total: 31 immediately selectable, 10 available only to experienced players rebirthing, and 3 invitation-only player-run races. There are some extremely unusual races including sprite, catfolk, merman, or barsoomian (a kind of four armed ape capable to some extent of four hand wielding). Many fantasy stories and worlds call their main sapient humanoid species races rather than species. ... The term sprite is a broad term referring to a number of preternatural legendary creatures. ... In the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Catfolk are a race of humanoid felines (similar to a Rakasta). ... A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, McClurg, 1917 Barsoom is a fictional version of the planet Mars owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc and invented by author Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories. ...

If players wish to change their character's race, they can reincarnate and choose another race/background, they lose a relatively small percentage of their total experience and get to respend their experience in a new way from their previous incarnation. They may end up say being one level lower overall than they were before, but unlike many other muds it means you can completely transform your character whereas in many current games such as World of Warcraft, you are very much fixed into one race and class, and the investment of experience into the character is permanent. Experience loss depends on time from last reincarnation as well as reincarnation method and is between .5% to 10% of one's total experience. Experienced players also have an option to rebirth their character allowing them to not only choose a new race and background, but also to change their name. After rebirthing they lose all of their current experience, but get some minor bonuses and a chance to re-experience the lower levels. Reincarnation, literally to be made flesh again, is a doctrine or mystical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ...

Playerbase

BatMUD provides a range of interplayer communication methods, allowing the players to talk and chat. Though the majority (about 2/3) of the players are Finns, the game itself is wholly in English and therefore hosts a large player base from several countries, including many European countries, the United States, Canada and Australia. Roleplay not being strictly enforced, and the common language of English, allows debates to flourish. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A European is primarily a person who was born into one of the countries within the continent of Europe. ... In role-playing, participants adopt characters, or parts, that have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. ...

With several hundred players simultaneously online, it is also one of the largest traditional MUDs. However with the rise of massively multiplayer online games its popularity has fallen off in recent years with fewer new players joining. Aggressive efforts have been made to make the MUD more newbie friendly but most players continue to be well established players who have invested months or years into the game. As with many other popular online games, addiction is not unknown. World of Warcraft, a popular MMORPG A Massively Multiplayer Online Game (also called MMOG or MMO) is a computer game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. ... An addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity. ...

BatMUD employs a virtual economy^[2], with players selling rare items and favours to each other in BatMUD's internal currency. Sale of characters or equipment for real life money is forbidden. If it has occurred it has not been a major problem. A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually in the context of an Internet game. ...

Player killing is moderated in BatMUD. It is not totally forbidden if there exists a valid reason or the killer is registered playerkiller (which makes them open prey for anyone). Registering as playerkiller has some possible benefits, such as eligibility for winner of the week, who gets a special bonus. Complaining about player killing may result in harassment which can continue for as long as the complainers play the game, but repeated unwarranted player killing is looked down on. In addition to random killings there is an assassin guild, which for a fee will dispatch a group of players to kill another player. Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of combat in MMORPGs, MUDs and other computer role-playing games pitting a players skill against anothers, where the goal is ultimately the death of the opponents player character. ... Jack Ruby murdered the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ... A guild is an association of craftspeople in a particular trade. ...

• Archwizard's comment about player killing in highbie-channel in Finnish. "Kill anyone you please just not too much!"

Amarth <fin>: tapa ketä vaa missä vaa päi battia kunhan et liikaa!

External links

• BatMUD website.
• Log of BatMUD play.
• BatWiki
• The Official Game Client, BatClient
• BatClient development press release

References

1. ^ The official site of B.A.T. ry [1], accessed 2006-07-22
2. ^ Masters Thesis about "Virtual gift - Trading gifts in BatMUD virtual community" [2] (in finnish)