Life After Mud

To be honest, it's not a phrase I ever imagined using. Ever since I first logged on and entered the tearoom on Wireplay, I was an addict to Richard's amazing game. Lots of people, interesting things and lots to explore. It was what I had always wanted "The Hobbit" to be, on my old Amstrad!

When Wireplay announced its closure, I was gutted. Not only would I lose my favourite game, I would lose people I had known for over a year! I was as much addicted to the social aspect of the game as I was to the playing aspect. I had made friends, some good friends that I haven't lost touch with since it closed.

I wondered what I was going to do after WPMud2 closed, as I couldn't afford to pay 12 pound a month for mud2.com, as it was very laggy at times, and it was frustrating (although I learnt my trade there, on my 10 free hours, and then a friend's, since he didn't appreciate the game).

I was lucky enough to win 3 months free play time on Foddy and Karya's new Phoenix server, and it was quite fun, although it took some getting used to, not having as many people around.

I still checked the forums regularly, and I was still updating my website at this time so it wasn't too bad, but there came a time after it closed when news ran dry and I couldn't update anymore, or post on dead forums. I honestly thought I wouldn't play mud2 again, until I was an old man (24 at least).

I tried my hand at other online games - Halflife, Everquest, Red Alert. None managed to keep my interest long enough that I would become any good at it (not that I became good at mud2, I was just lucky now and then), until I found a game on my hard drive called Team Fortress Classic, a first person shooter that used the Half-Life engine. I had always loved the teamwork aspects of mud2, so it was fun to work in teams and capture flags and cause gas leaks (and yes, I admit, to kill someone with a headshot using a sniper rifle ...).

I eventually co-founded a TFC clan with a few ex-mudders, and we called it, very originally I might add, [MUD] (we had to find a suitable acronym, ended up with *MARKED*UNTIL*DEATH*). A few more mudders joined (including some current ones) and it started getting really fun. I almost forgot about mud2 at one point, the clan name meaning nothing except in TFC terms.

That is, until, I started getting urges to play that damned game again. Even in our IRC chatroom I managed to type "qw,qs,qn" every now and then. Azrael (then DCLXVI) persuaded me to come back for a few hours because he was near wiz on Phoenix, and I used up my last 6 hours playing over the next few days - I really missed it. Although it was sad to do a members list (all of MA except me were inactive), and was boring to play empty resets, it did pick up at night time, even if certain mages seemed to like talking instead of playing when anyone above sorcerer ventured into The Land.

What was interesting was that a lot of old players had come back, shoving the "doomsayers" words right up their own backsides. Names like Calliss and Huck, who were around when I was new years ago - they were there. Mathias even came visible for a few minutes one set! With all these people, and new players too (yes, NEWBIES - the myth that mud2 couldn't get any proved to be unfounded), the tearoom atmosphere was still fun when there were people around, even though I missed the ones who had left.

When my free hours ran out, I was desperate (I'm not ashamed to admit it, I was addicted again, pah) for more time and decided to buy Everquest to take my mind off it. It's a brilliant game, but flawed in many respects, and just not that much fun to play unless you're in a big group. There were many ex-mudders playing, that I spoke to, and we reminisced about the "good old days" somewhat.

Still, even with EQ and TFC, it's just not the same. I miss the start-of-set rush, I miss hiding in the cupboard from the pk's armed with only a firestone and an axe, I miss solving (or failing to solve, as is more my forté) puzzles, I even miss the wizzes (though don't tell them that ...). I miss talking in the tearoom with my mates, going into The Land and later entering the tearoom letting out a huge grin after losing another necro to the dragon, and of course, still being amazed at the speed and skill of wizmorts.

When I played those last few hours, I was surprised (and secretly pleased) to find that my urge to make wiz one day hadn't diminished. So much so in fact, that I am actually considering purchasing a few months of play soon, I want to see how good I can get, I think.

Who knows what will happen, but in my opinion the phrase "Life After Mud" should only be used when the game is dead, and as far as I can see, it's still very, very much alive.