Some Knowledge

Materia Magica is a MUD, which stands for Multi User Dungeon. It has been around since 1996 or so. I started playing this game in 2001, and over the years made a few characters. The game is still going and has several hundred players. I noticed yesterday that there were not a lot of players online. Also, today I got a message from the in-game news that they are looking for more players. I’ve placed a link in the blogroll here to the side where you can find out more about this fun, mostly free game.

Materia Magica is played with a client program. You can use the Java client available on the game website to log in and create an account and character. A better client with more features is Zmud, but it costs money. If you are technically inclined like me, you can use Pueblo UE, which is available for free on sourceforge at that link. You will need to pick a character name and make a password. A name generator is available once you log in to character creation. You will want to read some of the instructions on the game website to find out how to connect. Basically, if you are using a third-party client, you will need to give the client the URL of the game, the port number to connect to (listed on the Materia Magica site), the character name, and the password.

Perhaps more people would play this game if it were simpler to get started. It is fairly simple with the Java client on the website, but that client lacks a lot of the features of a proper MUD client. To play the game you type in direction commands, like n, s, e, or w, then hit enter. To do things like look at a room, you type “look” and hit enter. This brings up a text description of the room. To fight monsters, you type “kill (monster name)” and it attacks in rounds. There are no graphics in this game, just lots of text that can be repetitive to read.

Perhaps the best feature of this game is that you can play it on any computer, as there are no graphics requirements. You also might meet some other people. As in life, some people are decent, and some are idiots. You can talk to people anywhere by sending them tells, as in “tell (character name) message” and they can respond, as long as they are not sleeping. The game has a lot of lore, and there are many different locations to explore. There is a quest system where you do tasks and get rewards, and there are trainers where you can learn new skills.

Text games have been around since the start of computer gaming. If you like to type and read, this might be something that interests you. You can check out the website and see if it’s interesting. Once you have a character you can also participate in the social network they run, with a player profile, log, and friends. For a text game, Materia Magica is one of the best. If you enjoy fantasy role playing games, this might be something to entertain you for a while.