In response to Vaelic's review on PvP aspect of Aardwolf. I've spent more than ten years on Aardwolf, engaging in PvP aspect of the game during most of my game time. It is fair to say that new players will find it challenging to compete in PvP activities right off the bat. However, after learning the ropes and gaining some experience, Duel System, Combat Maze and Warfare are easily accessible to new players. While the learning curve may be steep at the start, the amount of PvP contents increases tremendously once a player joins a PvP Clan. Raiding, Group vs Group PK, and the newly added HardCore Mode all provide readily accessible PvP options to players. Nonkilling players vs player competitive activities such as Lasertags and Global Quest also occur around the clock. I do agree that rewards for nonraid PvP activities may be lacking, and it's something that will hopefully be improved upon while balancing the needs of nonPvP oriented players.

Please note, I am not writing this review based on extensive experience. I am writing this review based on a few hours of playing with help from the helpful player community as a new player. I found the newbie experience to be pretty delightful. Character creation, help files, website, client and player support was all great.

I unfortunately did not commit to playing despite the very high player numbers that were on and enjoying the game. This was because the game had no real player-versus-player gameplay.

What is real player-versus-player? Rewards for being successful in the game system. Unfortunately, there were no real rewards in their PvP system. With no real rewards, there is no real system. It would be like killing a monster and gaining no experience, no money and no levels. PvP in Aardwolf is not really promoting rewards for participating in player-versus-player gameplay.

Instead, they are sort of casting it out all together in support of a much easier system that promotes little reward, risk or benefit. This is does not mean there is no fun. After all, fun is subjective. I'm sure plenty of people have fun killing players with little to no risk involved. They have been doing that for 18 years as the helpful newbie helpers will exclaim to define any point they are making.

The real kicker for me was not the actual killing of players in PvP. It was the fact thieves cannot steal from players. There is no stealing even among PvP clans. Stealing and all supported skills used with stealing are NPC only. I was really excited about being a bandit, but as there is no point of being a bandit against players, I quit.

I would love to see more rewards in PvP in this game. Not just bragging rights with other non-PvP'ers who think they are PvP'ing. You have to understand that PvP, regardless of loss of loot, requires some type of reward and possible progression. You would not fail to give someone experience, money, items and so forth in PvE systems. So why leave out PvP?

Outside of that, this alone does not make Aardwolf a bad game. I'm pretty sure it's great. This review is just to warn others that it's not really a PvP game. Just something for casual PvE players to call PvP.

A game in which honesty doesn't pay: Too many bots and script-runners ruin the atmosphere of a once rewarding game for those who performed well. Competition now completely reduces to who can write the better plugins, scripts, and whatever else one can think of to automate gameplay. This overall development into a fully automated game is supported by recent changes,as there are now huge gold/qps/train sinks with potentials, instincts and masteries. The punishment of bots and automated players on the other hand is very intransparent and probably based on whether you know the MUD-owner or whether you donated a fairly amount to Aardwolf (pay-per-play by choice). If you enjoy playing with people who mysteriously manage to quest, campaign, level, pup 24h/7d a week, you'll certainly have found your place within the bottish community of this MUD.

The last couple of reviews were written by Aardwolf Staff or people who later on became Staff, and those reviews appear to be promo pieces like so many mud reviews these days. I have never been a Staff member of Aardwolf, nor am I attempting to become one nor receive any perk in the writing of this review.

Aardwolf is stereotyped as a hack-n-slash mud because it began as a ROM (Diku derivative) mud and has at least 14,070 levels (not counting pseudo levels where a player can increase their power). In March 2008, Aardwolf was reborn and no longer is a ROM mud. Lasher wrote a custom codebase from scratch that still provides enough of a Diku look and feel to keep existing players comfortable with the mud interface.

In addition to gaining levels, players gain power by collecting quest points and a different type of point system known on Aardwolf as trivia points. These points can be used to purchase weapons, equipment and other player enhancements.

Some in the mudding community would consider Aardwolf to be a pay-for-perks mud because players can donate money in exchange for a small token item (a donation pin) that will boost their stats slightly and they can choose to receive either quest points or trivia points as compensation. The amount of quest points or trivia points received depends upon the size of the donation. To this player's knowledge, there are no limits on how much an individual player can donate, though double donation rewards are limited to specific times each year.

Quest points and trivia points can be earned through regular gameplay without a player needing to ever donate and players and staff do not hassle players who choose to not donate.

Having played other muds prior to Aardwolf, I consider the leveling difficulty to be easier than most 'Dikuesque' muds. Still, with thousands of levels to obtain, most players don't reach max level very quickly.

One reason for this is that the mud has alot of activities to divert most players from straight hack'n'slash leveling. For example, the mud has optional hard-coded quests built into areas known on Aardwolf as 'Area Quests' and more recently a newer hard-coded quest system referred to as 'Goals'.

These quests are generally optional, but there is some peer pressure for players to try to complete them and much player angst is generated over this. Many of the quests, even ones the Staff has designated as easy, are not easy to complete for most players without receiving help from other players. Assistance on quests/goals is not given to players equally, therefore much of a player's success can hinge upon which clans they chose to join and/or which set of friends they made, if any.

Despite having a couple of hundred players logged in at a time, a significant proportion of players are builders and immortals or former builders and immortals. Competitive play on this mud is by no means a level playing field and it would be impossible to make it so. Aardwolf attracts new players who have never played a mud before and who do not understand this reality.

Providing further player frustration are features such as random mazes and quests in which needed items only appear randomly and unless a player knows the right people, they can be stuck for hours when hitting these roadblocks. Many in the long term Aardwolf community consider these features to be desirable, but this player has met many potentially cool new players who try Aardwolf, love the mud at first, and then quit when they aren't receiving the support they need to succeed.

There is a sizeable group of players who delight in griefing other players and attempt to control who is given the knowledge and support necessary to succeed.

Aardwolf tries to appeal to a broad array of playing styles with the exception of hardcore player killing (PK is restricted) and roleplay is not encouraged, most players will likely ignore or laugh at a roleplayer.

Lasher has difficulty keeping up with all the plans to improve the mud and some feature changes that have been promised to players years ago have yet to be coded.

Lasher does not have an easy task, he has a diverse group of players who clamor for different changes to the game and there is usually a significant faction who is dissatisfied that their desires have yet to be met.

I continue to play Aardwolf. If one has decent inter-personal skills one can make friends who will help a player succeed. Also, a very healthy dose of patience goes a long way too if one plans on sticking with Aardwolf!

I've been playing aardwolf for almost forever it seems! Since the summer of '99! And enough new things are added constantly that I still find it worthwhile to log in every day. The things that keep me coming back day after day? The constant changes and the people. A mud is nothing if not for the people. I have people that are actually happy to see me when I log on, and there are people I look forward to talking to. Aardwolf is big enough that there are ALWAYS lots of people online and small enough that I know of most the serious players. Unlike a massive game, aardwolf has only 200-400 people online at a time, you get to know many of them. This is GOOD!

Also, there's a brand new academy that makes learning the mud MUCH easier now. Goals and tasks in a nice system, with rewards if you complete the totally optional school. So if you get bored with the school (it is BIG) you can wander away and come back later.

Aardwolf is the finest mud available on the internet, bar none. Unique code, friendly players, and a massive world (over 20,000 unique rooms and over 200 areas, 99% non-stock!) combine to make this mud an incredible experience for anyone who wants to give mudding a try, or is looking for a new and better home. Even jaded players will find themselves awestruck by the incredible world offered to them, free of charge.

The new player is welcomed at a customized academy which offers them them opportunity to learn the basics of gameplay. With offers of gold, experience and other prizes, this academy is worthwhile even to players who know the basics of play, although it is not required, and new players can jump right into the world at large if they wish. Helpers stand ready to assist new players into their transition, and there are many clans eager for new members to befriend.

All in all, Aardwolf is the perfect place to experience mudding at its finest. Give it a try!

A New Players Perspective: It is hard to be the new guy. Aard Mud is rich in rooms, mobs, and friendly players, but this is not a good starting mud for new players.

The amount of text zooming by when first starting is beyond intimidating. New players need to 'channel' to shut off almost everything to start with. The immortals should consider more friendly starting options.

On the good side, the low level mob areas are well defined and appropriate for new folks. And there is a lot of help available in the form of web sites with posted speedwalks and lots of other info. The monsters have plenty of gold and equipment. And there Newbie helpers available to answer the huge number of questions a new player will have on this site.

However, For new players, there is so much information that needs to be taken in, that you can spend hours just trying to get handle on basic play. For example, I spent a couple of hours looking up the equipment that may be picked up so easily, until someone mentioned that it doesn't matter very much at low levels on this mud.

Activities for players are also a mixed bag. There is an excellent quest system, with level appropiate tasks for new players. There are also frequent 'Wars' with players killing players without any real loss of equipment or stats. However, these 'Level' based battles are not appropriate for new players. Very experienced players manipulate the level system so that they can compete as low level players even after beating tens of thousands of mobs and maxing out their stats.

In closing, I would say that Aard Mud has great richness, but newbies need to watch out for this one.

Having played Aardwolf for 6/7 years, I felt that my online home, one of the largest and most established around online deserved a few more words….

The main goal of players on Aardwolf is to have fun. There are no strict RP rules, no requirements to level, and no quests that must be completed for advancement. Basically, it’s up to the players to determine how they want to spend their time on Aardwolf and then go for it! There are many, many features to enjoy and you will find people that enjoy the same feature as you and welcome you to their ranks (there are whole clans build around various features such as questing, raiding, spell casting, equipment hunting, exploring, etc…. which may welcome you to join their ranks if you share common interests).

One of the first things people will notice when they log in to Aardwolf is it’s size in terms of playerbase, areas, features, you name it: Aardwolf is big. If you’re used to a mud that has 20 or 50 people logged in, then the 400 to 500+ people (pretty much never drops below about 350 people, generally over 400 and 500+ at peak times daily) then the hustle and bustle of Aardwolf could be quite a pleasant surprise. There are always hundreds of people online, chatting (numerous chat channels: gossip, noble, race, class, clan, more channels than you’re going to want open, you will turn many off), levelling, questing, auctioning equipment, exploring, etc…. There is even a dedicated channel for people looking to group. The size of the player base certainly gives Aardwolf a different feel than most muds- player interaction is one of the things that keeps people coming back again and again.

It’s RP tolerated, so if you’re in to heavy RPI, Aardwolf may not be the place for you, especially if you can’t tolerate others that don’t RP. However, there are opportunities to RP and a channel where you can find people that want to participate in RP with you (although use of the channel is clearly OOC – use it find RP partners).

There are also many other things to do, such as participate in warfare (no loss PK), participate in the clan system (opens up full PK opportunities and lets you raid other clans), quest, campaign, participate in laser tag, really too many diversions to list. Of course, levelling is also a major pastime as the stronger you become, the more power you wield.

The immortals are particularly friendly, helpful and very engaged with the mud and player base. There are generally always immortals around to assist with manor upgrades, restrings, spammers, etc… I haven’t played any other muds for years (since I found Aardwolf), so can’t really compare Aardwolf’s immortals to those of other muds, suffice it to say that in my 6/7 years of playing I have had plenty of interaction with the immortals (even some with the Imp) of Aardwolf and have never had a negative experience with them. Of course, if you’re there to cause trouble, your experience with them may be different, but generally the playerbase are friendly and don’t bite (too much) so there’s not much trouble.

In terms of theme, it’s fairly basic stock medieval fantasy. Nothing particularly difficult to grasp (you will recognize all the classes and races, there aren’t 500 different races which you won’t recognize). There is a HUGE assortment of areas. With so many people building, there are diverse areas that are based on various particular fantasy genres. As Aardwolf has been open for years and anyone can become a builder (after meeting certain guidelines) the opportunity to explore non-stock areas is almost limitless. Your explored percentage is tracked too, so there are plenty of opportunities for bragging rights, but it will always be dropping as new areas are brought in.

A very pleasant aspect of Aardwolf, in today’s world of fee paying or credit buying mega-muds, is that Aardwolf is completely free. You can’t buy special equipment, you can’t buy more levels or immortal status, etc… basically, everyone is on a level playing field. Of course, those people with more time on their hands to play will be stronger and newbies start out weaker. There are always plenty of players that are much stronger and will give you competition.

If you haven’t tried Aardwolf, you should. So many people playing for so many years can’t be wrong.

One of the things that set Aardwolf apart from many other muds when I first started playing here was the stability. Hopefully I won't jinx myself by saying this, but crashes are virtually nonexistent! The few that happen are taken care of very quickly. Reboots are usually done every couple of weeks, where there is usually at least one new area and several features added.

Downtime on Aardwolf just doesn't happen either. In the 6+ years I've been playing at Aardwolf I would safely guess downtime has added up to no more than a day (at the most).

One of the best ways to describe Aardwolf: It has a lot for just about anyone. PK is completely optional and is handled through a clan (aka Guild) system. There is a lot to do other than just run around gaining levels. There is regularly well over 300 people online, so there are plenty of people to talk to. The staff and players are always willing to help anyone, whether new to the MUD, or experienced.