I suppose i like text based games for the same reason people might like a book better than the movie. I've been playing eotl.org:2010 on and off since the internet began. The mud was started at Stanford something like 20 years ago and contains a neat collage of some brilliant minds.

The theme is pretty much anything awesome and is extremely pollished and well crafted. It's pretty serious action and you're afraid to die so it gets your heart beating. The system is simple but deep, spending experience to gain skills and stats with tons of guilds and races for experimenting in different builds.

The mud has dropped into some obscurity from hundreds of players, but those of us still mudding agree it's the most interesting one and with the absolute best play mechanics. There's also an open application process to become a wizard and code there, which is how it's collected such good content over the years.

Anyway, i'd like to see it become less obscure again, so check it out sometime, and cheers. Oh, one more thing, there's no sensoring at all and anything goes, so it's rated R, such as life. That's not to say people are jerks, it's all for the good and groovy.

End of the Line... How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love the detail. In many cases H.G. Wellian in style. I love the ambiance. Anyone remember jumping in their seats when that first zombie in Doom popped out and screamed in your face? I love the community. They all hate me.

Like Rawr said, EotL has some very modern features such as the RSS feed channels. On that alone, EotL has over 10 ways to communicate, and that doesn't include all the strange little widgets like post-it notes or little wooden signs put up by players.

The advancement system is near perfect for a mmorpg type of game. You kill monsters and do quests to earn xp, gather equipment and coins. Then you spend the xp on your stats, skills, and weapon proficiencies. You do all that while trying to avoid player killers, or grouping with friends to increase your odds against said pks. No other mud/game seemlessly combines all genres like EotL. Themes in the mud (guilds, areas, items, you name it) range from Historical, Current Events, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, SciFi Fantasy... And being that players are allowed to advance all the way up to mud Wizard and unleash their own creativity, it really is endless.

Over the 15 years I've been playing EotL there have always been around 20 playable races and like 15 guilds. If the endless supply of new areas, items, and monsters isn't enough there is nearly an endless supply of race/guild combinations to keep you entertained. There is generally ALWAYS someone playing, our players join us from all over the world! You could be one of them what are you waiting for? Join us today!

The End of the Line is like a second home to many people. The community has grown and shrunk with the passing of time, but EotL endures.

There are many players that are willing to help out new players, and a few that are out to exploit them, but that can be fun too. I'd say the average age of the playerbase is around 20-30 years old. We are hoping to get a surge of new players since the average Who reveals around 40-50 with only a fifth of them active at any given time.

There is really no roleplaying here with the exception of a few, but that isn't to say the experience can't be rich and rewarding. The admin has over the years, revamped lots of things like weaponcode, armorcode, combat, and guilds. I'd say overall the changes are for the better.

I've played EotL around 10 years now and I have seem maybe 70% of the mud. It is just huge. We used to have around 150 active players at the height of our existence so now it seems like endless rooms and few people.

There are lots of Quests to figure out, and enough combinations of races and guilds that getting bored is more of a conscious choice than anything else.

As far as player interaction goes, its rated M for Mature. That isn't to say we are all vulgar jerks or deviants (maybe!), but there is definitely no rules as far as language or NSFW offsite links.

One of my favorite new features is the automated Auction system. It's like eBay for gear. That really helps the good gear get out into the public much easier than previous years.

My other favorite new addon has to be the News channel with updated headlines from Digg, Fark, Cnn, Bbc, and more.

EotL also hosts other games like Bughouse (4 player drop chess) and Nethack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetHack) with talk channels devoted to both. I don't know who I'd be without EotL.

Eotl has had it's up's and downs, that's for sure, but it's still a fairly fun place to play.

A good portion of the current playerbase has come together to create a new forum for themselves. There's lots of great info posted for both new and older players alike. Come check it out at http://eotl.20.forumer.com/

Tick

EOTL has only two rules: 1) Do whatever you want 2) Don't anger anyone bigger than you

The first gives players a tremendous amount of freedom to do whatever you would like. The second is a direct result of the first, frequently resulting in death for the smaller character.

There is an almost constant background noise due to the many public and private chat channels and the verbose nature of many of the players and staff. Much of it is not suitable for younger and/or more sensitive people.

The gaming itself is very complex. The game spans many dozens of large areas (cabals). These areas are grouped in a haphazard manner based upon theme (roughly). The cabals are divided into specific areas which have little or no continuity because each was coded by a different person. This adds a lot of flavor to the game, in my opinion.

There is likewise a large variety of gear to chose from. Once you have learned your way around (no easy task given the last paragraph), you have access (if you are big enough to survive) to an overwhelming variety of armor, weapons, special powers and generally goofy stuff that does nothing useful, but is fun and cool anyhow.

In general, most of the useful skills are gained through participation in one of the many guilds and sub-guilds. You can advance without joining a guild, however it will be much harder and not as much fun.

The main mode of advancement is thorugh combat. You gain experience (xp) primarily through killing the non-player denizens. They can and do provide a challenge for nearly every level of player and are the main source of more advanced gear. They can be quite easy to kill and employ only rudimentary comabt skills, or they can be huge and have a wide variety of the same skills available to players. On a side note to this: Many things are either harder or easier than they may at first seem. Be VERY careful in judging you opponents.

There are many ways to educate yourself about pretty much any aspect of the game. You can go out and experience things first hand(high death quotient until you learn a bit), you can ask about things on the public channels (or in person through 'say' and 'tell') but be wary! The general playerbase can be a prickly bunch. Some will try to help honestly, while others may take every opportunity to send you to your immediate death(many times by their own hand). The rule of trust which will keep you mostly safe is, if you don't know the person is trustworthy, DON'T TRUST THEM. It is the main form or entertainment for a small number of players to taunt, ridicule, berate, insult, and otherwise verbally assault you and thereby cause your demise in some manner. And if you want the very best method for self-education, look at EVERYTHING. Read signs, search rooms, examine descriptions of rooms and gear. The people that coded EOTL took a lot of time and went to some great effort(with no pay, I might add) to make this place fun, interesting, challenging and creative. You'll find little details, some useful some not, in every item you can interact with.

Which brings us to death. Death can happen pretty much any time, any place, and with little or no warning. You can die a lot, frequently. In most cases, especially when you are small, this is not a big deal because you don't lose much (gear on hand, xp on hand, and 5% of your size). You simply go get resurrected, grab that extra set of gear you've been storing(you DID save a set, right?) and go right back to playing, hopefully a wee bit wiser.

EOTL is not for beginners who are faint of heart, easily insulted, slow typers, slow thinkers or of limited personality. It's the super size of acting out. Roleplaying is not obvious, nor will it help you in the classic sense. Some encourage it, others will kill you because of it. It can be amazingly challenging and rewarding. You'll meet a wide variety of ego-maniacs. If you can hack it, you'll love it.

My closing statement about EOTL is this:

'EOTL is a drug, and real life is rehab'

EotL is a shadow of it's former self. While it's still dangerous, no more do players and coders both enjoy the thrills.

Note that these are my opinions, but I highly invite you to log in and talk to pretty much any mortal, myself included, and get our thoughts. Also, don't be afraid to ask the wizards and archwizards about higher-level things, like the real fact that player levels keep dropping immediatly after massive changes.

As the years progress, things are brought more and more into the day-to-day scope of those in charge, and players keep leaving as a direct result.

Players do not want balance. Players do not want fair. Players want to do loads of damage and heal instantly and kill big things, not spend all day grinding away at the same monster because they can't heal, and their damage has been capped to a retardedly low level.

In the grand days of EotL, it wasn't uncommon to see 100 players on. Now, if there's 50, there's damn near an orgasmic flurry of patting on backs.

Things are edited and changed with flagrant disregard of mortal input. 'Like it or go away' is the call these days.

There are a few wizards who still strive to try to help mortals and make it fun for them, but more often than not their efforts are crushed beneath real life obligations as well as the stifling will of the ones in charge.

So, play here if you've got an hour or two to kill, but if you want a better mudding experience, I highly recommend *any* mud out there other than EotL.

You'll like life here...then suddenly hate it.