The Edge of Midnight is a peculiar game that has survived two decades of challenges come May 2013. There are a few core aspects of the game felt to make it unique, not the least of which is the idea of unending evolution. EoM would like to claim that it fosters a role-play environment, but that, ultimately, is up to respect being established between the staff and the players.

No game is without ups and downs, though Edge of Midnight may have ultimately had more downs than ups to date. Once upon a time, the game had a grand player base with very active and imaginative individuals. As staff grew sick over time with various ailments in the real world, the game became somewhat neglected. The well-meaning remainder of staff tried to carry on for quite a long time, but lacked a firm direction until rather recently. This chaos and disorganization is easy to see, I would think.

Some very important changes have been taking place recently, but the transition from the old way to the new way is bumpy. If it went through without a hitch, then I'd really worry! A director was named as an official guiding force, game masters have been hired to facilitate role-play, the map has been restructured to be more logically connected (finally!), the wiki has been under review, the forums are now in full swing, and so much more.

The staff have been trying to improve the game and their own approach to administration, but overall there is a decrease in melodrama. I've been on and off with Edge of Midnight for a decade and I have seen it climb and fall in popularity, wax in wane in melodrama, crest and fall systematically over time. We are getting closer to the appropriate environment for a well MUD, and we continue to do so daily.

Some of the staff have been with EOM for as long, if not longer, than I have, but more importantly we also have new staff that have varying amounts of time under their belts on the game. Although a core tenet of the past has been 'There is no favoritism', I don't believe that anyone can be completely unbiased toward anyone. Ever. As humans, we judge. Some of us do it fiercely, some of us more passively, but we judge each other. Someone said to me once that the people around us are our mirrors - look into your mirror. I wish we could be freed of this fundamental human flaw, but we cannot be. What we -can- do is request assistance from other staff when our patience grows thin.

The Edge of Midnight has updated code bases several times to date, so we call our current one EoM v4 rather lovingly. It started as CoffeeMUD 5.2 code but it has been modified so heavily that there is not much in common with its origin these days. We are still in a state of transition, so there are many tasks not yet completed, but we anticipate some very exciting things in the next 18 months, including:

A fully new crafting system that has more moving parts, so to speak. It's a tad more realistic than the original system and much more customized. Players can technically make their own items and string them. Depending on the skill the player has developed in the crafting, it can be far better (or worse) than any item you can find on the map. The ultimate goal is to allow players to craft epic equipment that is 100% customizable and reduce the number of pre-made objects in the game by a vast amount. Crafting also provides experience rewards as you continue to move up through the system and practice, practice, practice!

Secondarily, we pride ourselves on our extensive racial system. We have dozens of playable races, although some of them may only be gained through evolution (remort). The evolution concept is maturing slowly over time, but we're definitely enjoying it as a perk here. We also add new races all the time as concepts grow!

Third, we have a system in place to automatically reward role-playing experience. This system takes in (roughly) the amount of information you have entered into the game across the various in-character channels and talking methods and then applies a numeric reward based on a rather complex formula. You can walk in the door and role-play from level 1 to 301 if that is what contents your heart.

We always strive to improve at Edge of Midnight and we try to welcome a diverse population and demographic, improving our services for the blind, the mobile, and everyone in between.