Tuesday night

[same_sky]

Today was nice. We got a bit done around the house, and now we're idling before bed. Magnus is trying to figure out what kind of mandolin he should build next, and I've been bouncing from one time-waster to another. We went up to the parents for a while and had a very humorous Rook game. Mom passed (the bid) and sent us into gales of laughter for several full minutes at one point, but the story wouldn't be as funny if I retold it, so I'll just leave you to wonder about it.

It's snowing. I guess it's the first real snow of the season. It actually stuck (sorta). I don't know if it's going to snow more overnight, but I hope not. Magnus has to go to Augusta tomorrow, and if it's all slick, I'll worry about him. Of course, I worry about him all the time, so I guess it's not much different than always. It was so nice when we walked up in the snow tonight. It's cold, but crisp and not windy, and there was just enough snow to make all our neighbors stay inside, so it was very quiet.

We ordered a pizza for dinner.. it was extremely good. Also, I found out that there are fewer calories in delivery pizza than I thought, which is always good. Of course, I still wouldn't argue that it's healthy or anything, but better than it could be.

I've been spending much more time than normal on the muds. I've even been working on stuff.. the website and mudlist. Part of me knows that it's ultimately a waste of time.. there are just not enough people interested anymore, and the aber mud population itself is dwindling (I'm not sure about the other types. I was never interested in them.) Muds are very popular with college students, you know, and by now, most people have gotten on with their real lives and then they eventually stop mudding altogether. It's probably easy to do.. we don't log on as much as we used to. First, you take a break, and then you log on and don't see anyone you want to talk to, or there isn't anyone at all on, and so you log off, and each time you take longer before you log back in, and suddenly the habit is gone. The kids have no imagination anymore, and the graphics get better and better in the other games. People don't see the point in a text based game when you can also play a graphic multiplayer game. It's so much more fun, though, and it annoys me that people don't get it. Still, part of me thinks that maybe they'll last. But.. last night I looked at Crimefighter's mudlist, with the listing of muds that have gone down much longer than the list of the ones still up. It was utterly depressing. Stephie and I indulged in a wonderful fit of nostalgia the other night, which I guess is what prompted my reinterest. We had so much fun. Anyway, we decided, at the end, that we were going to try to revitalize the mud. I'm thinking on contacting a couple people I haven't talked to in a while, as well. I'm also thinking evil thoughts about certain other people I haven't thought of in a very long while that I don't like any better in retrospect than I did at the time. Hehe.

In conclusion, I guess, I should say that if you want to get involved in a very fun, text-based role-playing game, check out DarkScapes. (My name is Kadi, I'll see you there.)

Comments

[sabrys.livejournal.com]

Good luck to you getting Darkscapes going again, I never suceeded in doing the same for another Aber. Mind you I never seemed to find the time to be online - but in my case it wasn't fancy computer games, but good ol' fashioned Real Life that kept me busy.

Thank you also for finally disproving my theory that virtually the only people that wonder onto Live Journal are paranoid or depressed teenagers. I was beginning to doubt that I would ever see anyone else remotly sane.

Sabrys

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

We have more people than before, and more of them are active, but it's still a mainly idle, sparsely populated mud. I guess the difference from before is that the people who ARE online are more willing to have a conversation if someone says something instead of just idling. On the other hand, it's already less active the last couple of days than it was for a couple of weeks. I don't know. I wish it was possible to revitalize any of the muds completely, but I have my doubts.. and a significant amount of the conversation that goes on is about the people and things that happened several years ago. Oh well, I guess we'll see how it goes.

Incidentally, I don't know you by the name Sabrys.. would I know you by another name?

And also, I've rather noticed the crazy people on LJ myself. Thanks for considering me among the sane.. :)

[sabrys.livejournal.com]

I fear one of the problems is that there are too many Abers to support the interested community. Once the code became easily available, everybody wanted to set up their own MUD, but the number of people willing to play an Aber stayed about the same. I hate to say it, but up to a certain point, the more MUDS that die, the better the chances of the survivors - but even they will have to work at it.

Some time next year I will probably get a broadband Internet connection, and at that point, when I no longer pay by the minute to be online I may well consider spending the odd Sunday afternoon idly wondering through a MUD or two. I suspect however that if I do return to the Abers, I'll start afresh with a new unknown name, and shrug off all the political baggage that so annoyed me the last time around.

You probably would recognise my former character although I didn't often stray from DragonMUD, however although I'm still known by the powers there, and still occasionally get updates from them, that life is past. I invented Sabrys specifically for my LiveJournal, and, rather unexpectedly I've found that I like it in here.

Sabrys

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I wish I didn't have to agree, but I suppose I do. I've often thought that the best chance for building a new community out of the old one would be to eliminate all but a couple of muds. But no one wants to volunteer their own to be ditched, of course... perhaps even more now than before, since most of the "I wanna be a god" muds are gone. I'm certainly not willing with DarkScapes, for instance. I know from experience that if it goes down, my mudding time will drop exponentially due to lack of interest. And even if we were left with two good muds, can you *imagine* the trouble the players would cause with each other, after all the history everyone has with someone? ;)

And even more, I strongly suspect that the reinterest of late has been a fluke and is on the downswing already, although I don't know if it'll fall as far into neglect as it was for a while. At least for some time. I miss the muds the way they used to be, but I'm not able to truly believe it'll ever be the way it was. *sigh*

Such a cheery discussion.. :)