If you're most people, you're asking yourself "whatta hell is Starmourn and why should I care?". Starmourn was the last great hope of commercial MUD games. It launched in 2018 to almost 456...
If you're most people, you're asking yourself "whatta hell is Starmourn and why should I care?".
It was monetized through a free-to-play model that was more reasonable than most.
A sci-fi MUD with a lot of heart and personality, Starmourn drew from Star Wars and a bunch of other references. The mechanics were modern and reminded me of "real" video games — there is no other MUD with the same polish and professionalism. The game looks cool, and you can even control an ASCII spaceship with text commands. Wild!
Switching to regular MUDs was painful, like going back to the 1990s. Starmourn was the future, a demonstration of what a professional team could accomplish by applying a modern sensibility to the text medium.
While this is concerning on the commercial front, it is great news in the free-as-in-beer context. All microtransactions where removed, and Starmourn will remain live, as the cost to maintain the server is probably negligible (especially with less than 15 active players, much less than non-commercial"juggernauts" such as Aardwolf, with 200+ players everyday).
Development will remain on a voluntary basis, so I wouldn't expect any new features or content, ever. It is unfortunate that Iron Realms won't open source the whole thing, but it is understandable to keep ownership just in case there is a surge in interest.
Starmourn had everything, and it still was a commercial failure. Maybe there really is no future for MUDs.
I just checked, and there are 9 players online, myself included. Later today, there will be around 15. And I bet they'll have a great time.
Sorry to see it’s gone before I’d ever heard of it- and having a mobile client is also a pretty handy modern feature! MUDs were always a favorite project of mine to try and learn networked game...
Sorry to see it’s gone before I’d ever heard of it- and having a mobile client is also a pretty handy modern feature! MUDs were always a favorite project of mine to try and learn networked game development, so I’ll be sure to give this a look. Thanks for sharing!
I encourage you to play Starmourn, which is very well made, and the legacy status won't impact your experience significantly. I mean, after a point, you'll have to grind a bit more without the...
I encourage you to play Starmourn, which is very well made, and the legacy status won't impact your experience significantly. I mean, after a point, you'll have to grind a bit more without the microtransactions, but it's not so bad.
As someone that only discovered MUDs recently, it was the most beginner friendly, polished, and impressive I played.
But don't expect a social experience. I just checked, there's 3 people online.
Starmourn is the best MUD no one plays, and I have no idea why.
If you're most people, you're asking yourself "whatta hell is Starmourn and why should I care?".
Starmourn was the last great hope of commercial MUD games. It launched in 2018 to almost 456 concurrent players. That is a lot for a text game.
It was monetized through a free-to-play model that was more reasonable than most.
A sci-fi MUD with a lot of heart and personality, Starmourn drew from Star Wars and a bunch of other references. The mechanics were modern and reminded me of "real" video games — there is no other MUD with the same polish and professionalism. The game looks cool, and you can even control an ASCII spaceship with text commands. Wild!
Switching to regular MUDs was painful, like going back to the 1990s. Starmourn was the future, a demonstration of what a professional team could accomplish by applying a modern sensibility to the text medium.
While this is concerning on the commercial front, it is great news in the free-as-in-beer context. All microtransactions where removed, and Starmourn will remain live, as the cost to maintain the server is probably negligible (especially with less than 15 active players, much less than non-commercial"juggernauts" such as Aardwolf, with 200+ players everyday).
Development will remain on a voluntary basis, so I wouldn't expect any new features or content, ever. It is unfortunate that Iron Realms won't open source the whole thing, but it is understandable to keep ownership just in case there is a surge in interest.
Starmourn had everything, and it still was a commercial failure. Maybe there really is no future for MUDs.
I just checked, and there are 9 players online, myself included. Later today, there will be around 15. And I bet they'll have a great time.
Discussion on /r/mud: https://old.reddit.com/r/MUD/comments/153svkv/imperian_and_starmourn_two_ire_muds_going_into/
Sorry to see it’s gone before I’d ever heard of it- and having a mobile client is also a pretty handy modern feature! MUDs were always a favorite project of mine to try and learn networked game development, so I’ll be sure to give this a look. Thanks for sharing!
I encourage you to play Starmourn, which is very well made, and the legacy status won't impact your experience significantly. I mean, after a point, you'll have to grind a bit more without the microtransactions, but it's not so bad.
As someone that only discovered MUDs recently, it was the most beginner friendly, polished, and impressive I played.
But don't expect a social experience. I just checked, there's 3 people online.
Starmourn is the best MUD no one plays, and I have no idea why.