by Proziac
AM Daily, edition 202 (January 2019)
I joined the Disc a lot more recently than some others here, and I'd like to relay my experiences as someone who came here fairly late. I enjoy the stories retold to me by more veteran players, and I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences, too.
The first point I want to touch on is the fact that the Disc is older than me. As a 20-something year old man who was raised on graphical video games, energy drinks and other such moving pictures (hah!), the concept of text-based gaming was... baffling to say the least. A lot more words than I'm used to. Nevertheless, I got over my innate fear of lack of moving parts and joined the Disc. I had become a fan of the Discworld novels, and a fan of Mr. Pratchett himself, during my high school days. Unfortunately, life had other plans for me: I had to get my head into my class books, went to university, and eventually got a job. The burning enthusiasm I had during my teenage years flickered out, and my old passion became a distant memory. When my life finally applied the breaks last January, I made a conscious effort to re-read Sir Terry's books, including those I had missed, and explored the deeply intriguing, and most definitely wonderful world atop the back of four elephants, all atop the back of a turtle.
Not wanting to throw myself in at the deep end, and on the recommendation of a few other players, I decided to join the Thieves' Guild. In my previous gaming endeavours, particularly in somewhat similar fantasy-rooted RPGs, notably the Elder Scrolls series, the range of guilds always tends to be the same, and because I like to play it safe, I tend to always choose the Thieves' Guild. Instead of having to fight your way through your struggles, potentially against enemies who can kill you with a single blow, you can rob them of their gold and they'll be none the wiser. This different approach can be somewhat easier to a player that is unfamiliar to the game.
Despite the similarities probably common to all Thieves' Guilds everywhere, there are differences, too. In games like Skyrim, you are often required to physically control your character's movement, and directly interact with the different mechanisms of the game. An example worth noting is in the lockpicking system. As players of more modern games with a lockpicking feature know, there tends to be a minigame presented to the players, wherein they control their characters' actions on the lock. This minigame allows inexperienced characters to pick the hardest locks in game by relying on player ability alone. Naturally there are skill lines available to increase the chances of a successful pick, but it is entirely possible to do without. Whereas, here on the MUD, if your character doesn't have a high enough skill level, you're not picking the lock, end of discussion.
I naively thought that joining the Thieves' Guild would make me a master thief and I could take whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. The reality is that, much like my high school days, I got beat up... a lot. Turns out these things need practise. I managed to get myself a talker and jumped into the chat. Thankfully, a hero by the name of Kalliades came to my rescue, gave me some pointers, and told me what I could do next. He also told me about the combat system in basic terms, and what he described, followed by what I experienced, is something unlike anything I've seen before. In other online games I've played, if you attack a monster, then need to leave your computer for some reason, your character will just stand still and become a human/elf/wizard punching bag for the monster. It was refreshing to see that here on the Disc, my character will just continue to attack until either he, or the monster dies.
Following Kalliades' pointers, I immediately died again. Turns out you also need to make sure you know what you're doing. I was greeted by Death, but then promptly saved by a priest of Pishe. I will not write too much regarding the death aspect of the Discworld. I will say that I did find it interesting to find myself floating in an alternate plane. Given how angry players often get when they die in-game these days, having a mechanism that essentially makes you fight to be revived was certainly unexpected and I can see why developers abandoned this mechanism. My particular flavour of MMO is currently, surprise surprise, Elder Scrolls Online. The ability to revive on the spot, without any real care is a major convenience. Having that stripped away from me, like my favourite toy, was definitely a major shock and took some to time to come to terms with.
The severity of death is also an entirely new experience for me. I have never played a role-playing game where you can die permanently, and subsequently lose all progress in the blink of an eye. In today's games, if you were to die, you would not lose any of your acquired equipment, and you could simply pick up where you left off. Here on the Disc, you have to first fight to be revived, then return to your body and hope it hasn't decomposed, or you simply lose everything. And pray tell you die eight times. I haven't died that often yet, but the risk of permanent death is making me conscious of just how careful I have to be in order to not lose my progress. Those with the coin to boot may be able to buy additional lives, but I haven't had the opportunity to save up enough yet.
Upon my bare naked arrival back to the world, I wanted to start focusing on getting myself set up on the Disc. I trained my skills, got some money, and then... nearly died again. It really is surprising how much people don't like to relieved of their hard earned money. I don't get it.
As I started to explore more, I got to experience the sheer size and scope of the Disc. The NPCs that exist on the Disc are impressive, never have I seen so many individually thought out NPCs in a game. It was nice to see that you can encounter familiar faces from the novels, as well as some obviously fictitious characters who were smartly added in. In more graphical games, in contrast, you often find copies of the same NPCs scattered around, and also significantly fewer NPCs by number compared to the Disc. Wanting to send myself on an adventure, it was also a surprise to see the sheer number of rooms the Discworld is comprised of. Something I certainly must give credit to MUDs for is their ability to essentially create entire worlds, even if they are in words. Graphical gaming can certainly make you feel immersed in whichever particular world you happen to be playing in, but to be able to create that feeling in the form of words... I must say that I have never seen anything quite like the Disc.
Quite possibly my favourite aspect of playing on the MUD is the ability to look back in time. Many people today forget just how far gaming has come. As someone coming to the MUD from modern MMOs, it was fascinating to see that many of the mechanics used in modern games are used in either the same way, or a slightly earlier form. For example, character customisation is still based upon assigning points to attributes and skills, where skill choices are often influenced by guild membership or religion. And while you can often determine your character's built, facial features and haircut nowadays, the Disc includes the ability to write your own character description. It's nice to know these mechanisms have survived the test of time.
Another aspect I found interesting is the questing system. Quests are meant to be occasionally stumbled upon, rather than there being big quest markers above an NPC's head. The Discworld does not feature a questing heavy model, with a lot of hand holding and directing you where to go and what to do. It follows a more "choose your own adventure" model instead, with no predetermined outcome for anyone, and quests being on the side for those who wish to look them up.
Now, it would be a sin if I didn't mention the MUD's community. Even though the player-base is small in comparison to other MMORPGs available, there is something of a "family" feel that I have never had the pleasure of seeing elsewhere. In commercially available MMOs, it is often difficult to ask for help; a lot of people are rude, which can be off-putting. The community on the Disc welcomed me and other new players with open arms. There was no "I'm better than you", no "Get out of here noob", and thankfully no-one claimed to have slept with my mother. It was the Disc community that made me remember that people can just be passionate about their games, and that it is not just a competition for first place. So, I really should thank the Discworld community. You really have been a shining light in an often dark world. Thank you!
All of the impressions I mentioned are just a few of the reasons I could tell that this game is made with love. From the inner workings, to the players themselves, there's a charm of home-made, and I can feel passion that went into this. It has been a fun ride so far for a younger player like me, and it has really been an eye opener to what I may have missed out on all those years ago.
Anyway, I will continue to play, as I'm having way too much fun. And I have my sights set on becoming a better thief, at least so I can survive a bit longer. Maybe travel? Publish some more articles? Who knows? The world is my elephant, atop the back of a turtle!
Reproduced courtesy of the author and the AMD editorial office.