I don't even know how many of your remember MUDs but I would just like to point out that the road to modern mmorpgs was paved by these base, visually...er simple, and text-repetitious games. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about (for shame!), a standard MUD, or multi-user dungeon/domain (I was always unsure which one it really was) was usually played over a bulletin board system and was nothing more than an interactive online rpg with simple text descriptions. You basically read the entire game, (and yes, that means fights and all); navigation and interaction in the "world" occurred by typing directions and commands. This may not sound very exciting to you spoiled young wipper-snappers, but, as we all know, graphics do not always make the game. Many of the MUDs I played (mostly back in the 90's, but they were very much alive during the early 80's too) were already offering different classes and races, and implementing several other interactive features that many mmorpg's of today are mimicking. Another great feature of MUD's was the fact that they were free. You really have to understand how much coding and scripting was involved in creating a MUD before you understand how unbelievable generous and cool it was that most they were offered for free. However, it must be mentioned that these MUDs were far inferior and less reliable than the MMORPGs of today. I guess, to an extent, you do get what you pay for in MMORPGs... but make no doubt that, during their time, MUDs were awesome and ahead of the game (pun intended).

Now I would like to mention one particular MUD for it is somewhat complimentary to Square-Haven. The name is Ivalice, and it is a MUD based off the Final Fantasy series. They incorporate many the popular classes (as well as others that are in the games, but never used =) and races from the series, my personal favorite being the Royal Guard, who actually uses tools-Do you guys remember tools??? They were awesome! The world of Ivalice is actually structured using various cities and environments from Final Fantasy as well, but with a little bit of original content added too. If you are at all interested, I encourage you all check out the link.

In closing, the purpose of this post was just to badger you all about the old school roots of MMORPGs. I want to give credit where it's do... I got a lot of good times (and bad!... stupid crashes, getting lost in the aimless Norths, Souths, ups and downs of these text mazes, dieing in a new place with no visual reference and no idea how to get back...) out of these MUDs, Ivalice in particular, and I hope that your MMORPG players out there got the chance to play a MUD. Even if you dislike them, or don't care about them you spoiled bastard, at least you know where the idea MMORPGs like World of Warcraft were originally started. /quit