General Information About the RPIMUD Network

Established in 2005, The RPIMUD Network is a growing community of role-playing enthusiasts composed of players from all around the globe who share an interest in role-play intense, text-based, multi-user games. These "role-playing" games, not to be confused with hack and slash "roll-playing" games, represent a small, but thriving niche within the world of MUDs. New players who are exposed to RPIMUDs for the first time may do so with reluctance, but after playing a good RPIMUD, many of these new players never return to other formats including the ever-so-popular hack-and-slash MMORPGs. We currently have 15 RPIMUDs bridging many themes and genres, and we currently have 666 registered members. This makes The RPIMUD Network the largest community of its kind in the world.

Our affiliates are listed on our home page ranked in accordance to popularity based on the number of votes that each game has received from our members. Our voting cycle is conducted on a weekly basis with the rankings reset every Sunday at approximately Midnight EST. Each member is permitted only a single vote each week, and your vote may be cast for any affiliate RPIMUD regardless of development status. What this means is that you are free to vote for your favorite active game, or show your support for games that are currently in development, but not yet open for play. We allow votes to be cast for games that are currently in development because we viewe these games as the RPIMUDs of the future and encourage you to show your support for them. If you would like to keep your favorite game at the top of our rankings list, just be sure to cast your vote every week and encourage your peers to do the same. The more you promote this site to others, the more all RPIMUDs will benefit from the exposure that they get here.

In addition to the weekly rankings, we tally votes on a yearly basis toward the first annual RPIMUD Network RPIMUD of the Year contest that concludes on December 31st of every year. The winning game will receive special honors here at the RPIMUD Network and will be awarded a graphic badge to proudly display on their website to promote their success within our community. Additional prizes have yet to be determined, and may vary from year to year. Weekly votes are added to the total contest vote tally when the votes are reset each week.

Our members also have the option to review any RPIMUD in our database. Reviewing a game allows you to let your personal opinions be known. Our review ranking system is based on a possible score of 1-5 fairies, with five being the highest. This ranking is determined solely by the rank you assign when you review a game, and averaged from the results of other reviews for that particular game. It is not related in any way to our primary ranking system based on weekly votes. In addition to member reviews, The RPIMUD Network makes use of "secret reviewers" who are drawn from our membership and asked to review a game for a period of two weeks and judge the game based upon common criteria and guidelines. The member name of these secret reviewers remains anonymous, with the reviews allbeing designated as an official reviews. Hopefully, these reviews present a less biased account of a play experience on the RPIMUD in question. We do not remove reviews, good or bad, except in the event of a reviewer writing inappropriate or vulgar content.

We have also created a RPIMUD Trivia game, available from our main navigation menu, that you can play to test your knowledge of RPIMUDs and our affiliate games against other members. The trivia question database is currently composed of 205 questions submitted by our members, and from the game menu you can opt to submit your own questions to the system to expand the game even further. All submitted questions are reviewed by our staff, though we use the honor system in regard to the correct answers to the questions and answers that you submit as our reviewing staff won't always know the answers to the questions that you pose. When submitting a question please do so in a format similar to the other questions you have seen when playing, and make sure that every question has at least two possible answers with the correct answer noted. You will be notified by e-mail when your question has been reviewed and informed as to whether or not it was accepted.

In addition to providing The RPIMUD Network website as a free resource to RPIMUD players and developers, the founding staff is currently involved in the development of two RPIMUDs of their own. These projects, as well as web design that we've done for several MUDs and MUD-related sites can be found in the "Internal Projects" section of this site. Please note that our internal RPIMUD projects are given no additional privileges, votes, beneficial reviews, et cetera aside from the fact that they are listed as internal projects and will be displayed as the default banner advertisements shown on our forum directory if we currently have no paid advertisers. Beyond this, we go through great efforts to make sure that our internal projects are treated as equals to all of our external affiliates.

 

What Separates a RPIMUD from a RPOMUD, or a HSMUD?

The definition of what earns the distinction "Role-Play Intensive MUD" over a "Role-Play Oriented MUD" has remained a hot topic subject to much debate since the founding of this website. Given that just about all non-stock MUDs of any style, theme, or genre have vast differences of code, where do we draw the line? What features are required? What features, if present, mean that the game isn't really seen as an RPI, but a RPO?

For the purposes of settling this debate, at least as it is present on this site, a RPIMUD centers itself around the suspension of disbelief created by remaining in-character, presentation of a detailed and realistic environment appropriate to the theme/genre of the game, and role-play that is centered around realistic game play. RPOMUDs separate themselves from hack-and-slash, or HSMUDs by requiring role-play in a gaming environment where the emphasis remains on character advancement through non-realistic game play or mechanics. To further segregate these three categories, HSMUDs require no role-play at all and the emphasis is purely on the mechanics of the game and your personal advancement.

The RPIMUD Network is a community of RPIMUD players and developers, but we also recognize the need to introduce more potential players to RPIMUDs so that this exclusive niche can grow. As such, as of September 1st, 2006, The RPIMUD Network is opening its affiliate database to RPOMUDs as well as RPIMUDs. It is our hope that by driving traffic to the site composed of potential RPIMUD players, we will ultimately draw RPOMUD players into RPIMUDs and encourage RPOMUDs to introduce elements into their games that may lead to a change of format and the elevation of a RPOMUD to RPIMUD status.

 

Joining The RPIMUD Network

The RPIMUD Network offers free membership to all, and free game listings for RPIMUD and RPOMUD developers. Joining the network as a member allows you to access many of our features that are not available to non-members. Registering for an account takes only a few minutes and requires only a valid e-mail address so that we may send you a secure confirmation e-mail with a password that you will need to connect to your newly created member account the first time so that the account can be activated in our system.

As a developer of a RPIMUD or RPOMUD you may add your game to our affiliate list by clicking on "Vote" button and clicking the "Submit your MUD" link. You will then be asked to submit information about your game and it will be added to our database and ranking system. You will need to contact Wade@RPIMUD.net in regard to the artwork you wish to use for your MUD Icon on the main rankings page as all artwork is handled manually to ensure a consistent presentation for our members.

 

Banner Advertising on The RPIMUD Network

The RPIMUD Network forums page has a single, standard-sized advertising banner space available at cost to any of our affiliates, including those with RPOMUD classification. Developers may purchase unlimited impressions for their banner to be shown in this space for $10 per month. Your banner will be added to the rotation at the top of this page with the other paid advertisers. Rotation is determined at page load. Your banner must be exactly 468x60 pixels and cannot exceed 100k file size. We are not yet accepting Flash advertising banners. Advertising banners that are determined to be inappropriate for presentation on this site may be refused service or asked to change their banner accordingly. In the event that we have no paid advertisers in a given month, the banner advertising for our internal projects will be shown by default. If you are interested in advertising with us, please contact Wade@RPIMUD.net. Transactions can be made via check, money order, or PayPal. We do not accept direct credit card transactions at this time.

Free advertising banner space is located on the bottom of The RPIMUD Network's forums page as a service to our affiliate games. Developers interested in having their banner shown in this space should send the banner by e-mail to Wade@RPIMUD.net with a request to be added to the rotation.

 

Linking to The RPIMUD Network

If you would like to help promote The RPIMUD Network by adding us as a text or graphical link from your website, please do! The following banner and vote link are available for your use.

 

Donations

Aside from the meager earnings that come in from paid advertisers, which are used to cover hosting and development costs, The RPIMUD Network is a not for profit organization. As such, donations are happily accepted. If you are interested in donating to The RPIMUD Network just use PayPal to send whatever amount you'd care to donate, (and no amount is too much or too little), to the PayPal user ID "Wade_Gustafson@Yahoo.com". All donations will be noted in our forums where you will receive thanks for your tax deductable donation to our cause.