Had a few people go kind of ‘wtf’ at the post where I fought an opponent in a text battle simulator.  While some found it strange, others found it nice, but the general consensus of those that aren’t really familiar with forms of online improvised storytelling go, I figured I may as well give a sort of brief rundown on just what it is.

‘It’ comes under many terms.  ‘Mushing’, ‘Mucking’, ‘Mu*’ happen to be the most common, and right off the bat I wish to differentiate it with ‘other’ forms of online roleplay.  There are many mediums of roleplaying, like IRC, Forums, even the dreaded ‘aim groups’ and other such methods.  While I don’t tout superiority over other types as a static variable, it is in my experienced opinion that Mush/Mu* formatted RP tends to be of a far higher caliber and of better organization and entertainment level than pretty much any other medium.  There are some exceptions to the rule though they tend to be very specific in scope, but they are extremely rare.

Let me describe just what a Mush is, just off the bat.   Think of a game server like any other, like an MMORPG like World of Warcraft, Lineage 2, etc.  This server stays running in the background, statically if the game admins aren’t total doofus types, and allow for connections to occur to the server.  You can use a client to connect to the game, like an MMO, or you can use straight pipe telnet (though it’s messy looking), and when you do connect you’re greeted with a prompt to log in.  You usually type in your character’s name, and/or ‘guest’ to get ‘in’ the game.  Follow me so far?  I hope so!

From this point on, I will explain what you’d see if you were an already created and registered player.  Different games have different criteria for creation, and not all games are created equal.

You always appear in a ‘room’.  A ‘room’ is a generic placeholder that emulates a location in the game’s theme that the staff types create.  Some locations can be broad, like say ‘A Grassy Field, and some can be extremely specific, ‘Mizuki’s Bedroom’.  Scenes usually take place in rooms suited for the scene’s theme, as decided by players before the scene begins.  At times a scene type that completely ignores the game’s theme and room’s environment can take place, but that is called ‘Sandboxing’ and won’t be detailed. Rooms rarely have static dimensions.  They’re as big or small as reasonably should be in the player’s minds and usually the environment is ‘fluid’, and the players are able to pose in elements they wish to include. 

There are usually global channels that players can chat freely over, which superscedes the borders of the rooms, as the generic speech commands are limited to single rooms only.   Using speech and ‘pose’ commands, players can put together actions that their characters do in detail.  Like you saw in the mush post a while back, the end result sort of reads like a book, where people take turns acting and reacting to each other, or even the environment.  Some may say ‘lol’ at such things, but it stands to be a fantastic method of telling a story and entertaining a crowd.  Sometimes the stories can be exciting too, despite naysayers saying that ‘text sucks’ when they talk about online games.  Text only sucks if you lack imagination.

So scenes progress until a defined conclusion as decided on by the participants.  In the game I play fights are decided by their conclusion, but not all scenes are fights.  Some scenes are romantic, some are dramatic, players decide this stuff either on the fly or before beginning.   It’s a vicarious relationship, really, symbiotic and at times parasitic if you end up with a clingy yet toxic player.  It’s a form of mutual, reflected storytelling, from pairs scening a meet in a coffee shop to huge groups clashing on a battlefield, there’s pretty much something for everyone that is willing to put some effort for mutual entertainment.

It’s like reading a good novel when you get the right players.  And it’s one of my favourite hobbies. 

And there you go, now you know a little bit more about me, and a little bit more about Mushdom.

You Should Also Check Out This Post:

More Active Posts: