Thank you for the info. I would really like to try this out, but I genuinely can't find any libre MUD, and I refuse to play anything else, in which I am probably not alone on this forum. I'll keep searching though.
domtron {l Wrote}:Correct me if I'm wrong, but MUDs are a bit unique in respect to licensing.
you have the same issue as MMOs where you don't really want all the content data out there as it leads to people trying to exploit the game where it effects others.
The content of the game database, such as the info about each individual player, doesn't count here, these can and mostly have to be secret and so a license wouldn't make sense either, even though I can imagine a game that would make its database public and open. So a secret game database is okay.
The issue I am having is with not complying with the libre game definition, i.e. free software plus free assets. People who want to create a MUD take a free engine (codebase), which there is kind of a plenty of, modify it a bit, configure it, write some backstory, and run the server, but by not attaching a free license to this result they are -- I believe unwillingly and from the lack of knowledge -- doing a bit of a dick move, don't keep the spirit of sharing from which they benefited, and make the whole result proprietary, keeping all the rights to themselves (as e.g. Disney does with public domain works, except they do it purposefully). I really think it's just that people forget or aren't much knowledgeable, because as you say, they are mostly oldschool hackers from the times when sharing without licensing wasn't such a huge problem.
I used to play Ryzom, which is a completely libre almost-AAA 3D MMORPG, and it works. Thanks to the license, I was able to take the game lore texts and compile them into a book I can read and share with others. This should be a proof a completely libre MUDs could work as well, only if there was a will.
Also as I've found out in MUDs players themselves create the content -- the world -- similarly in principle to e.g. Minetest. This is an interesting borderline between the game database and the game content. Personally I would love to see a libre MUD with a server that would require all players on that server to agree (by just logging on to that server) to release all the content they create under a free license, which would make the game extra libre, allowing others to fork the world at any point and create a new one. This would be possible, because this already works on Wikipedia and with free software contributions. It is just a matter of a server admin being willing and interested to do it.
As you said that you run your own MUDs and have an experience with them, perhaps you could be one of the enlightened ones to address this somehow
Anyway, I will continue my search, and will report back if I find anything I'd be happy with.