"We put in a level system because that led you out of the class system... It was a kind of meritocracy where everybody could succeed," says Richard Bartle on the origins and design details of MUD.
November 6, 2013
"We wanted people to be able to escape the confines of the real world, to try on new identities, to be... not so much new people, but to try to find out the people they really were."
In this free GDC Vault video from GDC Online 2010, Richard Bartle shares the origins and design details of the first multi-user dungeon and explores where early MUDs are more capable than today's MMOs in the talk 'MUD: Messrs Bartle and Trubshaw's Astonishing Contrivance.' For more with Bartle, read this interview on Bartle Types for gamification.
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