Practicum 7, MUD: Final Sentiments

For my final hour of my Practicum project, I decided to wander around a little bit and rather than complete a training assignment. Unlike before when I was lost and could not find what I wanted, navigating around for the sole purpose of doing so was definitely not bad. I can across the Magic Fountain in the Aylor Academy Courtyard and used what I had learned in my health lessons: I put “drink fountain” and as a result, my thirst and hunger were quenched. Once again, the greatly detailed descriptions were cool to read and visualize, supporting my initial idea about MUDS that this sort of virtual world requires a lot of imagination.

In my wandering, I randomly walked into a shop and I typed “value viper belt” to see how much I could sell my viper belt for from the previous task I had completed. He was going to give me 50 Gold for it, but I decided against it. I could also view the other items in the shop and see how much they cost too. After playing for several hours and learning the commands I did, it was nice to actually just wander around the city and use some of these, as well as just read descriptions of places in the game.

Funnily enough, I noticed this time around that another player named “Cold Cereal” was lost and asking for help as well. He/she reminded me of myself since he/she was asking where certain places are and how to get back to a certain room in the academy. I honestly laughed a bit after seeing this because I felt a little better about myself and my confusion in the beginning—maybe it is common after all! All in all, it was fun to create my character of Zuleika and go through the training sessions like I did. This final walk around the world of Aardwolf MUD made me realize that I would probably never be coming back again, but I can at least now walk away with an understanding of MUDs and how they work as a game and social environment for those that choose to participate in this kind of online community.