The Two Towers (MUD)
| The Two Towers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Project community |
| Engine | MudOS |
| Platform(s) | Platform independent |
| Release date(s) | 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy MUD |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
The Two Towers, or T2T, is a MUD, a text-based multiplayer online role-playing game, set in Tolkien’s universe[1] at the time of events in the third volume of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Description
The world depicted in The Two Towers contains many thousands of uniquely described rooms, thousands of non-player characters, tens of thousands of objects, and hundreds of quests. The world holds, in total, nearly a hundred thousand rooms that players can explore. The regions represented in the game include Eriador, Rhovanion, Gondor, Umbar, Harondor, Harad, and Mordor. The scope ranges from cities such as Bywater and Minas Tirith to small homes and farmlands, as well as huge dungeon complexes such as the Mines of Moria.
The Two Towers also includes representations of most of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring who were living during its setting.
The Two Towers is set in the world of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In particular, The Two Towers depicts the date of March 15, 3019, Third Age when Minas Tirith was under siege. The mud plays host to a battle between good and evil, with the free races (Hobbit, Sindar, Silvan, Dwarf, Edain, Dunlending, Dúnedain, and Eorling) generally contesting against the minions of Sauron (Uruk-hai, Easterling, Númenórean, Haradrim, and Variag), although members of the free races may choose to betray their heritage.
History
The Two Towers began as a project between a few students and has from the start been free of charge. It is run with help from player donations and the administrators' private funds. Under constant development from the very beginning, the game is now a complete virtual world almost completely identical to the geographical properties of Middle-earth, with game areas including West and East Arda, Harondor, Harad, Umbar, and Mordor. The ability to play as a minion of Sauron was removed in 2001, then reintroduced in 2005 after a major overhaul.
In 1997, The Two Towers's web site was used as a visual example of an "interesting entertainment site" — "a site for sore eyes" — in Creating Web Pages for Dummies,[2] and the game was used as the MUD of reference in an academic paper.[3]
In 2010 it became possible to play the game on Facebook, on Myspace, and through a Flash client on the Two Towers website.
Playing
In the game, players explore Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, fighting monsters and enemies for treasure, equipment, and experience points. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, reputation, and different skills and abilities.[4] Sometimes the reason for attempting to gain levels and power is to join a prestigious guild or clan. While some players choose to interact with one another in optional PvP (player versus player) combat, others pay great attention to their characters, writing custom descriptions and tales for their adventures to better interact in a roleplaying environment. Others choose to use the world as a chatting device to interact and socialize with other players.
Technical infrastructure
The Two Towers is an LPMud,[5] running on the MudOS game driver with a mudlib based on TMI-2.[6]
References
- ↑ English, Katharine, ed. (1996). Most Popular Web Sites: The Best of the Net from A 2 Z. Lycos Press / Macmillan Publishers. p. 315. ISBN 0-7897-0792-6.
Two Towers Multi-User Dungeon http://www.angband.com/towers This page serves as an entrance to the Two Towers Multi-User Dungeon, allowing game players to step into the world of fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien. Intrepid visitors can learn about the game or link to Tolkien sites dotting the net.
- ↑ Smith, Bud; Bebak, Arthur (1997). Creating Web Pages for Dummies (2nd ed.). IDG. pp. 40–41. ISBN 0-7645-0114-3.
- ↑ Jones, Nimrod (April 1997). "nEt.SPeAk". Retrieved 2010-07-20.
The MUD referred to in this work is The Two Towers LpMUD based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It claims to be the most faithful MUD to his Middle-Earth and boasts players in their hundreds gathered from 50 countries world-wide.
- ↑ "Tolkien Gaming - Gaming Havens - Game Reviews - Two Tower MUD". theonering.net. 2000-05-23. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
The experience system was very simple, you kill things and complete missions, you get more attributes.
- ↑ Ekman, Fredrik (1995-05-09). "LP mud's". rec.arts.books.tolkien. Retrieved 2010-07-05.
- ↑ "The Two Towers". The Mud Connector. 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
Highly customized TMI-2 1.1.1 mudlib on MudOS v22
External links
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