AVATAR Mud is a Fantasy-themed MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) founded in 1995.

Well, I gave it an honest try. Some days a few people were helpful to me, but most days they were not. I received quite a bit of 'know-it-all' mentality from the players on this MUD. The gameplay itself felt a bit limited, even for a hack and slash style game. The quests that were presented to me were fairly boring, very spammy, and generally quite basic. There was almost never any immortal staff visible to help with problems. The 'quests' run by staff members (I assume?) were just copied off of puzzle websites. There seemed to be a facade of friendliness initially, but most players revealed their true colors pretty quickly and I got a lot of snobbery and apparent expectations that I should already know things. There was no roleplaying of any sort experienced. There is no PK that I could find. For the levels I was at, it was running around by myself trying to figure out what was going on. I was told that grouping happened at the next tier, but upon reaching that tier I still never found a group and found any sort of worthwhile gear impossible to reach. It was like playing a massively online one player game. Most of the time, there were maybe 30 people online and more than half of the are either bots or seem to be constantly AFK. There have been heavy modifications from standard DIKU it seems, so a lot of work looks to have gone into this place. But most of it looks purely superficial. I couldn't find any hint of community or purpose to play, so for now I will keep looking for another home game to play on. If you're looking for a fun and friendly environment, this is definitely not the place for you.

– MudConnector.Com Review by SkepticalK on Jun 27, 2013

Thank you very much for your frank and honest review. We are sorry that we did not live up to your expectations and hope that you find somewhere where you are happy and fully meets your needs. We are not a roleplay enforced or PK MUD, we have an arena for limited PK but it is not our main focus. We, the staff, are actively working with our players on improving the highlighted issues. Our staff like most muds are volunteers and unfortunately, earlier in the year, around the time you were playing, more of us than usual had real life commitments impact our ability to be available online. Thankfully, the various factors which prevented as many of us being online as often as we would have like, have lessened and our availability and visibility is improving. We have added new features and added enhancements to existing features since you played and will continue to do so in an effort to provide a game which meets people's expectations. Once again, thank you for taking the time to review us.

– MudConnector.Com Review by Riviat on Jun 26, 2013

I've been mudding for about 15 years on and off and recently was looking for a new mud to play. Wanted something I could get into fairly easily and that I could solo without too much of a huge learning curve. Well in the space of a couple of days I tried 20 different muds and didn't find one I liked until I came across Avatar MUD. Let me tell you why this mud caught my eye and has kept my attention. First off, every. single. mud. will claim they have 'a super dooper friendly player base!' who love helping out new players etc. No, no they don't, half of them don't even have a playerbase, the other half are afk or don't care and some are downright rude (not looking at any muds on top of the rankings or anything). Avatar Mud was different. I was greeted, I was talked to players, they answered my dumb questions (without snobby 'read the newbie manual you idiot' comments)...I was shown certain tricks to the game and even had players help me with CRs. Truly friendly and helpful player base. Their mud school was clean, quick, easy to understand and helpful. This makes it better than 99% of the mud schools out there. The interface is very clean. Can't tell you how many horrible interfaces I've looked at over the last two weeks but how people can play some of these muds without their eyes bleeding I don't know. Avatar's is simple, easy to understand and without a fit-inducing level of color use. They have a huge number of zones, a very nice wiki and plenty of quests it looks like. Looking forward to many months of Avatar Mudding.

– MudConnector.Com Review by David B on Jul 6, 2012

As player on and off for over a decade I have come to respect and enjoy this realm as not only a way to play a game, but to also enjoy the players personalities as an outlet for my busy working life. Avatar, i leave for many different reasons, almost exclusively real life distractions. Yet, when i have time for new distractions i always come back for some more fair, in-depth and ever-adapting game development that can always provide many new experiences that i never thought possible from a simple text game. The more players that play this MUD the faster it adapts and evolves to subdue the thirsty players looking for something new to do. I strongly suggest this MUD to other people who are even vaguely interested in playing a game with so many outlets to absorb yourself into. You can play to be the super-player, or even play strong RP. It is your choice at the time you log-in, and everything in-between is possible.

– MudConnector.Com Review by ZugZug on Oct 8, 2010

Avatar is a rare jewel among MUDs as it presents an environment that is ripe with variety and filled with opportunities for new experiences and challenges every time a player logs in. With 200+ areas, 30+ playable races, 20+ classes, and 4 tiers of game play, no one player?s experience is exactly the same as anothers. The game?s flexible and developed play-scheme, mixed with a large and diverse playerbase, in a family-friendly atmosphere makes Avatar a place to where one can have many different adventures and meet life-long friends. One of the best things about Avatar is that the game is constantly changing (for the better) as a result of the efforts of its dedicated Angels, Staff Members, and Immortals. These individuals help keep the MUD vibrant through friendly and helpful interaction, new area/race/class/spell/skill additions, and ensuring a safe and enjoyable player experience. Having played Avatar for over 8 years now, I would highly recommend it to both new and experience MUDders. It is my sincere hope that you will consider joining us. I know you won?t be disappointed. Sincerely, Ferrix

– MudConnector.Com Review by Ferrix on Jan 13, 2009

Disclaimer: Account of a brief (~1hr) experience. Apologies ahead of time if it seems like it's jumping around or otherwise disjointed, but I'm writing with little sleep. Perspective: PC gamer (since late 80s/early 90s), MUDder; also console experience (Intellivision, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, DS, PSP, PS3). FPS, FPS-spinoff, RTS and RPG genres preferred. Pros: Free, populated, playable, responsive (lag-free), bug-free (so far) and with plenty of character variety. A player dropped by in the first few seconds of my character's existence to say hi. ANSI color is not always available in MUDs and can be horrendous to behold in others, but is decently represented here. Stats are visible, which can be good or bad depending on your perspective. Disguised stats (in other MUDs) are prettier to look at, but can be hard to decipher until you learn what numbers or percentages they're roughly associated with. Cons: Character creation was a bit odd. I had to look up race/class descriptions on the website, since it wouldn't let me access them while creating. 'Roleplaying encouraged,' but not supported. I'm sure this isn't the case in other circumstances, but it was immediately apparent with a 'who-list' screenfull of titles just shy of leet-speak. The player that dropped by to say 'hi' was caught in the awkward situation of both of us automatically knowing each others' names, but trying to introduce herself anyway. Yes, names are immediately known to everyone in a room, which precludes the use character adjectives (not that I could find the command anyway). In some MUDs, there's a bit of tension involved if a grim-faced male dwarf walks in the room. Not so if you've already met and know him as Baldie the Pacifist Candydwarf. Knowing someone else's name right away removes the point of introductions the moment you type 'who' (if their titles are of any indication). Because the site's helpfiles weren't all the way fleshed out, I wasn't exactly sure of what racial characteristics my character had. In-game chat was able to tell me that my race was 'cute' and 'crazy' but that was it. When I went to their site to ask on the forums, I found out that I had to level to 15 first (eh...). That would be a waste of time if it turned out that the particular race looked like everything I didn't visualize it as. This prevented me from writing anything more than one generic line in the description box. So if you're at all ignorant of the lore, you'd better hope there's a good helpfile somewhere because everyone else knows it and so should you. Stats are incomprehensible. Is a 497 on something all that much different than 503? Final Thought: I suppose a MUDs either your type or it isn't. Given some time, I could get into it, but I'd probably end up moving back to one of the more RP oriented ones (PK-enabled, of course).

– MudConnector.Com Review by RG on Jan 6, 2009

AVATAR, which has always provided a fun and friendly atmosphere, keeps getting better. It is amazing how much energy has gone into new areas and new quests in the last year. The commitment of the player base and the immortal staff is strong. Of course, not every change meets the approval of every player. But player input is taken seriously. As an Archangel I am really impressed with how much the experienced players support the new players. If you have never played Avatar or haven't played for a while, check us out.

– MudConnector.Com Review by Honoria on Jul 30, 2008

I have played a lot of MUDs and AVATAR is by far the best! The atmosphere is definitely THE BEST I've ever seen in a MUD! Everybody is very friendly and helpful. n00bs are treated with respect and are given a lot of advice and help when and if they need it. The HOG-a-thon is definitely a fun event to participate it and really brings out the fun community of AVATAR. But you'll never know until you check it out yourself! I guarantee you'll have fun! ^___^ ~ Alandra [alts: Devara, Ilsa, Dora, Miya, Ariana, Ravyna, Ardnala]

– MudConnector.Com Review by Alandra on Oct 26, 2006

After years of straight playing, Avatar is truly my second home. So many things to do.. So little time to play... I only hope it goes on for a while yet!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Stonebeard on Sep 28, 2006

It's been about eight years or so since I created my first alt on Avatar. Some periods of time I've played intently, hours every night, and other periods of time just logged my alts on to keep them from purging. I've seen a lot of changes on Avatar over the span of time, and I've done my share of grumbling over many of them (especially my grf mage that has been nerfed into uselessness), but life goes on. I have never knowingly had an interaction with Snikt, and my interactions with other imms have been at a bare minimum. I quietly go on about the business of playing the game with my friends. I try not to lose sight of the fact that it's only a game, and the staff have gone to quite a bit of trouble to provide a stable, balanced, and fun environment for me to enjoy. My thanks to them. I have tried some other MUDS over the years and have always found Avatar to be my favorite. This does not mean it's perfect, but all-in-all it's the best I've played. I'm loving the prestige classes. Check it out for yourself.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by anonymoose on Aug 3, 2006

Well it's been little over a year since I returned to lord level, what a year! :) I have spent many, many long hours playing Ysolde and i have enjoyed them all. My title has a permament :) for a reason and it's not that troll paladins reason either! *i'm just happy when i Avatar* The Imms are always coming up with *or at least working hard to realise* new ideas and *importantly* get the things done they have said they will ie ideas which have already been tasked *approved* To this end Pliny is a conspicuous fellow and clearly works hard to get things done. You'll notice I mention only one Imm this is not for any reason other than Pliny to my mind codes the more apparent changes so I take my hat off to him. If I were to mention more imms I'd have to say they are friendly, approachable and dare i say it nice people. As for the players, well, sadly I don't run lower levels as often as i once did but I do try to keep in touch with said levels. Though I admit quite openly I so thouroughly enjoy lord level that I have little time to run lower chars. This is where my review is perhaps a little beyond peoples initial experience as lord is not that readily attained. However on the occasions where i have consistently run low mortal I have found a realm transformed with greater *is that possible* variety and more challenges if you so dare. It's really up to you, that's one thing which is common throughout Avatars level tiers 'it's what you make of it'. The imms have given us a great mud, the players make it so worthwhile, it's great. Great at all levels and soooo addictive :) Regards Ysolde

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Ysolde on Jul 22, 2006

Having played avatar a number of years ive seen avatar change. With the introduction of new tiers ie legend, more class and race choice some from creation, others from reaching a certain level (remort, rebuild or at level 50) you are given more a lot more choice and scope. I have read all of the reviews on avatar and so far I have only a few things to say to players like mel. You obviously feel a certain ammount of frustration about something you care about, well if its any consilation pretty much all of the people that take the time to write a review care about avatar. Throwing pretty pointless remakrs on a review realy dont change anything put it into suggestions through the avatar ideas channel write to imm mailer or generaly discuss it, Having had so many of my ideas trashed by what I thought was for no reason have mostly turned out to be generaly for game balance, lack of time of the coding staff (remeber they have lives too), or because the idea had already been added to ideas and is just a rewrite from a different player. Imm staff in general ive found to be friendly, polite or damned right off there rocker (in a nice way). If your new to avatar I hearily ask you to come play a mud that is generaly new person friendly, with all muds that are dynamic and in a change expect there will be quirks, but the imm staff in general do listen as with all people, some are more patient than others and yes i agree some times some of the imm staff are short to the point of rudness, for that i cannot comment on, if I have a problem i talk to the person, imm in person if it cant be resolved there is an appeals procedure you can go down if your not happy. I love avatar ive tried many muds over the years and the only one that I return to regulary is AV. Yup there are elitists out there my advise dont group with them, learn to be self sufficient, group with friends, enjoy the many aspects that avatar can offer and above all HAVE FUN ! thank you for your time The Noob Lord Septera

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Septera on Jul 22, 2006

The description doesn't do this game justice. This is one of those games where you have to play it to see for yourself how good it is. This game has it all. Tons of areas to explore, tons of quests to discover throughout the realm and also ones ran by Immortals which often yield some nice prizes. Avatar offers a wide variety of prestige classes and remort classes in which you can build using your existing character. For the most part the playerbase is friendly to newcomers and there is always a helping hand to be found. I feel one of the most exciting things about Avatar is morphing process. During the 2nd tier of the game which is called hero, after obtaining level 500 a hero can attempt to ascend to the next tier which is called lord. Hero level goes up to 999 so the closer you are to 999 the more likely you are to succeed. The lord tier is my favorite to play and its the most challenging. During lowmort (1st tier) and Hero (2nd) tier it's possible to solo mobs and get gear well the lord tier is quite different, you have to have a well sized group and the mob that carries the gear doesn't give it up as easily as the lower tier mobs do :) Also what makes lord fun is that it involves rituals that all lord that can participate in. I've been playing Avatar for close to 10 years and there were a few times that I left for whatever reasons but in the end I always return. Lord Evenfall

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Brian on Jun 22, 2006

Been playing on this site since the mid 90's and have enjoyed every bit of it. Helpful staff, HUGE realm, always a helpful someone around and altogether one of the most interesting groups of people I have run across online.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sirhc Muroc on Jun 18, 2006

I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now for a summer course I'm taking, but my mind is consumed with Avatar right now. That's the story of my life regarding the MUD... I'm just so enthralled with it. It all started when I was in grade seven and it hasn't stopped since (I'm now entering second year university.) I can honestly say that I've felt a full range of emotions regarding the game. I've loved it, hated it, been saddened by it, and been elated by it. I've felt just about every emotion except for boredom. There have been bad times: I've had full gear sets lost, been punished by immortals, died thousands of times, had characters "nerfed" due to changes, and yet I've always come back for more. To go with the bad there has been the good: I've met countless people from around the world, enjoyed playing the game many different ways, overcame numerous challenges, and I dare say attained a pretty reasonable degree of power ;). People are always complaining about the Immortal staff, and I'll be the first to say that there was a time when I used to as well (of course, that was in my younger days when I was always getting in trouble!) However, I can honestly say that to this date I've never seen a better staff working on the mud. A revamped group of dedicated Staff, Angels, and Immortals are taking the game to new, and better levels. The only problem? Counts are at a lower level than I've ever seen them. That is what's compelled me to write this review. It's a plea to old players to come back and give the MUD a second chance, and for new players to come in and experience the game that has given me so much over the almost 8 years that I've been playing. I assure you, you won't be disappointed. I hope to see you all soon, Lord Skazural.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Skazural on Jun 17, 2006

I'm a frequent player of Avatar and MUD's in general for quite some time. I have alts on pretty much all the major MUD's in the list of the top ten. Comparatively, I'd say Avatar deserves a better reputation than those that attack it, give it. Every time I need help on the game, it's given to me. I tend to be a low mort player. ;) Pretty much meaning I don't spend a terrible amount of time in the game, I just play an hour or so from day to day. It's good fun. The Immortals help you out (say when you're drowning and no one else can). The Immortals tend to listen and have a bit of fun. I remember awhile back when Crom was an Imm, he spent a lot of time chatting with the players. The players are also very helpful. All you need to do is chat something and you'll get five responses to the question and then those that answered will argue about that it's their newb to answer to. :) That's what I like about the place, people are helpful. If you need some help getting to your corpse because you accidently teleported into a high Hero area and the uber mob smashed your brains out, the heroes will go in and fight the uber mob. It's great fun that way. Also the ability of the immortals to come up with such a comprehensive MUD School and Help archive is very impressive. One thing that puts me off of some MUDs is that you walk in and all of the sudden you are fighting some crazed lunatic before you know it, you're dead. Avatar's MUD School first introduces you to MUDing in general, then it goes for Avatar specific stuff. It's very new-player-friendly. Although, the MUD has a few drawbacks (like all games do). I find it difficult to group when I'm on. Mainly because there's not a tanker on whilst I play. Though I still try to group with other hitters and we die, but it's all in good fun. This was a weird review 'cause I just typed what came to mind...anyway, if you're looking for a good MUD Avatar is the one. Good people, friendly and helpful. BTW if you think the people are degrading you for not knowing the mud, they're probably just joking. Some people can't read sarcasm online very well.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Herknerk on Apr 26, 2006

omg, this mud sux. I logged in and asked a few questions and everyone yelled at me and said I should learn to explore better. They claim way more ppl online then there actually are. It's firday night and there's only liek 50 ppl online!!!!11 My advice dont go play here, it's not friendly to new plyrs. U should go play somewhere else!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by n00bie on Apr 7, 2006

Snikt's mud? Errr NO! Rather my circle of friends. I know it's Snikts mud; but i can't help thinking he gets a raw deal, the mud direction is belittled often and well us mere players moan a lot *apparently*. I have read Crom's review, indeed almost every review I read, I want to say however I have in the past had personal mail from Snikt and he was polite, kind, patient and well, nice! Without a doubt however he can be blunt, this is something to be thought about prior to criticising him. If just a few players a day sent him mail complaining about something he'd be swamped. His way to deal with high volumes of mail? Be succint and dare i say preemptive. What do i mean? Well I assume prob X, Y or Z crops up often and the response to his reply is typical so he assumes it'll be so each time and deals with supplemental matters before they arise, not because he is rude but experienced. He has been guiding Avatar for over ten years now. Anyways back to my first line, I have been around Avatar for over 7 years, I'd be lost without the people here, they are all welcoming in their own way. It's supposed to be a family mud, how can i say this without seemingly being daft? The players here are, to me, like a family. Yes a two bit play on words :P Anyways I left a review a while back which pretty much outlines my view on the mud *"FUN"*, but I wanted to clarify to others that we don't all view Snikt negatively. Think about it if you didn't like yer neighbour you wouldn't go sit in their house all day watching TV and players are not avoiding Avatar because of Snikt, indeed you can reasonably expect to be here for years and need never have anything to say to him, 'That' my friends is the sign of a good implementor. They just let us get on with it :) Regards Ysolde Come join us.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Ysolde on Apr 4, 2006

I was online and noticed that there were reviews recently. I love reviews! There were three major themes... a. Immortals don't listen to players. b. Snikt talks down to players and uses threats to get his point across. c. Immortals cannot shut up when a player writes a negative review. As someone who was an Immortal but left, I consider myself an expert on all three! Immortals do listen to players...they just don't agree with them all the time. Cuendillar did correctly state that there are lots of approved ideas. Not only that, but Immortals tend to sit around and contemplate the discussions positive/negative that we see on channels. Immortals also are pretty intense, and do indeed like to defend themselves on public forums. We've seen players attempt this but they tend to be considered kiss-ups or Imm-Pets so there isn't really a winning situation to this except to allow negative public relations to just sit there... hardly something anybody would want to do who's trying to draw players to the game. Lastly, Snikt does indeed talk down to people. He does try to bully and the beauty of the mud is that he can do that...he's the Implementor/Owner and has the right the take his game away from you. Is it rude, obnoxious, childish, anti-social, uncaring, or just plain poor public relations to talk this way to players? Yes. Trust me...he talks that way to everybody that way. He's not the best spokesman for the mud but he is the owner and you can't really tell the owner to shut his fat mouth because he's making us look like idiots. I may have tried once or twice but here I am, no longer an Imm, and he's still there doing his power dance on top of the world. The mud does move on, however, and progress continues onward. Try not to focus on the negative publicity and focus on the positives... there really are positives. HONEST!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Crom on Apr 1, 2006

So I just want to say that I get bored with things very easily. I don't play a character very long. The longest I have ever played on a mud was about 3 to 5 days. EXCEPT AVATAR! I love this mud everytime I go out to find a new mud. Maybe try one thats ranked real high, I come back to AVATAR! It has been the only one that keeps my intrest. The people are awesome. The Imm's are fun. Its no crowded with people you just get lost like in so many other muds. When I leave I always come back. -Gaidon

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Gaidon on Mar 31, 2006

Well, Mel's first law of avatar reviews has come true once again. Player posting their opinions on the current state of the MUD that does not back the immortal staff or rose-color the mud and bam, staffs steps in to say why he's wrong. Yes, yes, they are allowed to post their own opinions on it. It would be nicer to see actual feedback about his concerns rather then "We do this! SEE!". Not the least withstanding, change is good, but random "reality" changes to a mud are kind of silly. Players have been switching gear in combat since the mud opened, suddenly thats unrealistic and needs lag added to it. News flash: also unrealistic to carry 900 pounds of gear and hold a light, 2 swords and another held item with rings and gaunlets on. :) Anyways. Mel awaits replies.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mel Gibson on Mar 6, 2006

My dear 'a player', Thank you for your insightful and well-written account of our total lack of interest - be it in accepting ideas from players, or altering code when it's found to not work as well as desired. I must, however, point out that player-supplied ideas do get implemented, even though you appear to believe in a logical fallacy with respect this matter. The full list, since the implementation of the system, can be found at http://www.outland.org/design/ . Ideas supplied before the tracking came on-line in 2003 obviously won't be listed. A random handful of player ideas that have been implemented include * Configurable channel colours * Group diversity xp bonus * Buddy channel * Ents * Funeral lore Moreover, a large chunk of the Avatar world is supplied by the player base, usually through the area competitions. As for your praise of our rejecting ideas, please consider the following: * We have an end-goal vision for where the game engine should be, * We have finite time - ideas can either be rejected with a multi-page report for each idea, or rejected succinctly, * Some ideas have been presented in different guises multiple times before, and rejected multiple times before (and some with detailed reasons). I must say, I do not see you praising the fact that we accept ideas just as succinctly - surely if we are too brusque in manner of rejections, we are too brusque in the manner of acceptions? If Immortals respond, they do so of their own will and impetus, not because Snikt orders it to be so. This may also be contrary to your reality, but such is life. Cuendillar, Guardian.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Cuendillar on Mar 6, 2006

Immortals listen on this mud? LOL...ok so every week this dude disapproves ideas...all ideas...I don't even know WHY there's an idea command when you know they're going to get shot down. On top of that he blows the ideas off in such a way that makes players think even more so they're ideas don't matter. He practically makes a mockery of the mud by doing this. THIS is the reason Miasma posted it on a public forum...Maybe, just maybe if less players start playing the immortals will start listening. By posting this "review" on a public forum it shows other non-avatarian people who this mud actually runs. Obviously it's gotten more attention from Snikt by posting it on this forum and you...aren't you an imm alt? Maybe if players put ideas here they'll get a higher approval rate, then again why would they want to when the immortals only care about themselves yadada yada yada...im babbling on....Long story short, the imms of this mud only care about themselves, not the players...They have this idea of where the mud's heading which is just themselves...yeah that's it...Even now they just added LAG to getting gear and wearing gear and doing anything with gear....I know lol :P -a player

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by A player on Mar 5, 2006

Dear Miasma. I'm sorry if your term on lord council has disillusioned you. I am not sure this is the correct venue to say that on though. I too have sat on lord council. And sat on the committee of lords that wrote the initial charter upon which the lord council was formed. I'm still here. I still play. And I'm still going strong. After reading what you had to say, I've gnawed on it for awhile. And tried to leave it be, but I just couldn't. I cannot figure out why you are so insulted with things. Snikt is like Odin, the all father. He sees us all as his children, even those of us old enough he could be one of ours. (Yes, I'm techinically old enough to be his mother.) I am sorry you do not approve of the changes recently made. Ranting about them on a public site does not make your message stronger, in many respects it does the opposite. Yes, Imms listen. Not necessarily when you air your dirty laundry though for everyone to read. I remember when I morphed, in 1999. The original lord council still existed. When, several years later, the suggestion was made to revive it, I was, and still am, proud to be a part of that process. And I was proud to serve on the council for the term that I did. I would be proud to serve again, however, for me that is no longer an option. (Imms are not allowed.) I write this from my Lord player, because it is as a player I found issue with much of what you had to say. I came to Avatar from a stagnant and dead mud, one that never grew, never changed. I liked the fact that Avatar grows, develops. It keeps it fresh. I should stop rambling and sign my name. Kyandra oh, ps, we immortals do listen and we do hear and mostly we do respond. It just might not always be what you want to hear. Cerdwyn

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kyandra on Mar 4, 2006

Here are some recent words from our Illustrious Imp that are in their original context, so you can't accuse me of taking things out of context. 12/07/05 FYI, I sit on Lord council, which is a body of people who have been elected in perhaps the sole, sort of, democratic process that AVATAR practices. During the new Council's first meeting, Snikt pops in to have a word about one of our members and his dissatisfaction with the aforementioned member being on Council. Keep in mind this person was ELECTED BY THE LORD POPULATION. In short, he wished that this person no longer sit on Council, giving a live/die sort of ultimatum for one of this person's (name in ---'s for identity protection) alts. Upon questioning Snikt's reasoning (or lack thereof, as always), he replies: Snikt says '--- has annoyed me. --- can do the pennance or not.' Snikt says 'it's very simple.' Snikt says 'I feel like I am talking about my oldest children. :)' Miasma says 'but... it's a person. not a character' Snikt says 'Mia' Snikt says 'end of story - the decision tree is presented.' --- 02/20/06 Regarding the unhappiness with the recent change in tics/regen rates, in response to the following email: > Ok so sleeping during a battle isnt the greatest logic, but i dont see how > that led to a ridiculous regen change, why not just make sleeping in a He replies: Children- "Because I said so." ---- 02/20/06 Same problem as above, but more specifically pertaining to the troll race. "I'm getting to the point where I'm either going to whack people with this attitude or remove min/max cfgs to avoid letting people down." There's the old accept it or die threat. Min/Max cfgs? I have no idea what the hell he's talking about, someone enlighten me. *** I can't be the only one who feels demeaned that Snikt calls us his children. I don't care how you look at it, it's degrading. Secondly, most people who join Council often quit playing. This could be a coincidence, but more often than not it is the MUD that drives them away. To avoid the incurring idiocy in "forward-moving" code changes/adds, I too have taken a break from playing without resigning my position. For over 4 years, nearly 5 as I am *ashamed* to admit, I played this MUD. The first few months, maybe even a year, I was playing it because I wanted to, shooting myself in the foot for not being able to quit just because I loved it. The following years was due to habit, an unhappy addiction, and a fool's hope. The past few months was because I thought if I could be on Council, I could voice an opinion that might be listened to. After all, my voice represented that of the MUD, that's pretty powerful isn't it? WRONG. Our council members are being driven off the council by Snikt or whomever else. Some of us while... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Miasma on Feb 27, 2006

If you haven't visited AVATAR lately, know that we are constantly growing, updating, building. With many new unique areas across all the tiers of play, there are diverse adventures for all. Legend tier is under construction for a PvP environment for advanced players. Remort races and classes have increased our diversity and our newest prestige classes have changed the way some people play the game. If it's been awhile, come back and see us again. If you have never graced our realm, we welcome you. Be sure to check out our world famous mud school. Avatar.... the legend continues..... Cerdwyn

– MudConnector.Com Review by Cerdwyn on Feb 22, 2006

Oh boy is this mud Fun with a capital F :) It has three currently playable tiers, lowmort which is crammed with variety, playability and hours of satisfyingly escapist fun. Hero which in fairness is great but not as much variety as lowmort, at hero you either have it or you don't there is no real middle ground, but it is enjoyable, lest why would there be so many Lords? And lord *rofl* this tier is the best fun you'll ever have in a game, it's taken so serious that you have to laugh, no really! Everyone is so fantastic that I love it and anyone looking for friendship, escapism, good clean fun and a need for serious gaming will enjoy it. Kudos to the Imms for a top mud that you'll either love or hate, but never forget :) Come join us

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Ysolde on Dec 30, 2005

Have you ever wondered why the only good reviews are from Immortals or at least the majority? I'll tell you Why... This mud has gone through many changes for the worse. They implemenet new code without doing any testing...not for how fun they are, but it actually CRASHES the mud. Why would you want to play a mud that isn't stable? For the last few months the coding team was on a code freeze because the new code they promised for legend came out and was BUGGED, BUGGED!!!! And as Tatilonas(staff alt) said many builders, quest teams design...etc have been added...Why? There's over 30 immortals on this mud. Why? Aardwolf has around 12 and the playerbase is nearly quadrupled(spelling? i don't care). This mud is throwing bandages rather than fixing serious problems on the playerbase. I wouldn't recommend this mud because it's headed for its resting place.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by loeden on Dec 22, 2005

I wrote a review years ago for this MUD. I felt it was time to update how I feel and view the mud. Supposing it may attracts those of you who might want to play here for the simular experiences. I still feel this MUD is hands down the most friendly towards new players who either have played other muds or are brand new to the experience a text based game can offer. I find the recent(to me, 4 years is not that long ago) changes of adding a team of dedicated builders, questers, designers have improved the quality and growth of A.V.A.T.A.R. in an amazingly enjoyable pace. The number of new and high quality areas to explore, new classes and skills to acquire and the number of staff run events which we can participate in all add to the fun I can find myself enjoying whatever my mood. A recent reroll was implemented to help old players and new players balance the playing field because of so many modifications to our system of power gain. It seems to be received well by the vast majority of players I have had the chance to talk to. Everything seems to be changing so fast now that for an oldtimer like me half the challange is keeping up to date with all the flux, but I could enjoy myself just as much if I went with the flow and didn't worry about how a few choices I made might adversely affect me. The recent addition of the Legendary realms to our MUD has added the joy of pkill for those who choose to push for the power of that level of play..it is team based, still being developed, and highly challanging to advance in; if you like something hard to accomplish try your hand at reaching 2nd level Legend, you could be the first! Hope you take the time to check us out. Counts are rising again! See you there. - Mention this review to Feeble for a free item rename! :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Tatilonas on Dec 20, 2005

Ok,this isnt a review,but it is a problem i have encountered.I can't make a password for my guy.Someone please help me!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kody on Dec 14, 2005

Avatar mud: A place I have called home since Sept. of 1995. This mud is a friendly place. Great for new mudders/mooers alike. It has a helpful staff, and most of the time, helpful players. I have seen many changes over the years. Some I like and some I dont. But this is still where I call home. New areas, skills, races, classes, specialization classes, and gear are being added constantly. As many muds go, it is very stable. tested on many ports before changes go in. and now many many new updates have been added making it even more fun. More than 1 tier of play is a nice feature. there are now lowmort, hero, lord, and legend is kinda in... But with all the new code thats in, starting over is so much fun. The areas. did you know there was a new lowmort area constest? you can explore the entries in stonehall (near the low lvl recall). Well i hope to see you all real soon :) Becky, SawBones

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Becky on Dec 14, 2005

and his mud isn't even in the top 20 right now, nor ever in the top 10 or 15 for years. * a) Not many people can claim this to begin with... Are you walking the walk sir/ma'am? * b) UberCon btw is www.ubercon.com. :) Page two news. A long time ago, this mud ranked #1 often. * This is news? We all already know this. >>Nay, good sir. I apologize for vagueness. What I meant is from the player aspect of not showing their love, keeping us on page two. I didn't mean that *YOU* didn't care. I meant that you do an awful lot for a playerbase that's going downhill and cares less, and I hope Ubercon eventually becomes your way of living like you want it to. * Only 70. Lemme go shoot myself. Oh wait, I remember what I'm supposed to say here... "counts are low". :) >> *grin* I know. But I fondly remember 150 constantly. I wish it was that way sometimes again. You should see counts late in evening westcoast time.. it drops to 15-20ish Some say these are the dedicated people who don't want to leave. * I agree, except for the new people coming in. >>It's us dedicated people that don't want to see this place to die. The players that have entered in the last couple of years... leave a lot to be desired (me first, screw you attitude). At least though we don't claim 500 people online at all times when really half or most of them are AFK *sideglance Aardwolf*. * Um, thanks for the backhanded compliment, but I have always held respect for Aard. >>Eh.. sorry.. what I meant is that I prefer our tight-knit group. Aardwolf.. well.. any mud that lets you "buy" ultra-twinky gear with a few questpoints that are relatively easily had isn't all that fun or challenging I think, especially if you get to keep it when you're level 1 again. (most of the GOOD ones are gone). * Rofl. We got complaints 12 years ago about Imms, we get complaints today. Which were the GOOD Imms please? :) >>Mega, Reuben, Domovoi, Sheridan, PPC. :) This mud has lost its vast popularity and just doesn't seem to get it back - because nobody demonstrates it, or seems to want to. * Dude, don't you think it's time to move on? :) >>See first paragraph, Kevin. Nobody votes anymore unless a freakin hog is offered for ransom. How sad. I've been here 10 years, and many Lords especially bitch and moan when I sorely wish sometime everyone was reset to level 1 so they could remember how hard it really is and really have something to complain about and not have things handed to them when they cry for it. Ok, I'm done I guess. This was supposed to mainly be a kick in the pants to the players. It seems 80% of them are useless, beggars, and think of themselves. not... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by A curious player (reply) on Oct 19, 2005

Avatar. * :) Created by a man who has spawned what is now this 6th Ubercon... and his mud isn't even in the top 20 right now, nor ever in the top 10 or 15 for years. * a) Not many people can claim this to begin with... Are you walking the walk sir/ma'am? * b) UberCon btw is www.ubercon.com. :) Page two news. A long time ago, this mud ranked #1 often. * This is news? We all already know this. But now, long-awaited Legend code was finally put in after years of being overdue, just to be broken and pulled out immediately, which is sad, because all other development is gone by the wayside, and there's so many things that desperately need fixing, and the new Legends have nothing to do but waste away. * Trust me, we're as frustrated by our bug as our players are - it's holding up Rangers, Matrices and Insignia for me alone, let alone the Devastant code mods, Pliny fixes, and other Design adds. Average counts are far below one hundred - usually 70ish - and only peak above that when multiplayer is turned on during hogs. * Only 70. Lemme go shoot myself. Oh wait, I remember what I'm supposed to say here... "counts are low". :) Some say these are the dedicated people who don't want to leave. * I agree, except for the new people coming in. At least though we don't claim 500 people online at all times when really half or most of them are AFK *sideglance Aardwolf*. * Um, thanks for the backhanded compliment, but I have always held respect for Aard. People are made Imms when you cannot figure out the slightest logical reason why, since they aren't very effective like they used to be (most of the GOOD ones are gone). * Rofl. We got complaints 12 years ago about Imms, we get complaints today. Which were the GOOD Imms please? :) Sigh. * Back at you. This mud has lost its vast popularity and just doesn't seem to get it back - because nobody demonstrates it, or seems to want to. * Dude, don't you think it's time to move on? :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kevin Jagh on Oct 17, 2005

Avatar. Created by a man who has spawned what is now this 6th Ubercon... and his mud isn't even in the top 20 right now, nor ever in the top 10 or 15 for years. Page two news. A long time ago, this mud ranked #1 often. But now, long-awaited Legend code was finally put in after years of being overdue, just to be broken and pulled out immediately, which is sad, because all other development is gone by the wayside, and there's so many things that desperately need fixing, and the new Legends have nothing to do but waste away. Average counts are far below one hundred - usually 70ish - and only peak above that when multiplayer is turned on during hogs. Some say these are the dedicated people who don't want to leave. At least though we don't claim 500 people online at all times when really half or most of them are AFK *sideglance Aardwolf*. People are made Imms when you cannot figure out the slightest logical reason why, since they aren't very effective like they used to be (most of the GOOD ones are gone). Sigh. This mud has lost its vast popularity and just doesn't seem to get it back - because nobody demonstrates it, or seems to want to.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by A curious player on Oct 15, 2005

awesome site awesome and friendly players... what more could ya want?!!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by katia on Sep 5, 2005

Avatar MUD by far is the best MUD I have ever played. The amount of detail and time that involves this MUD is incredible.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Solice - Hum Cle on Sep 4, 2005

Having played a large number of muds over the years, I finaly found one called AVATAR. Over the last few years avatar has gone through a lot of changes some of em good some of em bad from a players point of view. But always the changes are to reflect a progressive exciting dynamic mud. Avatar if you enjoy a social element has plenty to offer, in quests run by players, immortals or angels. Grouping for fun (frequently for survival is a must),Avatar is huge over 20k rooms, so plenty of scope to explore. There are at the momment 4 tiers, lowmort(lowmortal tier) which is general percieved as a training tier which progressively gets harder and harder, (in theory) to lead you to my favourite tier, hero. Hero is were you will spend any where between 500 - 999 levels and then you have a further option to morph into a more powerful being called a Lord. At the lord tier your a defender of the world (midguardia), control huge amounts of power and a force to be reckoned with. Just recently the coding team have introduced a new tier called legend, which will be a limited Player Kill tier. There are tons of different race/class combinations you can try from stock classes to a new type of class that can choose to specialise, for example, (cleric later can have the option to become a druid, whicj is somewhere between a nature priest that can heal and use a bow for large ammounts of dammage). If you have the patients you may if you choose take an option to rebuild into a different some times race, some times class for example remort into one of the most powerful races on avatar the dragon, or rebuild into a sorcerer (a special type of mage dedicated to pure evil). Over all the player base on avatar is high, Regretably different time zones appear to fluctuate the numbers if your on a european time zone numbers can be quite low about 10 - 30. Over all though Avatar is one of the best muds ive ever had the pleasure to play, the staff are friendly, there are plenty of players willing to help with advice, gears and the occassional group death. (when we arent laughing that is). If you want a mud thats fun to play, has regular quests, people who frequently have a wacky sense of humour, the game play is fluid and dynamic then come play avatar. If your a person that enjoys rude or bad behavior then you probably will not be welcomed as avatar has a strict code of accepetable behavior, swearing, racial abuse etc isnt tolerated at all, the aim of avatar was to provide a friendly mud were people could play and have fun, yet feel safe, this is strictly enforced as there is no age restriction on anyone playing avatar. Hope to see you on av and good luck

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by ian bowater on Aug 30, 2005

So 5 years ago I found this MUD that I really liked, it was the only text-based RPG I enjoyed, and then it disappeared. So I started trying a few others out, randomly selecting from this site, and then I found Avatar. There was a one of a kind MUD school which was really helpful to me, and extensive help files. When they say newbie friendly they mean it. For example, My first day I asked for help, and a Lord came to my rescue, to this day he and I are best of friends, on and off avatar. It's an extremely friendly place, and can be social if you'd like. I reccomend avatar to any and all gamers. Guya

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Guya on Aug 29, 2005

Imagine if you will.... You're standing in a meadow. All around you are the cute and cuddly creatures of the meadow. You 'ooo' and 'aww' over them for a short time before noticing an implement of destruction in your hand... Without a second thought you begin pounding the cute little creatures to a nice pinkish mush. Thus begins yor adventures in Avatar! Avatar is great. The gameplay and people on the mud are so great that they drew me back out of the evil world of MMORPG's. I played for a few years and then took a break to 'test out' other more visual games. After the evil had taken hold, an old friend contacted me and mentioned Avatar. I though "Hey! let's check it out again!" and now months later I'm still here, and gripped more so than before. The staff is helpful, the content is great, and things are ever changing. I look forward to seeing you there! Timond

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Timond on Aug 28, 2005

Kappakannaka I wasn't actually on at the time when the discussions about the code problems took place so I can't comment on what was said as I don't exactly know. However, subsequent events have proven that you were correct in that there was a problem. Please accept this as official acceptance and acknowledgement that there was an issue which you had noticed before most people including Immortals. I would have done this face to face with you on the mud but read your note saying that you had already decided to move onto pastures new. Even if no one else bothers to tell you, I appreciate you taking the time to highlight this and I am sorry you felt that you did not feel listened to. Problems with code can take a while to track down as the coders have to be able to reproduce the problem and then work out exactly what is causing the issue. We are sorry that you felt unappreciated and that you felt you had to leave but in the circumstances understand your decision. Good luck and happy mudding. Riviat Immortal of Avatar

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat on Jun 24, 2005

MY experience wasn't the best. I found they had a problem, pointed it out, and they did fix it.. see IMM note 529 on thier mud, but all I got for the effort was criticism and abuse from other players. It didn't take a math giant to see the battle logic was all wonky. For heavens sake if you want to play in this mud, don't tell them they have a problem. I got pretty disgusted by the way I was treated and decided to just find another mud. I HOPE YOU have better luck than I did in this somewhat snobbish, self-proclaimed family mud. I found some of the IMM's, particularly Pliny to be a bit immature in handling situations. He made me look like a fool, though he told me later he wanted my help.. Bah! I was right and found their stupid mistake and they aren't big enough to acknowledge it.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kappakannaka on Jun 24, 2005

Have you visited Avatar lately. If you haven't, let me tell you what you have been missing: ** A new ocean side city - Mervue - with many islands in the surrounding seas, mostly for heroes to explore. New and revamped areas in the surrounding countryside makes for all sorts of exploring fun! ** Tssasskkas Lair has been totally revamped and enlarged. Come explore what's new. ** Tired of being a mage or a rogue, meet the new Prestige classes. These classes are not available on creation. However, to intrepid players at level 50, if they find the right place and meet all the characteristics, they can find themselves reborn something new - A druid, A shadowfist, A Black Circle Initiate or one of the new ones still under development. ** And our official birthday celebration nears. For more fun, mahem and quest team antics. You'll have to be there to see what all they are dreaming up. ** And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Avatar... the legend continues... Come visit us. We hope you'll stay. I did, in 1998, and have never looked back.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Cerdwyn on Jun 16, 2005

What can I say? AVATAR is an outstanding MUD. I've played many and I to say that this is one of the best by far. Although I must admit that when I first started playing, I felt a bit left out and lost. But, I kept playing because I was having fun, regardless of my need for attention. ;p The more I played the more I got hooked, and the more I got to know the other players. Now I am hooked for good! The people are uber friendly and helpful and I love the social atmosphere here. In some large MUDs that I've played, nobody talks to you! But here, they do. I love that. If you want to play a MUD that is not only fun and enjoyable, but friendly and challenging as well, then AVATAR is it.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Alandra on May 27, 2005

I am not your average mudder, in fact I have never been able to get "into" any mud... with the exception of Avatar. It is an amazingly newbie friendly mud with an extensive and easily accessed set of helpfiles. The gameplay is intense and there is virtually no limit to the level of immersion that this well-rounded game presents. From us permanent newbies to the most hard-core power mudder amongst us, all Avatarians agree that this is "THE" game. Come be a part of us, you will never regret it!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Hyland on Apr 27, 2005

Hi, been on this mud since 1999. Been as high as lord and have to say six years later it still grips me. The lvl variety is good, though in fairness hero can be a little tedious. However if you want to 'play' your character it is fun. There is always a challenge, ie a mob or player higher and more experienced than you. Or a lvl you eventually can't seem to get past, but the gameplay ensures you stay and persevere. The races have undergone the most change since i started, some of the best have been changed so that only high ranking players can use em, but as everyone eventually gets BIG this isn't a barrier and actually rewards longstanding players. There have been a number of new races introduced for all lvls and I have to say they are well worth it; yes I have tested most so not empty words. The part 'I' enjoy most about Avatar is the other players, in short they are nuts! I mean this in the most pleasant manner. Mud humour grips you soon enough and there is a healthy sense of community. Role playing deserves mention here, it's not as encouraged as you may expect but it certainly isn't frowned upon. From the new players who log in with grand ideas, to the Imms there is a healthy and tasteful element of roleplay. Well, i'll keep it short, but, try when creating a character to remember, your first will probably be poor due only to your lack of experience, however learn from mistakes and your second char will be all the better, not to mention more fun. Oh and at character creation try to think outside the box. Not saying how that's for you to work out :P Regards Zara....

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Zarathustra on Apr 14, 2005

This is really a great mud. The players are great, and so is the staff. When I was asking for help, they all piched in to give me some great equipment and some money. You will have a great time here, but be ware, it is addictive so if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, you will waste it here!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by balthazar on Feb 16, 2005

lets start with a nice over-simplification: AVATAR is a very simple MUD... on the mailing lists of AVATAR from time to time discussions come up, which talk about the lack of clear laws, or the lack of sophistication, or the lack of encouragement to roleplay, or lack of whatever. and in a way all of that is true. At the same time though it allows for a surprising ease of learning the game. this combined with quite a number of ever-helpful angels and players, with the rather extensive help-system make AVATAR an extremely easy place to get used to and to enjoy in the beginning. after a while the lack of rules (or lets say their mostly vague pronouncement) shows its other face: players start complaining about the way things are run or what things are changed to, or that things are not changed quickly enough. as this starts only after quite some time you will find rather experienced players with completely opposed views to some aspects of the game. and those players will be surprised, that the others did not realize, that the mud was following one set of rules all along, and that it is only now changing them. this may sound a bit confusing, but for a normal day of playing it simply means: you should be able to play the way you like it, just do not expect others to have the same opinion on how to play. currently the mud seems to be in quite an active time. in the last year the number of quests run by immortals and staff have increased a lot, and a number of new classes have been introduced. quite a lot of those changes are catering for the players with a long-standing commitment to AVATAR, leaving those without that time a bit in the dry. but it would also be possible to say that in a more positive way: you have quite a lot to look forward to, in case you decide to stay past your first one or two instances of 'mud-fatigue', which will set it without a doubt. most of the time AVATAR's atmosphere is very friendly and relaxed, when it comes down to meeting people and talk on channels. for the actual running (whacking monsters and such) this can change sometimes, as quite a few people seem to be out to make the most experience points in the shortest time. especially for characters without the powerful equipment, of the 'wrong class', without 'big' friends or without years of experience that can be frustrating. As time passes, these aspects get easier and easier though, and there might be more time to get upset about the general running of the game : ) one thing which is not to be forgotten: a mud is not a democracy, rather a dictatorship, but the bosses try their best to keep their minions happy (of course this says nothing about whether the bosses' perception is 'right') - and as... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by pico on Feb 1, 2005

Well, let’s finally balance out the pace in reviews written. A long time ago a mud I used to play frantically, day and night, expired. I searched and searched for a mud and came upon Avatar. At first I really didn’t like it, so I stopped playing it for about a year, but then came back :-P. It had everything I wanted as a new player and still does now. The Immortals, Angels, and even players greet you with open arms. It was hard though, being a “newbie”, because I didn’t know anything about it or anyone, but a kind Hero (one of the tiers of AvatarMUD) came upon me when I died. He not only helped me with my corpse retrieval, but also helped me with getting to know how to do certain things and just to get to know the game in general. With his lessons I continued my journey all the way through Hero and to Lord (so far the highest mortal tier, still waiting for Titan and Legend to come in) eventually. On the way I met some pretty awesome people even though I knew inside they were probably some geeky nerd :-P. Anyways, the thing that was lacking then was immortal involvement with players, but now it’s flourishing. Immortal run quests are a weekly->monthly acquaintances. Most of them, I’ll admit, get a little boring because they’re almost purely hack n slash, but a few of them have to do with brains that even a new player could win if they tried. Even at lord, the best tier imo, has quite the quests and almost all of us have fun doing it, well as much fun as you can while typing. Now the Immortals are coding up a storm and making this game fun for players, although some may not like the way some things are going, but they get an alternate relief. Indeed, the immortal staff is hurting in some places, but in others things are happening. Well I feel bad to actual leave this mud, it is practically part of my home, but it’s for reason that I’ve decided for myself(Merck helped me a little bit too *wink*) not because of the mud. It’s a wonderful mud and I encourage anyone who is new to mudding, or an experienced mudder to come try it out. I can only hope it will continue heading in the right direction for years to come. Say Hi to Merck and Dev for me :). PS A lot of players think the immortals don’t really care about them, but look at it this way. If Snikt or any of the immortals didn’t care he wouldn’t be paying $$$ each month to keep this mud alive and the immortals wouldn’t spend their time making this a better place if it wasn’t worth it. Have Fun! (remember family mud)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Siril, Draeger, Ceorl, Radiax...etc on Jan 25, 2005

So, my second little blurb on this site. Why am I writing a second time!? If you recall my last review (I have no idea of the date I wrote it, sorry), my biggest annoyance was that a character I had worked on for four years was made significantly worse after a single reboot (failed backstab ~50%, then later, after many complaints, 20%). So, here we are, long after the stealth changes, while I still disagree with them, and think that realism has no place in fantasy, I'd like to thank Devastant for offering to rebuild rogues of races that were negatively affected by stealth mods (dragons, trolls, ogres, orcs, etc). I happily had my dragon rogue rebuilt into a griffon rogue. I went from missing 1/5 stabs to 1/80. I lost hp/mana, but my rogue can finally stab again. Changes may occur slowly sometimes, but there's at least one person who helped those who got the shaft. Avatar's a much more enjoyable place after this one gesture. Zaffer.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Zaffer on Jan 25, 2005

Yep, it's Angel Kenji again, but not here to refute or disagree with what the previous writer (the anonymous Hugg N. Anjul) states. First off, I'm flattered that the writer thinks highly of me. Thank you. I'm also flattered to be considered in the same league as Riviat, whose dedication I admire. I'm actually going to agree with everything that Hugg writes. We do have problems on the staff/player communication level. It's not perfect. There are times that the staff comes off as non-trusting and condescending. The truth is, the staff, coders, Imms, Angels, well... we're human (at least in real life). We do make mistakes. Sometimes our interaction isn't the best. I recently had a very poor interaction with a very tenured player and felt badly about it afterwards. It happens to even the best of us. I'm saddened that we are losing Hugg as a player. I can only hope that he will contact me personally. I'm saddened to lose any player. But Hugg's review shows me that he is more insightful and looks at the 'big picture' instead of just complaining about a particular nerfed skill or tweaked spell. I also agree with Hugg on one more point. Give us the benefit of the doubt and take a look at Avatar. Give us a chance to show you just why some of us are so dedicated. And drop me a 'tell' when you're online. Thanks.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Jan 10, 2005

Avatar is a good mud. You can have a lot of fun there and meet good people. I spent a lot of time there over the last few years, had good times, and now I'm retiring. Why? I have met most of the staff at one time or another and am good friends with several now. With a couple of exceptions, they're GREAT people. (Riviat and Kenji, who post here a lot are two of the best! They love the mud, so cut them a little slack if they seem to rush a little too quickly to get the last word in to defend it.) I spent the majority of my online hours with the rank-and-file player (like me), and with rare exception, they're GREAT people, too. However, there is a HUGE gap in communication and trust between these two groups. To *generalize*, players perceive the immortals as draconic, antagonistic lag-happy coders who make empty promises, treat 20-somethings like they're in fifth grade, and leave rules intentionally vague so that they are subject to the whims of the imm at hand. Again *generalizing*, the staff perceive players as a twink-happy, gear-obsessed, immature complaining lot who, when they find and use an advantageous facet of the combat code, for instance, must be doing so with the intent of abusing loopholes. Who is right? Both have some reasons for seeing things their way. Neither side would ever state things as I have (they're far too nice for that), but years of notes, e-mails, conversations both online and in person have all led me to this conclusion. Keep in mind, what I find frustrating is not that either party is correct, but that they're two groups of overwhelmingly great folks who can't get along. Yes, some players are immature jerks. So are a couple of immortals. That's life. Personally, I've invested a lot of time trying to defuse various situations with both sides, and I'm spent. If you aren't familiar with Avatar, don't take this review as a negative take on the mud, its players, or its staff. All three are great and worth your time. Staff-player relations does not solely consist of idea/rule wars or arguments; there are too many good people for that. You can have a lot of good clean fun there, and that's what it's all about. Go play it; you won't be sorry. I love Avatar; it's like a second family to me. But just like a real family, it hurts to watch the members feud and drift apart, and that's why I'm taking my leave. And before anyone points out the anonymous nature of this review, let me explain. I have no fear of retribution from the staff. They are above that sort of thing. But, like I said, I'm good friends with some of them, and basically I don't want to hurt any feelings should these criticisms be taken personally (which they shouldn't). :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Hugg N. Anjul on Jan 9, 2005

Mel, Your review befuddles me. I wonder why you think YOU are the only person entitled to post your opinion. I have NEVER told anyone they are 'wrong'. I do offer alternative solutions to their problems. Hmm.. funny. That's kind of my job as an Angel, isn't it? And I'm so sorry if me posting replies to people on here offends you. No, scratch that. I don't apologize for it. Because I enjoy playing on AVATAR, I appreciate the work that everyone puts into it (Imms, players, and even us in the peanut gallery), and I will stand up and vocally defend when someone incessantly whines about AV and makes it seem like a bad mud. What I am most puzzled about is why, after all these years, you continue to play if you are so unhappy?

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Dec 30, 2004

Mel, Mel, what would we do without you? I'm hurt, I've kept you in a job for years by watching your movies but no more! I'll show you, I'm voting with my hairy feet right out of the movie theater! Thanks for taking the time to review the MUD, we appreciate people taking the time, whether positive or negative. Also thanks for appreciating that Avatar Staff have opinions and are just as entitled to express them as anyone else who plays AVATAR. We realise that we as Staff members can't win as if we don't respond to criticisms, we're seen to be uncaring, yet if we do respond then we're wrong :) Riviat who has been banned from the peanut gallery for eating all the peanuts.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat on Dec 29, 2004

Once again, it falls to me. Mel. I'm getting too old for this. Someone dislikes the grouping system and a staff member from Avatar writes back saying "You're wrong, do this instead". Sad but true. You'd think they would just give it a rest, reviews should be taken and left as commentary without a need for the peanut gallery (read: low-level staff who watch out for this) to go after it. These are opinions but are always treated like they're facts on a math test that need to be corrected because the player has erred. The same will happen to me. Just remember as well, if you make a joke about anything thats against the rules (without swearing, or anything naughty!) you will get told "Unfunny things are not allowed on channels". Was told this by Kariya today, who's a senior staff member. Pathetic. This may leave open who Mel Gibson has been all these years. But hey, I dont care. :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mel Gibson on Dec 28, 2004

Dear AvPlayer Yes, Avatar is a group oriented mud. This is something we have always been. Yes, some players like to powerplay, that's something difficult to prevent in a hack and slash type mud. But I don't think it is quite as prevalent as you make it out to be. One of the things I encourage players who do not like to play that was is to learn to lead the groups. You do not have to be the tank to be the group leader, or at some levels, the tank. It's fun to lead and learn new areas and make your own groups. Thanks for the nice words about the immortal staff. Ceredwy, Design Staph Immortal

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Cerdwyn on Dec 16, 2004

I really like this mud, but I suggest playing something that doesn't require groups, half of the higher ups on this mud are "elitists" who wouldn't group you unless you have 105 dr and -400 ac in hit gear. The people of the mud are becoming less and less jovial and I can't even ask simple questions to some people without higher level players butting in and trying to answer it when they don't know. The imms are great though and I don't see why everyone has a problem with them, its just the higher level players that make this place less fun.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Avplayer on Dec 14, 2004

I have been playing Avatar for about 6 years, and I love it! I have tried countless other MUDs, and few are as user friendly. Also, the players are (for the most part) so helpful, and so nice. It is a great community. I have yet to find anything that compares. If you decide to try it out, and you should, talk to me. I am always willing to help. My char name is Valeska. Happy MUDding!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Jenevieve on Nov 25, 2004

Awesome Mud!!!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Lizz on Nov 22, 2004

A review of Avatar... interesting concept. Is it a great game? At times yes at others no. Are the people friendly and helpful? Some are and some are there just to belittle others it seems. Imms, staff? Well there is quite a mix there also. There will be times that everyone is happy as can be joking and laughing with you and the next thing you know bam paladins killing people and not always because they stepped out of line. This mud does have its "favorites" that are catered to and babied and rarely if ever get a slap on the wrist for stepping way across the line but if you are new or tend to not make yourself noticed as much and you step out of line a little odds are you will get squashed. Now some may wonder how I can say all of this and that is simply because I have played this mud for over 5 years. I know most of the ins and outs. The different tiers there can be fun. Mort (1-50) for new players can be great fun and a very big challenge. Hero (51) can extend to as many as 999 levels and can be more fun than any other part of the mud as you can do things on your own or get a group together by your choice. I have played every class at hero and have had no problems playing either by myself or in a group. Lord tier (the mysterious) Lord is supposed to be a secret as far as spells/skills go but it now has so many players that there really arnt any secrets left. As far as playing lord it can be very limiting you "have" to group you can not "solo" and not simply due to the mob levels. Soloing at lord is "frowned upon" which means anything from someone saying don't do it to having the almighty paladin show up, kill you, and the Imm eating your corpse. This can be a problem also because as is the norm there it will depend on the current mood of whomever is on. The lord tier can also be interesting because many of the people either change or perhaps its just more noticable that a lot less of the players are friendly and helpful at this tier. People are typically belittled for either not knowing how to do something or making mistakes which can make the tier very unfriendly but if you stick with it it can be fun and has its own entertainment value but you better know what you are doing. I think that most any mudders would have fun at AVATAR if they give it half a chance as the game play is good but at times you have to try and set aside the attitudes of the players, staff, and Imms.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Emyt on Nov 17, 2004

I have played AVATAR for almost 8 years now, It is in my opionion the single best mud out there I have tried other muds, even become immortal on a few and still I think avatar is the best, especially the combat system, and the options available with different weapons. If you are new, and looking to start mudding or if you are an experienced player looking for a stable gaming environment there is a place on AVATAR for you!!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Prosatanos Darkblade on Nov 11, 2004

Rofl. Real mature posting. Hmm.. let's see. You're upset because I respond to postings on this board. I will be the first person to agree that a lot of what people post about AVATAR is true. There are a lot of drawbacks to AV. We are NOT an RP enforced mud. Promises have been made that have not been kept. (Legend, Ranger, Titan, etc.) No MUD is perfect. Every game, group, etc. has drawbacks. It's called life. You take the good with the bad. I think AVATAR is worth checking out, and I will continue to think that until the day that it finally ends. If you disagree, you are welcome to continue your search for the perfect MUD. But please, have the maturity to post your own name, or a false name. Don't act like a jackass and post under mine or Snikt's name. Or anyone elses. Have the stones to publicly admit your own opinion.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Nov 7, 2004

Re:OMG-Snikt-Will-Jail-m3333333! You're wrong "because". Try something else.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenjii on Nov 7, 2004

OMG KENJI U SUCK, AVATAR R TEH SUX. NO ARGUMENT IS EVER VALID BECAUSE U R IN LUV W/ RETARD-ATAR. Seriously. Any valid reason for complaint about avatar is met with a volley of staff responses about how it's not true or try this instead because how they did it wasnt an accurate reflection of what avatar "really is. Just keep in mind this is a "family mud" and as such, anyone over the age of 16 who is looking for a mud with a bit of freedom with anything from language to attitudes might want to check somewhere else. Again, Mel Gibson thanks you.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by OMG-Snikt-Will-Jail-m333! on Nov 7, 2004

First off, thanks for the review Dereandoran. Your comments have alot of validity to them, and I'd like to respond. The Imms and staff do try to treat players with the maturity and respect they deserve. There are times when unfortunately, we have to deal with a difficult player, or someone who has logged on to our mud just to cause a scene. As for player counts, early morning EST is a difficult time to get a good impression of our playerbase. I am often on in the morning (as I work nights) and there may only be 30-40 players at that time. During peak times, (evening EST) we typically have 80-110 players on. The review states 140, and when the review was written, that was true. We are at a bit of a lull as of late, but are actively looking for new players to join our family. Like most muds, we go through cycles in player counts, imm staffing levels, etc. As for you being treated like a kid, I do sincerely apologize. One of the advantages of a MUD is that people are anonymous behind their characters. There is no bigotry, racism or sexism on a MUD. (Usually). However, a new form of stereotyping comes into play, in that if someone is a new player, or a low level character, it is automatically assumed that they don't know anything about the game, mudding, or even life in general! I've even experienced this myself as I log on in a new alt, just to see how things are from that perspective. All in all, I hope you have enjoyed playing on AVATAR, and I look forward to seeing you in-game. If you see me on, send me a tell! -Angel Kenji Angel of AVATAR

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Oct 14, 2004

I came here looking for a pleasant place to play where the atmosphere is friendly and i'd be treated like an adult. To be honest i'm 50/50 on this mud. I'll explain below For the most part in my few days of player experience and from what i've read about this mud from the info page (not other players reviews). It's hard to come to a full conculsion here. As it is said, for the most part i have to agree that players and imms/staff alike are friendly and helpful, when they help. There are often times i'll log on, mostly in the morning on EST and find more immortals on then there lord tier players and lowmortal players (combined) However i've often come across silence when asking for help on thier gossip/chat channel. One thing that really disappointed me was the advertising on here specifically of 140 players on. it's 1/6th of that actually at least the times i play at. The other major downside here is that many times i feel as i'm treated as an inferior person and almost like i'm a kid in school and the teacher is always watching me. It's hard to give this place a thumbs up or down, so i'd have to say thumbs sideway. Suggestion. Try to play during peek hours 7pm EST or so to get the full expereience. Great thing about this place. Helpfiles galore, nothing but helpfiles for everything. Dereandoran

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Dereandoran on Oct 14, 2004

You know, I read all these reviews over the last few days, both positive and negative, and feel that they all fail to hit on what the most important part of AVATAR MUD, or any MUD for that matter, is. Yeah, we have code problems. Not all of our code is 100% bug free. Some of the rooms still have spelling or grammatical errors. (Case in point, look at the area I built. Tons of errors in there. If you didn't know me, you'd swear I was in grade school!) Yes, we have a lot of Imms. And staff members. And Angels. More than we need? Perhaps, perhaps not. A lot of those Imms/Staff/Angels have limited time to devote to AVATAR after you take out the time required for real life, school, kids, wife/hubby, etc. And those Imms/Staff/Angels make mistakes, get frustrated, say things out of line. They're human too. So, what is the most important part of AVATAR? The people. The players. The human beings behind the characters. People that I have been honored to call my friends over the last 5+ years, even though I have never met a single one of them in real life. People like Sharra, who doesn't even run anymore, just devotes her time to helping others, answering questions, etc. If anyone epitomizes the helpful attitudes on AV, it's her. People like Riviat, one of our Imms, who always logs on with a cheerful attitude, even when his day has been absolute hell at work. He's always good for a quick joke, a witty retort, or a quick interesting quest. Thanks Riv. People like Morsq, Mringasa, Tammo and others who have taught me more about the Lord class than I ever thought possible. Thanks guys. I hope to be able to lead like you someday. People like Asghan, Sarita, Avendesora, Koalaknight, Laucian, Ebnodon, Arborea, Felinda, and hundreds of others who have taken their time to listen to my rants and raves about real life. We've shared stories, ran on adventures, and enjoyed good times together. People that have rallied around Graael, one of our players fallen ill, his sister Kiana going through a painful transplant to help him, or the loss of Krelian, one of our players who died earlier this year. During these incidents, I have seen the human side of our players. It is much more than the 0's and 1's that make up our codebase. What is our greatest asset in AVATAR? The people. Yeah, we have our gripers, groaners and complainers. We have the ones who log on and just moan and flame about the game. But then, every family has that too. We love 'em all, just the same. Thanks for reading. Sorry to get a little sappy. Angel Kenji - Angel of AVATAR

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Oct 9, 2004

As a child, it was a place where I could be myself and find acceptance. As a teenager, it was a healthy alternative to the negative social environments some adolescents face. As a college student, it was a great way to avoid studying; a quest or big Lord run was the perfect excuse to miss a class or two! Now, as an adult in the real world, it is a superb place to relax, converse with great people, and enjoy the ever-changing facets of the MUD. Avatar is a cross-generational and cross--cultural world where you can drop the pressures of reality for just a few hours and find bottomless and authentic enjoyment! I was an Avatar player before it was called Avatar. I have been, with a few hiatuses, an active player since age 10. I am now 22 years old, and I still come home from work with the butterflies in my stomach, eager to log on and see if Paladins have been further developed. With this in mind, I have been playing Avatar for 55% of my lifetime, which is probably more than any other adult player can say. I have grown up on the MUD, and become an extremely successful person in my real life. I owe much gratitude to this MUD, it's incredible all-volunteer staff, and the unique players that have made the virtual world come alive to me. While this writing does not contain a concrete and detailed breakdown of my evaluation of the mud, such as Kam's (posted 10/08/04 - 00:36:03), it does give a deeply rooted genuine and sincere personal testimony of the immense greatness of our second home, Avatar. I hope it serves as a relief from the technical criticisms posted recently. If you're looking for a quick fix, I would recommend a fast-paced player-killing MUD. If you're looking for long-term enjoyment and a second home, I invite you to join our world. I can think of no better joy on Avatar than to take a new player by the hand and show off all the treasures we Avatarians enjoy each day. See you on the MUD!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Tarzan on Oct 9, 2004

On the whole, Avatar MUD is a great place to play. The mudschool is easily the best out there. Plus, whenever something may confuse a player, there is always someone willing to give pointers and advice. The Staff and players are friendly and they strive to keep the atmosphere peaceful. Now, I know alot of the other reviewers are shaking their heads at this but let me see if I can explain what I see going on around the MUD. Yes, at times when you ask for help you may be directed to a "help file". This is not a negative thing. Avatar has extensive help files that will explain your question far better than you'd think possible. If not there is always someone to clarify. The language and flaming rules are not too harsh. Nor do they, imo, hinder role-playing. For those that think it does let me just say that you can be a cranky Orc WITHOUT using foul language or flaming someone over the PUBLIC channels. The important thing to remember is that the rules aren't there to make your individual gameplay less enjoyable. They are there to make the game-play fun for the community as a whole. It's a what's best for the group thing. Most players do not feel it necessary to be inappropriate on public channels. Most players never get into conflice with IMMs over language issues, and most importantly, most players don't want to hear you if you are rude, foul-mouthed, and derogitory. These rules are what keep the MUD pleasent, peaceful and a great place to mud. At Avatar you can have fun, meet friends, and learn to be a self-sufficent.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Myna on Oct 9, 2004

I have walked Avatar since the first day it was born. I play there by choice and have never been asked to IMM, or been involved in any official capacity. I never play hero, Lord, or high level players. I spend my days in the low mort game because I enjoy playing with new players teaching them the mud and not just handing them equipment nor giving them spells. I am totally unseen and unappreciated by the staff for what I do, but I enjoy doing it, so it is what I will continue to do until they kick me out. I don't know any of the IMM's very personally except Darii who I love, Mendek whom I loathe, and Snikt whom I admire and respect. So, I feel kind of uniquely positioned to give the mud a fair review from my perspective as a very common role play oriented player. THE IMMS The IMM's are a credible lot even if all of the policy they enforce isn't to my liking. I can't really point at a bad IMM, and lord knows I would. The fact I don't like Mendek doesn't make him a bad IMM. Anessa, a new social IMM, is perhaps one of the best additions to the MUD in recent years. She is friendly and patently patient yet forceful. Really in the area of IMM's Avatar is blessed to have an excellent group of volunteers, and the direction of the mud is away from boredom and towards more fun and excitement. Some IMM's have a bit to learn, but by and large Avatar IMM's are fair, helpful, courteous, and judicious in administering the policy and affairs of the mud. PLAYABILITY OF AVATAR Playing in Avatar is just plain fun. There are plenty of original areas to explore yet a base of old standards that lend familiarity and set the tone for a really well balanced mud. Low mort play is very well designed, interesting, and offers challenges even to the most praticed players. My only criticism of low mort play are a few mobs that can see invis and kill off noobs which tends to somewhat stiffle the exploration that I encourage. If you're just learning to mud you cannot find a better more challenging design than Avatar. It isn't easy. You earn your way level by level, but it is fully understandable, logical, and questions of play are well covered by help files and an abundance of helpful players. When you hero in Avatar you have earned a badge worth wearing. Then it's on to Lord and remortability and every sort of high level challenge and excitement built into a game that will continually test your patience, intellect, stamina, and resourcefulness. Avatar is a "group oriented" Mud, so you must learn social skills to excel. In time you will learn your way around, about equipment capabilities, and what spells and skills you can acquire to make yourself a success. FAIRNESS OF AVATAR There always... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kam on Oct 8, 2004

I noticed today in writing this that the moderators are removing posts with invalid emails. I wonder why? (sarcastic answer: because Snikt will destroy my pfiles if I post my charname *snikt* answer: name someone who I've done that with >:) ). Where to start... Okay, I'll admit our instant gratification society is well-deserving of the entitlement mentality I've been reading here. Wait, that's sarcasm. Restart. Okay, I'll admit I love running a mud that people enjoy playing on. I love many of the personalities, I love the code challenges (really, I'm not being totally sarcastic), I love the game design. I understand the sulking attitude of people who've been spanked for not following some simple requests (sar: "TYRANNY! OPPRESSION!" *s*: safer environment for my kids than battle.net - do I really need to quote, and if so, at what point DO you draw a line, or are you really saying we shouldn't?). I'm not fully aware of why people who hate our efforts to provide a safe, fun (sar: repetitive *s*: best solution I've currently got right now) environment spend so much effort trying to denigrate it (sar: "spreading the gospel on how much avatar sucks" *s*: whining because they got caught doing something naughty and aren't allowed to play anymore). Case in point: I've just now gotten distracted by said children. I no longer have any freaking clue of what I was going to rant on about but I'll leave you with this... Unless or until you (the general you) come up with a better free mud, I love what has been created. I'm unlikely to stop because I've irked off some cowards or even some people I respect. Things could be better in Avatar, but for now, it is what it is. Have a nice day. *snikt*

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Snikt on Oct 7, 2004

AVATAR has language rules which include no profanities on public channels. This is because we have a very wide spread of ages who play ranging from people at school to people who have retired and all ages in between. We also have rules against flaming or harassing other players. Also because of the fact that we are lucky to be an international community with players from all over the world who have many different belief systems, we do not encourage the discussion of emotive subject such as politics and religion as there is is too much potential for flame wars and heated disagreements. If people want to discuss these, we have provided special buddychannels which are private and the language and subject rules are a lot more relaxed. Exceptions to this are: if the buddychannel is announced on a public channel, whereupon the buddychannel is classed as a public channel and the normal language rules apply. if we receive a report that the buddychannel is being used as a mechanism to harass another player, upon which point we reserve the right to investigate and step in if necessary. Roleplaying is not enforced on AVATAR and is allowed as long as the roleplaying does not infringe our rules on acceptable language, flaming or harassment. If in order to have fun you need to constantly swear, flame or harass others then AVATAR is not the MUD for you and we respectfully suggest that you look elsewhere. As previously mentioned, AVATAR has an extensive helpfile system and often people are directed to look at the relevant helpfile when they ask a question. There are a number of reasons for this, one of them being that the helpfiles normally cover the question asked plus they often contain useful addtional information. Another may be that the person answering may not know the exact answer to the question but may know that there is an applicable helpfile. If the person answering is simply regurgitating the contents of the helpfile, then it makes sense to get the person who asked the question in the first place to become familiar with our helpfile system and the best way to do this by getting them to read the helpfile. If someone reads the helpfile and still doesn't understand then there is usually someone who will take the time to explain it differently.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat on Oct 7, 2004

This is a mud specifically designed it seems to appeal to the parents of teen players. It is an overly censured mud that leaves no opportunity to express opinions or thought without immediate IMM sanction. They allow thier own players to act as language police and it has a rather negative atmosphere. If you are old enough to actually have your own opinons you'll want to keep them to yourself in this mud. The mud plays well enough and I'd let any kid with an attitude problem play here, he/she would fit right in. It's a quite enjoyable mud if you stay off their chat channels and don't read thier notes. Take a playing partner with you and this mud can be a fun mud to play. It has a basic IMM philosophy of stomping on any hint of role playing, unhappy verbage, or the expression of individualism. Ask any question and the stock reply is going to refer you to a "HELP FILE" no matter how simple the question would have been to answer. It is a very rude atmosphere. I honestly believe there are people sit in this mud all day for the simple pleasure of barking the name of a helpfile, shouting improper language, or issuing a copy of whatever you say on a public channel in order to gain censure of you by an IMM. It is a great mud if you're into playing where gestapo tactics are used to control the verbal expression of any original concept, role play, or in taking exception with anything someone else says. When this mud lists they encourage "ROLE PLAY" they are flat telling a lie.. not a fib.. an outright lie. Go in here an try role playing a cranky old Orc.. or a mean ol troll and you'll soon find yourself sitting in the Implimentor's office tied to a chair, bound, and gagged. I liked the play.. disliked the people.. and found the IMM staff poorly trained to encourage a happy healthy environment. The mud itself is mostly original and the play is fair and IMM favortism is not seemingly present at least at the lower levels. They have an angel program but it is pretty near a joke. They would be better served to give their hero's some help on how to do CR's and forget the Angels who seldom appear and are never there when needed. The religeon aspect added to this game I found weird and out of fit but it can be successfully ignored. It seems much of a distraction and adds little to the quality of play. They have untoggled the eating and drinking requirements in this mud and that removes some of the uncessary spam. Now if they could learn to remove their overpowering intent upon extreme censure they might actually have a great MUD. It's a top 20 mud, but no better. Anyone rates this mud in the top ten is stuffing the ballot box.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Akejama on Oct 7, 2004

The only Immortal who argued to get you back was a real life friend, Snikt. I believe there were others who also received the same kind of protection and/or even immortal power simply because they lived in the neighborhood. A long time malcontent was even given a job by Snikt! What makes it comedic is that the guy had to be fired because he had problems...something the rest of the staff seemed to know already. There is favoritism and an umbrella of protection over players. Gynamede, you were untouchable and I'm sure if that wasn't the case, you'd have been jailed much more frequently. Toggle

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Toggle on Oct 7, 2004

In response to Toggle I can't count that high. (Just kidding) as for your information. I was jailed twice in Gynamede. Some may say it was a justified jailing, I perhaps disagree. It was over a year before I was allowed back. So to say i was jailed so many times and have it implied i was allowed back immediately cause of favoritism is false. I was never once treated with any favortisim. (I can supply copies of my rapsheet if need be to prove this, however i don't think Topmudsites Admin's would allow such a long post) I guess if want to ask then why was I allowed to stay so long. Well that's probably cause in my opinion, the rules which I were accused of breaking where extreamly minor such as just my general attitude sucked most of the time about most of the changes and actions by the staff and me trying to question them on every little change. But as always there's two sides of the story. After being allowed back after a year hiatus, Things started off well, but started to go downhill again. I pretty much showed to have come back with the same attitude and was jailed again for the same reason as before. (If your curious of about what was the straw that broke the camel's back, well it was probably my comment vs's the imm echo "Did you hear that?" with my response being on hero "Oops sorry i farted"). Anyway, wanted to clear that up so you have your story straight. Gynamede Who is now off playing bigger and better muds.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Gynamede on Oct 7, 2004

HI, I found this mud around 7 years ago, while in my c++ programing class. After playing for the last 4 years of high school, at that time i left. I came back and it was still the same! nothing had changed. there where a few new "faces" sure but most of the people there, where alts of lords and other heros. Nothing wrong with that. I started a human warrior, and i herod him which is no small feat, the leveling system there is hard and very challengeing. I hero'd and i become what is called a hitter, someone who sits and hits for the tank. I thought thats not too bad. Well as i progressed though the levels, I became aware of something going around called elitism. now thats where your no longer good for anything cause you dont belong to a certain group of people. There is something called classim, where if you pick a human warrior (the easiest thing to play, and humans are adaptable to anything) you get looked over, told there is no point in doing so, and generaly harrast cause you picked something you liked. Sounds like fun right? Yeah thought so, sadly it runs though avatar like a virus, what do the staff do? they join in, maybe not in thier immortal roles, but as thier alts and laugh and joke at the mis fortunes of others. Now, after i have post'd this, see how many people come and try to discredit me.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Firefist on Oct 6, 2004

Avatar has a growing staff after a long period of inactivity and it is quite refreshing. Quests occur often, there seems to be momentum and growth, and the collective voice seems to be one of progress rather than one of complaint that seemed to dominate for a few years. Having read recent posts, including those that have been removed, I must agree that there are some problems. The problem isn't the mud, although there are issues. Code problems tend to be ignored on muds that are fun and inviting. The problem is social and administrative...and sadly it is entrenched like a cancer. Players like Zaffer (a recent reviewer) are allowed to spend all day talking to anybody who will listen about how crappy the game is and how crappy the staff are in whatever it is that's the latest flavor of complaint. Zaffer isn't alone, by any means, and because of the loose and overly generous rules favoring players, they remain to turn the core players rotten with their hatemongering. It isn't just an "us vs them" mentality because these same players pick on each other. It's like a soap opera for Junior High at times. When you add to this some reversals of punishments simply due to what can only be considered favoritism (Gynamede...how many times can this guy get jailed and still come back, anyway?!), some bad promises (new code that never surfaced), and some crazy unenforceable rules (no triggers, no sponging), I don't see how people can stay happy with the Implementor, Snikt. Everybody who plays there acknowledges his generosity in paying for the game's survival, but the atmosphere isn't pleasant for experienced players who don't want to deal with players such as described and simply want to relax and play the game. It sounds like a rant, but it truely is a valid viewpoint. I think Avatar is a fun game with fun people. When I log in and play, I have a great time...until I read a note, see a chat, or otherwise am made aware of the presense of people who ruin the fun of others. What is truely sad is that there are so many people who enjoy the soap opera of hating staff and each other that to systematically remove them from Avatar would wipe out 30% of the playerbase and could very well end the game. I will continue to log in and hack-and-slash to kill a dull evening, but I will never truely call Avatar home. My advice for the staff is to encourage new players, encourage the good ones to stay, and try to achieve a long term atmosphere change by making the bad players a minority rather than the vocal majority. Toggle

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Toggle on Oct 6, 2004

Oops, forgot to post my review. Come join us, theres many nice ppl here, you'll have a good time and most surely enjoy yourself. One thing tho.. if you arent a patient person, dont bother. This MUD requires patience, but it also rewards it, for those who can value the reward. I have been here for 7 years, and i've never had any bad experiences with players or staff. It all depends on your attitude. I dont really have anything to compare Avatar to, since i despise all other muds, and i dont play anything other than AVATAR. But trust me, this is a wonderful place where you can learn many things, great place to make some good friends, and have a good time away from the evils of reality.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Manu on Oct 6, 2004

So, when I was searching the 'Submit review' button, I came across the description of Avatar... "TIRED of investing hundreds of hours of play and development in a MUD that wipes the pfiles, changes management, has an uncomfortable social environment, disappears, or has less than 140 actual players on?" Maybe that should be updated... Just a wee bit. The mud hasn't been rebooted in a few days (as of writing this) and the highest player count since reboot was *drumroll* 111. Investing hundreds of hours in a character development and getting pwiped? Nah, I've got a dragon rogue with a thousand+ hours, 600+ dragon levels, that's been around for four years, that started missing 20% of his backstabs after a single reboot. Not pwiped... but close enough. The mud doesn't change management, but there are about a dozen new imms that have been added in recent memory, and the visible effect has been that on a Friday night, there has been one imm online for every 4 hero/lord characters. Also, a few more little quests. Uncomfortable social environment? It's not uncomfortable provided you don't vent with profanity in a private/public channel. Help rules-language says that all swears to public channels and group tells get logged, just in case. But, what it doesn't mention is that tells, buddychats (which for most people is private), also get logged for swears. How does that make it uncomfortable? Curse about a certain imm after he/she implements a change... If that particular imm happens to read through the swear logs (and maybe greps for their name), you've just made yourself a new enemy, congratulations! Granted, if the imm jails you, you can likely find someone to let you out. About a month ago (Sept 1), Snikt decreed that triggers are bad. Okay, fair enough, it's his place, he doesn't want triggers. Logical step after this, update helpfile to reflect new changes. Here we are, just over a month later, with the same old helpfile. We've gotten a few new socials, though. I do enjoy the game at times, but I'm mostly there for the company of my private buddyset (which sadly isn't as private as I wish it were), the occasional lord or hero run. Remember, your characters are always subject to the whim of whomever happens to be coding at the time. Without knowing who is on the appeals team, I can honestly say that I've seen some pretty ridiculous appeals get pushed through. Does it make a difference to me if someone gets a race change on a character that they knowingly remorted? Indirectly, because if they got their race changed, it'd be nice for me to have the same opportunity. Is this a thumbs up or down review? Neither I guess. Just a little information about some misinformation. Zaffer. P.S. Apologies about the poor formatting.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Zaffer on Oct 6, 2004

CHEER RIVIAT!!!! Hey Immoral Staff d00d, why dont you sign your reviews, dont be afraid, no one will eat your p-file, you wont be driven away from this "bad mud" *snicker* Manu.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Manu on Oct 6, 2004

"After reading your review, you make many valid points however, reading many of the past reviews of this mud and my experience with many other various muds including avatar, this seems to be the only occurance that i see going through what i would call negative cycles." That's funny I've read a number of reviews for other muds here and more than a few have featured negative reviews in a similar vein to those posted about Avatar. Every mud goes through positive and negative cycles. "I understand that the mudstaff is voluntary and unpaid, but so are most muds, and muds with less staff produce 6x times as much. If the memebers of the immortal staff are not producing, why are they still immortals if they don't have time for the mud? Is it cause the members of the staff are mostly the implementors friends (not making an accusation here, just listing a possible cause)" Maybe those muds with less staff have staff who are currently able to contribute more of their time and don't necessarily have the same commitments on their time as some of us may do. Maybe those muds have a higher percentage of coders and builders? Maybe those muds haven't been running for the length of time that AVATAR has been running? We spend a lot of time together working on the mud and some of us have even met up in real life so it's hardly surprising that friendships have formed. It takes time to get trusted and loyal people on board, as long as Immortals are still contributing to the MUD then it's seem very unfair to get rid of them because they suddenly have less time available for the MUD than they once did. Indeed, being friends with each other makes working together easier and more enjoyable. "Still all those staff/immortal members you'd still expect to see a lot more happening, a lot more quests, a lot more areas, ect. I agree that you are lucky to have staff memebers willing to help the immortal staff. But do you really need them?!?!. There's 30+ people on the immortal list, you can't honestly tell me that isn't more then enough staff to run plenty of quests, build areas, ect. It may be time to restructure and reassign jobs to the current immortal staff, or even possibly get rid of the staff not producing." We have less than 30 Immortals, 1 of those listed is sadly deceased but remains there as a mark of respect and recognition of how much he is missed. 7 of the remaining Immortals are relatively new i.e. have been immortals for less than a year and are still learning. It takes time for new Immortals to be trained and to earn sufficient trust as well as gain the requisite skills. knowledge and commands to be able to increase their levels of contribution in aspects of the mud such as building and coding. Even more experienced Immortals such my... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat on Oct 5, 2004

Riviat After reading your review, you make many valid points however, reading many of the past reviews of this mud and my experience with many other various muds including avatar, this seems to be the only occurance that i see going through what i would call negative cycles. I understand that the mudstaff is voluntary and unpaid, but so are most muds, and muds with less staff produce 6x times as much. If the memebers of the immortal staff are not producing, why are they still immortals if they don't have time for the mud? Is it cause the members of the staff are mostly the implementors friends (not making an accusation here, just listing a possible cause) Still all those staff/immortal members you'd still expect to see a lot more happening, a lot more quests, a lot more areas, ect. I agree that you are lucky to have staff memebers willing to help the immortal staff. But do you really need them?!?!. There's 30+ people on the immortal list, you can't honestly tell me that isn't more then enough staff to run plenty of quests, build areas, ect. It may be time to restructure and reassign jobs to the current immortal staff, or even possibly get rid of the staff not producing. If the efforts of the immortal staff is to try and make most of the players happy ( i agree it's impossible to make 100% happy) then why so many horrible reviews, but so few good reviews from people other than staff memebers? You say there's an extensive amount of areas and helpfiles. Saying the extensive amount if helpfiles is a feature is false. It's a necessity for any mud. So it's not in my opinion a fair point to make here. As to you pointing out the fantasy classes, these are all well and good, but why so much work needed for them? are they there to give people something else to do cause the mud isn't being developed to accomidate those who enjoy leveling fast and becoming more powerful as to move on to legend and titan. I appreciate the time to come back and try to justify some of my earlier accusations. However I have one last question. Try justifing these comments and and expect players to be happy with the way things are on Avatar Quote 1: (Snikt) I don't give pucky about fair Quote 2: (Snikt) in combat (Snikt) someone goes afk (Snikt) they lose a tier, and 500 levels (Snikt) also (Snikt) they're vaporizing corpse (Snikt) kills the rest of the party (Snikt) that is in the room Quote 3: (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) die (Snikt) or adapt Quote 4: (Snikt) I want people stigmatized (Snikt) otherwise (Snikt) I want the stuff stopped Pretty bad attitude to have while running a mud imho? Anyway thank you again for taking time... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Immoral Staff on Oct 5, 2004

Avatar like any long running mud goes through cycles of development and activity and also has fluctuations in the playerbase numbers. As with any mud whose staff works on an unpaid and voluntary basis, the people who code have varying amounts of time available to commit to coding and changes in personal circumstances can affect this both positively and negatively at various points i.e. sometimes the coders will have lots of free time and are able to produce and implement significant amounts of code and at other times there may be factors such as completing or contiuing their education, starting a new job, having children etc which have to take priority. Not all of Avatar's Immortals are coders. We have many and varied roles, not all of which are immediately obvious. Some of the Immortals perform PR roles such as as answering questions, mediating disputes or resolving player problems. Like a many muds, we also have Builders and Quest Immortals. Others do work on correcting typos and updating helpfiles. Some of the tasks are more behind the scenes such as but not limited to the updating of news items on the Avatar website and the administration of the in-game mailing lists. On Avatar we are lucky enough to have Staff members who assist the Immortal Staff with various tasks such as running Quests, building new areas and the addition of game enhancements such as new socials and helpfiles as well as updating existing game components such as correcting typos reported by the TYPO command or updating the various Staff team websites. Again there are Immortals whose role is to lead these teams. There will always be players who like constant development of areas, new code, addition of new classes. On the flip side there are players who like things to remain the same and feel threatened by changes to the status quo. Some of our players get their enjoyment from finding and playing the optimum race and class combinations and are motivated to have the "best" or be the highest level for a given race and class. Additionally, we have those whose motivation is exploration of the game world and overcoming the challenges they encounter be they defeating a particularly hard to kill monster or pitting their wits against the in-game quests. Others play for the social aspect of the mud and are not overly bothered about having the biggest or the best characters. We have players who fall into all or some of these player types. We make efforts to keep all of the various player types happy but however we run and develop Avatar, it is impossible to please 100% of the people who play 100% of the time, no matter how hard we try. To think otherwise is unrealistic. This is born out by experience and by reading the various reviews of AVATAR. You will read one review and someone is unhappy with a particular aspect or aspects of the mud, however the next may... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat on Oct 4, 2004

From being one of the most popular muds several years ago, this place has turned to almost a baren wasteland. Less than 50 players on most times of the day. And at peek hours barely breaks 80 players. Much of this is probably in turn due to the shift towards the elementary school age kids. I'll have to say one thing though. It's a great tutorial mud if you've never mudded before and want to get a basic idea of typical mud commands and what not. The imp has pretty much lost any drive to do much development on the mud as of late either. Playes have been fulfilled with empty promises for years now, and it's been in rare form that a postive development change has gone in. Many are going to say the the development of the new "remort" classes are a positive change. And in technical terms yes it is, but not worth the price. To get one of these "fabulous" remort classes on has to sacrafice a character that they've been working on for months. This advent of new classes is to gear players from putting pressure on the imp to develope the latter tiers that have been promised for almost 3 years now and to just go through the same 1000+ levels to get very very few additional benefits from the remort class. The coding of this mud is shoddy at best. Frequent crashes due to improper testing of new code and stuff. Many typos in areas and rooms to boot as well If your not on any of the time zones located in the United States, don't expect to find many people on this mud. For the 50 or some odd players, there's an overwhelming amount of imms. IT's a big surprise how little gets done with such a large staff. If you log on, type wizlist and stafflist or help stafflist. And count up the total number of players listed there, then type who and count the number of total people playing. You'll see what I am talking about. If your expecting a place where the time and effort you put into your character is respected, don't come here, you'll end up being disappointed. Skills and spells that have worked just fine for years will be suddenly changed in the intrest of what the immortals call "balance". You'd have more luck finding balance on a see-saw with a baby on one end and the elephant on the other. Lowmort tier (the first 50 levels) is probably the most intresting. After that, things start to get really really repetitive. After lowmort you'll hit hero where it's 999 levels of complete and utter boredom. Everyone pretty much getting most of the same skill sets with a few exceptions to certain class defining skills like backstab for rogues and what not. (exceptions to this are assassin, berzerker, and archers) Everyone has pretty much the same gear not much to say unique about this Then... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Immoral Staff on Oct 4, 2004

Hello everybody :) this is the first time i am submitting a review for avatar,or any mud in particular really,avatar was the first mud i ever tried out,and i'm glad i did it,i found friendly people (most of them),there are a couple of people i dislike,but they are a minority,the imm abuse comment (oh so frequently uttered) is kind of over rated,true there are imms (is an imm) who i dislike,partly because they are not to be negotiated with and so on,but thats just an opinion (correct me if i'm wrong,send me a mail if you want to discuss this). Anyway,i liked playing here so far,i'm taking a slight break and experiencing a different mud for the moment (don't worry i'll be back soon to lord aeneas ;)), i think its a quite original mud,fun areas,maybe lvl'ing sometimes is a bit too hard for some class/race-s, i don't have any problems with it really. Oh,and to "Sick of the 'community'", man, talk about blowing things out of proportion, i hope you find whatever it is your looking for but bashing on other players (whom i know are very nice and helpfull people,e.g. mring) Only a coward would fear to give his name in peace. Thanks for reading this,i would appreciate comments on my e-mail (adriaan_dr@hotmail.com) thank you,keep up the good work angels/imm's and not to be forgotten kind and helpfull players :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Aeneas on Sep 5, 2004

"The implementer is a wacko, who takes his real life problems out on the player base, jailing on a whim." Im sure if snikt jailed one of us for each of his RL problems he would have no mudders left:P "The game also is constantly down with a faulty router and the aforementioned Imp has no plans to fix it." Well there was a stress test multiplay H.O.G. to test the new router about 4 days before your review here.. so uhh keep up on the news before you post if you still play:P and why dont you people sign mudnames when you post on these things? snikt isnt going to jail you for posting a bad review and make the the rumors about him doing so true:P

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Athor on Sep 3, 2004

Well the day has come to avatar. Legend should be coming in since Snikt has not decided that triggers are illegal. Well hopefully legend will be coming in and lord will not be so boring after it. Hmm cant remember which ubercon Sages and Legends were to be starting up. 1 or 2 years ago i dont really care hate lord anyways runs too long for too little. Just want to warn people that triggers are illegal and you will be punished so just be careful to remember any input you do not type in will be grounds to make you going into reality. Play or dont play just dont be "users". It is fun if the imms dont know who you are but if you yell complain or bicker usually means you are in the wrong. This isnt always the case I read a review by one imm that was somehow glad that some complaints were expressed. I just dont really want to have to play another game and start up all over again. There are some interesting things in the reviews for avatar and all are true. Legends and Titans are not really in there so pretty much fraud or whatever right there but maybe once i become a grandfather it will happen. Thanks for your time reading this mud. Yes this is Snikts mud and he can decide if he want people on or off it and hopefully they will not be totally mad by this review.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Richard on Sep 1, 2004

I have no review to submit for this mud as I have not played it in three years due to a mostly personal dispute between myself and the imp..I disassociate myself from the previous post and will not post a review in either a favourable or unfavourable light on a mud I have not connected to in three years(mostly due to a siteban, to be fair) Chuft-riit, ex Kzinti warrior-lord.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Chuft(the real one) on Aug 25, 2004

The Avatar ad is mis-leading. Can only attain 50 low mort levels, 999 hero levels, and 999 lord levels. Legend and Titan were promised to be coded in 2 years ago and it still hasn't happened. If you like control oriented Imms that post threatening and controlling notes on a monthly basis. then have fun. *whip*

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Chuft on Aug 25, 2004

Overall i'd say Avatar is one of the friendliest MUD communities i've been to. Most people will help you out with questions and such. It's very easy to learn the ropes in this kind of environment. More MUDs should have this kind of atmosphere I don't know of any MUD that's RP(though some may advertise that to lure players). If you want to RP look for a good MUSH(This was just a comment about the previous reviewer). There are alot of things to explore and I guess they are working on new areas. You'll need to group with people at higher levels so those looking mainly for solo adventures will probably want to seek a different type of MUD. My only negative about the MUD is that it lags at times(a little more than i'm used to with MUDs). Maybe someone on the staff can say what the deal is with that.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sarah on Aug 25, 2004

My comments were a legitimate review and not really a complaint. People tend to get uptight with other players without understanding the type of person typically found on Avatar. Keep up the good effort. As soon as the sublevel system is removed with all its repetitive gameplay, I'll be back in full swing! I think it is that repetitive play that creates many small social as well as game issues and the sooner that's reduced or removed, the better. Retired

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Retired on Aug 18, 2004

Avatar is a roleplay encouraged/permitted hack and slash mud rather than a roleplaying enforced mud and does not claim to be a roleplaying enforced mud. This may mean that people expecting or wanting a higher level of roleplay may be better suited to a game other than AVATAR that is more specifically geared to roleplaying. Slamming us for not having the level of roleplaying that you may desire when we are not a roleplay enforced mud is like buying UT2004 and complaining that there are too many guns in the game. If you don't want guns then don't play a shoot-em-up game. Would you really expect the makers of UT2004 to completely change their game just because you emailed in to say you didn't like the guns aspect? Currently we don't have the staff to enforce roleplaying all the time, maybe if we had full time and paid members of staff like some of the pay per play muds this would be possible, however being free and run by unpaid volunteer staff, currently this is not possible for us. "Sick of the Community" and "Retired", I am sorry to hear that your experience has not been a wholly pleasurable one. Not everyone who plays Avatar is obsessed with power levelling, you both for example are proof of this. As I am sure you are aware, it is difficult to change people's perspective and attitudes to playing a game overnight. Thank you for taking the time to post your comments, it is appreciated. We'll certainly take them on board and discuss them and see what we can do to improve things where possible and within our control.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat - Immortal of Avatar on Aug 18, 2004

Retired is very correct in many parts about this game. And Kenji I am not always negative. For a long time if a person new on the game was on and needed help i would help him. Usually becoming fast friends. Well Fast Friends that lord became Fast Fiends. Once they get stuff out of you they leave ya in the dust. It was quite interesting when people on avatar saw the letter. There was no hmm maybe the game should look into this. No it was "if you dont like this game find another one". There really is no real role playing in this game like Retired says unless you are in a small community/cult which you can get people to help you. It is interesting to see what people play. I played a hum war for so long because i thought it would be fun. I also have played almost every different type of race/class mix that can be put in the beginning sequence. THe only ones that level past a certain point are of a specific nature. No hum or elf or weak characters are usually really high but there are a few exceptions most just fade away into a gia or orc or elf (if they play arc). I love this game but when ideas are thrown out because the higher ups might not like it isnt exactly a great thing to have happen. THe last comment is about what Retired said which is very, very true. This is a hack and slash game not a roleplaying game. And Kenji i do tank and usually take the oddities out and show them the ropes when i want to. While others will specifically just ask for "Brutes, Meatshields, no weaklings."

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sick of Community on Aug 18, 2004

Avatar is a longstanding community. I believe the initial people started 10 years ago on Farside and then stuck together until today. Through game design...or mis-design...Avatar's developed into a game of levels and numbers. It's a game full of accountants who balance their budgets not just with gold but with every possible numerical value in the game. Avatar is a power-levelers dream where you can invest hundreds of hours polishing equipment because you get to use the same equipment for 999 levels. It is this game design that slowly weeded the RPG players off to MUSHs and games that care more about character descriptions than how fast you kill a goblin wizard. The players who like this kind of game stay here and due to the aggressively competitive nature of number-crunching everything to death, they set the tone for the mud. If this sounds like a game for you, make sure you pick a race and class that maximizes your strengths. You'll be goaded and possibly considered dumb for choosing something based on roleplay. The previous thread of reviews on being kicked out of groups stems from this mentality. Being friendly and open to others comes secondary to making all the numbers on your score sheet larger at Avatar. Although there are people who care, and typically they end up involved in staffing the game, they are a minority. Kenji is one of the people that Avatar needs to see more often. He's an exception rather than a rule. Keeping tabs in case things change, Retired

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Retired on Aug 15, 2004

To 'Sick of the Community', I wanted to wait until after Mringasa had a chance to comment on your previous statement, about him leading private groups at lord. I can speak from first hand experience, Mring is one of the best tanks out there. I recently, after almost 5 years on the MUD, joined the Lord tier in one of my alts. No one knows who my main alt is. Mring was more than willing to help me learn, suggest ways to play my character, and even respond to my incessant questions about gear, areas, mobs, etc. If that's not community, I don't know what is. I have found many members of the AVATAR family who share the same exact sentiment. They are willing to go out of their way, take time out of their game to help others. I'm sorry that you have had a difficult experience with grouping. It happens. However, I notice that the entire tone of all of your notes has been negative. Do you think that your negativity might reflect in your game? If so, would you be eager to group someone who was negative and not enjoying themself? I would rather run in a splat group with a bunch of players who were having a good time than power level with a couple morose, disgruntled hacks. Just my two bits. Adjust for inflation accordingly ;)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Aug 14, 2004

I think you have a lot of guts not writing your name, but slamming a player for something that was an innocent joking comment is even more pathetic. I worked hard to get where I am and think this mud is an awesome place to hang around and do what you want. There has never been any issue with me obtaining a group, if only because Ill do just about anything with little to no complaints. People think Im psychotic sometimes I fear. I lead at every single tier and that feeling of community is something you need to earn, not have handed to you like so many people expect on the mud. For those of you who don't mind working a little to get what you want, come on over and try Avatar out. This place is a home away from home for a lot of us, and everyone is welcome

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mringasa on Aug 13, 2004

Hmm got a group but you got to see a little thing that i was looking through logs said. Mringasa tells the group ' heh. Ill be leading priv exp only. ;)' Mringasa was talking about lord. How is this community that when he lords he will only do private runs? This same thing has happened many times before that I see this. How is this community? And comment about Kenji. I have tanked many times but sometime i bet even you get sick of just typing all the time. Plus once they find friends online they say they have to go.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sick of The 'Community' on Aug 11, 2004

In response to "Sick of The 'Community'", I'm sorry that you had a difficult time joining a group, or felt that you were removed from a group unfairly. There is a very simple solution to it, however. You're a warrior. Hold your own group. It's not that hard, and once you try it out and lead a few runs, I'm sure you'll quickly come to love tanking. I'm disappointed that after just four groups you are so willing to write off Avatar MUD. If you give up on things so easily, perhaps an RPG MUD is not the right hobby for you. I do hope you will try us again, however. Hope to see you in-game, Angel Kenji

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Aug 4, 2004

I have been playing avatar for many years. Lately if you are not part of the "community"/cult of specific people. I love the game. I helped many people to become heroes and lords but this game gets to most people like politics to a person going to office. I have a little guy i want to level (this guy is a warrior so should be easy) in the last day I got into 4 different groups in which 3 kicked me out because their "friends" came on. How is this game friendly when you try and make friends and they take you out just because an old friend comes along. Please help support the other games out there and vote for them. THank you, Sick of "Community"

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sick of The "Community" on Aug 2, 2004

Well I have been playing this mud for roughly 2 years now and my take on it so far has been pretty good. The lowmort levels are fun and there is always something new going on. After that you move on to hero which can be repetitive if you allow it to be. But if you go to the same areas killing the same mobs with the same techniques and group makeups I think most would agree when I say what do you really expect? Lord gets a bit repetetive also. Shrug hence i don't play lord as much as I used too. I am hopeful that this changes however I'll be content here for a while without any changes. Changes are coming around fast of late. and Imm's are around alot more than they were when I first started playing or at least that is my perception. Anyways I would recommend checking it out and if you don't like it go somewhere else. My guess is that as long as you don't have to swear on public channels, you don't mind grouping and you aren't going to try and make yourself a real nuisance to the other players constantly you will have a great time.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Lilone on Jul 15, 2004

I wrote out a fairly lengthy review discussing the social psychology of online communities that have been around long enough to evolve into a social organism, and the life-cycle of the general MUD player, but I would rather keep it simple and short: The best review of the MUD I can offer is to come try it for yourself. Strike up or join in a conversation on chat. Participate in a trivia quest. Run around and explore. Gain a few levels. If you don't like it, that's fine, we won't be mad. I'm betting you'll like it, though.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Nadreck on Jul 9, 2004

I just read the most recent reviews. And well.. I'm stunned. Yes Avatar has rules. What community doesn't? Yes people break those rules, either out of spite, ignorance or because they can. Those that do out of ignorance are forgiven, those that do it out of spite are asked to find a new place to play. But if they come back later, most are given a second chance. Many come back. Avatar's staff of immortals is not just for coding and building. It's for administration and quests, and helping and .... well the list is unlimited. Everyone one of them is a volunteer. They do not get a dime for their time. They have real life jobs, families, responsibilities. And they make time for Avatar too. I guess I'm just tired of people who decide just because someone posts a new review, they have to go post 3 negative ones. If you want to see what avatar is about, come try us out. Start as level one, go through mudschool, read the help files. Then make your own decision. We'll be glad you came, and hope that you will stay. Amaranthus caudatus, hero warrior, half-elf maiden.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Amaranthus on Jul 6, 2004

I started playing avatar in 1998 or 1999 and like a lot of other players, have lost interest. I, like others, still keep my character alive, but have found a new home to mud in. The question becomes, why? I can't speak for all, but the opinion seems to be the same, the game got boring for the Lord class. There's two primary reasons for this; It is very difficult to level and there is longer any power associated with Lord. At Lord level, you are required to enter (or start)large groups in order to go on 'runs'. These groups can take a long time to start up, where you sit and stare at the screen. In the past it was possible to go on a mini-run (remeber ice devils?)to occupy your time. The ability to go out in a smaller group was removed (and maybe for good reason). Lords used to have great power when we wandered the low mort realms. There wasn's a mob we could not kill or gear we could not obtain. We kept ourselves busy by running a low mort, using our Lord spells to keep them pumped up. When I was a low mort, the coolest thing was a group member who had a Lord alt. This too has been removed (maybe for good reason). I believe the staff of avatar is truely dedicated, who else would do this for no reward. I read here constant complaints of players jailed and banned for no reason, but these are rumers and disgruntled players (perhaps punishment should be posted?. I log in and see changes to avatar, but the most important, when will the power removed from Lords be replaced in some way - when will something replace the idle time?

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Steve on Jul 6, 2004

Avatar is an addicting mud, not a great one like others claim. Over countless years I have seen the same players say "I'm retiring" or "I'm deleting" and they do. Within weeks their back again. Same with many who have been jailed. Once you devote time into Avatar it's hard to completly break away. Wether you come for the leveling or chatting it can be a blast. Now for the other half of the coin. Scroll back up, see the thing about Retiring, Deleting and Jailing? What is wrong with a mud that drives people to do such things? In many cases people move on, but as stated above, they really don't go far away. The fact is, there is nothing new to it. While it's supposedly trying to evolve constantly, it's going nowhere. The mud has been stagnant since the Lord Rebuild. Yes there have been new races, classes and skills implemented. But at a very high cost. One example of this was Ranger, the staff did not even try to bring it up to date or even do anything to make it mildly unique. They just killed it off. Over the past year or two the Sorcerer, Priest, Assassin and Archer classes have all been added and have gained all the focus. While the older classes have begun down the same path as ranger. One of the most blatent Cop Outs has been the remort process. Lords spent years gaining so many levels, the impossible finally became possible and people hit Lord Level 999. The promise of Legend became a possibility. But instead to take the focus off, you now can change to a different and somewhat unique class or race to occupy your time. But ultimately, when their are Lord Level 999 VSL ASN's there will be alot less excuses tolerated by the community. I could go on and on, but this is enough of a rant for now to satisfy me. Thanks for your time in reading this. You are welcomed in Avatar, just don't expect much. Oh and for any possible backlash, yes my name isn't revealed because I'm confident speaking out WOULD get me jailed.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by someone scorned on Jul 6, 2004

I've played avatar on and off for several years now. Like every other mud out there, the mud goes through changes or phases. Some good some bad. However Avatar seems to be on a steady decline which will soon phase itself out of the mud communitiy all together. As I will state why below. Avatar used to be one of the top muds in the mudding community. However with recent chagnes, lack of intrest by it's staff, it's been on a constant decline. Well here's the truth for the mud reguardless of what other reviews have been posted. Lets start off with the cold hard facts Avatar has 29 Immortals who are listed as supposedly active (with 1 exception). Along with a support staff of 16 so called "track memebers" who help with quests, web stuff, buildign areas, and new ideas. And an angel staff of 7 memebers who's primary role is to help new players become accustomed to the game. That's a total of 52 "Staff" Memebers who have some role in the game's development. There's an active player base of around maybe 200 different players with a peek number of players on at around 120. Average 80 players (60 players from a newbie point of view due to invisiblity). Now with a staff of 52 memebers, one would think there would be a lot more development. Most of the development lately seems to be in small forms of updated help files, new socials, and occasional nerfing and tweaking of current spells and skills. Now most will come back and say, "Check out www.outland.org/design" to see what's actually going on. Please do this. Look at the open tasks and close tasks list. Please read them carefully. Compare the two lists. You'll notice that most of the closed tasks are very minor stuff like socials and helpfiles and other miscleanous stuff that is not important. This is what this massive staff of 52 spends thier time on. Anything else on the closed task list is stuff that has minor effect on the players at all. Like echo messages from spells or not (stuff shouldn't even need fixing if coded properly). What most older players will contest do is the amount of empty promises by the staff. The major empty promise is the unvailing of the legend tier at Ubercon I (for those that don't know what this is, lets just say the date was Febuary 2003). Legend is still not imped yet. Not to mention that the sole coder of legend and owner of the mud is now using the excuse that player triggers is what's stopping development of legend. Since he can be quoted saying "I want to code for the players not a players mud client". To most mudders this is a lame excuse to prolong coding or an excuse to procrastination and laziness. On to player/staff friendlieness. On the most part the players are very friendly and are easy to get along with If don't... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by The unknown solider on Jul 6, 2004

First, read Cerdwyn's review here: http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/reviews/robboard.cgi?action=display&num=5689 Now normally, I would write a lengthy apology for Cerdwyn, explaing something about head trauma and age ;) *duck* Actually, Cerdwyn speaks for many of us on the staff and the players. AVATAR is more than just a bunch of code, areas and mobprogs. AVATAR is the players. Log in at any time, and you'll usually see about a hundred players. Some of them are grouped together in very private duos and trios, only grouping the people they count as friends. Other players are looking about for other people to group with. A few might be soloing some of the lowmort areas. But almost every one of them will stop and chat with you a bit. A joke here, a friendly tease there. Friends of mine in real life keep talking about Everquest, Ultima Online, etc. All the fancy-schmancy $$ graphical games, and how I just HAVE to try them. No thanks. AVATAR is all I need. AVATAR is home. Angel Kenji The Kzinti Angel

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Jul 5, 2004

I love reading reviews that tell you the good and the bad (in someone's opinion.) Because it tells me they care. Avatar is more than just a game. It's an online community that is almost 10 years old. Like any community, it changes over time. I've been a player at A.V.A.T.A.R. for 6 years now, and an immortal for only a few months, but the community that I watched grow and develop as a lord is ever so more visible now. Avatar is people, community. Avatar is home. Come join us.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Cerdwyn on Jul 5, 2004

First, a little background so you have some context for my opinions: I played a couple of other MUDs years ago, but didn't resume until December 2002, when I found Avatar while taking a break during a biochemistry final study marathon. I start medical school in the fall, which will obviously curtail my MUD hours, but also allows me to speak without fear of retribution. What are the imms going to do to me? Jail my characters while I'm studying for a Pharmacology final? I say all that because I want you, the reader, to know that this is an honest assessment of the MUD where I've spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of years. I'm not on the staff, nor (as far as I know) do I know any of them personally. My perspective is purely that of a player. What Crom said in his last post is a pretty good evaluation of Avatar. There are a lot of great people involved, both players and staff. There are a few jerks involved, both players and staff. Gameplay is fun, but there's a lot of room for improvement. Also, Avatar has experienced something of a rebirth over the last few months. There's a lot of coding going on, and while the staff has sometimes been criticized for "fixing stuff that ain't broke" while leaving the bigger tasks undone, the design/coding staff seems to be shifting more of its focus onto bigger things. Snikt himself has had an OBVIOUS rejuvenation in spirit (although I don't think you can blame someone for having a few lulls in excitement over a MUD they've been paying for/designing for almost a decade). He's very psyched over the prospect of a T1 and increasing player-counts via getting that giant monkey (Legend) off of Av's back. Crom has openly stated that he's offered to code it pending Snikt's approval. There is an IDEA command that allows everyone to send their creative input directly to Crom. His responses to each individual idea are posted on the design website and e-mailed to anyone subscribed to the Forum list. There are still great surprises, eg Devastant springing the assassin class on us a couple of months ago, so the creative process has a good balance of open-input/response and imm secrecy. Avatar's strength is its people. Like any other social environment, you will run into a jerk here and there, but overall most people will find a great group of friends in Avatar. While I do believe that grouping is a little TOO necessary at points in the game, ie when it stagnates individual players from time to time, it also plays to Avatar's main strength. I have been treated with great respect by the staff, not as a "mere" player as some have attested. They are very approachable, with few exceptions. In fact, if I had a criticism of the public face of the immortals, it would be that they should be a MORE... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Darkwolf on May 18, 2004

We've added a few more races (albeit more novelty than powerful) and a few more classes available for our remort system. We've continued to update helps, socials, poses, and added a few dozen skills and spells recently. There have been way too many additions within the past 2-4 months to list. See (http://www.outland.org/design for our Closed Tasks.) Although some changes have been negative, we have had significant gains in many areas and there seems to be a revitalization of AVATAR within the past 6 months. As our new Quest, Design, Builder, and soon to be created Web Staff develop more, expect to see even more enhancements in and outside the game of AVATAR. We continue to head the right direction and with 90-150 players online, there is no shortage of social life for those new players out there. We continue to develop and head towards a diverse and entertaining game. To forstall criticisms, I agree that we are not the best mud out there. We're trying to get better, however, and with our player driven idea system of design, we'll get there. Crom - Design Coordinator Avatar MUD

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Crom on Apr 27, 2004

Avatar is focused on grouping. Soloing is easy for the first few levels and then becomes harder until you're a buff hero. Soloing is not only virtually impossible but also outlawed in the lord tier. So, you need to be a somewhat social person or like challenges to enjoy this MUD. Many people do not seem to grasp this. If you don't like grouping, play another MUD! Also, Avatar is a family MUD and will not allow worse words than "darn" on public channels. This seems to be another thing some people can't understand. Again, if you need to curse, play another MUD! (I'd personally rather try to improve my vocabulary) In response to the guy who walks into walls (or was it talks?): As for feedback not being accepted.. heh, get real! Avatar has an idea command players are welcome to use. The output is sent weekly to one of the imms who goes through the whole list which consists of a few useful ideas, some mistyped identifies and lots of whining and then sends it all to the forum mailing list where subscribed players can see which ideas were approved and which ones weren't. Many of these ideas are along the lines of "give archers the vital shot skill rogues have, but give it another name" or "make very_good_spell_1 have the same duration as mediocre_spell_5" or "rename quickstrike to circle, because that's the name it has in all the stock muds". Basically, very unoriginal, pointless or give-me-something-for-nothing. It's not all that surprising that the imm in question sometimes doesn't want to type more than "no" in response to these. On to roleplaying.. I've mostly seen roleplaying used as an excuse for being a bully or tricking newbies into harm. Try roleplaying a good, or at least neutral person and you might get better results. Or if you go evil, remember that evil isn't a synonym for rude or a good excuse to break rules or harass people. I don't see many players roleplay at avatar, though, so if that's what you're seeking, you should probably look elsewhere. For the newbie trying to pick a first MUD: Don't worry if you don't like all the immortals. Just don't be rude to them and you will be fine. I SERIOUSLY doubt you'll ever find a MUD where you'll love them all, unless you run it yourself. I don't like all the imms at Avatar, I don't even like all the angels. I didn't like all the people in my high school class either. Did you? If you're looking for a newbie-friendly family hack'n slash MUD with custom questing/trivia events, go play Avatar. If you're looking for some twinkmud where you'll get godly powers at lvl 10, go away. :P Note: I currently play at 3 MUDs and have tried many else. Avatar isn't the first one I've tried so you can hardly claim my opinion is due to Avatar being the only MUD I've ever played at. 2:... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Aelmon on Feb 2, 2004

This mud is still in operation? I’m awe struck. The immortals must have you whimpering under their god-like grandeur . Do yourself a favor and delete and move on to bigger and better muds. This mud is nothing but an ignorant army of immortals, and constant let down. The policy here is balance. Unfortunately these justice scales only tip one way, and that is in favor of the arrogant staff. If something positive is add then it is balanced with something negative. If something negative is added, they don’t balance it with positive. In the end, the mud has turned into a justice system designed by Hitler, “Don’t like… tough shit”. This mud has an inverted leveling system. The bigger you get, the more worthless your character becomes. It is the main reason most on this mud stick to lower levels. Also in higher tiers, such as lord, count on overwhelmingly long battles that you are forced to group with several others, and after a good solid two hours of play expect little to zero xp and, most likely, negative xp. All that combined with twenty group members bitching, ten staff members mongering, and one raging headache lingering, you’ll log off irritable majority of the time. I’d say the plus sides on this mud but the down side is like an avalanche of turmoil. Ego balloted immortals, miss treatment, and pretty much the “I don’t care” syndrome plagues the entire mud. If your not jailed, banned, or harassed by time you hit lord you’ve already beaten the odds. I would also completely disregard the Avatar MUD description in the Database. It’s very old and outdated. The only HOGathons you’ll see on a regular basis are the players that camp gear all day. This mud is catered to the staff not the player. I’d almost compare this mud to a psychology experiment that exposed people to deprivation and misery. My evaluation is… they must love it. LOG OFF already, I promise there is much better, more dynamic, muds around. Time to jump ship cause this tugboat is sinking fast! The Mud Critic

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by The Mud Critic on Jan 22, 2004

I've played Avatar for quite a long time, probably since 97 sometime. I will not give my real player name here as it will usually be held against me for writing a review that doesn't make Avatar seem like the poster boy for Muds. Anyway with that said time to start reviewing From what is stated in the Mud Synopsis for Avatar, it's not all really true. When first logging on to avatar, you'll notice the average players online is roughly around 60. There may be more then this, but to a newbie who reads the synopsis here on TMC they'll be dissapointed cause many of the upper players are invisible. As for the world size, 20001 + rooms is not exactly true either. I can say I have played most levels of this game, and there is no way there is 20001+ rooms. Even though i've never counted them, I would guess there is roughly 8-11k rooms. As for role playing, they say it's encouraged, but after playing a while, roleplaying has a great tendency to get you in a lot of trouble. I've seen this happen with many players, luckily though, not myself. Multiclassing true, but not in how most people will define it. Basically after you reach hero level 101, as for a very few select spells per class, ever class gets all the spells. (Can't remeber the last time you've ever seen a giant warrior try and cast identify or burning hands). Characters no long have to be validated as it says they do. I later scrolled down to read the description and stopped after the first paragraph and though to myself "What lies". The staff has been quite known to wipe pfiles at a whim cause an imm might have a toothache or something, changes managment constantly (or at least keeps adding new managers and never getting rid of stagnant ones). The mud has become quite an uncomfortable social enviornment cause you always have to walk on eggshells around everyone to makesure your not becoming a high maintence player. As for a staff that dissapears (at least that's what i think they're trying to say) What staff. Log on there you'll be lucky to find more than two imms on at any given time even though thier wizlist shows close to 30+ imms. As for seeing 140 players on, will never happen for a player till they reach the final tier of Lord. Even though the description says their's legend and titan, they're non exsistant or not even player accessable. Now that I cleared up the avatar description posted, i'll move on to some other views. You'll read many of the reviews here and get a bunch of conflicting opinions, and i'm sure this review is part of them. But you'll notice most bad reviews are followed up by an Avatar staff memeber trying to refute everything in a bad review. I'm sure this one will probably get it from a staff at... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Walls that can Talk on Jan 21, 2004

This is my take. The subject of triggers... basically SOME triggers open the way for botting and spoils a lot of the risk/reward/adventure of the game. If you look at some of the things the imms have hinted at you'll see that it will requires an investment of time. If people use triggers to circumvent, then that aspect is lost. that is how i see it. i think there are plenty of alternatives to the triggers that were in use... i even have a longshot alias which stores direction/mob... works like a charm... as opposed to the auto-fire trigger of old. Coding: they have put in areas, races, skills, and such. coding still happens. they replaced stock areas as they are trying to make the game unique. Classes/Races: with all the possibilities open to you in a race/class/god combo... how can you say we all blur into one? they didn't give griffon, dragon, troll, sprite to lord. they basically said if you want these magical and powerful races, from now on you'll have to work hard and sacrifice to attain them. similar to demonseed, minotar, high-elf, etc... like they said, some long standing players didn't have sufficient interest in these races to create one when they were openly available. too bad for them. its not a boon for lords, if you really want one, plevel a gobo and remort... the 100xp difference between kob/gob isn't that big of a deal. imo, some things were nerf'd unjustly. to deter hard-core players from exploiting or abusing the system but it isn't to the point where those races/classes are useless. and the game holds plenty of interest, there are new addicts daily and enough incentive for old-timers to stick around. i mean why telnet to a game when you have instant messaging and e-mail? -Rubicant

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Rubicant on Jan 16, 2004

Well crom, i have to say i loved your notes, but really nothing there i didnt expect you not to say.. pretty predictable. Similar to this is the response to many of the Ideas that are posted on the design website. Avatar was is home to me, has been for many years, i have friends there, some long term, some only for a very short-term. Most of them, like me just log to talk these days and run rarely, why? because there isnt anything new, not really. When you read through the design ideas that eventually get posted onto the avatar design website, there are many feasibly good ideas, and ones which can be coded, but avatar seems to have fallen behind the times. And certainly other muds with their high standard of evolution like Aardwolf are bringing avatar into more and more disrepute. crom? imms? how do you explain the gaps in the lord lists? More and more of the older players are seeking muds elsewhere, it could be partially because promises of further levels and areas are 7 years old and counting, or it could as mary put it be because the lord community is the first punished when anything happens at any level, or it could be that snikt has stuck to his guns and said NO more coding because someone is using a trigger !!! i could have sworn i saw a player with a trigger... eeek.. gee triggers. Now i have never used triggers always relying on alias's in my client / mud to always keep a high standard of response in grouping etc etc and fighting .. but to state that triggers is the entire reason there is no new coding is pretty lame. I've been an imm/imp on other muds for the last 10 yrs, to put down an entire reason not to code on a very minor issue is pretty pathetic, if you have a problem coding perhaps it is because you no longer have the zest for it anymore, or because you arent listening to the players anymore. But dont blame a single miscellanous detail, triggers will always exist while a player has a client capable of it, and im sure that some of you imms angels etc have used and are using triggers, dont lay the blame on just the players.. however convienent that will be.. Coding as a whole hmm well, we are slowly getting in new areas, usually replacing the existing rare good equipment with severely downgraded items, but at least they are going in, However, an earlier arcticle was very correct, Dont expect to be able to solo much until you reach a point at hero lvl and can self spell or you just wish to die a lot. this is truly a grouping only mud, and soloers are consistently nerfed. An excellent example of this is when you reach Lord, btw, as pre mentioned, dont expect to get lord equipment easily, you have join... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Ratrace on Jan 16, 2004

I always find the large number of staff and actual immortals who respond to negative posts with the "inside" view instead of players responding with positive feedback. Maybe thats just me. An "inside view' does nothing to diminish the feelings of the playerbase to make them feel better and more secure that the mud is actually going somewhere. As a singular caution I would advise to be careful of harassment and rumours that do go far beyond the norm for what is acceptable as nothing is ever really done to fix the problem. Appeals allow people who are in flagrant violation of the rules back into the game with "lesser" punishments which are often dependent on how popular that person is with the immortal staff. Which having had this happen to myself, I can vouch for being true. It is a good game, with good races and decent classes - but stagnant. People have been promised the step above lord for 5 years and nothing is even close to being implemented but I'm sure I'll receive a review back stating that I'm "out of touch" and that the staff is working "very hard" on legend etc and that I need to "place some trust" in them and to not "assume nothing is being done just because I dont see it". Also on the triggers issue: why not simply make them illegal instead of using years of development which encouraged their use due to extreme repetitive gameplay at the lord tier. Instead of using them as an excuse for the continued development quagmire and limbo in which this mud sits. Anxiously awaiting responses telling me I'm wrong and that I dont know whats going on behind the scenes. Mel Gibson.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mel Gibson on Dec 30, 2003

I usually don't do this sort of thing but I would like to give you my review of Avatar. This april I celebrate my 10th year of mudding. All of those ten years I have spent on the MUD now known as Avatar. Why? Because it has grown dear to me. Because of the enormous work that both immortals and players put into it. I have been part of the Immortal team for a lot of years. I have seen people come and go. Good players, good immortals, bad players and bad immortals. I have seen changes that made me frown, I have seen changes that I cheered openly for. Ups and downs, times of joy and times of trouble. Basically I have seen it all happen. Yet always I remained because I lost my heart there.. On to the mud itself. There are great plans for the future, but we need people to help us build those plans. When the mud was started some 10+ years ago everyone was young and could pull an all nighter. Now we have lives that revolve around jobs and diapers. So we need more fresh young blood! In order to do that we have selected qualified people as dedicated staff members. This means they help develope the mud. There is a BUILDER team where 3 or 4 people try to come up with well written areas. Recently we have started a CODER team (which ofcourse is a delicate business so its progress is slow). We have a DESIGN staff which busies itself with collecting ideas from players and seeing if, how and when they can be implemented (so see, we DO listen!) and there is a QUEST team, which started just under three months ago and since then the number of quests has soared sky high, with many a prize to be won. I am the leader of this dedicated squad, and very happy with the way things are heading. We add the FUN to mudding..just ask about our recent holiday give-away. The track team members are all players who looked at the game and thought it could be improved upon and decided to step up and do something about it. As a result of the efforts of many of our builders over the years the mud is mostly filled with original areas. With other stock being replaced in the future. This might look like a loss to some (I know I cried a few times) but in all it makes for a unique game. We encourage grouping, to the point where the skills of races and classes compliment one another. Does this get frustrating at times? Sure. There are times when you find yourself without a group, because you don't fit what it is looking for. Ofcourse that is annoying. But there is always someone lower level than you who would love to have a big buddy for protection. Or just hop into another character and be the one leads... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kariya (Avatar Immortal) - Marco on Dec 25, 2003

First off I’d like to agree with Mary on her insight about the mud, Her words are true. I was an active member of Avatar for 3 years. In that time I was very successful with my characters and friends. I had a reputation both good and bad. For the most part, I was very helpful and creative. I didn’t break rules I made lots of friends and helped whenever and whoever I could. After 3 long years of devotion to the game and helping it along my character was jailed due to reasons the implementers would not tell to me. I was very saddened I had put so much effort into the game to find myself jailed and without reason. I even wrote several appeals and many others did on behalf as well, and after two plus months I still haven’t got the decency of a reply to why my char was jailed. Over the years on Avatar I’ve seen this happen countless times. Immortals code and we play. If we happen to find something that makes the game fun or TOO fun depending on the immortal, they all seem to have there own ideas on how the mud should be played, they will remove it or make it harder. If you are unlucky, they will jail or ban you. If you plan on making a long lasting character that you will enjoy over years to come without fear of losing it. Do not play this mud. It is in constant change and, for the most part, for the worse… or to make harder. The immortals demand respect and if questioned you do so at risk. Some of the player have been there for a long time and get away with lots of things. You can expect after you gain higher levels constant flaming by certain “clicks” in the mud. They abuse the mud and at no loss. Even when they lose their chars they will make new ones and continue. It is a hidden side of Avatar that everyone will experience. If you’re not the target you will see them openly target another and friends. It is very sad. Each player in my mind on any given mud is just as useful as the immortals it is what makes the mud work. Without players there is no mud. It is only unused code. I was really sad when I would see constant notes on treating imms with respect that did not deserve it. I’ve seen players and probably most of the players do more work in aiding that mud then any imm I’ve seen. One earns their respect by the way they carry them selves. I do not respect abusive and/or rude immortals. In short, Avatar is a never ending changing mud that has constantly recoded and changed the mechanics of the game and mostly for the worse. They have steered further and further away from the original “FUN” Avatar to a more conformed Avatar you... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riott, Mandiev! on Dec 20, 2003

The Imms are not secretive, they listen to input brought before them. It seems that you are just bitter about being banned or something. And Snikt did not force Lords to change their titles, a Lord suggested that we do it in order to show how we feel about an issue that is very important right now. Lastly, why should the general playerbase know whats being done behind the scenes? Surprises are always a good thing.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Quickbeam on Dec 19, 2003

Why, thank you for the kind words Crom. You are right in saying that you have "chosen to stay." But, then, your opinions are valued and welcomed as you are an immortal of the Avatar. I was an average player whose opinions were unwelcome and whose feedback was dismissed as trivial and unimportant, along with the same feedback from a great number of valuable players. I can understand, and respect, fixing a loop hole but I don't understand the need for immortals threatening tones on channels demanding that the lord community had better convince the lords in question to stop soloing.. or else. If the code is broken, fix it, make the announcement and be done with it but don't hold it over the lord community as a threat if they don't get their fellow players under control. That is what happened and that, IMHO, is wrong. But, again, I was just a player and had no right to an opinion on Snikt's MUD. Snikt may not be the only coder but he is the implementer of the MUD and, when he says coding has stopped, announces it on channels and tells lords to change their title or take the blame for the lack of coding.. that is a public statement from the imp of the MUD and, since everything the immortals do is secretive and done behind closed doors, with no imput from the general player base, it is the impression Snikt gives that lives on, not the actual work behind the scenes of which no one knows because, as mere players, it isn't our MUD or our business. Funds are donated, I agree. So, why not share how much is donated (it might spur players to donate more). Tell the players what the funds are being spent on instead of allowing the donations to fall into the black pit of secrecy in which the immortals dwell. There are no strings attached to player donations but it would be only common courtesy to have an ocassional update and, perhaps, a thank-you for the support but players don't see much gracious behavior on the part of the immortals. The rest of my note is pure opinion, my opinion. From a player who played the mud for six years, saw the degradation of a wonderful game, saw the power-tripping and secrecy employed by the immortal staff, saw an archangel (Felinda) drunk and foul on buddy channels and learned exactly how little respect the immortals have for the players who remain in vain hope that something will change. Unfortunately, the "good old days" are gone. The players of the past will never return and the immortals rule over a player base that lives in resignation that the pure joy of gaming is forever a thing of the past on Avatar. This will be my last review. You may take it for what it is worth. I am now leaving for brighter realms in the world of mudding. Mary Lynn

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mary Lynn Martin on Dec 19, 2003

I've been playing Avatar off and on for 7 years or so. The game is constantly evolving and new ideas are always incorporated into the game. It is quite challenging with lots of great players. The sheer size of the MUD always has something that you can do, in my 7 years I still have not been to some of the areas!! I recommend this MUD greatly, everything is fair and it is easy to get along with the more experienced players such as myself! By this point you should be connecting to the MUD! See you there! Happy hunting :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Quickbeam on Dec 18, 2003

In response to Mary's review...I must say that you rock, Mary!!! Just some points of clarification: 1. changing code is done to fix loopholes, and not to punish players. If code is suddenly changed when players are exploiting a loophole...that's the fix. 2. Snikt isn't the only coder and code and areas still continue to be added into the game. Although there are "many immortals", only a handful are actually builders and coders. 3. Funds are donated. They are small and few and have yet to recompensate for the cost of the server and the years of internet which paid for it to exist. We do not harrass people on a daily basis about donating nor do we really discuss it except on rare occasions. The game is free for all intents and purposes and sending money to Snikt should not come with strings attached. The mud has been up for almost a decade and much of the time and moeny was paid solely out of the pocket of Kevin(Snikt). The rest is pure opinion which is welcome from anybody. I disagree with some and even agree with others. I've chosen to stay and try to improve the game and you've chosen to rip it down. To each their own. :)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Crom on Dec 18, 2003

Depressing. That is the only word i can think of to describe this MUD. The channels are full of talk of the "good old days" and of popular players who were either jailed by the immortal staff or who left the game for a number of valid reasons. There counts are dropping so low that soon there will be more imms than players. Lag is always present. Somedays it is worse than others. The only way to fix the lag is to donate money to Snikt. So, players donate and the lag remains. There is no accounting for the amount of money donated. It is all a secret. You can ask how much was received and the answer is always "not enough." So, players blindly donate to the mud with no expectations of improvement in the connection or accounting for the amount of money received. Quoting an immortal who was questioned about the amount of money raised during the last few months, "That's none of your business." Imm notes are generously peppered with comment encouraging players to donate. While players are encouraged to donate to his MUD, Snikt has stopped coding the mud. He says it's because people use triggers. Most feel it's a convenient excuse to continue the status quo. There is an overwhelming number of immortals who are always haunting the halls of Avatar. If you say something private to a friend in a group that the imms consider off-color, you may get fooled and restored which leaves your hp/mana/moves all at 0. There is no warning, no explanation just punishment. No two imms will interpret the rules in the same way. One imm may have no problem with an action but another will log on and smite you for the exact same behavior. It's all up for interpretation and my god are there a lot of imms. The day I decided to leave the imms were monopolizing conversation on hero and lord. They bait the players and then punish them when they get a reaction. It seems to me they could be coding new areas, improving the god-awful worship system or working on legend rather than spending their time baiting players and then punishing them. But, I guess, that is just my humble opinion. On many muds, the imms are approachable and really care about what the players think. At Avatar, it's just the opposite. Players are to play and offer no criticism or feedback. Some players have been denied or jailed for offering an opinion that differed from the immortals or for being what they call "high maintenance." You can interpret that as daring to have an opinion and exploring every aspect of the game. Players are also punished for the shoddy work of the coders. Some lords discovered they could duo or solo various lord mobs. The imms don't want soloing or duoing lords so, rather than fix their shoddy code, they threatened the entire lord community with an increase in shield which... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mary Lynn Martin on Dec 17, 2003

I've been mudding since 1991. I've played a fair number of muds. I've played Avatar since 1995, I've been on the imm staff since 2001. I consider myself very much a player - I actively play almost every day. I've just read Tlo's review. I disagree with many parts, but we are both entitled to our opinions. In fact what makes a mud such an enjoyable environment in which to spend time are the diverse people you find inhabiting them. His comments on gameplay are his opinions, they don't require comment from me. Avatar is 'an environment of hostility and greed' he tells the reader. It is? I wish I'd known sooner, it must have slipped my notice during the past eight years. Luckily, thanks to Tlo, I am now wiser. He states authoritatively that the mud is 'designed for the pleasure of the immortal staff'. That sentence is mostly true, though you might want to substitute 'by' in place of 'for the pleasure of'. Tlo ends his post with a warning that an imm will write and refute his post, but helpfully reminds you all that we are biased as a result of getting enormous perks. Hmmm, I could deny that, but who would believe me in the face of such overwhelming evidence from Tlo? In fact by my mere act of commenting on his post, I have of course proven his point, haven't I? Let me think... A fortnight ago, I spent in the region of 30 hours over the course of a week (and I work full-time) designing and writing from scratch a full blown quest area, which kept almost 60 players entertained for close to three hours. The enormous perks I received for spending what was almost a whole week of my leisure time? Nothing. In fact I am lying to you, I did get something, I got the flu during the week, but I didn't want to let the players down, so I persevered despite feeling grim and was richly rewarded by the players in the form of thanks, the best reward of all. Thanks to Tlo I now realise the error of my ways - instead of working on the quest, I should have been twinking the gear of my alts and giving them private hogs. Darn it, looks like I've wasted the best part of two years already not knowing the true perks of being an imm on a mud. Give me a break... I suppose I should add my own disclaimer to this waffle. These are my views, not necessarily those of the imm staff. --Jaron

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Jaron on Nov 10, 2003

I played Avatar and, unlike others who say it is the only MUD they have ever played, I have played other muds as well. I have to say, Avatar pales in comparison to other MUDs I currently play. Newbies do get help, there is a mudschool, there are angels (not enough imho) and there are higher level players who will help newbies but, once you get to about level 20, unless you have a lot of friends or are willing to sit on "who group" for weeks on end, expect to spend a considerable amount of time working your way to hero. The immortal staff of Avatar feels that grouping is what Mudding is all about. They shove grouping down your throat by nerfimg any class/race combinations that seem to be especially adept at soloing. Thieves became rogues and then rogue backstab was nerfed. Rather than increasing skills or spells on other classes to match the backstab of rogues, they nerf the powerful classes and have little patience with those who feel they have a right to offer input because they are "only players." The comment that "Crom is an senior immortal and deserving of respect" is a typical attitude on Avatar. The imms angels and archangels can do no wrong, will be respected and you dare not offer any criticism of these all powerful beings. Notice they even demand respect for their immortals on a public site? If you don't agree with a decision and have the audacity to say so, you can expect harsh and immediate retribution. The upper tiers of leveling on Avatar are, in short, boring. The same runs for 999 levels and, while they advertise "Multiclassing Allowed" this is not the case. You are one class, for 50 levels of low mort, 999 levels of hero and 999 levels of lord. You do not have an opportunity to multiclass. You can remort to another race but you will play the same class with a higher tnl or some other inconvenient features for another 50 levels of lowmort, 999 levels of hero.. you get the idea. Once you hit lord, there are only a few areas in which you can run. You will run the same runs for the entire 999 levels of lord. You will deal with an unfair lotto system trying to win gear and you will have to deal with egos and attitudes of players who have grown accustomed to the gear-based atmosphere of Avatar. The HoGs are seldom made available to the lords and cause such immense lag that it is nearly impossible to gain any levels unless you are an angel or immortal alt who will get enourmous perks on another day when an enourmous number of levels will magically appear on any number of alts of these players. This MUD is designed for the pleasure of the immortal staff. Respect them at all costs, don't say anthing that can be interpreted as disrespectful about them or their on... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by tlo on Nov 10, 2003

Coupla of things i find wrong with this mud. First off the last 7 years spent waiting for new evolutions of levels, ie. legend and titans, to arrive, the players seem to be on a longer waiting list than an NHS hospital.Reasoning each passing year was that imms moved on, Secondly Everytime a 'new' class is submitted and appears to be implemented, there is a shut down and the class vanishes, hence rangers/ sages etc seemed to have been removed again..but their skills linger in the listings, a brief reminder of days promised. Thirdly, too much common skills and not enough class differentiation, really u can be any class and gain practically everything when u hero, there needs to be a ton more different skills between the classes. AND fourthly, the inane addition of weaker and weaker remort classes, whilst making the existing 'decent' classes Lord remort only.. However, avatar does have its moments, all is not lost ... yet But the pbase is seemingly going down each passing down ..

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Ratrace on Oct 23, 2003

yeah, and how many years has the lord tier been waiting for legend now? it was 7 at last count..good going on the unique development, guys! rofl

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Niurou on Oct 23, 2003

14,000 players?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.. You guys crack me up.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Vernok on Oct 23, 2003

This mud is totally amazing! The helpers are friendly, the codebase is constantly updated and evolving. You will never find a better mud out there!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by me on Oct 1, 2003

It's been sometime since I submitted my first review (see 07/01/02 in review list for Avatar). Over a year down the line and have I changed my opinion of the game? The short answer is no. Avatar still remains one of the best muds around and I am still playing regularly. Since my last review I have made the transition to Lord, providing me with a whole new set of challenges and providing a fresh outlook. Old stock areas are still being replaced with new custom areas and the development of the game continues with many new features added when the immortals are able to spend time on the code. The main website has been updated with a 'Design' area showing the tasks currently on the list for review. Avatar is still one of the most 'newbie' friendly muds with the 'Mudschool' providing decent instruction to new mudders. The atmosphere is, friendly, positive and helpful. If you want to try your hand at mudding for the first time then Avatar is the first place to go. As you begin to move through the massive game and face its challenges you will probably find that going elsewhere will be the last thing on your mind.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by DarkWraith on Sep 23, 2003

It pains me to think that someone could blame a fantasy computer game that is there to add some fun and pleasure into ones moments for there unfortunate circumstances. I believe you should be able to make friends in almost any forum however with all friendships comes the chance of being hurt. A wiseman once said your worst enemy comes with a smile and its obvious to me that you have had many smiles because of Avatar. I have also and understand that there are the good and bad however I agree with Honoria here. You should limit your IRL as if you were on a personal site and such. I came into this MUD because of IRL friends however now I love being able to log on when I can. It kinda reminds me of Norm from Cheers. Anyways, dont blame the MUD obviously it helped you to get through some difficult times.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Lilone on Sep 9, 2003

I have no idea what incident or player Richard is refering to in the previous review. I do know that the Imms have regularly sent out the standard warnings about being careful of irl contacts with other players. IRL problems with other players are completely beyond the ability of the administration of this or any other mud. Avatar meanwhile remains a dynamic, growing mud with new areas, races and challenges. It is still a place I can find fun and adventure and strictly on-line friendships. Honoria, an Angel of Avatar

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Honoria on Sep 8, 2003

Been with this MUD for 6 years now, and it still continues to grow constantly, with new features being added all the time. It's fun for the whole family.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by KanKeishi on Jul 12, 2003

Well, then I just read all these reviews(that aren't stored away in archives, i don't have the time to read all of those) I have a few things to say. As for everyone saying Crom this and Crom that - Crom didn't like my idea, and Crom doesn't want me to talk about what HE made and implemented in this game. I just look for a 2x4 and attempt to smack you repeatedly. As someone said before - HE IS A SENIOR IMMORTAL...In other words, he has worked HARDER and LONGER than Anyone who is out their complaining. I have a request - Those of you putting out bad reviews - I don't mind if you do, by all means, but before you do, find out ALL of the details. Second, as per Worship, and other great ideas. Why say it is a bad idea? Someone tell me the difference from before worship, and not worshipping(it IS your choice) now? I see none. I do see worshipping adding bonuses to your character making him/her just a little bit better. Also loss of stats from death. Who has EVER played AD&D? What happens when you are reserected? You loose 1 point of Constitution(if you have never played using that rule, then you have a nice DM) But you CAN get the stats BACK after death in Avatar, but not in AD&D. But nobody complains to the creators of D&D, so they are fine. Lets see, what else. Oh yea - Today, someone helped me(being that i was a smaller character, and they figured me as a Newbie) told me that another God, other than who I chose to worship was better for my class. So i decided to delete, rather than unworship(which is a Definate possibility, you can do it at any time, provided you have enough practice points to do so) I had just spent an hour fletching steel bolts for my archer, and had 1,188 bolts. just before i ran, someone told me. I typed 'Who Arc' and found an archer around my level, went up to them(randomly) and said here take these. Gave them over 1000 bolts(which cost 350+ per 25) and the best crossbow they could wield at the time(and a pointer on soloing) A few days ago a random hero sent me a tell saying do you need any help, i had 2-3 people helping me get gear. Newbie friendly? Yes. I think so. I helped 4 people in 4 days fully equip themselves, and i was STILL a lvl 15 lowmort. out of all the levels, i was bottom 2%, yet i still found a way to help them. I'm sorry people aren't always 100% ready to drop everything they are doing to help a new player, but for the most part, i am pleased with this game I have been playing for over 6 years, now. This is the ONLY Mud I play. I have tried others, but I prefer Avatar. because... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kelrin on Jul 5, 2003

Ahh.. I love postings taken out of context. Amisme, you seem to have misunderstood the message I posted previously. In that message, now since purged, I spoke about the changes that the immortal staff at Avatar are constantly implementing. I spoke about how "in the past, a group was typically a few warriors or rogues for damage and a cleric for hitting. But now, things are changing." If you recall, early 2002 was when the staff started rolling out the changes that encouraged group diversity. Experience point bonuses for a group that incorporated more than 2 or 3 classes, larger group limits, bonuses to damage that mages or psions could do. Amisme, if you have a bone to pick with Avatar, fine. But please, do not take my statements out of context in order to make a point. I have made several posts in the past showing how much I love Avatar, and the changes that the immortal staff have made. I have not been thrilled with all of them, but when I look at the "big picture," this is the reason that I have chosen Avatar as my on-line home.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Shalineth on May 21, 2003

replying to that whole class bashing thing last posted, u can get groups if ur not war rog or arc,easily even,mages are pretty good hitters,psi's are less popular but still can get groups,monks are great tanks,rogues are great tanks,mages are excellent tanks (yeah,try it!). I group everybody that asks me to join, whenever i feel like tanking that is, and i would think it mean of ppl not to group a mage or a psi or whatever, i only had a few incidents of people not accepting a mage to join and i left those groups because of that, you see most of the people on the mud are nice accepting people.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by aeneas on May 21, 2003

If you're interested in Avatar, I would recommend that you go and read Shalineth's review, second from the bottom of the review list as of now. Note this part: "All too often, an entire group would be 3 Warriors, a Rogue (maybe) and Cleric to heal the 'Tank'..." They've taken steps to change that, but in over a year since that post was made, Avatar is still like that. If you want a powerful character, make a rog or a war. If you want to be the best hitter but don't mind being a second-rate tank, be an archer. If you want to be a good tank but don't mind being a second-rate hitter, be a monk. If you don't care if your character is weak, play any other class. They did put in some changes to help this, and it's taken them a long way, but they still have a long ways more to go. When I made my character, a year and a half ago, warrior and rogue were the only classes that weren't marked as hard to play. (Archers hadn't been put in at that time, fyi.) This doesn't mean that other classes are more complex but still as powerful, it doesn't mean that they have a weak point that counters a strong point, it doesn't mean that rogues and warriors are easier to start and then things balance out. It means that rogues and warriors will always be more powerful, and people will be reluctant to group anything that isn't a rogue, warrior, or archer. If you like that in a mud, Avatar is great for you. A lot of people seem very happy with it. I wish I would have known about this before I put so much time into Avatar. There's a lot of important things about Avatar that I didn't find out for some time, and I think it's nice to make information like that available to new players.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by amisme on May 16, 2003

I have searched for a MUD that encompasses all aspects of MUDding life. Avatar is that MUD. Extremely newbie friendly, an excellent tiering system, helpful staff members (especially the angels who watch from on high), and scores of informative players make this MUD tops in a world full of MU*'s. Personal experience (1650 levels worth on 1 char) has given me a very broad base of judgement and despite the flaming/whining from others I would recommend anyone to try Avatar out. 20+ levels is really needed to get a good overview of how the MUD operates. The pro-group orientation offers scores of chances for socialization just at the lowmort levels and also gives players real insight into the different roles people take in a group. All in all, Avatar gives each and every player a chance, they just have to step up to the challenge and take it. (my 2 cents for what its worth)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Mringasa on May 14, 2003

oh my god! i can't believe the amount of WHINERS HERE!!! man,responding to 50% of the posts: if u want a group, don't just sit there like the passive ape you are and ask around,ask on chat,herochat,any chat! if u can't get a group, TANK! run your own group! make other ppl happy for crying out loud, if i want a group and i can't get one,what do i do,i start my own group, and then this about " ppl who lvl cus they have friends ". i think everybody has a few friends who help them out when they can't lvl,and if u don't, there are plenty of nice ppl out there who will help you! E.g.: i didn't really know Terry at all, i met him doing a cr on somebody (yeah,how unfriendly are we ay!) and he gave me a b12-8 ice ring and he lvl'd me, idunno but if thats not friendly,i don't know! the other day i got an unfortunate person all his gear back and asked a friend of mine to enchant it without knowing that person,all i'm trying to say is, this mud is great,you get to know great ppl. if i would be asked to join the "lacking and incompetent unexisting staff" i'd say yes in half a second! (ofcourse i'm not a brilliant coder,but still..) so i encourage you to play this mud,and stop whining!!! thank you for reading this ;) :) -aeneas

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Aeneas on May 7, 2003

I personally think Avatar is great, and the whiny little people that posted bad reviews should shut up. most of you still play avatar anyway! Well, the only suggestion i have is that there should be a few more quests, and with better rewards, like experience for one. or quests that give a permanent ability increase. if you have max trainable str 20 is kinda sucks you can only ever get 23 str (or 24 for a war) it's so deffinate. maybe implement a quest that gives a permanent point of str. i would also like to see more races, they dont have to be extremely different from those already there. i just think it would be cool, like frog people with racial swim *like lizardmen wich should just be permanent water breathing, or like gar flying runs out after a while* and scorpionfolk like centaurs that have a racial tail atack that can poison. well gtg, the schoolbell rang, so i guess i have to cut it short, bye!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by ..... on Mar 30, 2003

Regardless of your devotion to the game, or your viewpoint regarding response to player input, you must face the facts. The code staff is practically nonexistant and development is certainly lacking. Reasons for this may vary, and may be entirely valid, but the mud has a recurring history of such lapses. Recently, an increase in their frequency and duration has been apparent. Without a dedicated staff and a vision for the future, the game is destined to stagnate and decline. If you're a player who thrives on new developments, skills and spells, code snippets that add to gameplay value, and is appreciative of an active, growing, changing, healthy mud, Avatar is not for you.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Disgruntled Mudder on Mar 25, 2003

I'd like to respond to Disgruntled Mudder. I'm not sure if you are on our forum mailing list, but if you were, you would have seen the email that came out from Snikt (head Imm) a couple weeks ago. In the email, Snikt cited several reasons why the Legend tier and the newly revamped Ranger class were not implemented on schedule. I will cite a few reasons, just for clarification. 1. Ubercon - A business venture that many of our Imm staff took part in. While it went well, it was not the multi-million dollar bonanza that I wildly dreamed. 2. Personal Reasons - Like any father, Snikt's family comes first. Ask him, if you wish further clarification. 3. Moving - Snikt moved to another house, and relocated the server along with it. Also, this resulted in a change in ISP, which costs money, along with the hookup, etc. 4. Staff issues - There _is_ a shortage of staff. No secret here. Finding good, dependable, volunteer staff is difficult, and Snikt is not willing to compromise his standards to hire substandard coders. I could go on and on. As for Rangers, one of the big reasons that this was delayed is because of player input. Several details about Rangers were put out to the playerbase, and after their review, they decided that the new class didn't sound very 'Ranger-ish.' So, there is a movement underway to change this class. I don't have more specific details than that. Suffice to say, this is a good example of the staff that _does_ respond to player input. It's amazing. If you work to please some of the players, another group whines. If you try to please the latter, the first group is upset. Please try to consider that this entire game is run by volunteers, from the Head Imm down to the very Angel writing this review. We do it because we love this game, and I like to think that my devotion is evident. I encourage you to email me directly if you feel otherwise. angel_kenji1@yahoo.com. -Angel Kenji.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Mar 25, 2003

This mud is stagnant. For months, and months, the players were promised the release of the legend tier, and a class revamp. The deadline was over a month ago, and there are no signs of development. This sort of behaviour is typical. The code staff is nearly inactive. There are one or two active coders and the remainder of the staff are few and far between.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Disgruntled Mudder on Mar 25, 2003

The reason why the mud is lagging is because Snikt moved recently, and hasn't been able to get a better connection up. Less players have been running because of the lag.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Moiraine on Mar 14, 2003

Hmm what to say. This game has lag up the ***. You stay on who group at hero and low mort for hours while buffoons like certain people like Trail. Sorry for flaming or whatever but he is like some people who only level because of who they know while others dont get levels for years. WHile I like others dont get groups. I cataloged how many hours I was on who group this week and it was 40 out of the 48 hours I played this week. oH I dont play now decided that today and have been voting for the ones higher than avatar.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Jean on Mar 13, 2003

This is a friendly, family orientated mud and I have several hundred hours in here already. After what I consider a good enough run to make a balanced opinion, here's my thoughts: It is a great MUD spoiled by a few annoyances and the odd draconion 'IMM'. Read on! If you can get a balanced group you can have hours of fun, but overall the game is heavily unbalanced towards groups and pointedly towards hitters as you advance in levels. Unless you are a Dragon (a class has effectively been removed*) there is little chance of soloing any significant number of levels. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, outside of fixed ranges of about 5 levels you get no experience awarded. Put into perspective, despite a mass of protective spells, healing potions and offensive weapons and spells, mobs 15, even 50+ levels lower can slaughter you as a cleric. IF you win, you get 0 XP because you are too powerful for it, if you lose kiss goodbye to all the worked since you levelled. A tad frustrating, no. * For instance, to get even the chance of a Dragon you now need to get at least 750 levels (easily over 1,000 hours input). Then you get a percentage chance of succeeding to start all over again at level 2 as a Dragon. If you fail, I believe you have to wait several hundred levels before trying again. If you keeping failing. you conceivably end up back on square one with nothing! Similar rules exist for other races and for the Sorcerer class. I have heard the IMM's reasons, largely to do with game balance, but it doesn't mean I have to like it or even agree. Given a Human needs 1,000 XP to level and a Dragon 10,000 XP I would have thought that deterrent enough. Remort at Hero, yep that'd be reasonable. But to face 50 canon fodder levels to reach Hero, up to a thousand Hero levels to become a Lord and then 200 Lord levels before you can try for one? And you can still fail... ! Overall, I genuinely like this MUD, but if like me you like at least have the option to explore solo, perhaps it's not for you. Lag in the evening (GMT) is a *major* turn off too, but this is only since moving the server. I can assume this will be ironed out in time. In the end analysis though, I am still mudding with Avatar, though at times I find it frustrating and unplayable to say the least! Another factor that turned me off is the worshipping element to the game. As a newby at level ten you get a startling message saying you can now worship and are pointed to the help files. They are obscure to say the least and give no indication of the true effects of worshipping, many of which are negative and deliberately hide the cost to stop worshipping! In you... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Paul on Mar 4, 2003

Hey what are you all saying? Dale and Jon? not newbie friendly??? man,were u online during a blackout?? everytime i ask something i get a heap of responses. Ok,sometimes less then others but when that happens u can check out the humongous help files,just type help a-z and u'll see the library! i'm not some 'pro player trying to boost up the playerbase' here,heck i only have one hero and a lvl 45er. just thinking that u should play it a while longer before judging it on a few hours play and a tad of lowness on groups!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Aeneas on Feb 9, 2003

I have never found a MUD I could get into before Avatar came around. It is fun and full of kind Angels and Immortals who can help you on your way.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by James aka Nament on Feb 8, 2003

Avatar, full of more interesting and active people then any other MU* I have ever visited, with friendly staff and helpers(angels). After spending years not mudding I went surfing about looking for reviews and highlights for the type of mud I was already experienced with.(DIKU) I managed to find quite a few of them, many were lacking in the social aspect that made the experience so wonderful for me when I was 1st introduced to them. But AVATAR..Damn, they had swarms of people running about answering most questions, helping friendly people learn more advanced ways to play and generally keeping people who died in horrible ways from loosing their corpses to decay. Add to this the controlled PK environment of arena battles with no loss and any beginner would be quite at home here. Don't get me wrong, I like a good fight, a heavy challenge and a crazy skill/spell system to learn just as much as the next lunatic MU*'er does. After finding out about how to access the list of skills for hero, I was hooked! I just had to get me one of them! Putting aside my doubts, I decided to create a few characters of different sterotypes...A Dragon warrior, A sprite mage, A human thief and a Kzinti(catlike humanoid) Monk. I found that I enjoyed the game so much that I created more and more characters to get the full experience of what was available from AVATAR. Now after over 4 years, I have to admit giving up most hobbies for time on AVATAR, I have seen changes made to the characters I love, some I immediately embraced and others still I find no pleasure in to this day...But when I find some great people to run with that are truely abundant here at AVATAR, I tend to forget all about it and have fun again. I Strongly encourage anyone who likes a bit of hack and slash in a highly social environment to stop in to AVATAR and check it out. You won't regret it, unless you value your spare time too much!!! *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Tatilonas on Feb 7, 2003

Hello. I have been reading some comments about this mud now and i must say that so many are negative which i find a little hard to believe. Not that whis mud doesnt have its drawbacks but most of the time it is fun and entertaining and way better than the place 21 that it now has on this list. I saw that someone was complaining about not getting help on the newbie chat (nchat) but i have found that most of the time it is the other way around if someone asks something they are almost flooded with answeers and you shouldnt write something like this wothout mentioning the help files which most of the time contain all the help you really need, the only problem is to find the right one from time to time but then it is just to ask. Someone else said that it is hard to get a group, and it is most of the time but if they just are active and get "mud-friends" then it isnt all that hard to get one, i myself have grouped with the same people for around 80%. Couse as you clearly understand are people more willing to group with you if they know you. Then finally i have to say that the angels in this game is what makes a differens, people that have stopped playing to simply help people and genarally being helpful. PS. If nothing else works you can always mess with people on the chat channel, which i personally think should contain random talk to each other but some people think that it is _only_ to be used to talk mud and nothing bothers these people more than someone talking non mud related things on the chat channel. DS.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Vidstige on Jan 26, 2003

Hi Dale, First off, I'd like to start by saying that I do not bash well-written, objective and constructive reviews of Avatar. Avatar MUD is not perfect, nor does any member of the staff claim it is. There are drawbacks to Avatar, and no one claims otherwise. I do, on occasion, bash the spiteful, conceited and beligerent few who use this forum to slander a game that many people have put a great deal of effort into. That said, I would like to comment on your review. Please don't assume that just because I am an Angel I have no clue what the low mortal levels are like. I do. On quite a few occassions, I create a low mortal character just to see how the other players and staff interact. Oftentimes, I act like a 'clueless newbie' who is having his first introduction to a MUD. During these respites, no one knows I am an Angel in disguise. Even the Imms. (unless of course, they are trying to track my IP.) Now, as for getting groups and gaining levels in the higher levels of mortal life. I agree, sometimes it is tough. You do require the assitance of a group. I have been able to solo the game up to about level 25 or 30, but after that, I need to group in order to continue to progress. That's what Avatar is all about. It's a social game. If you are looking for a power leveling mud, please look elsewhere. While I admit that there are often high heroes or lords who will plevel their friends, this is rare, and in my opinion, frowned upon. As for finding groups, if you can not sit on the WHO GROUP list and find a group, there are other alternatives. You said you have both a Warrior and a Rogue alt. Both make excellent tanks (group leaders). Lead your own group! Give it a try. How do you know that you can't tank if you havent tried? Far too often, I see someone on the Chat channel complaining about not being able to find a group. My response is standard; 'try leading a group yourself.' To paraphrase, "Snikt helps those who help themselves." Please feel free to respond to me personally at the above email address (link) or via tells/notes on Avatar. Thanks for reading this lengthy response.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Jan 20, 2003

Oh forgot to say it is really wrong that some staff, angel, or high players bash another review because they havent had those experiences. Some views are biased because they have played the game for awhile while others are new voices that see the underbelly of the game. P.S. It is kind of sad when you see a mud go off of the highest list but maybe that shows how people really believe because if there are over 100 players online and over 14,000 players in all then why are we #21 when I see over 100 players on the game atm lol. Well have fun

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Dale on Jan 20, 2003

Heya I have been playing avatar for awhile cant really remember how long I have been. I say play this game and to not play this game at the same time. The info on this game isnt fully correct. It is only newbie friendly during certain times of the day like groups. I have sometime been online trying to get groups for 5+++ HOURS and no groups. You might say I am just sitting around but no I ask the other people on who group and they dont group usually or something like that. Others might say maybe you have the wrong character but I have a cleric a rog and a war and a psion so pretty much have all bases covered and still will wait hours not getting groups. IT is almost impossible to solo at higher levels so unless you know a high hero that can plevel you or buy your way a person could be standing around for hours. Now play this game if you do not listen to imms or fight against any other players. Also another good thing is to have many other things to do when you go play because you will be just sitting online for hours doing nothing if you dont do something else.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Dale on Jan 20, 2003

Jon, I'm sorry to see that you had a negative experience on Avatar. Let me assure you, yours is the exception, not the norm. Most new players enjoy their time on Avatar, and judging from how long Avatar has been around, and how many of our existing lords and heroes (not to mention the Immortals) have been playing, they enjoy the time here too. You mentioned our Mudschool. I'm glad to see that you spent a bit of time there and thought highly of it. It was designed by one of our Immortals who happens to be an educator in real life. It is a great example of how we try to welcome new players, as it introduces brand new mudders to mud commands in general, and experienced mudders to Avatar commands specifically. I'm sad to see that you did not get a response when you were NCHATing for assistance. If our playerbase can be accused of anything, I would not think indifference is one of them. If anything, our playerbase is usually _overly_ helpful, where a new player asks one question and gets 10 responses! I wasn't logged on at the time that you were, and didn't see what was happening. There may have been an auction going on. There may have been a big group death that the players were massing to rescue. Who knows? What I do know, is Avatar is one of the few muds that has created an entire class of experienced players to assist others. (The Angel class, of which I am part). Our sole purpose is to help new players and introduce them to Avatar. I do know that Avatar has one of the largest HELP FILE libraries available. Don't believe me? Check out the site at http://www.outland.org/helps/mortal/ And those are just the Mortal helpfiles. There are hundreds more for Heroes and Lords. And, to be honest, the playerbase at Avatar is one of the most helpful and honest groups out there. Sure, there are a few players that will make jokes, snicker, and even berate a new player. However, our Immortal staff has established rules that this is not the standard, and any player who is observed flaming, berating or otherwise harrassing a new player will be dealt with appropriately. ( I have seen a player lose a hero-level character for repeated beratement of new players.) All in all, I think Avatar is one of the best MU*s out there for new players. Avatar is definitely not a mud designed for 'power leveling' And as for skills and stats both drawing off of the same pool of 'practice points,' well, you and I both know that you are not going to love EVERY aspect of the game. Most players really enjoy that part of Avatar, as it makes leveling much simpler. Again Jon, Im sorry you had a negative experience with Avatar. I hope you give us another chance. I hope you log on during a time that I present.... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Angel Kenji on Sep 2, 2002

As usual, long time players submit pro reviews to pump up the player base. Well, this isnt one. I've MU*ded pretty much everything from Circle to Godwars to Custom stuff that you wouldnt know what it orginated from. Though all different, they all had one idea that was common - be newbie friendly. Avatar, in my little time there, wasnt. With over 100 people on, only myself and another newbie seems to be listening to the newbie channel. Questions were asked over this channel (as one normally does over a noob channel in any MU*) and no answers were given. Chat was filled with how to make money off newbies, etc..you know, general MU* chatter. I was taught that if you cant at least say ONE good thing about someone, dont say anything at all so i will point out a few positives..the newbie area was refreshing from the same old "Midgaard Newbie Academy" that almost every code has, you do start out with some equipment (which some MU*s including RP enfirced dont do) and the help files are decent. Mobs seemed varied in the academy which is better than the same old "aggressive/shy monster stands here and growls at you!" type mobs we all have seen and dispatched. One negative sidenote though, skills and trains. I personally ddidnt like the idea that trains and Practices were using the same sessions. IMO both should be seperate. If staff feels that there could be Stat abuse, just tweak the trains gained per level down a tad. Must be easy to code since a majority of MU*s go that route. Though the listing says "Character Validation" there is a loophole by simply saying you're an expierenced MU*der at character creation. The other newbie was awaiting validation (and asking over the Newbie Channel which no one was listening to) where as I started out at level 2. Where it says in their listing "We offer what is possibly the most friendly and helpful newbie guidance on the 'net"..heh..i;ve seen friendlier newbie "guidance" on small MU*s when the Imms were going through bad hair days. Maybe if you're into powerMU*ding and got tired of say Aardwolf, then maybe this is for you, BUT if you're totaly new to MU*ding, try somewhere else to get the feel of playing a MU* and then come to Avatar if you get really bored.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Jon on Sep 1, 2002

this game is very user friendly and people friendly... very newbie friendly and has great lvl areas it also will take the time to help u understand the game and talk to u about it i recommend u try this game at least once...

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by proto on Jul 15, 2002

*blink* You'll have to forgive me. I just finished reading all these reviews, and now my eyes are sore. *blink* I have been playing Avatar off and on for what? 5 years now? I remember a while ago there was a note posted about this top mud sites thing and how we should all vote for avatar, and I thought to myself, Self? Why don't you go check this page out? So I did. *blink* After reading these reviews, I have quite a few comments. First of all, if you want to try this mud, do it. Don't let anyone else dictate which mud you should or shouldn't try. I mean really. Come on now. Secondly, I happen to like Avatar. Yes, there have been lots of changes. Yes, some of them have been bad. But some have been good, as well. The new newbie goo area is a personal favorite of mine, as well as chaos channel, the next best thing to sliced bread. *blink* I'm a mage. Nilmit was my first character. She's the only character that I've had this long. Mages are hard. That's why it has not one but TWO **'s in front of it when you create your character. And the nice little disclaimer that says ** mean's it's a hard class to play? Yeah. Don't play one of those if you're a new player, or if you are a whiner. Choose an easier class. Like warrior, or any of the others that doesn't have any stars in front of it. As for all you people who are interacting with these imms who are supposedly evil horrid creatures, I want to know what you did to make the immortals notice you. I mean, how long have I been playing now? And I've spoken directly to an immortal twice. Once because I was getting married, and she was performing the ceremony. The other time, there was a mixup with my ip address and it was thought that I might be multi-playing (which, for you newbies, is against the rules. There are quite a few disclaimers about that, too. And conveniently, right before you log on EVERY TIME, and during character creation. It's also in HELP RULES). Both times, the imms were very nice. Even the one who thought I was breaking the rules. He sat down with me and asked me questions, and when it was discovered that I wasn't multi-playing, he apologized and sent me on my way. No screaming, no growing of horns, no banning me for talking, none of that. The way you people talk, I'm almost hurt that I haven't been noticed. *smirk* Anyway, back to you newbies thinking about playing this game. Do so. If you don't like it, then you can stop playing, but if you don't try it, you'll never know. It's really as simple as that. Oh, and might I suggest you learn the command "note catchup", because there are always those players who can't to... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Nilmit on Jul 7, 2002

It's a fairly easy game in one sense but you miss the fact it will day you months to finally even get over 50 sum levels into the game unless you play all day and night of course. It has lots of replay value because the wide varitie of races and lots of classes makes all the more fun. the new features like worshipping is quite an interesting propect along with its endless supply of friendly players who are always online taht you can team up with on your journey through avatar. This is enough but there is more the killer amounts of equipment sets enables to get the equipment made for what you want to do. These are all good but there is sum bad. This bad is not enough time to play;P

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Roliz on Jul 3, 2002

After reading the reviews of Avatar I see them as mostly unrepresentative. That is not to say that all of them are untrue or contain misinformation. My point is that there is no middle ground in these reviews – Avatar is either a shining beacon in the MUD darkness or the most contemptible hell-hole on the net. If you use your own common sense you will of course realise that neither is true. Let me set out my stall here, I like Avatar – there you go, out of the closet. Phew! Now you know where I’m coming from. Is it a perfect place? No. Is it a place where I want to be? Yes. Does it have its share of disaffected players? Sure. Do some players adore it before their family, friends and lovers? You bet. What’s the truth then? I tried a few muds before arriving at Avatar and found them bewildering – I didn’t have any idea what a mud was or how to play them. Avatar has a great mudschool – it helped me understand the basic command structure and got me interacting with the game quickly. Avatar says its ‘newbie’ friendly – most of the time it is, there are people who will help – the Angels whose sole purpose is to guide and nurture – other players who will answer questions. However, like everywhere else there is the odd ar**hole who comes up with a silly quip or an unkind word in response to a friendly enquiry. No-one likes an ar**hole so don’t be one either, if you have a question ask politely on channels and you will get a response – aggressive demanding tones and caps lock will win you few friends. The help files are also extensive and can answer most questions. Language policy is strict - no swearing on public channels but in groups or personal tells you can decide how you want to be viewed through your behaviour. Character creation is quick and easy – but be warned. Unless you are an experienced mudder avoid characters with the ‘star’ next to them because they are more difficult to play. Avatar is really about grouping – sooner, rather than later, you will have to group with other players to advance. Certain classes, such as mages, find it hard to find groups – just don’t play them at first. Make a nice warrior and avoid races with a high experience count to get to the next level – this way you will level more quickly and will find it easier to decide if you want to stay or not. Choose the harder races and classes later on when you have experience and want more of a challenge – most players have more than one character. Soloing is being made more and more difficult – this is not a criticism merely a fact – Avatar is about grouping with other players. I was amused reading some of the past reviews some... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Darkwraith on Jul 1, 2002

Krystal, by saying that information about a completely new thing that has a lot to it should be just given out to everyone is basically saying everyone should be able to get free spellups to hack-and-slash through everything carelessly and not learn a thing by themselves... I personally refuse to give CR's unless i know that person has tried him/herself, because i don't want spoiled players... if you want to quote something, include information about all of it... it's like me taking the worst part of a conversation and saying "look how bad this person is!" ~moiraine~

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Moiraine on Jun 19, 2002

I played on Avatar mud for approximately 5 years. I used to swear by Avatar as being the best mud out there. However, Avatar does have a few areas they need improvement on. They have a great helper staff (called Angels) which have to undergo a rigorous selection process. They help new players and often also help experienced players learn commands for the mud, basic equipment and how to get around. They have one of the best helper systems I've seen. However, while it may take a long while before someone reaches Lord level 999, currently that's the top. They do have two more echelons after that (Legend and Titan) but those levels have not yet been made available to characters (Even those who are as high in level as currently possible). Areas on a mud are a constant time consumer as they need people to write them, check for bugs, fix and maintain an area. The Immortal staff does hold area writing contests once in a great while and they let people on the mud vote for the best area before adding the final version for an area. However, as the player database grows, so does the density in different areas. On several occasions I have run out of mobiles to attack in an area which had 3-4 parties running the same areas. (Most Avatar parties are between 3-6 characters) This definately makes for lively competition for people who just like to hack and slash. But other characters have a tough time completing that area quest when the mobile holding the key has been killed, looted, and sacrificed. If you're someone who doesn't mind making a separate character for each class (no multi-class characters), likes to hack and slash through areas and doesn't normally quest a whole lot then Avatar's for you. I stayed on Avatar for so long because after a while it simply became an investment of time even once I was bored with playing there. After more time I searched out something more. Avatar is a great place for beginning mudders and certain playing styles. I personally needed something more after all that time. Once you have a Lord character (unless you want to spend the time to reach Lord level 999) all there really is to do is create a new character in another race and/or class and start hacking and slashing again. Regards, RedCola (previous Avatar supporter)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by RedCola on Jun 19, 2002

Quote from Crom : "I'm afraid I have to call a halt to sharing of information on our note system.Feel free to share off-game and/or word of mouth. It is supposed to be secret, however, so I can't condone written stuff on here. " Quote from Krystal : "THis is what THey do when they dont want information given to everyone they take the persons information about something and remove it. THis was said by Crom since he being a senor imm decided a letter sent to everyone had information on it that shouldnt be on. The letter had no foul language but Crom decided, like the annoyance that he is that we should worship a stupid god without information about what a specific god will do. Thanks Crom for all your bogus work. There are good players that want to help on the game but the nice imms dont want there to be help." * Krystal Crom has achieved the rank of Senior Immortal due to hard work and commitment to the MUD for many years and as such is worthy of respect. Please treat him (and all other Immortals) with respect. Crom has done the hard work to allow the worship system to be implemented and as such is perfectly within his rights to ask for it not be discussed on open channels. He did so in a polite manner which unfortunately you did not see fit to emulate. Crom has introduced something new and interesting to Avatar and he is trying to preserve some of the mystery. Rather than continue the "spoon feeding" mentality which some people seem to expect, he is expecting us to find out on our own by trial and error . There are help files for each of the gods that give hints on what their spheres of influence are likely to be. A character can choose to worship from lvl 10 onwards, so if you want to find out the affects but don't want to risk one of your higher level characters then simply make a new alt and experiment ! The worship system is OPTIONAL you are not obliged to worship a god in order to be able to play the game. Ill informed, unconstructive comments such as yours are hardly likely to encourage further additions and improvements to the game by Crom or anyone else. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat - Immortal of Avatar on Jun 18, 2002

I think this is one of the most user friendly muds around, it doesnt take alot to learn or get started, there is a help file for EVERYTHING and LOTS of people help out newbies and if your and older player and find that Imms are NOT being nice to you cause of your actions think about it! Your and older player cause you have played alot and should know the rules by then. I hope that all the people that are looking for a friendly MUD that is easy to get started on try AVATAR. and if you need help me clan rule is to help newbies or older players. sharparcher, insane asylum

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by SharpArcher on Jun 17, 2002

"I'm afraid I have to call a halt to sharing of information on our note system. Feel free to share off-game and/or word of mouth. It is supposed to be secret, however, so I can't condone written stuff on here. " THis is what THey do when they dont want information given to everyone they take the persons information about something and remove it. THis was said by Crom since he being a senor imm decided a letter sent to everyone had information on it that shouldnt be on. The letter had no foul language but Crom decided, like the annoyance that he is that we should worship a stupid god without information about what a specific god will do. Thanks Crom for all your bogus work. There are good players that want to help on the game but the nice imms dont want there to be help.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Krystal on Jun 17, 2002

So, what, Richard? Is that your monthly Anti-Avatar diatribe? Your 'review' of 16 June had nothing new to say from your 'review' of 4 May. I like the way you tell folks not to play because it's such a horrid mud, yet you're scared to post using your mudname, I guess because you're afraid of losing your character or something? Even if it were to happen, which I doubt (Snikt and staff have better more important things to do than worry about thwapping folks that post negative reviews) all it would accomplish would be to prevent you from playing a game you say is horrid and advise others against playing anyway. That in itself puts the lie to over 95% of what you said. It's been said before, but I'll reiterate it. Avatar is a dynamic world. Areas are being revamped or replaced, with older, stock, less-run areas being removed. New skills and spells get added, some old ones get removed. Snikt has a vision of what he wants Avatar to be, and the staff is working to implement that. Legend and the upper tiers ARE being worked on, but, ya know, the coders have real lives too, and the work proceeds as they can get to it. It's all voluntary. As far as being Newbie friendly, Avatar has a Mudschool that true newbies can go through, plus an entire group of players that have volunteered to stop 'levelling' specifically to help guide new players. Richard, I'd suggest you evaluate your motivations behind 1) posting these negative reviews and 2) continuing to play a game you find so unpalatable.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Felinda on Jun 17, 2002

""stable MUD for FIVE years!" A year ago they lost their connection and asked the mudders to help pay for it." - Richard do you even know what happened? i'm not willing to explain because i might explain it wrong, but the gist of it was that the company snikt was paying ate up his money, and with rl things, he couldn't repay all of it by himself. ""Morphing allows evolution through 999 Hero, Lord, Legend and Titan Levels!!!" Now here is when they really lie." -Richard i almost guarantee that by the time a new player starts avatar, legend will be in. so technically... they will have it, as the site is created to attract new players, no? Lord is long, but some like it, though if you're one of those people that have to get 20 levels a day... i don't recommend lording ;) any btw, why do you want to shoo people away on avatar? it's been a bad experience for some... but for other's it's been a great experience... i personally don't mine legend not being in, and i'm a lord, because i dont level like crazy... and there's only one person sitting at 999.. i like the changes that have gone in, because they bring new things... the new "worship" thing has fired up many players, and you don't HAVE to worship. so while things are being made harder, new things are put in to make things more fun... if you really want to see how "bad" avatar is, why don't you try it out and see for yourself? i've only been playing for 2 years, but things being fixed that players complain wildly about are sometimes "bugs"... and it's the player's fault that they adapted to the bugs, not the immortal's fault for fixing them. ~moiraine~

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Moiraine on Jun 17, 2002

Sorry will not give my mud name because of how Imms are on this game. Even a mediocre review can get you in trouble. I have been away from the game for a long time (6 months) and just barely got back to looking at the game. It looks awful. SOme imms that decide what goes in must be smoking something funny or are drinking quite a bit before making there "additions". Hmm a new thing called worship. They used to have something like this for warriors but they decided it was unfair to other classes I think. Hmm instead of trying to make the other classes better dumify the class that actually worked. THe imms put in stuff that makes the game harder. HA this is not realistic and what they say in there info is wrong. "THEME newbie friendly" yes to newbies but they are extremely rude to non newbies so only play it for about a month at the most "Category Medieval Fantasy" bull they are making it more "realistic" now is what they are trying to do so it is really Medieval Reality. "stable MUD for FIVE years!" A year ago they lost their connection and asked the mudders to help pay for it. THe mudders like me payed and after months the game was able to be played again. IN a corporation when you buy in you get a say well in this mud they care more for their own pocket books than player ideas. "Our Coding and Area Staff have been working on our system for almost 7 years" WOW 7 years. 7 years in technology standpoint is like 250 years in real life. hmm now 7 years ago how slow were comps think how slow these people are to changes that they dont like. "Morphing allows evolution through 999 Hero, Lord, Legend and Titan Levels!!!" Now here is when they really lie. Legend they are not even working on yet and Titan is a dream that probably will mold by the time they put it in. So really 999 Hero and Lords levels. Oh yeah and each lord level takes 1 hour about one run usually because the imms decided that they were leveling too fast. Heroes per run get about 5000 exp which is about 3 levels average in all. Since a run takes an hour and there are 999 hero levels to get to hero level 999 it would take 333 hours just leveling to get there.( THis does not include the 1000+ hours of sitting around since the people around you never group you.) Then since it takes an hour just to get one level (not including the 80% chance of dieing before you get to the level) it would take you at least 999 hours right there. Hmm so all in all it would take you at least 3 years to get to lord 999 if you were never to sleep eat or live at all. famous... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Richard on Jun 16, 2002

I don't usually follow threads on boards other than general, personal, and immortal. I read the review concerning Blinq's tragic experience on AVATAR. It is a shame. I'm not sure what happened, but I can almost assure you, measures will be made to prevent it from reoccuring. Yes, I saw someone say recall to a safe stock room like nom. I can't say that I agree. When you get into higher levels there are some places you can only go to via portal which are wonderful for your level. As far as stock areas. Yes, in the newbie and low level areas we do include a lot of familiar "stock" areas. I mean, I'd hate to log onto a mud for the first time, look around, see a fuzzy pink bunny, try to kill it cause I can on another mud and get my rear handed to me, even though on my old mud I could kill it with one hand behind my back at newbie levels. Also, remember that AVATAR is an old mud, if I remember an article I read right, the entire road system was first created and implemented by the imms of AVATAR (I think it was the dastardly Crom that everyone who writes a review seems to hate). Now whether it was originally on FarSide before AVATAR branched off, is beyond me. The same imm though still plays on AVATAR. *shrug* Good areas are commonly used by other muds because they implement unique ideas, it's as simple as that. All in all, the number of pure stock areas that are still in AVATAR is virtually nil, with the exception of a few newbie areas for the comfort of new players. As far as not being newbie friendly, look at yourself. Watch chat for a few minutes, what do you see? "Can I get a spell up?" "Where is a good place to level?" "Lvl 7 cle iso group" (five times in five minutes by same char). Spell ups are helpful, but you should learn what your char can do at that level unassisted. Good place to level? either help area (your level) or area (your level) will give you a long list, use maps to find it and help area to give you an idea. And nobody likes Spam, not even a lord who watches 50 channels incase someone seriously needs help.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Yagnip on May 29, 2002

I'll make this short, my mind can't handle too much thought right now. At first glance it does seem to be quite the stock game, and it is. There are enough races, classes, and abilities to interest most players. And most of the players are friendly. It's usually a good place to play. However, if you do play this, be wary of chat, the imms, or at least some of them, can be quite grumpy about a discussion many people aren't listening to.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Cantsaybecauseofsecurityreasons on May 17, 2002

As a response to the notion of Avatar not being a newbie friendy mud, hardly. I just started playing avatar and therefore am a total 'newbie'. I have found the other mortals/heros/angels to be very helpful when I had a question or generally needed some advice :) Generally if you ask a question on a channel you will be answered, unless of course you ask in a flaming way.. using all caps etc... in which case ppl will be more likely to ignore you :) Another very newbie-friendly thing about avatar is a great little area called 'Mudschool' allows players who are new to mudding to learn the ropes in a non-hostile environment at their own pace, and get some gear on the way :) All in all I am loving avatar, and I would encourage any mudder new or old to come and try it out :) But don't take my word for it - try it out :) ~Lelah

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Lelah on May 9, 2002

The reason why Bling ended up in a different area is because a new area was added in, and some things were changed. chimmera was taken out, and another area was added, therefore, he didn't end up in chimmera when he logged in. please don't start talking about things you aren't sure about... maybe you should figure out what's really happening before saying "this and this happened, therefore it's not a newbie friendly mud and you shouldn't come here". Personally, i think avatar is newbie friendly, though at times the regular "helpers" are busy and/or it's a time when not many players are active. But if you can't take a little change to a game, then maybe this might not be the mud for you. Moiraine.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Moiraine on May 9, 2002

I'm citing part of a post below from snrdragon@aol.com dated 5/4. Im also responding to that message here. It seems to me for someone that is so disappointed with Avatar, you seem to spend alot of time dealing with it. You said yourself you logged on to read notes on our boards. If you're that disappointed with the game, LEAVE. You dont have to post countless messages trying to bring Avatar's popularity down. Time has proven that Avatar is a popular game, with a large core base of regular players, and a good number of revolving new players. Look at TopMudsites.com. We're consistently in the top 10. Out of how many Muds are out there? TomMudsites alone has 451 Muds listed. Thats not bad at all. As for Bling, Im dismayed that he wasn't helped. I havent seen his note on our boards yet, but I will not only review it, but ask our hero community about it. As for me personally, if I am not actively running in a group, I am almost always willing to help a low level mortal player recover his corpse and gear. There are several of us heros that devote our free time to assisting other players, and we have a large Angel group whos sole purpose is to assist lowmortals. As for the Imms deleting an area when Bling's character was saved there, this is sad. I personally loved Cimmeria. I thought it was a great area for lowmortals to run in, and I suggested it often. However, as many of the posts recently have said, change is enevitable. The Imms replaced Cimmeria with a new area. Unfortunately, there is no marker that lets the builders know that a character was saved in this area. (Its always a good idea to save your character in a 'Safe Room' such as Sol, Nom, Aelmon, etc. Again, for snrdragon@aol.com, Im not sure what your problem with Avatar is. But I can look back at several notes where you flame Avatar, flame the staff, flame Crom, etc. Get over it, my friend. Move on. If you dont like Avatar, play another game. For Bling, Im sorry that you were not assisted. Hopefully, I see you on-line and I can make it up to you in some token way. -Shalineth. **Previous message from "Bling's Messenger cite** I was on Avater today looking at letter and saw ne that needs to be seen to anyone who want to play this game. **Letter snipped to save space** will i be recommending this mud to others as newbie friendly? i think not. Please go to another mud that is newbie Freindly which listens to player ideas and doesn't like crom not listen just says "I work the mud you dont so I am god and dont need to listen to Ideas" like many of the Imms on this game.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Shalineth on May 4, 2002

I was on Avater today looking at letter and saw one that needs to be seen to anyone who want to play this game. Number: 187 Board: bug From: Bling To: all Date: Thu May 2 05:39:40 2002 Subject: newbie friendly mud? --------------------------------------------------the last time i played this character, i logged off in an area appropriate to my level, specifically { 2 10} Crom Cimmeria which has since been removed from the game. i understand that that is part of the evolution of this realm. when the area was removed however, my room of recall disappeared. upon logging in yesterday morning, i was entered into the game in a different area inappropriate for my level {12 18} Crom Brothers Grimm which might not have been so bad, but the game set me in a room 1 up from The Brothers where a giant who is not fond of level 4 gnomes resides. i managed to flee one room north, at which point i recalled only to end up back with the afore- mentioned giant. then i was on the cloud. i nchatted for assistance. up to this point, i was dealing with bugs. i nchatted for assistance, none was received, so i walked back to the area and once again nchatted for assistance, stating that i had died in an area i had not logged out in. no help was offered. the bug note ends here potentially on a happy note, i recovered my gear.after that point i nchatted that i was disappointed in the lack of assistance to newbies, and discovered the ugly side of this world. rude comments from players barely bigger than i all the way up to lords came merrily floating outover nchat. i am a big kid and can deal with that. what i would like to point out is the impression this makes to the true newbies who play here. will i be recommending this mud to others as newbie friendly? i think not. Please go to another mud that is newbie Freindly which listens to player ideas and doesn't like crom not listen just says "I work the mud you dont so I am god and dont need to listen to Ideas" like many of the Imms on this game.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Bling's Messenger on May 4, 2002

Hi, I'm Yagnip, I've been playing AVATAR since an on-line friend introduced me to the mud in 1996, or was it early 1997? I forget. AVATAR was my first mud and is pretty much the only mud I play. I have visited many other muds and have never seen a mud as easy to figure out and with as helpful a staff and playerbase than AVATAR. Like a living entity, AVATAR is constantly evolving, implementing fresh new ideas and challenges for its players to work with such as new classes, unique ideas implemented into the code affecting game play, and other features every few months. Lately, there have been many of these additions to the mud; yes, today you may go to the mud, start a char, and stuff only to find some things totally changed tommorrow, but be aware that is not the total norm. The imms do tend to give clear information on upcoming changes ahead of time and continue to twink newly implemented ideas until they fit perfectly in the scheme of things. All in all, AVATAR is a very fun and active place to be. Lots of things to learn, try, and explore. Lots of people around usually willing to help you become acquainted with the rules and format of the mud.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Yagnip on May 1, 2002

Daniel, don't be so angry please. It is a shame you put all the effort in your area without even checking if the 'rules' would allow you to submit it. Over the years Avatar has had the policy to only allow Immortals to submit areas on a regular basis. However, we have also had several contests where mortals could send them in. Many of these have been placed in the mud. Now, we also have the option if we are impressed by a player's writing to invite them to create an area, surpassing the rules. This is what happened in the case you mentioned. This has nothing to do with favoritism. While I can see your point, I have to wonder, was anyone from the staff aware you were working on an area? Did the area team know you were interested in building? If not, then I am afraid you were to be disappointed from the start. Why not contact the area team and ask if you can send in a sample of your work, if you are sure it will pass the test? Or perhaps hone your created area and be the first one to have one done when a new area contest is held? Once again, this whole affair is not a case of favoritism and shouldn't keep anybody away from Avatar. In fact, it should be a reason to come check out our latest areas and see if you can overcome the obstacles our skilled creators made to make your mudlife adventurous! - Kariya(KM) The Dark Fire

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kariya - Avatar IMM on Apr 29, 2002

I just wanna comment on what daniel said about crom favoritism. It's true that crom gave some people sorcerers. But crom charged people for it. He deleted/purged one of the players main characters from the game and in return he rewarded the player with a sorcerer. I don't feel this is favoritism. You loose something and you get something else in return. It's also not true that you can't get a sorcerer anymore now, like Daniel said. Once you reached a certain point into the game(usually after lord level 250) you can turn your char into a sorcerer by using the rebuild command. The only difference there is now, is that you don't need Crom to do it anymore. Which is good, right? Ideas are not always turned down either. There is an idea command, and you can post your ideas to the immortals, and help approoved-ideas give you a list of ideas that are approoved. makila.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Makila on Apr 29, 2002

Dont come to this game it has so much favoritism. Crom an imm specifically give only a specific person a sorceror for writing an area. I have been trying to be able to write an area so I can say I have done something for the game. Crom says there will be no more deals yeah right he will just do it behind people backs the person that got the sor is a favorite. "The current policy on writing areas is that only Immortals can do it." is what crom says in the note well why not crom you say "The current policy on ideas is that only Immortals will have them and any ideas submitted will be banned from our ideas."

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Daniel on Apr 29, 2002

"RE: Kiri ... thought I recognized the name Delaney. ;) For those that don't know, Delaney (last I knew) was the Imp of Barren Realms, a sister and/or hate mud (depending on era) of Avatar, which has a common origin of Farside back in '95. And hiya back... ;) S " I am still imp of Barren Realms, which is certainly not a hate mud of Avatar(now, anyway - as you pointed out, under its current ownership). Just had to jump in there.. not that you need anybody to help, I just had the urge to beat someone with the clue stick after reading that review. Old FS'ers who remember Delaney, feel free to contact me. Cheers!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by kiri on Apr 23, 2002

RE: Kiri ... thought I recognized the name Delaney. ;) For those that don't know, Delaney (last I knew) was the Imp of Barren Realms, a sister and/or hate mud (depending on era) of Avatar, which has a common origin of Farside back in '95. And hiya back... ;) S

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kevin Jagh - Snikt on Apr 22, 2002

Hey just wanted to tell people not to come to this game if you want an exchange of ideas. * "No, come to this game if you want to be part of a growing community backlit by an excellent game." The immortals of this game have a dictatorship. * "Hit me with the obvious hammer." TOday just a little bit ago an imm went on the mud and said "This is not a democracy" well this game is made in the USA not some 3rd world country that doesnt listen to its people. * "Repeat for the stupid - This is not a democracy. And we're a Republic, not a Democracy..." THis game has become too old and the immortals are Fidel Castro or any other dictatorship so please go to another one so you dont have to see how bad a good game can go. * "I am whining. Will you please listen to me?" * Cmon people, don't waste my time. If you have a problem and are uncomfortable mailing me directly, air it here (or TMC, or whatever), but be specific, and MOST of all, understand that while I hope you enjoy your time here, we will not always agree with YOUR untested theories about how Avatar should be run/developed. *Snikt

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kevin Jagh - Snikt on Apr 22, 2002

RE: Review from "richard" (hi RoX) I just wanted to tell people how the game is now going after I was gone for six months from it. Ding Ding Ding we have a loser. * I love sound effects. How do you do it? I went to 5 other games and each one ask and thanked suggestions and when something they did was not to the liking of the players (I would underline it if I could) they would ex it out faster than the Avatar Imms tempers could flare(about 2.3 second is the Imms temper). * I hope you enjoy playing there then... :) I come back and people are fighting against these new things like Lead army (hello when is this game going to have 1000 people on in one group that you would actually have an army) to shadowing(which makes no sense to even make a lord) to stats losses when you die( makes players not even want to play the game past getting to hero). * People's nature is to resist change. However, over time we have a proven track record (given our longevity and increased popularity) that the changes we've implemented have been an add for the game. Each change we make has been after careful consideration of the long term effects. THE game has gone downhill in 6 months if you pick a game go to another one maybe a newwer one that listens. * "If you don't like this game go somewhere else." Well duh... This game is like an old person it cant hear the people around it and everyone around it wants it to die as soon as possible. * That's just wrong. I'm sure this statement makes your parents proud. PEOPLE DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME IT IS GOING DOWN THE DRAIN. * Omigod is this an old argument. I heard it back in '94, and it's STILL being chanted like some inane mantra. oh and sorry for the caps to all the avatarians out there that must lose there eyesite from using caps. * This is such a silly and negative review I'm finding it hard to even find the energy to be sarcastic. *Snikt

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kevin Jagh - Snikt on Apr 22, 2002

We implemented group size limitations. Part of which involved skills called things like "lead army". It's a negative change, I admit. We implemented stat loss potential on death to make death more dangerous. It's a negative change too. We are attempting to implement a way for higher level characters to interact with lower level characters in a way that isn't abusive. This is something we've called 'shadowself'. It's also a negative change. I don't dispute any of the negative things we've been attempting to accomplish on the game. What I dispute is that this is all we've done in the last six months. Here's a list since January: 1. Added new features for archers like autopull 2. Added about 30 new skills and spells to the game...although I'll admit that only about 15 unique ones. 3. Added a self insurance command to help players save their gear in case of a crash. 4. Added racial wimpy for goblins 5. An etch command for people to add their own keywords onto object 6. we allow players to now purchase stats with gold now that stats can be lost during death. Either way, I think we have a good balance of good and bad or twinks and nerfs or whatever you'd like to call them going into the game. Some people may feel that it should always be good changes but that only works if you're willing to have escalation in the game. We dont. If anything, I think Avatar has had a boost of energy and life after a dry spell of several months. Change is in the air and it smells sweet.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Crom on Apr 20, 2002

Hi Snikt ;) It's Delaney. I'm not reviewing this mud. Just responding to the last post. Just because the MUD is in the US does not mean it's a democracy! The MUD is a privately owned game, and as with any private forum (like your house), they can boot you out for whatever reason they feel like. Even if you have a yellow shirt on they just don't like yellow. Don't start appealing to the "this is the US and we have a constitution" argument because it simply doesn't apply here. They don't _have_ to listen to your ideas or have a discourse with you about it. Frankly, in the end keep in mind mudders tend to come up with the same ideas over and over. Often imps hear these ideas constantly and already know their feelings on them. If they don't take your suggestion and impliment it, don't take it personally. Assume they are doing what they are doing for the good of the mud. If you can't do that, then maybe you aren't cut out to mud on a private forum with an imp and imm staff who feels differently than you do. Good luck finding an imp who agrees with every single thing you do.. ;) Sorry Snikt. Had to. Love ya.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kiri on Apr 19, 2002

Hey just wanted to tell people not to come to this game if you want an exchange of ideas. The immortals of this game have a dictatorship. TOday just a little bit ago an imm went on the mud and said "This is not a democracy" well this game is made in the USA not some 3rd world country that doesnt listen to its people. THis game has become too old and the immortals are Fidel Castro or any other dictatorship so please go to another one so you dont have to see how bad a good game can go.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Krystal on Apr 19, 2002

I just wanted to tell people how the game is now going after I was gone for six months from it. Ding Ding Ding we have a loser. I went to 5 other games and each one ask and thanked suggestions and when something they did was not to the liking of the players (I would underline it if I could) they would ex it out faster than the Avatar Imms tempers could flare(about 2.3 second is the Imms temper). I come back and people are fighting against these new things like Lead army (hello when is this game going to have 1000 people on in one group that you would actually have an army) to shadowing(which makes no sense to even make a lord) to stats losses when you die( makes players not even want to play the game past getting to hero). THE game has gone downhill in 6 months if you pick a game go to another one maybe a newwer one that listens. This game is like an old person it cant hear the people around it and everyone around it wants it to die as soon as possible. PEOPLE DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME IT IS GOING DOWN THE DRAIN. oh and sorry for the caps to all the avatarians out there that must lose there eyesite from using caps.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Richard on Apr 18, 2002

This is the 3rd review Ive written about AVATAR MUD. In this one, I want to focus on one of the constant things about AVATAR, change. I should write it with a big capital 'C.' The Immortal staff (especially the coders and builders) are constantly hard at work putting together new areas, skills and classes for the players' enjoyment. Most often, these additions are welcomed and enjoyable. A few times, they arent. Of the few that arent enjoyed, if someone takes a step back and looks at them, they're in the best interest of 'game balance.' (Its often frustrating as a player to lose a certain skill or bonus that you've come to rely on.) But, as a whole, these modifications are in the best interest of the game, and make group runs more enjoyable and more diverse. (Diversity is the big keyword right now. All too often, an entire group would be 3 Warriors, a Rogue (maybe) and Cleric to heal the 'Tank' (the player taking the brunt of the damage. This isnt what the game is about. Groups are now being encouraged to include Mages, Psions, Monks and other classes as their skills suddenly become relevant and even needed as part of group harmonics. I encourage anyone who would be interested in an ever-changing and expanding world to check out AVATAR MUD. Its easy to build a 1st or 2nd level character, run it up to level 10, and get a chance to try several groups and areas. If you need any pointers, ask one of our helpful angels for assistance, or find me! I am (as are most heroes) always willing to help out.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Shalineth on Apr 17, 2002

Avatar A world of great mystery and intriguing fantasy. A world that your mother told you never existed when you were a child. Sprites, rogues, and cat like creatures tell me this is a dream. Beneath the hate and the negativity of the "real world" there is a land of mysticism and war.Avatar, the world of the brave, bold, and imaginative. Blood covers the damp ground,you catch the sent of yet another victim to your powerful sword, with the stealth of a warrior and the mind of a mage you slowly turn around, you swipe into mid air while a ghost like creature falls to the ground. You are victorious, once again!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sharra on Apr 2, 2002

i love how when you write something it gets taken down...when it doesnt even have any objectionable material...

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by someone on Mar 31, 2002

Re: Seance's being saddened that the "Imp of Avatar" (that would be me) writes reviews in defense of "real or imagined"... All I can say is *comf*. ;) I prefer to communicate reactions to negative issues here, whether they're ack'ing our limitations (what? *gasp*) or refuting illegitimate accusations. While we run several mailers, it would be (imho of course) poor form for me to NOT accept/deny negative stuff from players within the very forum that they are discussed. Hope you know understand my motive, even if you choose to disagree with it. S

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Snikt - Kevin Jagh on Mar 20, 2002

Avatar is the BEST MUD I have ever been on. I was introduced to the mud 4 years ago by a friend of mine and have advanced throught the ranks and am currently a Hero on the mud. I'm hoping this year I might make Lord by Christmas. We are very newbie friendly and there is almosts always an immortal on to keep people in line should things get out of hand. I happend to be partial of Paladin Justice myself. Only once was my pfile wiped out becuase of a problem on the mud but they had a backup system set up to recover all the lost player's accounts. They also have a system in place for reimbustment if your corpse is lost. The MUD also has Angels to help you if you happen to die. They help you get your corpse back and keep you safe while doing it. Players also take this task upon themselves sometimes. I myself am one who spends many hours waiting for a group doing Corpse Retriveals (CR's) instead. The social environment is great. There are numourous channels ranging from quests to auctions and hero/lord only channels. And the immortals will dispence some swift Paladin Justice to anyone who decides to disobay the Language Rules. The Player Killing is restricted to the arena that cannot be walked into, you must accualy type the words to be taken there. This is for obvoius reasons to keep high level people from tricking lowbies into following them there. All in all Avatar is the best MUD out there. I encourage everyone to at least visit some time and get a feel for the atmosphere we have.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Nemec on Mar 14, 2002

I am somewhat saddened to see the Imp of Avatar writing 'reviews' in defense of actions (real or imagined) that have taken place on his MUD, by himself or his staff. This doesn't seem the proper forum for such a debate. Why encourage it? That aside, I came here firmly believing I wouldn't vote for Avatar much less write a review. To be quite frank, I have had several disagreements with the Immortal staff on a variety of issues, often resulting in my being killed or otherwise maimed by the aforementioned Immortal staff. However, I can't justify writing a negative review based upon my poor experiences simply because it is a rare individual who gains the everlasting ire of one or more Immortals, and even rarer that the person be permanently removed from the MUD. To the contrary, the new player will find average Avatarians to be quite friendly and the atmosphere equally so. If you're truly new to Avatar, there is a helpful place to start aptly named "Mud School" which will teach you the basic gameplay and commands needed to interact with the MUD. It's all very concise and direct. You will also find legions of helpful individuals (Immortal, Angel and Mortal alike) if you're in need of assistance or otherwise confused with regard to any aspect of the game. When I first came to Avatar two years ago, I was entirely new to the "mudding" experience. I had never before engaged in a game at real time speed, nor did I understand just what I was in for. Nevertheless, I was greeted warmly and introduced to the game thoughtfully by very kind individuals who were patient yet very thorough in their advice as to how to play. You'll find this true today as well. Avatar does actively promote grouping with two or more players, for whatever reasons (I still don't understand). In spite of this position taken by the Immortals, you may still excel if you prefer to gain experience by yourself. The game itself supports an almost limitless expanse of techniques to gain power, whether you're a Rogue, Monk, Sorcerer, or even a Cleric. There is a niche for everyone, including those who like to go it alone (as I do). The single most important feature of Avatar, seemingly lost in all the negative reviews, is the people themselves. "Hack n' slash" aside, you won't find a more amusing bunch of people to sit around and socialize with. Whether we're discussing the latest addition to the skill or spell list, or bemoaning a recent death to a particularly disagreeable mobile, you'll find dozens upon dozens of people to share in your travails. While it's the game that hooked me, it's the people who keep me coming back. Certainly there have been many changes I've railed against. But in my mind it's irrelevant to the new player, who will never know what it was like in "the good old days". Avatar, as it stands is... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Seance on Mar 14, 2002

This is by far the friendliest mud on the planet i love it!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Darnium on Mar 9, 2002

I have been playing Avatar for about a year and really enjoy it. I am not a hard core slash and burn player so it is the social aspects of Avatar that really appeal to me. I like the fact that the players take the time to help each other. (Grouping is not only encouraged but in some cases is the only way to advance) It can be frustrating trying to get a group if your character is not a tank/leader. Players personalities and styles vary. Therefore some find it easier to get a group than others. There is a great deal of bantering on the chat channels. Imms have different personaliites just like other players and it is pretty easy to know who to tease and who to defer to. The world of Avatar is a great place to belong.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Honoria on Mar 1, 2002

Well hello review reader :) Just a little background information on me: i am an active player here on avatar mud and have been playing on and off for quite some time now. I think it has been about 7 years or so.anyways on with my review. Avatar was the first mud i ever logged on to. I found the adress for avatar in a local computer magazine and it was given high marks, so i said what the heck, i have nothing better to do for a while. Little did i know what i was in for. my very first character was a dragon warrior, buy was he strong. a good solid class that has been around for a long time. Not as versitile or interesting as some of the other classes, but a good class to start off with. i agree that low mortal levels are tough to get, but that is what i love, a nice good challenge. Grouping is somewhat sloppy at the lower levels but with an increase of time and experience you can go far. I can remember how helpful everyone was to answer all the silly newbie questions that i had. just like now, i try to reciprocate the kindness others have shown me and to help others without expectations of a reward. I also take time out for myself to have a good ol' hack and slash fest with the local mobs. sadly to say i haven't attained lord level yet despite the long time i have been playing. there are many ways to play on avatar which is great because the diversity of people that it attracts is wonderful. It's true that current events and politics usually aren't allowed, but its a mud, a place where i come to escape from the thoughts of everyday life. I can emerse deeply into my wacky persona and nto be labeled crazy. The staff of immortals that i have had contact with have been ever so kind and helpful. not that i agree with ever single decision that gets implemented or taken out but i'm not the one paying the bills to keep the mud running. well this is all that i want to share of my experiences at avatar. come by and check avatar out. maybe i'll see you there, i'll be waiting :P whoa rabid-wussy-elf-cleric

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Whoa on Feb 17, 2002

I just started playing this a month ago. I like the game in most areas until I got to the level i am now. I am a level 30+ archer. I have been sitting around aelmon for the last 2 hours doing nothing. THere are 3 people around me that are my level and all are on the same thing I am on. THe WHo group list something that is supposed to help people wanting to get levels get groups. I have been a level 30 archer for 2 weeks now. No levels. I usually stay on for at least 5 hours. I have many friends and they have already passed me because they are warriors. The game becomes racist and classist at this point. All the people on group me are not lord alts. I see on grtz channel people my level leveling and find out that these are lord alts or they are warriors. A friend of mine who is level 31 spr mag (very hard to level) has been on group me for 5 hours and no groups. I consider pass level 30 racist and classist because if you are not a certain race or a certain class like a giant warrior you are always passed up. I like the game mostly because of the freinds I have on it. I dont know any lords so I dont get grouped very much. If you play this game just play warrior they will always pick you up faster than you can say wow. that is pretty much all I have to say the game is fun but if you are not a war it becomes slow to even level

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Krystal on Feb 16, 2002

Well, Where do i start? Ive been here on this mud when it was a different Mud, which i endlessly brag about to all you newbies so get used to it. I'm not here to tell you to play Avatar, or to tell you how great it is, or any other exagerations or lies. In fact im solely here because im bored at the moment and im sponging in a group. Yes, i am rather known for sponging when i dont lead runs... Anyway back to the point... (oh wait... is there a point?) Oh well I'll just start rambling on and on so if you're looking for a well thought out description or critique you're outta luck! Personally i really dont want you to come visit us, because technically they're making it harder for me to level my alts really fast because doing so would also be helping others whom never went through this game before as i had. I feel rather strongly that it is my RIGHT to do as i please and pretty much try to find loopholes and bugs and abuse them to my utmost desires before someone turns them in to make my life hard... But for the the fact that we might actually attract new mudders, They made it ahrder to help me skip a stage that ive already been through... It wouldnt be so bad if i actually still knew the stage, alas it is a much different mud then when i was a hero. MANY areas have either been changed or taken out and replaced with others that are strange to me. It is nothing like it used to be. It took me 5 years to lord my first character... it took me 4 months to lord my second about 4 years later. The game has progressed and evolved over time. Some people thing these changes are bad and leave in search of a new better place to mud or actually find a real life. Some others, like me dont like these changes but still stay and adapt, and evolve with the game. We challenge it (at least i do) We dare it to do its worst. We whine and complain a lot but still we persevere. To me personally, this game is nothing as it was 8 or so years ago. But then again i am nothing as i was 8 years ago either. So far this review prob seems a bit negative, but the fact that ive been here for 8 or so years must tell you something. I have many many friends here that know me and understand me. There are those that are strictly based on grouping and just messing around, but there are also those that Know me personally and that i can actually talk to and confide in. Its not just the hack/slash mud that everyones been saying it is its a world where you go to and everyone knows you and says (at... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Phrog/Scary on Feb 11, 2002

This mud is great, Quick character set up, easy to understand, staff are very helpful, players are friendly, help files are very elaborate,also is zmud compatable(big plus for me). i would recommend this site to anyone who likes a challanging game that is easy to setup in a friendly playing atmosphere.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by jeremy hans on Feb 10, 2002

I consider myself the 'Average Joe' mudder. I've played Avatar for about 18 months - not long I suppose compared to some other Av players. But, frankly, there aren't any games - video, rpg, board, miniature, whatever - that I can play day-in and day-out and still find challenging, enjoyable, and entertaining. Some reviews are from "jaded" players. That's ok. Notice in each of their reviews how long they've played the game - usually over half a decade. So they're jaded... they still experienced 5+ years of entertainment. Even if the players now "only come to socialize", if thats what they enjoy - great! What you need to know about Avatar: - Avatar's game system is highly customized - A ton of original areas (and fewer and fewer stock areas) - Averages over 100 players on at a time during most of every day - Has interesting race/class options (including playable dragons, powerful centaurs & griffons, cool new archers, and more) - Level system includes 50 mortal levels, 999 hero levels, 999 Lord levels, and, supposedly, Legend levels are planned for the future. Thats almost 2500 levels. Have fun. - No player killing (though an special arena area allows you to test your combat skills against other players... much fun) - No multi-playing - plenty of warnings about this. do it and pay the consequences :) - Very stable system with regular backups, etc, to protect your characters - Family oriented - meaning no obscene language or topics allowed on public channels (this keeps the mud CIVIL...) - Newbie friendly - an entire class - the Angels - are there to help. Also, enough friendly players are around at any one time to answer *any* question you might have - Very extensive help system - everything from newbie area maps to complete descriptions of all spells, skills, races, etc. - Generally very fair immortals The Avatar developers push the social aspect of the mud. A particularly good example is that they encourage grouping. Most players don't solo mobs. But, some do, because they enjoy the challenge. But, for the rest of us, grouped hack-n-slash runs are *the* way to get experience, learn areas, and really get to know people. The developers also work hard to keep us entertained. I could list several examples, but will mention the creation of the Archer class. This new class, implemented January 2002, has given every Avatar player a new challenge - to learn the class, experiment, and to use their brains. A considerable amount of work was put forth by the developers to make this happen (and to continue tweaking), and the staff did a first-rate job. Archers are really just making their impact on the realm. It's exciting. Come, give Avatar a shot. Hundreds of people play Avatar on a regular basis. Many of us have been around a long time - that means we enjoy it. And, several newbies try us every day. Extensive help files as well as players... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Bailey on Feb 5, 2002

Response to Richard: Sorry, but this particular review is so full of absolutes and vague references it makes it difficult for me to take it seriously, and instead I find myself wondering if someone is playing a joke on me... S

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Snikt - Kevin Jagh on Feb 2, 2002

Avatar MUD is a great hack 'n slash mud, if not the best hack 'n slash. Role-playing is discouraged (no matter what the bio says), in the respect that you can't be an evil person on avatar. If you are mean, then you will disappear. Don't get involved with the development cycle as a player except through making positive suggestions for new ideas and new tweaks to old ideas, through the use of the idea command and lord list. Don't flame people. Don't be rude or offensive. Don't complain about changes. Learn to deal. If you have a problem with someone or something, don't shoot off your mouth angrily, because you will disappear. The propriety rules are enforced, period. Perhaps especially so in player-imm disputes, but I have NEVER seen flagrant imm cruelty OR excessive imm favoritism. My younger brother is an imm, I have met several high-ranking imms, and yet I have never even been allowed to group with imm-toy characters, or recieved any other undue advantage from that relationship. Not only that, but with the exception of designated imm-toys, I know of no imm alt with ridiculously twinky weapons, stats or skills. Avatar has 2000 plus levels. It has over 200 unique skills. It has a challenging, dynamic playstyle that is balanced and rewarding, and through thought, planning, and effort, you can ALWAYS stand to become a better player, and the staff is constantly expanding on that concept, adding in new twists and possible techniques to better master. While it's true, there are only two classes that will regularly get you invitations to group, by playing to the best of your classes' abilities, you will find yourself developing a reputation among the better tanks as being an excellent player, you will make friends, and you will no longer notice yourself having a problem finding a group, no matter what class you are, even psion, mage, monk, ranger, archer, martial artist, and sorceror (you can no longer make ranger or martial artist, and you must trade in a level 1150 char to make a human sorceror). The whole mud is constantly getting revamped and improved. This game is WAY better than it was 2 years ago, and that was better than it was 2 years before that. I know because I've been playing that long. Say some lord gets caught botting or multiplaying and gets deleted. He comes right here and posts some sanctimonious crap about how evil the immortal staff is, when there are warning signs about the practice everywhere. Multiplay is illegal, it says on the opening screen. Multiplay is illegal, it tells you if you accidentally sign on two characters at the same ip. Multiplay is illegal, it says in about two imm notes a month. But they still catch people who have been here for YEARS breaking the rules, and then have the nerve to complain. You break the rules, you lose. It's easy. You play nice or you don't play at I... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Uri on Feb 1, 2002

I am sorry to say that yes the review board has become a place to display our grudges. But the people that have had bad experiences cant say to an imm I hate what you did when you did this. Most of them get in quite a bit of trouble like me. No I am not the other Richard. Most of those people that hate avatar probably didnt hate avatar when the problem first came out. THey probably emailed imms but that didnt help. So it just simmered inside them become worse because they never got any say. They used this to display their opinion without getting in trouble if they used a fake name. I played this game for 6+ years and I have at one time or another stopped for a full year because of the imm rudeness and players doing something extremely rude to me. I played like most players to get a Lord. That is what most players want. It is the thing that drives them to play. When imms think about phasing lords out of the lower planes people will have no reason to play to lord. YEs lord is stagnent you go on a run for a full hour and you might get a level. I love playing hero lord spellup runs but I just like to play with the friends that i know on it. Avatar is addicting and I am not any more I just play to talk to my friends. I dont play that much because of how the classes are not ever grouped like mage at low-mort and hero unless you have a lord. Well that is mostly what I wanted to say because this has become a place to display our grudges because if we do it on the game you will lose that character. I know it has happened to me 3 times.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Richard on Feb 1, 2002

Response to Gynamede's Review: * HMPs are the bane of all muds. In an attempt to make the life of 4,500+ quiet people happier, we've recently dramatically raised the bar of what we expect in terms of civility on public channels to avoid player/staff pain, outbursts of anger and (mis)perceived slights. * As this player knows me irl, he should also realize that I NEVER remove something "for no reason" but ALWAYS to better the game imho. However, I will take the hit that I don't exactly communicate effectively with every one of our players. In light of this we are creating processes to help distribute design responses and creativity to our website and mailing lists. * I'm a bit confused as to what is referred to as "mud politics", as Avatar is a dictatorship/tyranny. To use the word politics is to imply there are various, competing camps in which opinion can be swayed, and while persuasive and rational arguments can certainly alter our course of direction, I don't see how this can be likened to "politics". Imho, this player assumes more influence that reality would indicate. * I myself am a powergamer. I have worked with the Avatar team from before it's inception to create a game that is challenging, fun, yet doesn't "end". However, what with old age approaching (ie, I'm not 14 ;) ), I have to admit there are people who play 20-24 hours a day, day after day. I am challenged to balance the game such that they will enjoy it and yet also satisfy those of us who work, sleep and/or do something else from time to time and only get to play occasionally. * As time goes on, eq especially becomes problematic, suffering from "inflation". So, as in all non-stagnant organizations, we continue to revisit our areas, and as necessary, add or sometimes prune. Again, this is an attempt to improve the game, not destroy your enjoyment. * If you ask the Imp, his statement on nerfing would be "when necessary"... This can usually be determined by weighing the code changes required to improve the spell vs. nerfing the spell in question. Ie, if by increasing the power, we get little value, but requires someone to modify 20 routines to ensure continued balance, but to nerf it requires only 2 changes and the net net is the same, we'll nerf. We carefully consider each change to allow for continued balance and growth in MY long-term view... A player who has been here for 6 years doesn't necessarily have the same vision that the Imp does at 8 years. And certainly a player who has been around for 9 months usually (although not guaranteed) have the same vision convergence that the longer term players have. Unfortunately, I have to ask for faith, with the only proof that I know what I'm doing is as follows: + I admit when I'm wrong. + I occasionally change direction if I am provided with data.... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Snikt - Kevin Jagh on Jan 31, 2002

Response to Amagadon's Review: * Concur. We need more "avg Joe" reviews... The Imm reviews (well, except for mine which you should all have 100% faith in), hatemud reviews, and honestly even the "Nirvana" reviews all have to be viewed within the framework of their respective bias. * I could elaborate on why Chuft was denied, but sometimes the reasons for denial are due to extremely personal and private information that has been brought to me, and it's inappropriate in those circumstances to share too much. For others, say Rottaker, I thought I had explained why, but maybe I didn't clearly. I'll consider how to better do this... * If I remember correctly, Transformer was Duckie, and the associated history with Duckie is what got him whacked, not negative reviews. I challenge you to provide additional examples, as I steadfastly believe we haven't whacked someone because of a negative review. * People at level 51 (pre Hero Tier) used to say the mud was boring. People at 999 Hero used to say the mud was boring. People waiting to pass on to Legendary status are getting bored. I assure you we are doing everything we can within the confines of personal life demands to add content and code design to make the place a better place to be. Hope this explains and/or answers some of the valid issues you've brought up. S

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Snikt - Kevin Jagh on Jan 31, 2002

Disclaimer: I'm a player who has played for nearly 4 years and am Considered a High Maintence Player (HMP). I'm posting this review while I have a character in trouble too atm. Take the review for what it's worth, It's my own opinion Well i've been playing for 4 years and still continue to play, even though i've gotten in more trouble on the mud then John Gotti (famous mofia gangster) with the law. What I mean here, they staff must be doing something right to keep someone who has been through as much as I has when i look at this. The Good: After playing here for 4 years, i've seen many changes go through everything from a new class being put in, to removal of skills for no apparent reason. I think it's safe to say, that this mud has probably got one of the most family like atmospheres i've ever played on. So much, that i've met a large portion of the staff and continue to have irl (in real life) friendships with several of the staff and players. Also on AVATAR, it is one of the best when it comes to newbie friendly type atmosphere. With a dedicated and voluntary angel staff, there are people here to guide the newest player through the beginning of the game to help them become the best that they can be in the game. They also have a VERY extensive help file system, with helps ranging on every possible subject command ect in the game (that is accessable to your character level :p). To top this off, if you enjoy hack-n-slash type muds, AVATAR is a good place for you, with more then enough levels (2000+) to just consistantly do hack-n-slash killing. There is also a great deal of races to chose from, everything from the stinking trog, to the drooling troll, there is a race here to fit almost any type of person out there. The Bad: Well first off, if you want to succeed and play without being branded has a HMP, don't EVER EVER get involved in the game politics. I myself have, and has caused me more trouble then it's worth if you want to enjoy the game for the actual game itself. I think it's safe to say that every mud has it's powermudders, powerplayers. These are people who adapt to the game quickly, and powerlevel or powerplay thier way through it. Now many changes are implemneted in the game. From what i've seen, most muds will try to change/implement new things things to accomidate these types of players. However with avatar, this is FAR from the case. Most changes that are implemented are to slow down leveling/progression through the game. This also includes making gear harder to obtain cause "a too small of group got it and that's not what we want" (keep in mind that the too small consisted of people who think, and excel and challenge themselves buy doing what... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Gynamede on Jan 30, 2002

Re: all sorts of reviews Too many comments to be sorted properly and still maintain a focus, so I'll reply to several things I found while reading through these. Half these posts are from immortal staff. The others are from 2-4 other players who make up about 1% of the spectrum of Avatar and I find it hard to believe that this creates any sort of review as it presents a "yes we do" "no you dont" feeling. The average player has no posts here. Those that are here are very openly biased to one side or another, regardless of how they try to appear. It's hard to write an unbiased opinion however and this must be respected. You cant put any stock into immortal reviews, this mud sucks booty I hate you all dieidiedie reviews and this person doesnt know anything this mud is nirvana reviews because it paints a skewed picture. Personally, I feel immortals do a decent job most of the time, regardless of my personal feelings towards some of them. Problems grow around the staff because of secrecy which is maintained beyond what is truely nessecary. People complain about being banned and whatever, but they refuse to give names. Why does your name matter if you've been banned? but at the same time, we see notes on "please dont multiplay, we had to whack XXXXXXX for it" or "XXXXXX has left us because I got tired of them" and this fosters distrust of the staff. I personally find it very hard to trust them because of situations in the past where you see catch-22's being implemented. Twink gear and small perks being given to those who are "favoured" by staff happens quite often however recently most of the horrific offtenders in this section have been removed. As to the comment that nobody has been jailed for posting a review, this is wrong as I have seen someone get jailed for it. It may have been a result of other dealings as well, but the only thing I remember is Transformer being told to remove a review "or else" and he refused and was then gone. However since this changed now, I am submitting my opinions on the matter. Beyond this, classes are ok, races are ok, tiers are not. Lord is stagnant and dead with removal of any hope of advancement being put at least another year off. Disenheartening to say the least and really offers no incentive to play at all past hero, if even to bother lording. People who are active players posting here have not been around long enough for the novelty of their first lord to wear off and stand by this decision that lord is an amazing place etc. Yet on lordlist there are pages of level 1 lords because it's just not worth it. I suppose I've rambled long enough on various points I've seen in these reviews. This mud is fun at first, the people you are... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Amagadon on Jan 30, 2002

I have to agree this mud is worst game i have ever played in my life ever. I first started playing 5 years ago, have since clocked up 5000 hours and leveled half a dozen different races and classes. But all this time i have been secretly hating it, in a year or so Iam definetly quiting. Imms, terrible, players, awfull, gameplay - diabolical. Dont play there!

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Pyromanic on Jan 26, 2002

I have been at this MUD for 4 years, and in this time I have not found another MUD that could compete for my interest for more than a month or two. It is a newbie friendly MUD, which is enforced. There is no swearing on public channels (although you can swear privately with friends if they consent). And the annoying newbies who only come on to MUDs to make a ruckus -- they are dealt with quickly. This MUD hosts people of all ages -- I think I've seen 7 year olds around. Our youngest Lord is 12. And many, many countries are represented. One disadvantage I see to this MUD is the lack of multi-play, although that has not been around since I started here. Sometimes it is discouraging, but I understand the IMMs' position on removing it, because it forces you to group with people who might in the future become your close friends, increasing the social atmosphere. Currently both the IMMs and the playerbase is trying to balance the power that the Lords (as the highest current tier) have over the Low Morts and Heroes, i.e., with spellups and gear grabbing. There might come a time when this power will be completely cut off, although it is not in as a permanent feature right now (I'm not sure if it will be in the future). It does make the game easier (although most defintly not easy, mind you), when you have spellups and the ability to grab gear with higher alts. However, I have found that most new players generally don't enjoy this "perk" until after they have already heroed at least one character, and made close friends. And it is /very/ simple to refuse spellups/gear from higher alts who just want to be nice, I know many, many players who are very independent of higher tier help. I myself didn't have any to speak of with my first character. This MUD is quite newbie friendly. There are over 100+ on daily, and your questions are always answered. But, as always, some of the classes/races are harder than others, so play careful attention to those that have an * by them in creation. You probably don't want to be them as your first character. That is, of course, unless you like challenge. There IS plenty of that. I still get heart attacks when I think I'm about to die. And being a sprite (extremely low hp) caster, this happens a lot. The IMMs themselves... Well, some of them are more approachable than others, but for good reason. Some are coders, and thus their first job is not player relations. There have been a few very popular characters banned of late, without much explanation why, but this is merely to perserve the affected characters privacy and reputation. It is sometimes hard to get a group, depending on your race/class, but there are many things to do while you wait: explore, help lower characters than or... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Niki on Jan 24, 2002

It's me again, I really don't want to turn this review page into an arguing message board so this will be the last one for me. I would just like to point out a few things on that last review by Reuben. * I'll do some pointing out also, as Imp. game, often if you try to talk about recent subjects in the news imms will tell you to keep silence due to they are afraid it may spark something. This is a * Arguing about politics, religion and/or what you drank last night tends * to get squelched to the the very direction these conversations take. * However, feel free to discuss within a room, group or tells anything you * like. So the imms agree, that the quests are pointless, most of the time you get a * ??? * I don't remember ever getting mail from you proposing your exciting * ideas. I disagree with your statement as QuestMaster frequently has * to apply limits to awards from exuberant staff. ;) instances...If you witness an immortal acting unethically, the implementers would like to know. There is an outlet for players. A formal complaint may be This qoute is the most interesting of the most. For the instances I've seen have been done by the higher level imms, I prefer not to say who. But then you say * Then you compound and continue the problem. email them about it if you see it happening, that seems to say, if you see the mafia doing something wrong, go tell them about it. If you see one of the highest of the imms do something unethical, and it goes against policy, who do you tell? You can't tell anyone because by then they will have you jailed and * Cite examples instead of just flaming. sitebanned. This is Reuben's sugar coated reason for anything the imms do against policy, "Immortals are human." this is true indeed but even though they are human doesn't mean they should kill someone and take their gear for not doing something like apologizing to an imm. * I expect the staff to be at all times treated with respect. If they staff upsets * your value system in some way, you can respectfully discuss it with them * and/or you may mail me or the Exec Team directly. Honestly, most of our * problem players have issues because they fail to follow this one simple * rule, and feel they have a god-given right to throw a tantrum when they * are slighted. Explain to me how this rule that I impose to allow you to * play here freely is so constrictive and/or unfair? "..There are only 2 classes in the game worth playing.." * Imho I would reduce the entire system to casters and hitters and then * subclass from there. However, in this rare instance I sway to the majority, * including staff and players, and continue to development... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Snikt - Kevin Jagh on Jan 24, 2002

Disclaimer: I am a proud Avatar IMMortal. These observations are my own, and are based on at least 2500 years (er, Internet Years, that is) of mudding experience, sugar induced hysteria, and repeated application of Rogaine on my palms... which, of course, certainly shades my opinions. --Diz ----------------------- AVATAR MUD Reality check? Ummm, no thanks... As a subset of the game, Avatar MUD (avatar.outland.org 3000) encompasses enough detailed granularity to satisfy Dr. Einstein's concept of the perfectly ordered universe, and Dr. Frankenstein's penchant for creating a cohesive "whole" out of a puzzle maker's assortment. Provided, of course, that the universe was predicated on steroid enhanced, gene spliced, mutant Chaos Theory.... as a starting point. Yes, Avatar is THAT large and THAT startling. Sophisticated without senseless complexity, challenging without being brutally difficult, endlessly diverse, tremendously fun, and rewarding on every level of game play. Speaking of levels, the game isn't just about 'em (an attribute that is better experienced than described). But, if you're the guts 'n glory PowerMudding type; you will definitely find your niche at Avatar. We offer three distinct (and wildly divergent) philosophies of game play: - Low Mortal: This class of player is comprised of levels 1-50. Its where everyone enters the game, and where you begin to gather equipment that enhances your skills, racial attributes, and chosen profession. Its also where you learn to navigate through our gigantic world (over 200 areas comprised of nearly 13,000 rooms, and almost all of them are unique to Avatar), make friends, and earn the trust of your comrades. - Hero's: They are empowered to challenge ever larger and more megalomaniacal mobs (3 "M's: in a row!). So vast is the number of skills/spells in a Hero's repertoire, that the level band extends from 51 to 999. You'll go places that defy imagination, vanquish foes unknown on any other plane of existence, make the best friends you've ever known, and have the time of you life doing it! - Lords: Lords truly transcend the mortal plane. Literally. Upon achieving this hallmark, you are forever changed in ways that are mystical, tangible, and obscenely powerful. You'll travel differently, work with your fellow Lords in ways that are different than on any other MUD, and earn special abilities that are unavailable to any other race, class, or level in the game. Game play is so exciting that our Lords speak of their sojourn as addictive. Personally, I speak of it as "disciplined insanity". Why would anyone settle for dull monochromatic reality when Avatar MUD offers life as an Archer Centaur, a Monk Dragon, a Cleric Troll, or dozens of other creative and gritty characters? Without defining "gritty" (we'll leave that up to your imagination), I did want to distinguish between Lava Soap (with Pumice!) and this distinguishing characteristic. Want s'more? Come on over to avatar.outland.org 3000 and let the adrenalin flow.... --Dizzy (IMMortal of Avatar since Noah was a Cabin Boy)

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Dizzy on Jan 23, 2002

sorry, just as a clarification, i meant rules enforced on -public- channels, not private *toe* moiraine

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by moiraine on Jan 23, 2002

I've played on avatar for almost 1 1/2 years...and I found it addicting (a little too much in fact, as it lowered my grades a bit =P) anyway, that's not the point. In the time that I have been here, I've met many nice people. When I was a newbie, there were people there to help me. Yes, there are people on Avatar that aren't newbie-friendly, or aren't friends you'll want to make, but you can always ignore them. I find the new changes made to Avatar while I played fine. Some I disliked, but I lived with it. It's more of a challenge now, since to many people they could get a huge amount of levels in several days. Though some people may think the first 151 levels are the only fun parts in the game, I've enjoyed my entire time on Avatar. Trying to reach new goals all the time. Since I have become a lord, I've met something new that I could have fun with. I also like the rules enforced (on private channels) on Avatar. If there weren't the rules that kind of concern people around my age, like no cussing and such, I probably wouldn't be here and writing this review. I recommend this MUD to anyone that like company on the mud, and enjoys socializing. Go ahead and give it a try! It can't hurt.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Moiraine on Jan 22, 2002

I've played Avatar MUD for nearly three years now, and I've not yet seen a MUD to match it. In the years I've played, I've heroed several alts and gotten one to Lord status. Avatar does have some weaknesses which have pushed me into trying other muds over that time, but I always keep coming back. Avatar's three biggest strengths are the players (including the immortal staff, but definitely not limited to them), the balance and diversity of its classes, and overall friendly atmosphere of playing here. The no-player-kill policy of the mud is a big step in promoting that atmosphere. If your idea of a fun time is summoning newbies into aggie high-level areas or otherwise ambushing those weaker than yourself, you'll find that a lot of your activities are forbidden by the game structure itself here, and the imms will be rather displeased with you in short order. If you find yourself at odds with this policy often enough, you'll eventually find yourself banned from playing (as has happened to even a few well-connected and highly visible players). But those who remain are those who are the type willing to lend a helping hand to their fellow player, and no other mud I've been to has been so successful in collecting such a player base. An earlier post today made a comment that there were only two classes worth playing on the mud. I find that statement simply ridiculous. I've played nearly every class in Avatar, and like most of them. (My personal exception is the psi class.) The Avatar staff maintains a good diversity of classes along with a decent balance between the classes. Gear is the overriding factor of how well an individual does playing in Avatar, and those few who have twinky gear will end up doing slightly better than the majority who have decent, good gear. But the players who have poor gear will have a tough time even gaining experience. Fortunately, a player sitting in the donation room can usually get most of the gear he'd need in just a few hours of waiting. And plenty of helpful players will help a new player get the gear he needs. With that said, the weaknesses of Avatar should also be addressed. The biggest of them is that Avatar is indeed a hack-and-slash mud. While there are mini-quests scatered about, playing in Avatar often does boil down to find a mob and kill it. But I've logged in to Avatar simply to chat with friends, too. The same kind of weakness applies to the role playing aspect of the mud. While role playing is offically encouraged, very few actually go to the bother of creating different characters for their alts. But again, what you put in to playing is often what you get back. If you play strictly by the numbers, you may level faster, but if you're anything like me, you'll end up having less fun. And fun is the name the... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Floop on Jan 21, 2002

I first found Avatar in late 1996/early 1997 and have been hooked ever since. Avatar has a wonderful sense of community, friendship and vitality and is so much more than just a levelling MUD. "With only a few race/class combinations to enjoy, some of the more entertaining ones of old were removed (rangers and martial artists) they have been supossedly replaced with better ones that fit in more (archers and the very very rare sorcerer that only comes at a high price)." I personally don't call a choice of over 20 races and 6 currently playable classes with the addition of sorcerer and archer, a few. Sorcerors are currently limited in availability but this intentional as they aren't supposed to common. Archers will be available as of Jan 1 2002, to everyone as far as I am aware. "If you're looking for any sort of worthwhile PK, a dynamic world with more zones being added, inspired builders, down to Earth IMMortals, an in-depth spell list, original classes, origional races, origional zones, or any sort of fun after you hit the first 151 levels, then Avatar may not be the place for you." Avatar isn't intended to be a PK mud except in the designated areas or when someone is bountied for fun. If you want PK then go to a PK-orientated MUD. Over 80% of the areas are non-stock (original) and more new are currently being worked on by a dedicated team of builders. I am a very recent addition to the Immortal ranks at Avatar and as such feel I am still in touch with what it's like to be a player. We do respond to well thought-out and constructive criticism especially if we are given potential solutions to perceived problems. We also have mechanisms where PLAYERS can submit ideas/suggestions for improvements to the MUD and these are evaluated on a regular basis. Quests are run on a regular basis by players, Angels and Immortals for the enjoyment of other players.I often run trivias on all sorts of subjects. With the regular addition of new areas, spells and skills there is always something new to learn. Don't just take my word and those of the other reviews. Come visit us and see for yourself and form your own opinion :) We look forward to welcoming you to the AVATAR family.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Riviat on Dec 27, 2001

Avatar MUD has always offered its players the same thing: levels. It has gained its fame as a hack 'n slash mud, and continues to be only that. While the spells are almost all geared towards helping you gain levels by protecting your or smashing other people (directly or indirectly) there is little to no substance to the spell list. With only a few race/class combinations to enjoy, some of the more entertaining ones of old were removed (rangers and martial artists) they have been supossedly replaced with better ones that fit in more (archers and the very very rare sorcerer that only comes at a high price). The game is great if you're looking for innocence, but if you're looking for anything dynamic and entertaining I would advise going somewhere else. The classes have been virtually the same, and the most recent change that the game has seen to have a large impact in years was removed because it made things too much of a hassle. There was little to no testing done before submitting the change to players, whereupon they all went out and learned new skills to counter them, just to find out that they would be removed weeks later. Once you hit level 101 hero you have all the non-class defining skills of the other classes, so for the next 899 levels it is pure boredom of increasing nothing but your statistics. After you hit those levels you hit another 999 levels of shear boredom, where you find it difficult to level outside of the extremely rare HOGathons. All in all, the mud is great if you're looking for a mud to learn how to mud, complete and total innocence, and 3097 levels of hack 'n slash. If you're looking for any sort of worthwhile PK, a dynamic world with more zones being added, inspired builders, down to Earth IMMortals, an in-depth spell list, original classes, origional races, origional zones, or any sort of fun after you hit the first 151 levels, then Avatar may not be the place for you.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Ethan Hussong on Dec 27, 2001

I started playing this MUD as a way to monitor my 10 year old son's internet use. Now I'm hooked! The immortals are intelligent, hard-working and very careful to shield young players from some of the creepier types of people who lurk on the net. The only thing that might put off younger players is that their teachers could be logged on to avoid boring computer classes. All the best, Avatar! Trurl.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Trurl Klapaucius on Dec 26, 2001

Avatar is the most dynamic, sophisticated, and complex "World" I've ever had the pleasure of sojourning in. Just when I think I've figured everything out, some aspect of the game is enhanced and I have to adjust the way I think (and play) to accommodate the new paradigm (DOH!, Kinda like real life, only with swords, bloody companions, big hairy monsters, and enough mortal / IMMortal surprises to keep me on the edge of my keyboard!). We normally have well over 100 players at any given time, and this rowdy and adventuresome bunch is quietly thrilled with the breadth of game variety, stability, and hack 'n slash fun. Just recently we've had a vocal few (who characterize themselves as the Voice Of The Masses, and representative of the entire player base) who are disenchanted (ewww, bad pun) with some changes in game mechanics. In point of fact, the changes range from bug fixes to integral game-balance modifications that are beneficial and admittedly challenging, AND these players merely represent a fractional faction that invariably wail when change (and yes, Virginia.. ALL change is painful if you've become so ingrained (indoctrinated? brain-washed?) that you've lost any degree of flexibility or appreciation for the challenge of the game) occurs. So, c'mon over to Avatar and see what all the hubbub is about! Get lost in our 12,716 rooms, fight our 5,393 mobs, join a group or solo a bit and form your own opinions. I guarantee you this: you will NOT have to worry about falling asleep from boredom.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Raven (Immortal) on Dec 12, 2001

Disclaimer up front: I'm a senior member of staff on Avatar. Take what I say how you like. A bit of history: I've been playing Avatar since somewhere back in 1995 or 1996. I don't recall exactly when I started - and I don't really want to try (it'll prove I'm addicted!). I still have my original dragon character, started a few months after I started playing. One day I re-wrote the FAQ for the game and mailed it to the Imp. He loved what I had done with it, asked if he could have the copyright on it (I had it copyright to me) and what I wanted as a reward. Silly me asked for Immortality. Fast forward: I've now been an imm for over 4 years. In that time I've worked my way up to Elder status and an administrator of the system. I've seen spells and skills suggested by players get implemented with no changes (or very slight changes). I've seen suggestions from players cause a few days of discussion on the staff mailing lists, with the end result being something based on the player suggestion. I've then seen Snikt say 'Give that player a reward for the idea/suggestion'. One of our bigger problems with suggestions though is that we don't have a formal system to inform players as to which ideas have been accepted/rejected and why. Perhaps this Christmas I'll finish implementing that. One of the earlier reviews here talked about how we removed a bug that was 'fundemental' to the game play. Sorry, if its a bug, it is a BUG. If I was to guess, I'd think he (she?) means the one where when the leader of the group attacked the rest of the group got a free round of attacks, and then their real set of attacks. We removed the free round. Players enjoyed that bug for quite a while. Everything comes and goes in cycles. Unfortunately, many players like to focus on the stuff we remove, rather than the stuff we add. Moreover, many of the code fixes we make to the game aren't visible to the players in terms of increased damage, item perks etc. Instead they're stability fixes. A buffer problem here, a memory leak there. They exist, and we fix them when we can. We reboot, and players clamour to know what we just added to make them hit mobs harder. The fact that we work to keep the game stable seems irrelevant. Now, do I deny that some changes we make may be detrimental to the player base? No. However, in the end, this game is the property of one person. If he wants that change made, that change is made. Logical, clear and polite arguments can get him to change his mind. Complaining about how your warrior now 'sucks' and the change should be reversed - that won't do you any good. Oh, and finally - one of the other reviews said that they for... Read More

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Cuendillar on Dec 12, 2001

I am a lord alt on avatar(lord curently being the highest playable tier) and while I love Avatar very much for the MUD it is, I also hate it for not being the MUD it once was. These changes are mostly recent. The 'bugs' that have recently been found, the immortal attitude vs. the players "Hey, if you don't like what we're doing, you can leave?" To some this is a second home. Asking us to just drop and leave because you are putting in your/staff's idea that 75% of the players disagree with? Why bother changing something in a game when the players don't want it. Obviously this will upset the players, and at least somewhat, in less extreme cases, break their liking for the staff. A review mentioned newbie friendly: Very very true, if your looking for a newbie friendly MUD with lots of help, avatar is your spot:) You'll breeze thruogh the first 30 levels recieving lots of guidance and learning they game as you play. But do you think this has anything to do with the staff? Hardly. The avatar players are the cause for all of this help. So I guess in a final point, Avatar is still fun, but if upcoming changes mirror recent previous changes, I'd not get comfortable, you may find your self in search of a NEW home. Thats all, Continue on.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Anonymous on Dec 11, 2001

Of all the MUDs I tried, this was the only one who actually helped me, a newbie, understand the game. If you are not newbie friendly, how do you expect to convert Computer gamers to MUDders?

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Sombra on Dec 11, 2001

I beleive both kyandra and richard are right. but you should ask low heroes with no high lords like kyandra because hey if they say a bad review guess who gets their pfile purge. I have played a long time ever since I was in junior high. Yes it is like regular life but this is a fantasy game. They do put in new things but sometimes they remove more good things than the put in. One bug as they call it was in the Game since the beginning and was a foundation for the game. THey say it was so that people level slower. That is just like putting a barrier between the rich (lords) and the poor (newbies) the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The Lords already got great gear for all their alts so that they can level quite fast. Lord alts at least some do have imm quest weapons that lowbie will never get because we do not suck up. Hey I love the game but this game is a game that the players have now payed for. THey dont take vote to see what to remove and what to stay. Hey they work on it and make it crash sometimes and then dont help the people who lost gear because of the crash. THis game has good points but it should have the players making the changes not someone that doesnt play the game so if you come to this game it is under tyrannical rule. Sorry I cant use my real name on the game immortals would erase my pfiles if they found out. But hey at least some people are doing bad reviews because you should show the honey and the vinegar not what the immortals want which is all honey and no bad points until you are hooked.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Krystal on Dec 11, 2001

I have played avatar for only a little over 3 years. I am a Lady x5, a player and not an immortal. I still see AVATAR as the best mud around. Is everyone friendly 24/7? No, but the same is the case in real life. Is AVATAR ever changing, ever growing? Yes, and that is one of the things I love about it. New areas replace old, new challenges, new gear to find. Older areas are revamped to bring them more in line with the game. Is it frustrating the first time you play a well known area and it's a bit different? Yes, but ahhh the challenge. I have never played on another mud where the immortal staff cared as much as the do on AVATAR. Do they always agree with the players? No. Should they? No, for they are human and different from each of us. Is our description perfect? No, it was written by humans. We are not mostly stock. I have entered area building contests myself and seen player areas implemented. I have watched favorite "stock" areas be replaced by new ones. And most of the time, the new ones are better and better. So give a shot, come and play, I think you just might consider staying. And I hope you do. Lady Ky

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Kyandra on Dec 10, 2001

I have played avater over 5 years. At first the game is great nice players, leveling a good amount, and just having a good time. That happens for the first 50 levels of the game. THen the bad things happen you notice that the immortals of the game dont really care for players feelings any more. It feels like they know you are hooked in and so dont care anymore. I saw for the first year great people to level with and boy was it fun. But immortals started thinking since they are immortals player feelings dont matter. Well this change when the mud went down for 4 + months. Now that was fun because they were nice because they wanted your money. Once the Game was up and running again it went back to normal and even worse because we paid for the game and the immortals started making changes that really pissed off players. Immortals on the game are okay as long as you kiss up if you dont do that hey good luck just like me. DOnt play the game for fun just play it is what I now say. Shrug bad review should happen like good reviews. But reviews from the immortals saying how good that game is wrong. That is not the real review they dont play the game they just torture the players and lay wealth on the lucky ones.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Richard on Dec 9, 2001

I have been playing Avatar now for over 6 years, and first got involved when my then 9 year old son started playing. I was impressed by the care taken by staff to ensure all players feel comfortable there, and that younger, older, non-English speaking, and other people are respected. The game-play itself is addictive and fun, and the playerbase is large and constant. As an Australian, I play in the "off hours" for the US, but there are always plenty of people on-line. Avatar has progressed and evolved over the years, but remains consistent, fun and addictive.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Hyperion on Dec 8, 2001

I was looking over the description of AVATAR and I saw something that disturbed me. AVATAR is listed as being a "mostly stock area" mud. This is hardly the case! Avatar has 203 listed areas and a few 'hidden' ones. Of those, only 19 are still primarilly stock. Anyone with Silence, Strahd or Lok areas and consider them "stock" cannot consider them stock with AVATAR since they were AVATAR Immortals. Anyway, since I don't have the authority to change AVATAR's description, I thought it worth clarification. We're 90% unique, not 90% stock.

– TopMUDSites.Com Review by Crom on Jul 28, 2001