So where to begin, MUME. It?s a difficult thing to explain to others. I?ve been playing this game since 1996 with quite a few breaks - every time I?ve tried a new game (like wow, lotro, other mmorpgs) i always end up coming back to mume. I?ve often pondered why and I will try to explain. Games for me involve emotion, I have to feel a bond to the character and enjoy playing it. It has to be challenging and yet rewarding. There has to be both solo and group challenges, for whatever mood I am in and how much time there is available. Most games meet these requirements for a time, but it often becomes just a pure grind. Not on mume though. There is no game ever that has gives so much emotion, from the immense thrill of player killing (with its harsh punishments and rich rewards) to the long evenings where you slowly explore, learn and xp with friends. And quite a few of those have been a lot more talking and getting to know the players behind the keyboard than actually doing something real in game. It is a hard game to get started on - but a few changes has been made since the last reviews on here. There is now a starting area with quests and rewards on the whitie (whitepuke) side. On the dark side or the zaugurz side there is no such aid. The players are mostly always helpful and aiding (just don?t spam/annoy). It is a huge game, enormous with good written descriptions. There are loads of mobs (npc), doors and quite a lot of hidden secrets. The game has its own language to control the interactivity of rooms, exits, mobs, equipment and movement. There are roots that trap you, roofs that collapse if you?re to heavy and unrelenting rangers that hunt. The complexity, the playerbase and the game itself has to be experienced. And if you come join the rich Tolkien based world - stay a while and learn and get passed the first steep learning curve.

Hello and welcome to my review. I've been looking for a good mud to call home for quite a while. But in essence, I left a paid mud to play this free one. This is an honest review for mudders who are seeking a non biased mud-review. To begin with, this mud is not for the casual player, simply because it has a HIGH learning curve. Moreover, the game is not easy- far from easy. The only reason i insisted in learning it was because of the fantastic game maps, which i will talk about in a moment. I definitely did not regret it, because every few minutes the detail in this game would captivate me. The game is based on tolkien world with three sides- The good side, being the humans, hobbits, elves, half-elfs, the bad side- orcs and trolls, and one more side of rogue orcs, on nobody`s side. All the players on one side can only talk to the players on that side, and have no contact with the other side if not in the same room. When you log on to one side and type WHO, you will see a total number of players. At times you may see only 30 people online, but that is the total number of people online at your side. You cannot know how many people are on the other side, although usually its fairly balanced, with about 30 people on light side, and around 20-30 on the dark side. I haven`t an idea of how many play the third side. It is open PK between the three sides, meaning you kill on sight. However, PKing on the same side can have in game consequences. The mud has extensive help files, but it's no walkthrough. There is no newbie training area, and after character creation you are literally thrown into the game. The help files explain every useful command, but doesn't tell you exactly what else to do. What it does encourage you to do however is to ask ask ask. Players are very helpful in this game, and about three times people came to me asking if I were new. After responding yes, they would have me follow them to various places, some equipping me with better armor, some giving me gold, and some offering to hunt with me. Players overall were (are) helpful, and not once were any rude on the channels, either to me or to each other. You will see curse words once in a while. Expanding on the game`s difficulty, when you die, you lose all your items, left on your corpse. If you died to an enemy, they are free to loot your corpse. They are actually free to do anything with your corpse, really. But, the same way, you can have fun with your enemies, like stealing those hard to find equipment after a careful backstab. This may please some people, might scare others, but its good to know that everyone have... Read More

Hi guys and gals! If you are reading this, then you are considering play MUME. This game is singlehandedly the best MUD i have ever played. The game has a steep learning curve but there are many ways of learning the game quickly and efficiently. The player helpfiles are awesome and very helpful and most of the players are willing to help out. There are the random smart mouths (ME) but ignore the banter and you will find out that they are helpful as well! ;) MUME is such a wonderful, huge, and amazing world that it is very difficult to explain in just one little box. In my humble opinion you should take the time and play the game and learn the nuances of the magic of MUME. As a long time player and gamer, I avidly stress the fun that MUME will be. If you like strong communities and amazing player interaction, this is the game for you. Peace out for now. Thanks for reading this tiny piece on the world of MUME. See ya on the other end of my blade! Curt

MUME is really something else when it comes to Middle Earth world "simulations", if you will. The whole thing is just very realistic, very gritty and and pacey and makes you feel like you are really there... and I havent even ventured out from the shire yet, where I hear things are really quite tame compared to the rest of the world! I like the addition of the libraries where you can go and look up stuff if you dont have anyone to help you along, even though people are also always friendly and willing to help you out. There also seems to be a heavy aspect to the PK and player wars further into the game, but you cant really experience it at the lower levels, where everything is more of a coop against the monsters game. All in all a good experience. Two thumbs up.

Hi there. I just read the recent review on mume, and being a long time player, I thought I should set you straight. First of all, I've played mume for the last 4 years. I've always loved it, because it is so dang challenging. You are thrown in the middle of a light vs dark race war, and the main goal of the game is to become strong enough, and win some victories for your side. But sadly, that is not the goal for a lot of people. Mume is plagued by players who are very greedy, very newbie unfriendly, and are often seen killing other players for a piece of eq etc. Not to say that there aren't the ocasional nice guys, but they are a lot more rare then they should be. The highest amount of people you see on mume at a time is maybe 30. That doesn't include the other side of the racewar, as you can't see them on who... but there are probably 60 in all... and that number is diminishing daily. Mume has become a backstabbing, overbearing, newbie-hating world that is just no fun to play in any more. It is not unlikely at all for a level 1 newbie to venture out of bree, looking to exp a bit in the shire, and get overkilled by a pack of trolls, butchered, fully looted, and have his corpse burned. I have stayed on the mud for so long, because I have always thought that if I dedicated myself, I could become a good pker, and have some respect come my way. This has never happened sadly, and even though I have gotten one of my chars to god level, he is unable to do anything. The god or ainor levels are obtained by first completing a pretty easy istari quest. This consists of simply exping for a few levels in the form of an eagle. There are so many ainor now, that most have absolutely nothing to do. And the ones who do do one thing or another, are unable to change mixed up code etc, because of the fact that the mud admin will not let anything large be changed. Infact, when asking high up imms about a certain bit of code that has not worked right for years, the charging skill for instance, he most likely responds that he has know idea how to change it, because it was put in so long ago that nobody nowadays knows anything about it. There are also several skills/spells that have been downgraded so heavily, that they are unusable. If it sounds as though I'm bitter, I apologize, I have simply lived through this for years, and am now venting a bit:P I do still love the game, but it is so unbalanced, and unfriendly, that I have finally given it up completely... which I must admit is hard to do. Thank you for your time Brawndel

I played several MUDs before trying MUME. I remember my first impression of MUME was that it's hard. By comparison, most MUDs are relatively easy to learn, level up, and acquire items. And like a lot of people, I initially lost interest and played other MUDs - MUME was too big, too hard, and too complicated. In 2000, with the upcoming Lord of the Rings movies, I decided to give MUME another try. It didn't take long before I was a helpless addict, and the irony is that the very same reasons why I left before are why I got hooked and continue to play today. It's too big! It's massive, detailed, sprawling...and it's wonderful. I loved the Lord of the Rings and other books (The Hobbit, Silmarillion, etc) and playing MUME has educated me with its exceptional detail and adherence to Tolkien's vision. Minutia of Middle Earth that I hadn't even begun to consider is illustrated in exacting detail throughout the entire MUD. Areas, objects, and characters, both central and peripheral to the story, populate and enrich the game world. Grey Havens, Blue Mountains, Shire, Bree, Fornost, Weathertop, Rivendell, Misty Mountains, Isengard, Tharbad, Lorien, Fangorn, Rohan...and yes of course Moria, are all present and ready to be explored. And MUME continues to grow and add new detail to an already rich environment. I know because I am now one of those people that help make it grow. Yes it?s still hard! But that's the fun part. Yes, MUME is harder (at the beginning) to play then most MUDs, but it is also much more rewarding. Equipment is difficult to acquire, areas are large and sometimes hard to learn, mobiles are very diverse in both description and purpose. These factors come together to create a very challenging environment. But you learn through others and personal experience, and you start to acquire items and learn what you need to know to overcome obstacles. It is complicated! But that?s because it?s so elaborate! Think about this - how many games have you played, learned everything there is to know about it, and then become bored and stopped playing? For me, that happens with most games. But MUME is much too complex to learn everything about it. And even if you expertly learn every single detail that there is to learn about MUME, there is the PK factor. For some it is THE reason to play MUME. PK on MUME is incredibly competitive. And MUME management has done a very good job of maintaining the competitiveness. This doesn't mean that things are balanced. In fact playing the dark races is significantly harder then playing one of the free people races. But don't make the mistake of thinking that darkies are weak. They just have a different set of strengths and weakness. To paraphrase the matrix, if you see *a dreadful Orc* then you do what I do, run! Seriously though, PK adds an extra element of excitement to MUME that few... Read More

Once upon a time I discovered the fair land of Middle Earth. Here, noble elves wearing burnished chainmail and wielding glittering spears fought to the death with the foul creatures of the Dark Lord Sauron. Across hill and dale, from the tallest mountain to the deepest mine echoed shouts of triumph and screams of agony. Great warriors fell, the faint of heart fled, and out of the carnage of battle arose new heroes of all races. MUME is an immensely varied world in which a player may assume the role of a soldier of the free people or a servant of the Dark Lord Sauron. There are numerous races and classes, with an immense amount of combinations to choose from. The world itself is massive, stretching from the immortal lands of Valinor in the West to the Forest of Mirkwood in the East to the City of Fornost in the North to the Plains of Rohan in the South. It seems that building activity has picked up recently, with Isengard, Rohan, and Fangorn being recently opened. While RP is encouraged, MUME is, and hopefully forever will be, a PK-centered MUD. However, despite the fact that most choose at one point or another to join the epic war between the Armies of the West and the forces of Sauron, it is possible to avoid PK altogether. MUME has a large playerbase from all around the world, with the vast majority being friendly and at least somewhat helpful. As a longtime player, I would encourage anyone willing to have some fun and try something new to give MUME a try - perhaps the Land of Middle Earth can become a home for you!

Justifiably one of the most popular MUD's out there, MUME has done an excellent job of building a world based on the Lord of the Rings. It offers something for everyone: Player Killing action (Elf vs Orc for example) for the thrillseeker, 100 levels (only 1 player has reached that mark in 15 years) as well as several levels of Wizard for the goal oriented, An ENORMOUS map with endless monsters, puzzles, quests, items for the Explorers out there as well as an average of 100 players online at any time for those who just want to hang out and chat!

It is year 2006 and MUME is still up after 15 years! The base has grown, news zones have been opened, not mentioning new players and new game objects, mobiles. The newest area that has been opened is Fangorn Forest, before that: some Rohan zones, if we go more to the past: Lorien forest was enlarged, City of Caras Galadhon was opened and much more. In numbers, Mume has (on January 4, 2006): 22,331 open rooms in 217 zones 1,332 types of objects 1,400 types of mobiles 2,690 player accounts 18,016 characters in player accounts The game has many support pages. The most common is Elvenrunes (www.elvenrunes.com), forum, post logs, player profiles ect. Support page for beorning race (http://mume.freyja.pri.ee/bears/). Last but not least http://mume.pvv.org See you there!

A logical, realistic and strategy Tolkein based pk-mud. 100 players on all 3 sides Spam is greatly reduced allowing for better pk-action as well as more realistic game play. Example: hps/mana/moves numeric prompt is replaced with words which rely your current state (instead of 150/400 hps you would get Wounded, instead of 30/126 mana you would get Cold. Full hps,mana and above 30% moves gives you NO visable indicators, just a simple prompt. Imagine yelling to your lab friend IM AWFUL, CURE ME NOW, instead of I've got 10hps left. It creates a more enjoyable 'panic effect.' A command for mathematical values of the text is also avaliable. Link does matter as the game is very much real-time vs. somewhat turn-based muds. Example: Spell delay is 'BEFORE' rather than after allowing for canceling out by 'vicitims' weapon, bash or quicker spells. You can dodge/parry weapon to continue casting or use STORED spells to go thru vicitims spell. Strategy plays important part as a caster vs. max mana in other muds. Some mobs track as well can pk'ers and I've yet to see a game with a more intelligent and logical tracking system. Don't be surprised to walk out of a city and run into a newbie ripping, tracking wolf your first day. *HINT* luring tracking mobs/players is a must know stratgey for good kills/escapes. Justice system is also very intelligent and "almost impossible" to kill. You can pick off a few guards or get a huge group to kill. EQ is realistic and logical to Middle Age eq, maybe not to other muds though. 90% of eq is not especially named for MUME and doesn't contain words like "faintly humming, glowing or other magical adjectives" to describe them. There are a few items like this, but considered legend or artifact. WORKING GLOWSWORDS btw. 90% of eq uses words like thin, thick, soft, hard etc to describe. Plain clothes give dodge bonus/leather ob/metal armour absorb/chain gives armour without -ob or -db. Read anything about Middle Age eq/ or use logic and you can figure it out. Every eq piece has both advantages and disadvantages; weight/ or loss in defensive or offensive stat are some disadvantages. No banking and other pk'ers can take your corpse eq. Mobdeath is lost level and pk death is lost/given xp. After legend level 26 practices and hps increase by 1 per level. Some will spells (blindness) increase vs. lower level, but a level 60 warrior has very few advantages vs. a level 26 warrior. Stragtegy, map knowledge eq can play a larger part in battle. Pk Combat is best suited for labs and solo-thieves. Trapping behind closeables and uber linked labs spamming down slower linked players are frowned upon, but common. Backstabbing xping players is also common. The thief class is at times best of any mud. Its often tweaked to balance it, because it can be a little overpowered or sometimes unusable in pk. Warpoints/warlords list available. One web site with daily pk... Read More

One word describes MUME very closely to reality: AWESOME. I have played MUME for two years now, and since then, I tried to play other MUDs. Most of them are much more confusing than MUME. Of course, when I played MUME, it was hard for me to get all the different types of commands, but then, you don't need that many. There are plenty of nice folk playing out there (though you can meet someone real mean). If you're confused, they'll help you. If you need money, they'll share. For example, if you died, and your level is too high to get a newbie kit, you can ask them so spare some money, and someone usually comes and gives you some. Once I even got 10 gold from a person (a very good amount of money for an average-level player). And I'm not talking about the cool Tolkien theme. I'm a very big fan of Tolkien, and it's fun to know more than the game to tells you about the place where you are standing. If you're a hardcore Tolkien fan, that this MUD is for you no doubt. If you're not, well... I think you'll enjoy it anyway.

I have been playing mume for over a year now and seems to me that although it is said that mume is harder that other muds, its seems a whole lot easier. Ofcourse you have the minor drawbacks at the beginning: learning maps and new commands(which in mume, are quite many). One of the most interesting thing in the game are the so-called travel points which you get when you travel to more remote areas of the land. This is needed to gain a new level, besides experience. This is also realistic: how can you become a high-level adventurer if you constantly kill in a 10 square area? You have to see the world and experience it to be an experienced player. Another thing i like about mume is that there are no banks. If you die then well, you can try to get your stuff back or bye-bye money! This also is good because i doubt there were banks at the age of dragons and knights... I like MUME also because of its huge areas which never get boring and also because its much easier to learn in the beginning. But the most reason i play this is because it bases on J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth creations which were very thorough meaning so is MUME. If you read the books and play the game, it brings a smile to your face: i know this place! This game doesnt have any difficult rooms for making different descriptions for yourself(your description is done via the change description command) , no nokill areas etc. You can choose if you want to become a member of the army of The West or the Red Eye... Tolkien fans and all other mud-players...this is the absolute MUD experience!

I have played MUME since 1995, on and off. After trying out a number of MUDs, I settled for the kind that is 100% original areas, mobiles etc. MUME has this, plus the ability of playing both good and evil in the War of The Ring. The game is huge (almost 20k rooms) with areas like Tharbad, Moria, Rivendell, Eregion, Grey Havens and many more, which leaves a lot of room for exploration. The areas are generally very well built, and have tons of special effects coded in Mudlle (an internal quite advanced programming language), enabling mobiles to be quite "smart" and really improves the gaming experience. In conclusion I would recommend this MUD for explorers, level-racers and PKers alike - since it has all of it.

After a shock from losing my favorite MUD, I was looking for something new to play that I could "sink my teeth into". I decided to try something with a Tolkien-esque flavour, and came up with MUME. To my surprise and delight, MUME is most playable. There's lots to see and do, and it's fairly easy to get around. The commands are many and varied, sometimes to the point where you get a little confused. However, this MUD is most newbie-friendly (some of the players were downright hostile in the game toward me), however, most of the people I've met there are very nice and have assisted me immenstly. All in all, a big "thumbs up" for MUME, and this MUD is a must for any Tolkien fan. Be warned, it's loosely based on the series, and not to the letter. Steve wolfpaw1966@aol.com