I’ll be honest; I’m no spring chicken anymore. Given that I’m less than a year away from 40 I’ve accepted that a majority of my gaming life is now a memory. While there are plenty of games I’m looking forward to, the creeping hand of death awaiting me means that sometimes it’s more fun to look back at the sort of games I played as a kid. That’s why I was so happy to see the Solar Eclipse Kickstarter launch today. When was the last time you saw a MUD launch on Kickstarter? It just doesn’t happen!
In my early teens I lost countless hours to the Battletech 3025/3026 MUSE. Politicking, role playing, fighting, chatting; those are the things that long summer days were made for. Never mind the technical differences between a MUSE, MUD, MUSH, MOO, or MUCK, the only people that will eagerly share the differences with you are the sort of folks you should avoid at parties. All you need to know is that MUDs and their ilk are basically like text based MMO’s.
That brings us to Solar Eclipse, a MUD that’s been online for about 15 years now. Quite a track record!
Unfortunately the positives of the Solar Eclipse Kickstarter end with wistful thoughts of the past. The Solar Eclipse MUD is actually down at the moment due to “maintenance” and “server migration,” a curious time to launch a Kickstarter. The lack of funding video, single $1.00 backer level, and absence of any information regarding funds allocation is just a cherry on top of the fact that the funding goal is $100,000. It’s tough to say which is worse, the fact that the developers are asking for $100k to update their MUD, or that they’re asking for so much with nothing to show.
