Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs
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Hi, all!
Andruid here - occasional reader, though this is the first time I’ve spun up an account to post something. Thought I was going to get this in quick but ended up losing myself for an hour in some really interesting discussions on PvP and the My Guy Syndrome. …now find myself a bit short on time before work meetings hit.
Long story short: I’m running an anonymous survey on how the MU* niche is doing in 2026 (what people are excited about, what’s worrying them, and where they see themselves in the hobby a year from now). Takes about 1-3 minutes, open until May 25. Results to be shared with the community.
I’d love to get more representation from the folks in this forum. If you’re up for sharing your two cents, here’s the link to the survey:
https://surveys.writing-games.org/state-of-the-niche-2026-8nXcSnBeyond that, I’m also on the lookout for interesting projects to highlight (past examples: https://writing-games.org/interviews/). If you’re running a cool project or know of one that hasn’t been covered yet, please feel free to hit me up! I’m on Discord, too, if that’s easier.
Okay, gotta get back to my desk. Thanks for reading!
"Be excellent to each other." 😎🎸
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@Andruid You may want to peek here: https://brandmu.day/topic/621/intro-to-mu-ing-event/14
@Jihgfed is in the middle of a pretty cool project that’s getting featured at https://torontogamesweek.com/index.html
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@Muse Thank you!
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@Andruid I filled it out, I did my part! Thank you for organizing this, I’m very curious to see the results.
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For those who are interested, the results have just been published here:
https://writing-games.org/2026-state-of-the-niche-report/So many thoughtful responses from the MUSH/RP community - wish I’d had room to highlight more of them in the report.
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Thank you for doing this! It was fascinating.
I’m curious: you highlighted some areas the MUSH / RPI / MUD community varied. How strongly did you feel that difference in the data?
Also noted that you aligned MUSH and RPI results more than I expected. I’ve tend to think of RPI as a type of MUD. Do you find that RPI aligns more with MUSH or is it very much its own thing?
she/they
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Now, questions for us:
The largest sentiment gap is by preferred game style – MUD fans average 3.53 while MUSH fans average 2.85 (49.2% vs 19.5% happy) (Table 10, Figure 10).
Why so unhappy, fam?
she/they
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@Tez said in Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs:
Now, questions for us:
The largest sentiment gap is by preferred game style – MUD fans average 3.53 while MUSH fans average 2.85 (49.2% vs 19.5% happy) (Table 10, Figure 10).
Why so unhappy, fam?
We have WoD. MUDders don’t. >_>
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@Pavel said in Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs:
We have WoD. MUDders don’t. >_>
Haven of the Embraced is / was a thing.
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@MisterBoring said in Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs:
@Pavel said in Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs:
We have WoD. MUDders don’t. >_>
Haven of the Embraced is / was a thing.
And yet it was not called Haven: the Embraced? Fake fans.
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@Tez said in Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs:
Now, questions for us:
The largest sentiment gap is by preferred game style – MUD fans average 3.53 while MUSH fans average 2.85 (49.2% vs 19.5% happy) (Table 10, Figure 10).
Why so unhappy, fam?
I imagine it’s just easier to make people who want to play an MMO happier than it is to make people who are primarily after narrative/story happen, lol. No hate on either genre or game style one way or the other, but I suspect that’s a big part of it.
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@Tez Great question! I felt a lot of overlap. Some of the people who chose MUSH as their preferred style mentioned RPIs in their responses, and some of the people who chose RPI mentioned MUSHes. I’ve played both, and I know people who play both, so that didn’t come as too much of a surprise.
Individuals in both groups mentioned the culture/community getting healthier/more mature (MUD fans said this too), and individuals in both groups suggested there is still room for improvement in dealing with issues like favoritism and toxic behavior. The idea that MU*s offer a unique collaborative writing experience was shared by people in both groups, too.
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@Tez said in Hello, Survey, and Looking for Recs:
Now, questions for us:
The largest sentiment gap is by preferred game style – MUD fans average 3.53 while MUSH fans average 2.85 (49.2% vs 19.5% happy) (Table 10, Figure 10).
Why so unhappy, fam?
friendship is bad and people shouldn’t have it
