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IPLAY

  • noun The incarnation of MUD2 which ran on the Interplay (Engage) network from 1994 to 1996. A shining example of why exclusivity contracts are a bad idea (to go with the other shining examples of the BL and VAX incarnations...).

    Historical note: after frustration with Access 24 and NVN, Bridgette Patrovsky took MUD2 to Interplay. This is where the game was finally to hit the big time. As has happened on so many occasions, MUD2 was the headline, opening product for a business (in this case, the new Online division, which was later to become Engage Games Online) and it suffered terribly from this pioneer status (or, perhaps more accurately, this guinea pig status). Programmers for the client came and went for various bizarre reasons, inter-division bickering within Interplay resulted in some strange management decisions, and after a while the client project fell behind schedule. Network problems meant players from other MUD2s preferred those, and some said so publicly; eventually, Interplay was faced with the choice of either cancelling MUD2 or going for an exclusive. They chose the latter. MUSE had little option but to accept, since it had other contracts with Interplay upon which it was relying. The main rival to IPLAY's incarnation, Dragon, closed early rather than wait for the "inevitable". Even so, changes in personnel at Interplay/Engage marginalised MUD2's internal supporters; the game itself continued to thrive due to Bridgette's efforts and the fact that at this stage it was free. Interlay did not, however, sign the exclusivity contract, despite drafting it themselves and holding onto the copy MUSE had signed for something like 8 months; they decided to cancel the project instead - and all those other projects MUSE was working on for them. In the meantime, MUSE had turned down chances to get the game on other major networks, most notably AOL, in the belief that Interplay would sign and therefore acquire exclusivity. The entire episode was a body blow from which MUSE has taken some time to recover.


Copyright © Multi-User Entertainment Ltd. (muse@mud.co.uk)
23rd September 1999: iplay.htm