I don't think its that surprising to find active communities on MUDs. AVATAR, Discworld, Aardwolf, and BatMUD regularly sport 50-100+ players. I've been playing MUDs for over a decade now and there is something to them I still can't quite explain. The abstraction provided by text allows for some unique gaming experiences -- I also believe there is something to be said for the smaller communities that build up around the games.
I am currently writing a WebSockets (nodejs, socket.io) engine (a present to my sixteen year old self), you can have a look here: https://github.com/MoreOutput/RockMUD. It aims to increase the 'functionality' of a MUD by taking advantage of the browser.
I am currently writing a WebSockets (nodejs, socket.io) engine (a present to my sixteen year old self), you can have a look here: https://github.com/MoreOutput/RockMUD. It aims to increase the 'functionality' of a MUD by taking advantage of the browser.
MUME is a great MUD!