Richard Bartle - Part 1 - MUD (Multi User Dungeon)

From Video Game Newsroom Time Machine by Karl Kuras

August 2, 2025 · 2h 13m

About this episode

Richard Bartle discusses his role in the creation of MUD1 and his influence on multiplayer gaming.

While there are many founders of the video game industry writ large, the dawn of multiplayer gaming is a much more select group of luminaries and our guest today, Richard Bartle is most definitely one of them. He cocreated MUD1, the first Multi User Dungeon game as a college student and has gone on to help shape the academic view of gaming ever since. Recorded: January 2025 Video version: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135579198 Get us on your mobile device: Android: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly92aWRlb2dhbWVuZXdzcm9vbXRpbWVtYWNoaW5lLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz iOS: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/video-game-newsroom-time-machine And if you like what we are doing here at the podcast, don't forget to like us on your podcasting app of choice, YouTube, and/or support us on patreon! https://www.patreon.com/VGNRTM Send comments on Mastodon @videogamenewsroomtimemachine@oldbytes.space Or twitter @videogamenewsr2 Or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vgnrtm Or https://bsky.app/profile/vgnrtm.bsky.social Or videogamenewsroomtimemachine@gmail.com Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bartle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracosm…

People in this episode

Host: Karl Kuras

Guest: Richard Bartle

Topics covered

multiplayer gaming
video game history
MUD
game design
Richard Bartle

Keywords

Richard Bartle
MUD1
multiplayer gaming
video game history
game design

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: MUD1