Talker

Taking off on the idea of a mud, we start with a system in which people log in remotely, probably via telnet, and has a basic typed interface with which to communicate, and compete with other users to gain experience points, treasure, and so on. of course, it's all virtual, so sometime people get bored of it and sit and communicate with their friends across such a system.

This is where the talker comes in. If we strip out all the combat and competition, and leave the communication parts, we have a very nice chat system. and most code bases are open source, so anyone can add miniature games and amusements to this system. so we have a real feeling of mutual enjoyment in a nice atmosphere.

Alternatively, in a more modern context, we have the chat system. typically, these are large systems with propritery interfaces and limiting abilities, such as the chat rooms on AOL. So if we make a standard interface accessible via IP address and a standard Port Number across telnet, then we can make it so anyone can login in without much in the way of proprietary downloads. the data all comes streaming across standard routes.

Again, this is where we use a talker. we can start one up simply on most any unix box. many telnet clients exist, and come standard with most operating systems.

People who use talkers are often referred to as spod[?].

Talkers tend to run on a number of code bases, such as ew-too[?], summink[?], sensi-summink[?], and playground.

Many users of talkers enjoy the use of clients such as Gmud[?], Zmud[?], tinyfugue[?], the basic telnet interface in a UNIX system, or the standard windows telnet client (although this is typically considered awful).