Did you know that Thoric was not always alone at the top of the wizlist?

It’s true! A quick visit to the Darkhaven library reveals that some unoriginal dude named Thoricabc was also once atop the wizlist in mid-1995 OK! That’s cheating, but hey, it got you reading didn’t it?

There are only two names on that list who are still on the wizlist today: we find Thoric at the top and if we look waaaay down to Lesser Gods to see our elder Ancient, Blodkai. We do see a number of other names who have left their mark on the game; Dominus – former Assamite and author of Seth’s Fortress, pre-Shattering deities Circe, Grishnakh, Scryn, Cabal, Taboo, Witherin and Adonia, we see Gorog perhaps best remembered for his watchdog among newer players and coders like Haus who contributed so much so long ago. Then there’s Blackrose? That was a long time before Dragon’s Pass, what the heck?

Despite standing astride the wizlist Thoric is a really down to earth guy. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him several times over the years, mostly at reunions and I will say that I’ve always enjoyed speaking with him … well unless you want to talk code … then the “i++” or “++i” debate threatens to ruin all! (Ok ok! No more code, I promise!!) Thoric generously agreed to answer some questions about himself and the early days of the Realms of Despair, so without further ado, I present Thoric, in his own words.

Prior to founding the Realms of Despair, I had experience with BBSing from about 1985, and didn’t discover MUDs until 1991. I primarily played a MUD called Mozart. I started Realms as a pet project while working for ComputerLink Online as a door game for the BBS. Realms came first, later a version of the code was released as SMAUG. Part of the reason for the official code release was due to the code (and areas) being stolen. The name “Realms of Despair” actually originates from the “Forest of Despair”, from the “Salburg” area which I started working on while playing Mozart and was never completed until many years after RoD had been up. Although I don’t play as a mortal at all Salburg has a special place in my heart. I actually never spent time as a mortal on Realms. The aspects that appealed to me were all ones that I had added to the code. This was by part inspired by my desire to make the Merc code base a little more like SillyMUD. One misconception about the early days of Realms is that the mud was originally PKill only. Realms was never PK specific. Originally there were less rules, and later PK specific code was added.

I think that one of the greatest accomplishments that Realms achieved occurred when Realms was still young, back around 1997, the development and evolution of the code was very rapid and significant changes and rewrites would happen nearly overnight. I think it was somewhere around this point that the game really came alive and defined itself from others, laying the foundation the rich maturation that followed.

Back in 1999 we had the opportunity to take Realms in the direction of MMORPGs like WoW, but it felt too risky. I believe there was a huge missed opportunity there. If we could go back and have a “do over”, I think that would be it.

Other than its longevity, the aspect of the Realms of Despair that has surprised me the most is mostly how many people met in the game and got married in real life.

It’s tough to say what might be needed in order for the Realms to survive another 20 years I imagine it would need to evolve into something a little different than it is now, which is perhaps something that should have started long ago. I’m open to ideas regarding the nature of this evolution. I don’t know if fundamental changes would be required but without some changes things will be come stagnant and I don’t see them lasting [another] 20 years without some evolution. I’m sort of envisioning something with mobile support, but interested in what others are suggesting.