Are there any decent, free MUD or MMORPG creators out there? Im looking for one to learn off of, as next year I plan to go to college for Game Software Development and wish to start poking around.

I don't want Playerworlds or something similar, I've poked around in that and I'm bored of it.

I'm not so sure about MUD 'creators', but there's a lot of MUD codebases for you to work with. Take a Google around for "MUD codebases".

My personal recommendation (ie. the MUD codebase I first started with way back when) is with CircleMUD (http://www.circlemud.org/), however. I found it simpler to use than a lot of the bulkier ones, and pretty easy to get running.

However, the majority of MUD codebases are written in C, so either be sure to have some prior programming knowledge, or move into this with a lot of patience, and be prepared for lots of hard work irregardless of your choice. Creating anysort of online game is a difficult and rewarding experience. :)

Good luck!

Hmm... I will check that one out...

While I am, does anyone know of any decent MMO creators, or even MO will do...

IF you looking for a mud creator go to mudmaker.com

Try to learn BASIC, C/C++, .NET, Python, etc. That'll be more beneficial to your classes than a pre-made program. If you want to start off small, try GameMaker. It's not for MMOs, but you CAN make it online.

http://www.gamemaker.nl/

Hmm, thanks aduckie, Ill check that one out.

And I do already know some BASIC and C++, but I do need more.

There's RealmCrafter, which costs $55 ($110 for Pro version which includes the Blitz Basic source code). I'm not too fond of it.

There's Kaneva. It contains the base functionality in the core (closed source), and new stuff including new functionality are done through scripts and their custom API. The scripting is done in either Python or Lua. From what I can tell it's best to do the server scripts in Python and the Client Scripts in Lua because if you do the Client Scripts in Python the end user will need to install python to use the game. It's currently in beta, but is fully functional and capable of creating with. It's what I myself am currently using. The game platform is free to download. However, you can only host on their servers (they take care of everything including billing and what not), and you need to pay $200/month or $2/player for server costs (which ever is more) and there is a license fee. This means that you can't have a free MMO, but you can set your own price.

There's also Multiverse. It's a lot like Kaneva except that it hasn't quite reached open-beta. The main difference between this and Kaneva is that they'll host your game for free if you like (or you can charge). I personally would go with them, but it doesn't seem that they'll be done for a while.

I'll probably stick with Kaneva for a while until I do some sort of super huge overhaul and then switch over to Multiverse.

-Bryan-

Hey i once mada a game on mud maker but abondoned for one reason:

Can you publish it on your website or anywhere else apart from their website for that matter

Game making isnt like picking up a program typing in what you want and it turning into a game. It takes a hell of a lot of patience. If you want to create a MMORPG I suggest you start with a regular RPG or playerworlds. To make a regular RPG a good set of tools are:
C++ Visual Studio Microsoft
OGRE3D
Blender
Newton Game Dynamics
GIMP/Photoshop ($)