Text Based Games Online

Text-based adventure games (also known as IF or Interactive Fiction) is a classic genre where all the interaction takes place through on-screen words, and they’re still alive today. While they were born from hardware limitations, text-based games can still be played on modern devices.

And you don’t have to pay or install anything to do play these titles. Instead, you can just play them right now in your web browser. Here are some great text-adventure games available to play.

1. The Dreamhold

An online text-based role playing game is a role-playing game played online using a solely text-based interface. Online text-based role playing games date to 1978, with the creation of MUD1, which began the MUD heritage that culminates in today's MMORPGs. The internet is a weird place, and this game is weirder. It can be played here: It differs from most text games by the high level of customization. Choices actually make a big difference. There are a lot of different routes through the game, covering many different interests.

Specifically created for first-time IF players, The Dreamhold is an excellent way to get acquainted with this genre. Aside from its relatively short length and low difficulty, the game also features a “tutorial voice” that gives you hints throughout the experience.

If you’re not a novice, you can still enjoy The Dreamhold, though. Just type tutorial off to disable that part of the game. And if you’d like ever more of a challenge, type expert to enter Expert mode, which makes some puzzles harder.

As for the game itself, the plot here revolves around you waking up inside a cell. You don’t remember how you got there, and need to explore to figure it out.

Play Now:The Dreamhold

2. Zork

Zork is one of the earliest and best-known text games. Originally launching in the late 1970s, it has survived the test of time due to its high quality of storytelling and advanced text recognition. For such an old game, the text parser is not picky about what you enter.

Zork was actually split into three parts. This first one starts you in front of a white house with no further instructions. After working your way into the house, you’ll begin the adventure proper and need to collect as much treasure as you can.

Zork supports saving and restoring, and you can even change how much information the game gives you about new locations using the brief and verbose commands. This classic is a great starting point for getting into text adventure games. Give it a try and see how long you can survive before you’re eaten by a grue.

Text Based Games online, free

Play Now:Zork

3. Spider and Web

Spider and Web is a text-adventure game from 1998 from the same creator behind The Dreamhold. This adventure has you play as a spy who was captured when masquerading as a tourist. You gradually figure out what’s going on at the same time your character does.

Notably, the dialog options in this game are simple compared to others. When asked a question, you can only answer Yes, No, or stay silent. This makes it easier to decide what you want to do, but that doesn’t mean the game is easy.

It’s often tough to keep track of what’s going on and keep your story straight, so expect a high level of difficulty. You can save and restore to avoid having to replay large chunks; the game also includes an Undo command for when you fail.

Play Now:Spider and Web

4. Night House

Are you in the mood for a must-play horror gameThe Scariest Must-Play Horror Games for HalloweenThe Scariest Must-Play Horror Games for HalloweenIn the spirit of Halloween and all things scary, here's our pick of the scariest and most atmospheric horror games of the last few years.Read More? Night House has you play as a young boy who wakes up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He soon discovers that his family isn’t home, and is thrust into a much scarier experience than he imagined.

Night House is unique in that it has a few extras aside from text input. The right side of the screen contains basic directional inputs that you can enter to move around. It also keeps track of your inventory and what’s around you. A simple map at the top of the screen helps you keep your bearings.

With extras like the sound effects of the ongoing thunderstorm, Night House adds a little extra to the text-adventure experience. Give it a try if the other games were too rudimentary for you.

Play Now:Night House

5. Torn

Text-based games aren’t limited to interactive fiction. Torn is an online RPG with thousands of active players. In it, you start a life in a new city and decide the path you want to take. You can grow strong, become a criminal, and beat up everyone else, or become highly educated, follow the law, and run a successful company.

When you start, the game reminds you that it’s a long-term experience. This makes it a great game for a quick fix20 Addictive Web Games Perfect for Short Breaks20 Addictive Web Games Perfect for Short BreaksWaiting for your next class to start? Have another 10 minutes before your office lunch break ends? Then you'll love these small, lightweight, no-commitment web games.Read More whenever you have time, as you don’t need a huge commitment. After you get through some tutorial missions, you’ll be on your way to making your life in the city whatever you’d like it to be.

Watch dangerous liaisons. Unlike the other games on this list that you can start instantly, you will have to make a free account to play Torn. However, it only takes a moment. While it offers a much more robust interface than other text-based games, Torn is still an enjoyable text experience.

Play Now:Torn

More Text-Adventure Games You Can Play

Two sites you should check out for additional interactive fiction games5 Great Interactive Fiction Games You Can Play Online Right Now5 Great Interactive Fiction Games You Can Play Online Right NowInterested in the genre of text-based adventure games? Want to try playing a text-based game? Here are several you can find online right now!Read More are Versificator and TextAdventures. You’ll find plenty of games to try out here across a variety of genres.

If you’re a newcomer to these types of games, check out this introductory cheat sheet created by the interactive fiction community. It details the most common commands available in these games.

If you’re ever unsure of what you can do, try entering about when the game starts for basic instructions. Most games also have a help command that will provide more information.

Interactive fiction combines the player choice of a video game with the great storytelling of books and movies. If you don’t like all the action of modern games, this is a great genre to try. The bonus being that most text-based games don’t cost anything to play.

For more simple fun, check out the best Google Doodle games you can playThe Best Google Doodle Games to Pass TimeThe Best Google Doodle Games to Pass TimeAn interactive Google Doodle game can liven up your day. Here are the best Google Doodle games that you can play in a few seconds.Read More. We’ve also looked at the best games to play on your MacThe 11 Best Mac Games to Play in 2019The 11 Best Mac Games to Play in 2019Most games aren't ported to Mac, but if you're a Mac gamer, these are the best Mac games to play in 2019.Read More.

Explore more about: Online Games, Retro Gaming.

Gemini Station is solid. It's a space-based text rpg.
Assault Online ?
These are some cool games! I also suggest this one:
Adozinda - An interactive story - https://schoolofmagic.net/adozinda.asp
I really like this game because of how difficult it is and of how much control you get as there are tons of different endings and tons of decisions to make. The objective of the game is to help Adozinda become the most powerful magic manipulator. To achieve this objective you have to master dangerous spells, escape nokkens and demons and even time travel to a prehistoric age. This game entertains me for hours and hours on end.
TORN is a GREAT game! Whether you're looking for something to play all day every day or just for a few minutes here and there you can't look past it, there's something for everyone! I've been playing for almost 10 years and the longer I play for the more addicted I am getting. Sign up today, you won't regret it!
Crypt Shyfter is another great series of free text adventure games you can play in your browser ;)
If you're into drag racing, there's text based game for that called: GTRacer and is located at GTRacer.net. I've acquired the game and will be the owner soon.
Another good option is Legend of the Green Dragon. Its engine can be customized so much that I've seen some pretty creative themes, but most popular and widely used is medieval, Lord if the Rings types. Also fantasy based is a good one, a good friend if mine runs Sanctuary, found at lotgd4adults2.com. Of course I've done more than just playing this game, I've helped develop fun modules for it to keep players coming back for more!

An online text-based role playing game is a role-playing game played online using a solely text-based interface. Online text-based role playing games date to 1978, with the creation of MUD1, which began the MUD heritage that culminates in today's MMORPGs. Some online-text based role playing games are video games, but some are organized and played entirely by humans through text-based communication. Over the years, games have used TELNET, internet forums, IRC, email and social networking websites as their media.

There are varied genres of online text-based roleplaying, including fantasy, drama, horror, anime, science fiction, and media-based fan role-play. Role-playing games based on popular media (for example, the Harry Potter series) are common, and the players involved tend to overlap with the relevant fandoms.

1Varieties
2Characteristics and social aspects

Varieties[edit]

MUDs[edit]

Precursor to the now more popular MMORPGs of today are the branch of text-based games known as MUD, MOO, MUCK, MUSH et al.,^[1] a broad family of server software tracing their origins back to MUD1 and being used to implement a variety of games and other services. Many of these platforms implement Turing-complete programming languages and can be used for any purpose, but various types of server have historical and traditional associations with particular uses: 'mainstream' MUD servers like LPMud and DikuMUD are typically used to implement combat-focused games, while the TinyMUD family of servers, sometimes referred to by the term MU*, are more usually used to create 'social MUDs' devoted to role-playing and socializing, or non-game services such as educational MUDs. While these are often seen as definitive boundaries, exceptions abound; many MUSHes have a software-supported combat system, while a 'Role-Playing Intensive MUD' movement occurred primarily in the DikuMUD world, and both the first Internet talker (a type of purely social server) and the very popular talker software ew-too were based on LPMud code. Although interest in these games has suffered from the popularity of MMORPGs, a large number of them still operate.

Play-by-post and PBEM[edit]

Play-by-post role-playing games or PBP RPGs refer to another type of text-based gaming. Rather than following gameplay in real-time, such as in MUDs, players post messages on such media as bulletin boards, online forums, Chatrooms (such as like AOL, hangouts and Yahoo chat) and mailing lists to which their fellow players will post role-played responses without a real limit or timeframe. Of late such blogging tools and sites as LiveJournal have been utilized for this purpose. This includes such games as play-by-email (or PBEM) RPGs. The origins of this style of role-playing are unknown, but it most likely originated in some form during the mid-to-late 1980s when BBS systems began gaining in popularity.Usually it is played through 'Script' and 'Story' format, both styles are interchangeable and work well but it depends on which the player prefers, or which the human administrator insists upon. Script format is a simple stating of what each character is saying, post by post, with little to no mention of said characters' actions, whereas Story format requires that the character's actions be mentioned, including the surroundings and a general description of what is going on.

Real-time human-moderated[edit]

Some games rely entirely upon human moderators to dictate events, and physical print books for rules sets. Such games may use code dice-rollers, to generate random results, and may include databases for the purposes of maintaining character records. Interaction between characters is controlled by communication between individual players (with each other) and with moderators (who portray non-player characters). Communication software and database options vary, from the DigiChat front-end / character database back-end pairing pioneered by Conrad Hubbard at White Wolf Publishing, to the numerous AOL, hangouts and Yahoo chats with hosted character databases. Many games also choose to play on Internet Relay Chat on networks such as DarkMyst and SorceryNet. More robust options are available on many virtual tabletops. Some virtual tabletops include text chat in addition to map and image sharing, campaign management and more. Free-form games may even do away with database integration or dice-rollers entirely and rely upon individual players to keep their own records, with online community reputation dictating how other players react.

Characteristics and social aspects[edit]

These methods of role-playing have many advantages and disadvantages in comparison with more traditional, off-line role playing systems. On the one hand, text-based games allows players to exercise their writing skills, while using writing as a medium. The internet also makes it relatively easier for individuals to meet and play together. This freedom, though it is a great strength to the system, also has the potential to be a great weakness. Such broad freedom of expression can easily be grossly abused, most often by new players unfamiliar with the mostly unwritten etiquette of the text-based gaming community. This has caused many more experienced players to form tight knit cliques, which can also be detrimental to new players seeking to join the community. As a result, many sites are labeled for three levels of role-playing: 'beginner' 'intermediate' or 'advanced'. While some sites usually have some sort of application process to judge a new member's ability to role-play, others allow users to choose their level as they create their character. Certain MUDs that are 'Newbie-friendly' also maintain 'Newbie' channels that are run by more experienced users for the sole purpose of teaching new users. These advanced players often answer questions and teach these 'newbies' things they should and should not do throughout the game. Types of behavior commonly considered breaches of etiquette include powergaming and godmoding.

Another aspect of note is the development of a role-playing vocabulary that are almost exclusively limited to those who have experience with or are actively immersed in this pursuit as a hobby. Some terms overlap with those in commonly used in popular fandom. Terms as Mary Sue, slash, powergaming, godmoding, OOC, and IC are among the terms used with relative frequency in text-based role-playing circles, and it has come to be expected of role-players to be familiar with such jargon.

Consent[edit]

The term 'consent' refers to players' 'veto power' over what happens to their player characters. Often referred to in the rolling roleplay community as 'orthodox', 'unorthodox', and 'hybrid'. Levels of consent might be:

Non-consent: This does not necessarily mean that they use a traditional role-playing game system: it could just be that consequences are enforced based on a 'common sense' basis, e.g., if several police officers go to seize a character, even without dice rolls, an administrator might say that the only reasonable outcome is that the character is brought into custody. Or, if there is such a system, this means that the results of system calculations are final.
Limited consent: Usually, this would be control over the character's death. A setting might strictly enforce In Character consequences, with or without a system, but allow the player an 'out' to avoid character death. For example, if it is decided that the character was mortally wounded, it might be allowable to alter in-game reality just slightly and instead have the character suffer only a serious wound.
Consent: Nothing can happen to a character without the player's approval.

Most RPGs have limited consent, allowing game masters some leeway if the player asks for it (in fact, almost total leeway, though this may destroy the believability of the scenario).

Rules and Etiquette Systems[edit]

Though there are countless different rules systems and game-specific rules, there is a single universal criterion that separates role-playing from collaborative writing — there must be a variable under the control of one or more players that some other players cannot control. The most common example of this is for each player participating in the activity to have their own characters that no other participant may write dialogs or actions for. Most separate textbased gameworlds have their own set of rules or TOS by which all users must consent to abide. In addition to rules there is usually a universal set of mores and a terminology common to text-based role playing games, that more or less constitutes gaming etiquette.

Some common examples of these rules are:

Enforcing a specific genre or theme on another that is not relevant to them i.e. their location.
Sticking to a certain 'point of view' without plausible reason to do so.
Observing correct grammar and spelling and use of a certain, default language to the best ability of the player.
Observing the rating of the game. Mature games may contain no restrictions on adult content.
Restrictions on or requirements to work together outside the story over plot and other elements.
Restrictions on:
- who can contribute, and how often, when the work is being put together in an open area such as an online forum or mailing list.
- Killing off or otherwise permanently changing a major character owned by another player without it being plausible or within the realism of the scenario.
- Powergaming, twinking and/or godmoding.
- Creating Mary Sues or characters with a set of characteristics or stats too beneficial to the player as to give them an unfair and unrealistic advantage over others.

Various forms of gaming that developed within these media, such as sparring (see below), have garnered their own cult following and developed their own sets of norms and subcultures over time.

Sparring[edit]

Sparring is a form of online role-play that deals with combat between two or more characters, usually conducted on play-by-post media. Two or more players take turns in writing a joint-narrative battle, each one attempting to defeat his or her rival. The battle ends when one participant acknowledges defeat or one is judged the victor by an unbiased arbiter after a review of all related posts. In the context of Internet-based role-play, sparring retains its traditional meaning of play or practice combat, but is limited to written interaction. It is different from role-play in that sparring usually contributes little, if nothing, to a story or character development and participants are subject only to the rules of an agreed on role-play fighting system.

These fighting systems fall into three categories, speed-based, descriptive, and turn-based. Of these, the former is such that the involved parties seek to outmatch one another via superior typing speed and stratagem, and thus is usually left for websites or programs that support an instant messenger or chats. The latter has no emphasis on typing speed, but focuses wholly on strategy, and are thus usually based on forums and message boards. Both systems are further divided into explicit and implicit subsets (also called open and closed), which refer to whether the outcome of an attack is stated by the attacker or assumed to have happened in the flow of battle.

There is a large rift of ideologies within the community of sparring. It comes from the basis of the spar's purpose and intent, and divides sparrers into two categories, being roleplayers and fighters. Roleplayers are grouped as 'orthodox' combatants, where no 'autos' are acceptable, and it is a mutually respectful practice. Orthodox matches are completely based upon the honor system, and are held more to the ability of the character than the mechanics of the system. Explicit guidelines and rules apply to the fighters, in an 'unorthodox' system. Unorthodox spars tend to use hit claims, as discussed above as open and closed.

Psychology of Roleplaying[edit]

Although an undeveloped field, there exists some research done on people who roleplay online. One interesting facet of roleplaying online is the instance of a roleplayer acting as a character of a different gender. One study was conducted in the Journal of Computer Game Culture, which discussed this phenomenon of cross-gendered play. In the study, it was found that roleplayers would create opposite gendered characters to revel in their own embodiment as alternative beings. This was a form of conscious adoption of the 'bodies' that the player could not physically 'own.' Although this creates a tension between the avatar of the character and the user, it is a tension that seems to not stand in the way of anything as players often show unselfconsciousness.^[2]

Additionally, research on online personalities has been done that could potentially extrapolate to the phenomena of online roleplaying. Researcher J. Suler found that, despite the various layers hiding the person behind the character, there is still a presence of the true personality of the roleplayer. Suler, in their study, highlighted several reasons for this extended emotional expression:^[3]

Dissociative Anonymity in that the roleplayer tends to not see the similarity between their online self and their offline self, although they are but two sides of the same coin.
Invisibility in that there is no worry about appearances when interacting online. This can lead to increased emotional expression as well.
Asynchronicity in that users can respond when they have time to, and there is no pressure to respond emotionally. This allows a better procession of emotions and thus heightened expression of the player's emotions.

References[edit]

Text Based Rpg Games

^Castronova, Edward (2006). Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. University Of Chicago Press. pp. 10, 291. ISBN0-226-09627-0. [pp. 10] The ancestors of MMORPGS were text-based multiuser domains (MUDs) [..] [pp. 291] Indeed, MUDs generate perhaps the one historical connection between game-based VR and the traditional program [..]
^MacCallum-Stewart, Esther. 'Real Boys Carry Girly Epics: Normalising Gender Bending in Online Games' Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture [Online], 2 29 Feb 2008
^Suler, J. 'The online disinhibition effect' Journal of Cyberpsychology Behavior [Online], 3 7 Jun 2004

plannernice.netlify.app