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Useful info
See if you can find the newbie guide in Nanvaent Village - he may be able to help you.
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What is Nanvaent?
It is perhaps unhelpful to claim that Nanvaent is many things. But it's true, the word
Nanvaent (often abbreviated to 'Nan') has many different meanings that can be confusing
to a newcomer. But take a little time to review what it means and you'll have found
the gateway into a world of adventure where good company and good fun await.
Nanvaent is a MUD
Which of course begs the question, what's a MUD? It stands for Multi User Dungeon which
is a misleading term since there are many multi-user games besides Nanvaent and very
little of the Nanvaent MUD is set in dungeons. The best analogy for a MUD are old
fashioned text adventure games that used to turn up on computers such as the ZX Spectrum
and the Commodore 64. In these games you took the role of a hero on a quest of some sort.
The world would be described to you in text and you would type in commands to interact
with the world such as 'get stick' or 'walk east'.
There are three main differences: first those games had terribly clunky interfaces whereas Nanvaent, being more modern,
responds much better to user commands. Second, Nanvaent has a strong role playing
element where you build up the skills and abilities of your mythical alter-ego. Finally,
and perhaps most importantly, other people play in the same world at the same time,
adding a powerful social element to the game. It's this last aspect that's helped Nan
survive in this age of powerful graphical online games like Diablo and Everquest.
Nanvaent is a world
Confusingly, Nanvaent is also the name of the fantasy world in which the game is set.
This world has been built up over years and has reached quite a sophisticated level
of complexity. The world of Nanvaent is divided (for purposes both of convenience and
administration) into domains, each one of which contains a large area of the world.
The north of Nanvaent is called 'North' while the east coastline is known as 'Coast'.
Just south of North is the mountain range covered by 'Mountain' and south of that is
'valley', the centre of the Nanvaent world. South of Valley is the fabled land of
'Mhaolain' while to the west is 'West' domain. These make up the world. You can check
out the domain pages for more information. The world of Nanvaent is getting to be so
rich now that it even has historical and cultural information!
Nanvaent is a village
As if calling the game after the world in which it is set were not bad enough, the world
itself is named after the village in it's centre! Nanvaent village is no longer the physical
centre of the world, but it's the game's spiritual centre. Players who want to chat, or
to rest tend to congregate in the centre of the village, becuase the village is 'safe
ground': due to an ancient ruling by the gods, no fighting is allowed anywhere in the
confines of the village. New players start off in the immigration office, which is in
the village and most of the guild headquarters are here. You'll want to join a guild:
they offer you the chance to learn astonishing fighting techniques or maybe magic spells
or perhaps something else: it depends which guild you choose. People in the game refer to
the centre of the village as 'nan c'. It's a popular meeting place.
Well, I hope that's cleared things up a little. If you want to know more, I suggest you
try the MUD, explore the world and chat in the village: it's a most rewarding place
to be.
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