Immortal (MUD)

An immortal, in MUDs and particularly DikuMUDs,^[1] is an administrator and/or developer of the game, often a player who has achieved "immortal" status by achievements within the game world.^[2] It is frequently abbreviated "imm" or "immort". Some MUDs have an option for players who have become immortals to "remort", returning to mortal status with advantages.^[2]

Other commonly used terms with the same or related meanings are developer ("dev"), administrator ("admin"), wizard ("wiz"), God, and implementer ("imp"); the last two most often refer to the system's owner or owners. "Coder" is often found as a position distinct from both immortal and implementor,^[3] with responsibilities centered on development of the virtual world server software, as opposed to the content creation that is typical of immortals who perform development at all.^[4] Immortals dedicated to content development may be called "builders" or "creators", especially in a project that uses the "coder" role.

References

1. Cheong, Fah-Chun (1996). Internet Agents: Spiders, Wanderers, Brokers, and Bots. New Riders. p. 256. ISBN 1-56205-463-5. In TinyMUD, all players have the ability to create their own rooms within the virtual world (and thus have the same power as Immortals on DikuMUDs, or Wizards on LPMUDs).
2. Towers, J. Tarin; Badertscher, Ken; Cunningham, Wayne; Buskirk, Laura (1996). Yahoo! Wild Web Rides. IDG Books Worldwide Inc. p. 166. ISBN 0-7645-7003-X. By now you must have figured out that someone has to write and watch over MUDs. Sometimes these powerful beings swirling over your head are the coders/immortals/wizards who have put many hundreds of hours into making sure you have fun. At other times, these gods are those dedicated players who have managed to live through everything the MUD had to throw at them and have achieved the ultimate goal of immorting a character. [...] They're the people putting in their time to add new areas and monsters to the realm [...] The day may come when you find yourself in that big comfy chair in the sky. On most MUDs, when you get past a certain level (which varies from game to game) your character becomes immortal. [...] Some MUDs have levels that the immortals to continue to vie for, and others have a remort option for those that find godhood isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
3. Shah, Rawn; Romine, James (1995). Playing MUDs on the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 32. ISBN 0-471-11633-5. Automated quests are set up by a coder to be done by players with minimal, if any, Immortal interference. Sponsored quests are set up by an Immortal and controlled by him or her while the character/players go through it.
4. Shah, Rawn; Romine, James (1995). Playing MUDs on the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 22. ISBN 0-471-11633-5. Rooms and Zones are designed by Immortals, who are the only people who have the power to build or modify areas of a DikuMud.