Mud portal sites

I have been thinking lately that one thing the mud community lacks is a good portal site that is aimed at promoting muds to new players. I posted some thoughts in this thread but nobody on that site seemed to care enough to comment so I thought I would expand my ideas a little more here .

The main mud portal sites I am aware of are Top Mud Sites, The Mud Connector and Mud Rage. The one thing they have in common is that they all look like they were designed circa 1995. Not only do these sites look pretty awful but they are also frequently awkward and confusing to navigate. I am an experienced mudder and I must have visted these sites thousands of times over the years, yet I often find it difficult to get the information I need. I can’t begin to imagine how intimidating these sites must look to a player new to mud gaming.

Doing a quick google search for web and flash game portals turned up sites such as Doof, Newgrounds and Addicting Games. They have a much more appealing look and clearer navigation with games easily sorted by category, popularity, date submitted etc.

The current mud portal sites seem designed with the existing mud community in mind rather than to attract new players to the genre. I believe there is a better way to present mud games for players and a portal site with a modern clean look that integrates a Flash client (allowing ‘one click’ access to the games) would go a long way to opening up mud gaming to a wider audience.

This could further be expanded with forums, member profiles, voting, reviews and other social networking capabilities to present a new modern community platform for mud gamers.