A slow game (or is someone has a better name please do tell!) is a multiplayer game where you get some action points every day (or twice a day), that you spend on walking around and usually fighting monsters a la CRPG.
Played in a browser those games took like 5 minutes a day to play and were quite popular in the early 2000. Obviously people spent more time setting up groups going hunting or fulfilling some quest, often for weeks and weeks…
Have you played one of would you try one out?
Not quite the same, but I fondly remember PBEM (Play By E-mail) games. When you found one, you emailed the admin with a request to join and a character profile. If accepted, they’d add your character bio to the website. Once part of the game, you can “attack” other characters, which basically meant emailing the game admin and requesting a battle. Then, the writers (who were often volunteer players) would jot up a short story, detailing your battle with the other player.
Sounds pretty corny by today’s standards but I had a lot of fun. Plus they were often themed on DBZ and Gundam and shit.
I was part of a PBEM D&D game in college. I’m pretty sure it took us a while semester to accomplish absolutely nothing! But I had fun.
Reminds me of the text-based role-playing heavy MUDs, where the players did their “pose” (a short paragraph describing what their character does) and you wait for 5 minutes while the other player(s) describe their move in return, often also adding a bit environment description. Some of the better player’s logfiles were basically prose you could almost publish. (Example: SpheresMUX)
Also, you got to like the name they came up with: it’s a MUSH (multi-user shared hullicination).