Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

truthfulthomas · 10-13-2002, 09:58 AM

In terms of code and areas, free MUDs do not contribute to the "MUDding community," but rather to a much more narrowly defined community that consists almost entirely of operators of DIKU derived MUDs. That said, I think the value of such "contribution" is questionable. Do players (as opposed to lazy imps and builders) really benefit from yet another implementation of MySuckMud with X, Y, and Z snippets and the same area packages that almost every other MySuckMud employs?

The better commercial MUDs contribute to gaming in the same way that the better free MUDs do: by putting out an exceptional product -- one that, in the case of commercial MUDs, a number of players are apparantly willing to pay for despite the availability of similar products for free. MUDding isn't kept alive by the distribution of trivial snippets and the exchange of what will effectively become stock areas. It's kept alive by the small percentage of MUDs that offer enjoyable and perhaps even somewhat original diversion for their players.

The commercial MUDs are clearly bringing a lot of traffic to this site. That's a huge boon for every MUD listed here, even if only a relatively small percentage of the site's visitors do anything more than just vote for their MUD and leave. Still, the majority of free MUDs are going to squander the opportunity, either by not taking advantage of a forum that allows for free advertising or by wasting bandwidth with inarticulate, poorly-written advertisements for players and staff or by failing to offer a product that looks significantly different from 95% of the product that is already being offered here.

10-13-2002, 09:58 AM	#50
truthfulthomas New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 11	In terms of code and areas, free MUDs do not contribute to the "MUDding community," but rather to a much more narrowly defined community that consists almost entirely of operators of DIKU derived MUDs. That said, I think the value of such "contribution" is questionable. Do players (as opposed to lazy imps and builders) really benefit from yet another implementation of MySuckMud with X, Y, and Z snippets and the same area packages that almost every other MySuckMud employs? The better commercial MUDs contribute to gaming in the same way that the better free MUDs do: by putting out an exceptional product -- one that, in the case of commercial MUDs, a number of players are apparantly willing to pay for despite the availability of similar products for free. MUDding isn't kept alive by the distribution of trivial snippets and the exchange of what will effectively become stock areas. It's kept alive by the small percentage of MUDs that offer enjoyable and perhaps even somewhat original diversion for their players. The commercial MUDs are clearly bringing a lot of traffic to this site. That's a huge boon for every MUD listed here, even if only a relatively small percentage of the site's visitors do anything more than just vote for their MUD and leave. Still, the majority of free MUDs are going to squander the opportunity, either by not taking advantage of a forum that allows for free advertising or by wasting bandwidth with inarticulate, poorly-written advertisements for players and staff or by failing to offer a product that looks significantly different from 95% of the product that is already being offered here.