I've learned to enjoy Merk Diku muds and their decsendants. Those which i have seen that cost money... well, I can spend it better on a good book.

Yes I have played pay to play muds, and probably will never again.

is it so hard to understand ?
the question was pretty clear i think..It was 'do you think imms who get paid work better then imms who dont get paid?'

It wasn't clear at all. You asked, "to pay or not to pay?"

To pay WHOM? Since this is TopMudSites, and not TopIMMSites, I assumed, naturally, that you were asking whether or not we thought it was a good idea to pay to play a mud.

But since that isn't what you mean, I guess there's no point in me voting because I don't care if a game owner is paying his staff or not. It has no effect on me, unless I'm paying the staff for the privilege of playing the game.

R

well..if im so unclear..

Will you play a pay to play mud and what are reasons :
#1 no
#2 yes,cuz imms should be rewarded
#3 yes,cuz you dont care,cuz you can easily afford p2p

I thought the question was clear enough. I think that IMMs should work primarily for the love of the MUD, but if they are paid to do something they love I think they will do an even better job of it. I would gladly do my job for free, but then I would have to devote a large amount of my time to making a living some other way. By being paid to do something I love I'm able to focus a good chunck of my time on it and do it very well rather than it just being a hobby.

I also have found that I enjoy MUDs with few IMMs. I'm not sure there is a correlation between the number of IMMs and how much I enjoy a MUD, but the ones I enjoy the most have few IMMs and some of the ones I've hated have a seemingly endless supply of them. Having few IMMs makes a better fit if the IMMs don't have to spend time earning money some other way.

Well in that case, I still won't take the poll, because you didn't include a "none of the above." I am currently paying to play a game. I don't pay because I like paying, I don't pay because I think IMs should get paid. I pay because the game I really love playing charges for the service. Nothing more, nothing less.

I choose not to pay for the basic reason of: The MUD isn't making any money, I'm not, and as such, neither should my builders. They don't do any more work than me, or any more important work than I do, this is not to say that they don't do work, or that it isn't important, just that mine is just as (I'm the founder and sole coder).

I think once we get to a point where the game is generating funds, greater than the cost of upkeep and we are turning a profit, I shall then look into paying my builders, admins and other staff, and myself. I have resolved not to take any money myself personally until I can do the same at least for the higher ranking staff. All procedes now go straight to upgrades, paying for the line, and hopefully buying a domain name when we get enough.

From what I understand tho, that is a major undertaking and there is a massive amount of red tape involved, especially since I don't have a single builder from the same country as me.

Just my thoughts.
James Meyer
aka Aldyn, Creator and Founder of Aeledius