I preffer pay2play for 2 reasons
1) I like custom codebases,which tend to be pay2play
and I hate going trying mud to mud , most having the same look and fell, LP muds are alittle better on that but..

2)I'm not cheap, if they provide me with a good service and treat me as the valueable asset that I am, I'm more than happy to pay for it


but I have had a bad run with pay2play so far I've try 3

there first I tried had diffcult to use help , and had alot of unimplent skills and eta in sight, and to show you the attitude of these people, in the game if you follow a god, then you have a mark that identifies you when look at, well "set" is the god of theivies, so if you are a theif and you follow set, people know you follow set, When it was request to have the ability to hide the mark, the response was" We can't do it, but we can't tell you why" wtf?



next one I tried is a new mud that started jan 2002, and when I found it was free

loged in virtualy no help flies ,no school, no "first steps guide"
couldn't figure it out, said " well it's new"

well after while I decide to check back to see how it progressed, by that it was pay2play so I think"yea they're charging, they must of got this thing polished", umm same experience

here we just over a year, surely they got things going, so had things change? <drum roll> NO *sigh*


and the thrid on is pricey and admitably the best RP environment and charater is agurably really really slow, and if your like me and you like to kill monsters to collect treasure, you might get a little bored

I noted something while I hunting and thought it was cause it was a low teir, put others confirmed that all teirs are the same

there are a number of creatures in a area, but only one type carries treasure and most often least common




I hope I put this post in the right place, I just had to vent, and am intrested to hear other people views on the subject

All I can say is, try Dragonrealms. 30 day free trial. Extremely easy to start playing even with zero mud experience. Roll up a throwaway first to get a feel for the game.

There is tons of documentation available both from official sources and from players who are particularly interested in one area or another. But, if you want to just jump in you can. There is a tutorial on your way into the game and mentors are usually available to help. In fact I would be happy to give you a hand myself. My character's name is Dellica and if you use AIM I can be reached at DellicaS.

You will be thrilled with the size and originality of Dragonrealms. If you decide to continue after the free trial is is 13$ a month.

Try it out at

You problems have very little to do with p2p, other than the fact that you ARE expecting more out of them. Players who look for a free game often have the same difficulties finding what they want. Being willing to pay only expands the available choices. No mud is perfect for everyone, but chances are everyone can find a mud perfect for them. Just keep looking.

While this may seem like a blatant plug(which it is), Dragon Realms would actually suit you perfectly. There's really nothing else like it. Though I'd reccomend getting a player to help you rather than rely on the (I think)outdated help files. Fortunatly the Directions command was updated recently.

Most creatures you're able to get at least some money from, one way or another. Also, since you're the hack and slash for treasure type, you should know the combat system is a lot more fun than typing 'kill' and watching yourself hit it. It's actually a 'system'. But I think I posted that in a review somewhere.

There's still the non-implemented cool stuff problem, but what's there is good enough to last at least until the GMs get more stuff out.

This whole string of comments leads back to the old discussion of, "Why do people blatantly assume that pay to play is BETTER simply because you have to pay to play it?"

Guru4u, there are PLENTY of muds out there with what you are looking for, MOST of which you pay nothing to play whatsoever, simply start looking through them for one that suits your tastes in gameplay and whatnot...

I've never played dragonrealms or gemstone3 and never will , there is diffrence between paying for a service and paying for special treatment

Can you back this up with an example please?  Something that you would consider to be of comprable quality to DragonRealms or other good pay2play muds? I'm not trying to be abrasive, but I've not seen anything in the free arena even comprable to Dragon Realms thus far, and of course would love to play such a game if it does indeed exist.

Carrion Fields is consistently one of the top free (*) MUDs on the list.  We have some recent advertisements on the "Advertising For Players" forum if you want to review what we offer, and we welcome new players.  Feel free to browse our website . Having tried trials on some of the pay-to-play games, I would still be playing CF even if the others were free.

(*) Several others offer temporary free trials, or less-than-full access, or fees for in game services.  Carrion Fields, however, is 100% free.

Saren,

Being that I've never played DragonRealms, I'm not going to even start comparing or judging on quality. Guru said one thing he's looking for is customized code, of which there is a LOT of to be found out in the free mud world. I'm not about to get in any ****ing match with any pay-players (or admins) about which is better or which has certain attributes. I simply really tire of the argument that simply because a mud is pay to play that it is better than one that is free to play, and I agree with the comment about paying for things on a "free mud". If I'm going to pay to play something, I expect to be on an even par with everyone else simply paying to play on the game in general, I have no problem with the subscription method whatsoever. What I have huge issues with are games which are technically free, but which you can purchase (or sometimes NEED to purchase) items to make oneself more competitive, or competitive in the first place. I could honestly care less if some place has some great features if they have a system where you can buy your way to being better instead of having to earn it through skill. And yes, I'm sure someone will flame me for this POV, but I really don't care, it's my opinion and I'm holding to it...


Terloch

Armageddon, DartMUD, Accursed Lands and Discworld are all what I consider to be "quality" free MUDs, with immersive original worlds, ground-breaking code, thorough documentation, helpful, dedicated staff and a sense of community in the playerbase.

I can't compare them to DragonRealms, because I have never played it, but I have dabbled in both Archea and The Eternal City, and while these two games did seem like they also were of a high calibre, I didn't see anything in them that made them stand out as "better" than the abovementioned freebies.

This, of course, is purely my subjective experience and dependant upon my own peculiar taste in MUDs. I don't think I would recommend any of the above freebies to guru4u as none of them are exactly h&s. I just wanted to second Terloch's point that MUDs are like wines, one isn't necessarily better than another just because it costs more.


K

Hoody Hoo!
*cranks up Zmud and disappears into thin air to 'investigate' for a while*

If you are into forgotten realms, you might wanna check out.

Anyways, theres much talk about dragon realms here dragon realms there.

Can someone tell me its 10 best features? Thats a good way to judge a mud. Don't include friendly immortals and helping players (you find that everywhere).