I'm bound to have left some off. But the point is really to see what single factor annoys mudders more than anything alse, and makes you say "**** this place" =).

First I'm gonna say, yeah, there's some stuff that wasn't hit upon, but my main problem with this being a poll is that I have to choose just one. I'm a patient person for the most part and if a mud's got enough good features I can overlook some of my worst pet peeves. So rather than voting I'm going to list the ones that are listed and add to them.

Unreliable uptime (lag, feezes, downtime) {and if it stays down too long}
Confusing and unclear introduction screens and chargen
Existing player attitudes (ie unfriendly, cliques) {or even too friendly, I play muds for a bit of a challenge, if I want help with something I'll ask, I don't need to be powerlevelled from the minute I log on.}
Too hard (you get PKd as soon as you log on)
MUD philosophy/thrust doesn't conform to what you like
Too few players when you type "who", mud seems 'dead' {Or, for me, too MANY players, I come from a cozy mud where you don't have to turn off channels to see what you're doing most of the time, and a lot of players causes a lot of spam}
Bugs -obvious from when you log on the first time {This depends solely on the bugs, if they're minor I can overlook them, but if they interfere too much with the gameplay...}

Now for my own list of personal peeves that will cause me to leave a mud.

Too much color, yes it's petty, and yes, I can do away with color, but I like a bit of contrast for global channels and tells and stuff. But when the entire mud is completely colored.... *shudder*

Stock areas or generally blah room descriptions. If I watch a movie is has to be worth watching and not based on a sorely overused storyline. If I play a mud, it has to be worth reading, and something different than any of the others I've seen, and really, the only way to make a mud different for someone who has just logged in is to make the rooms and areas different.

Newbie Areas! Informative and entertaining, all I've got to say is the mud I'm on has the best one I've seen so far and I make alts at times just so I can go through it again. I'm not sure exactly what it is about newbie areas, but I have left some muds solely on the basis of not liking their newbie area.

Continuity - If your mud is based on a book or a movie it should (in my opinion) stay true to it's basis, no elves in Wheel of Time, no Trollocs in Middle Earth, get my drift?

Anyway, this post is getting longer than I like, and I think I've touched on the major bothering points for me, so I'll let it rest for now.

Nothing new there -> Expanded a bit.

After playing KaVir's Last City for awhile, well, I found it's sorta like to a mud what Grand Theft Auto 3 is to a console game. You can build your own house/smithy/other buildings, make roads, dig tunnels, mine, smith, chop down trees, make your own equipment from ores, skins or wood, etc.

And THEN there's the World Of Darkness vampires, and most disciplines and abilities functional.

I liken it to an immersiveness deal, If the game is so immersive that you don't *WANT* to spend time chatting on the global channels, you'd rather show off what you can do (be it a fighting skill or otherwise), then it's good.

My two biggest peeves would have to be too much color and the inability to get rid of the prompt.

I can deal with almost everything else unless a mud has a poor helpfile system AND poor newbie help.

People like Shao_Long.

Enough said.

-D

There's a lot of things I can take. The MU* not helping out when I'm going through chargen or trying to make me blind with too-bright colours are not things I can take. These are things that make me leave in disgust. There's also things that, instead of leaving me in disgust, make me flee for the hills. One of these is too-friendly players. If I want help, I'll ask for it. Having it offered to me when I don't need it is like being stuffed with food you have no need of and don't like anyways.

How about an all the above? They all factor into why you like or do not like something.

Wow, interesting, I wouldn't have expected "Existing player attitudes (ie unfriendly, cliques)" to be ahead of everything else. Appreciate you all taking the time to fill it out.

Heya all,

Personally I think it's the first view that I get. If I login and I see no players I think the mud is bad or something (or doesn't have other dutch players:) If someone immediately asks if you need help I think let's stick around for a while and ask what the mud has to offer to me. I also try to check the map or whatever world view they have, to see if it's all stock or alot of own made areas too. Oh and the character creation is important too, if I see a thousand races I don't believe that they add anything to the gameplay, or that I have to make too many choices before I can play how I want to.

Greetings Dre

Medelander!!!

*hangt de vlag uit*

If it aint dutch it aint much!

Wooo!

I have this problem with the MUDs I continously play. THere's this character that stormed off right before a Player Wipe because "I'm getting PK'ed too much and nobody respects that I don't want it..." and some bs like that (I won't go into the circumstances really, but everybody was in his position except like 2 people). Then he came back after the player wipe and he's a total jerk. Ruins RP, bad OOC attitude, etc. I hate attitudes from Players. ARGH!

Something unexpected. In chargen.  In the first time I try to fight a mob.  In my first rp interaction.  In the equipment I have on.  Something unexpected, but interesting, well done, and intriguing.  

That is what will make me try a game out.  And continuing to have such experiences, be they code based, character based or immortal/GM/wizard based, until I have reached that happily addicted state, is what keeps me on a MU**.

(Edited to comment: Yeah yeah, I know, I am supposed to put what I do not like in a MU**. But I was feeling positive today, so deal ::wink::)

What has made me not play a mud:

If it's mostly stock.

If it's mostly stock but the players still think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

If it's mostly stock and snippets, that the players thing are the best things ever.

The players are stuck up assholes (generally due to lower pbase, where players then think they are precious stocks and can act like asses)

It has a stock smaug color scheme, or any color scheme that makes me blind.

Immortals are power tripping assholes.

They don't like orange chicken.

The owner sells porn for a living.

I guess a number of things, I guess those are the instant turn offs though.

I voted with Exiwsting player attitudes, but it's more general than that: Bad attitudes. Doesn't matter if it's the imms or the mortals, if I get the feeling that I'm not wanted, forget it. I hate logging into muds and hearing "Great, ANOTHER newbie." At that point I'm ready to say "I guess you must have sprung from the mud at the top level then," but knowing my luck, they did.

Attitudes bug me the most, second is pk. If I'm checking out a mud that claims to be restricted pk, and I find out they define "restricted" as "You're safe until level 10" forget it. I'm there to explore the mud, not get my ass handed to me after 2 levels. That's why I avoid open pk muds.

I'd have to say that the number of players makes a difference. I'm a regular user of RoD and I get used to having up to 500 ppl/day. And playing other MUDs and finding 4-5 at the most... It's shattering.

It's also probably just me being obsessive and unable to handle the fact that not every MUD is as popular as mine. Ah well.

Santa