[Ghostcat]

I do think that tangible rewards give good encouragement to iffy RPers to improve.

You get 'fame' in my home mud.

50 a day just for logging on, and like 500 for a roleplaying bonus.

You can use it for a whole slew of things.

You can get completely custom items, alter the descriptions of existing items, add elemental flares to weapons, exp, skill points, increasing saving room capacity, custom scent, descriptions of just about everything (pets, mounts, inn rooms) owned by the char (and its own), custom titles, and languages.

Oh, and for 100k you can create a (very low ranking) noble character.
This pretty much eliminates the lvl 1 powertrip nobles, since people are usually quite experienced by the time they gather that much fame.

You can also fish for exp, money, and some loot if you're not big on combat.
One character is approaching the level cap, and most of his levels were gained by fishing.