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Emil · 04-12-2006, 10:55 AM

prof1515: April 11 2006,04:27
Maybe Jason could have expressed himself in a more polite way, but in this statement he is totally correct. As somebody already pointed out, there are two different cultures among muds, and for those that are only familiar with commercial games it is apparently hard to understand, that for some people money isn’t the main factor.

Some of the pay-for-perks muds seem to be totally adapted to the commercial world, where anything can be bought and sold, including integrity, and consequently they believe (or pretend to believe) that everyone else is the same.

In the mud that I currently play, you’d be publicly ridiculed by both the administrators and the players if you tried to buy some beefed up equipment for real money. And even when I once offered to donate some money to help with the upkeep of the server, the offer was politely turned down by the owners, who referred me to the Diku and Circle licence.

Note that I said ‘donate’, which to me means ‘give away’, without expecting anything in return beyond a simple ‘thank you’. To the commercial muds ‘donate’ obviously means something different; a synonym to ‘purchase’.

In fact these muds sometimes seem to use the same kind of Newspeak that was first introduced in Orwell’s 1984 (i.e. 'The Ministry of War' is called 'Ministry of Peace', 'Ministry of Lies' becomes 'Ministry of Truth’ etc.).

The technique used by some commercial Muds is not quite as blatant, but still the original meaning of a word is stretched and twisted, to make it sound better. So ‘Purchase’ becomes ‘Donation’, ‘Pay-for-perks’ becomes ‘Free to play’. Letting the meaning of a word slide like this is an underhand way of disguising the truth. It’s very obvious why they do it too, for those that aren’t totally blindsided. And although it may not be against the law, or even against the common practice among commercial games, it still looks bad to many of us. In a way the commercialisation of the world is slowly undermining the ethic standards that most people adhered to as late as 10 years ago.

And perhaps that is why I prefer the atmosphere of the really free muds. Another reason is of course that the concept ‘Fair Play’ still is alive and kicking in those Muds. The chance of success isn’t largely depending on the size of your wallet.

04-12-2006, 10:55 AM	#51
Emil Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 30	prof1515: April 11 2006,04:27 Maybe Jason could have expressed himself in a more polite way, but in this statement he is totally correct. As somebody already pointed out, there are two different cultures among muds, and for those that are only familiar with commercial games it is apparently hard to understand, that for some people money isn’t the main factor. Some of the pay-for-perks muds seem to be totally adapted to the commercial world, where anything can be bought and sold, including integrity, and consequently they believe (or pretend to believe) that everyone else is the same. In the mud that I currently play, you’d be publicly ridiculed by both the administrators and the players if you tried to buy some beefed up equipment for real money. And even when I once offered to donate some money to help with the upkeep of the server, the offer was politely turned down by the owners, who referred me to the Diku and Circle licence. Note that I said ‘donate’, which to me means ‘give away’, without expecting anything in return beyond a simple ‘thank you’. To the commercial muds ‘donate’ obviously means something different; a synonym to ‘purchase’. In fact these muds sometimes seem to use the same kind of Newspeak that was first introduced in Orwell’s 1984 (i.e. 'The Ministry of War' is called 'Ministry of Peace', 'Ministry of Lies' becomes 'Ministry of Truth’ etc.). The technique used by some commercial Muds is not quite as blatant, but still the original meaning of a word is stretched and twisted, to make it sound better. So ‘Purchase’ becomes ‘Donation’, ‘Pay-for-perks’ becomes ‘Free to play’. Letting the meaning of a word slide like this is an underhand way of disguising the truth. It’s very obvious why they do it too, for those that aren’t totally blindsided. And although it may not be against the law, or even against the common practice among commercial games, it still looks bad to many of us. In a way the commercialisation of the world is slowly undermining the ethic standards that most people adhered to as late as 10 years ago. And perhaps that is why I prefer the atmosphere of the really free muds. Another reason is of course that the concept ‘Fair Play’ still is alive and kicking in those Muds. The chance of success isn’t largely depending on the size of your wallet.