[dark acacia]

I think it has more to do with Achaea's premium content than administration. People are less willing to leave and give up whatever money they spent if they've spent it for years on just one game. Besides, Achaea's premium income made it possible for more dedicated (read: paid) staffers to get involved. Not every game followed the same premium content model.

You said yourself that your population is aging. Well, so did all of those fading MUDs which had thriving communities now; their population aged, and their players left because of adult responsibilities. They probably did not feel compelled to remain because of their financial investment in their games if their games had no premium content.

Refresh my memory: is Achaea the MUD where combat is basically a war of scripts and attrition? I remember some game where every player had hammerspace where they stocked a billion status-curing items and pulled them out with a script every time their opponent dealt a bad status effect to them, and the loser was the one who ran out of stuff first.