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Free muds do compete for players. Most muds are constatly developing in the hopes of a) getting new players and b) keeping the players they have. They advertise on sites such as topmudsites in order to compete for players.
The reason they compete is because A) they want the most efficient number of players for their type of mud, and not all muds have that, and B) they want the best quality players they can get, and their current players are almost certainly not all the very best quality players available.
To achieve this, they should rely as much as possible on barriers that directly increase quality rather than on barriers that only indirectly increase quality. This is because barriers not having directly to do with quality are also, in part, barring the quality players.
And even if the mud gets the quality of player its creators want, it will likely have to lower its quality barriers some anyway to get a more efficient number of players. The more people there are playing, the funner the mud is, up to a point...even if they aren't the best quality players there are available. The lower your indirect barriers are, the higher you can keep your direct barriers and still achieve an efficient number of players.
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