"I can tell you why I care: Because we make money from it, and we're in the MUD business to both make a great MUDs and to make money doing it."

So if a free MU* wishes to "compete" to make what they feel is a great MU*, is it any less of a need than yours? And if the need to compete is comparable, does that not leave "to make money doing it?" as the only difference?

The MU* I run I do so because I love the world's theme and I found a remarkable lack of MUDs that offered realistic rp within the world scenario. There are dozens of other MU*s with the same theme and while I would not say my need to "compete" with them is ego-driven, there is still the need to "compete" to bring in the limited player base that is attracted to the depicted world.

Personally, you can all burn me at the stake if you want, but I do offer occassional OOC reminders (with no IC/OOC compensation) to the folks on my MU* that if they like the game we'd appreciate the voting. It's free advertsing. It gets the game known. It hopefully brings in more players. New players offer more interaction (be it RP/PK) to the current player base, so generally everyone wins. You know the drill.

So to accuse a free MU* that its sole reason for competition is "ego-driven", would be akin to someone accusing a p2p's competition to be solely "to make money". I'm sure a lot of care went into your MU*'s vision, and hopefully money isn't the only satisfaction you get from seeing players enjoy it.