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Yep, if it were against the rules, we'd immediately stop. We've got no interest in breaking the rules, despite what a couple people on the list would have you believe. On the other hand, I also agree with Adam that is would be virtually impossible to police a system where no incentives at all were allowed.
That's probably generally (I wouldn't want to say always, as obviously I haven't played every free text MUD out there) true, and it extends beyond just MUDs. Look at linux for instance. Great server OS, but a joke from a user-perspective for a desktop OS. My mother can set up Windows XP and use it fine, but I tried giving her the latest Redhat once, just to see where she had trouble, and she couldn't even get past the setup process (what kind of freaky OS makes you find out the refresh rate of your monitor? Talk about user-unfriendly.)
I think this is a fact of life because while implementing features is often quite fun (again, look at linux. Great set of features.), making them useable is tedious and doesn't seem to arouse the same passion in people that creating the features does. Same goes for documentation generally.
Yep. Someone claimed that unsuspecting web surfers are being duped by the list, because we offer incentives, but then, if they are expecting it to be some authoritative list of the "best" MUDs, then they were always being duped, as it never measured quality, only quantity and frequency of visitors sent here.
I will point out that if your daughter is 13, she might be a little young for Achaea unless she's exceptionally well-spoken for someone her age. Achaea's a VERY community-oriented game, and there are certain points in a character's life that requires basically the approval of people in your community to advance. Some guilds (not all) require small essays on why you should be permitted to be part of them, and so on. Achaea also has a lot of player-killing, though we're pretty strict about enforcing the rule that unless you've done something to someone, that person can't touch you.
You know, you should have your daughter check out Furcadia (). It's got isometric graphics, is free to play, has no player-killing at all (it's not really a 'game' in the sense that most MUDs are), and seems to have the sort of environment your daughter and her friends might really enjoy. It's also really easy to get into as a newbie.
I certainly agree here. The quality of a site or mailing list is usually inversely proportional to the amount of flaming that goes on, as flaming usually indicates a mind that hasn't matured yet, or a failure who is bitter about life generally. I'm just waiting for one of these people here on TMS to start calling someone a Nazi or a fascist. Flamers inevitably do.
--matt
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