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Old 05-29-2013, 10:45 AM   #15
SnowTroll
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 183
SnowTroll will become famous soon enough
Re: Join Dragonrealms today!

What makes a pay-to-play mud worth paying for, in my book?

Nothing, given the stage of my life that I'm currently in. I might play a mud a couple of hours a week, and sometimes not even that. Not every day and all weekend long like the heavily invested players (e.g., college students, housewives, unmarried folks without kids who can stay up all night spending any portion of their salaries not required for rent or food on computer games). The few hours a week I play isn't even worth 5 dollars a month, much less 15 or more. But if the game cost 4.95 rather than 14.95, was serious about roleplay-enforcement all around rather than having an exclusive 50 dollar a month club for the real roleplayers, or if the game used a more accepted pay-for-perks model, I'd be less offended. I'd also be much, much, much less offended if the game let me have a free trial right now, without providing any credit card information, rather than hoping I'll forget to unsubscribe and they can make a few bucks auto-billing my credit card before I do so. Believe me, if people really, really like a game, they'll sign up after 30 days when their trial's up. You don't want to look like you're trying to screw people. I'm serious about this. The primary reason shady internet offers collect your credit card info to begin your 30 day trial and require you to unsubscribe manually is to get some cash out of people who forget to unsubscribe. It's to screw people. There's no reason not to wait to collect that info at day 30 except wanting to screw people.

There's actually very little about mud gameplay and features that makes a game worth more to me. If a mud is rudimentary, full of bugs and typos, unfinished, and just plain stupidly tedious to play, yeah that's a turn-off. But I've had my best experiences logging into a random mud, large or small, and being sucked up into a fun roleplay encounter with other players (even just one or two others) right from get go. Look at New Worlds, for example. Very successful mud (by most standards), and one of the more popular ones around here. Absolutely simplistic system, code and gameplay wise. A few neat features but nothing that special in the code or any of the game systems. But five minutes into the first day I tried that mud, I was roleplaying and having a blast. You just can't code or enforce that experience. It's hit or miss whether I'd have that kind of fun logging into Dragonrealms (or New Worlds on most days, or any other mud). But you only get one shot at that first impression. I've been on and off with New Worlds (currently off) over the years, but still mention it around here as my favorite example of a mind-bendingly simple mud that still manages to do well. It's not the code or the staff-run special events that make a mud what it is. At least not in the case of a roleplaying mud.

If I logged into Dragonrealms right now and wasn't having that kind of fun in 5 minutes, it's not worth money. If I can log into any other free mud right now and have that same kind of fun, Dragonrealms isn't worth money.
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