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Personally I look for a few things.
First and foremost is quality of the writing. I don't expect the next "great American" novel, but I do expect the mud to put some effort into their rooms. If the first two or three rooms aren't top of the line I'll find another.
The next thing is how the players interact with a newbie. If I log on and immediatly get 1000 tells offering help and power leveling if I just do this or that I'm off to another mud.
Next I look for how busy the chatlines are. I hate chatlines, not because I roleplay (I don't care for that either) but because I just find it annoying to have to listen to someone else talk to their friends and spam me out of house and home, or rather off the mud.
Last I look for the number of players online. Less than 4 or 5 and more than about 30 and I'm off to another mud. Why? Because I've found the urge to be stupid and act immature *seems* to be much less frequent with lower numbers of people. There's not all this invisible "testosterone" floating around.
Oh, yeah I almost forgot... If the mud isn't LP I won't even get to any of the other criteria.
All that said, and I'm sure a lot of it sounds stupid to some, those are only the things that get me to take a look around. What makes me stay is a whole different story. But suffice it to say if I'm not able to see myself down the line building on the mud I'll soon be leaving. And I've only found one so far that has kept me long enough to do that.
~cayn~
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