[SnowTroll]

Having played conventional muds for so long, the past tense style reads funny to me. Like I'm writing one of those shared stories instead of playing a game. When you're roleplaying, in the eyes of your character, it's here and now, so the present tense makes sense from that perspective if you're really trying to get into your character's head, but I can see how writing about your character like you're writing a book about someone else, rather than playing a game as your character right now, can give a sense of distance and remove some of the personal emotional investment in your character "winning" everything.

Ultimately though, it's just a style thing that doesn't really change the substance of the game. Once people got used to typing everything ending in an ed, they would probably play the same way they play a mud that uses regular writing styles. Some muds prefer/require 4-6 line posts in each emote, while others prefer shorter sentences using stock "say" commands and built-in socials. New Worlds actually asks you to only put one space after each period. Styles vary. There have been big debates in the past over exactly how much describing and creative writing actually correlate to roleplaying and vice versa. If I'm a good writer and can toss out ten lines of creative prose talking about the scene and how my character speaks (spoke?) and moves (moved?), but my character is lame and never says or does anything people are interested in, I'm probably not as good of a roleplayer as I think I am.