[SnowTroll]

What makes New Worlds the mud it is is the players. You've cultivated a reasonably-sized group of people that are all dedicated to maintaining a game where roleplaying is enforced and is important. It's not the administration, the coding, the building, the setting and backstory, or the rules that make New Worlds what it is. New Worlds is a succesful roleplaying mud because of the players.

Somewhere out there, there might be a mud, kind of like New Worlds in that the players are all dedicated to roleplaying, but where the players are also dedicated to fun first and foremost, and to maintaining a casual playing environment. Where roleplaying is about fun rather than about getting somewhere in the game, and where everyone who logs in, new or old, habitual or casual player, is a potential source of roleplaying and entertainment rather than someone you shouldn't bother with because you're wasting time you could be getting somewhere.

I think it's totally possible to be a "serious roleplaying mud" without going the route where you have to be a "serious player" who plays all day long to fit in. I just haven't found that mud yet. Maybe it doesn't exist.