[shevegen]

People will complain about everything, even if it is not true.

On the other hand, sometimes they complain, and it is true.

I think the biggest question is whether a player is a team player or whether he/she tries to ruin the fun for other people. Admin included. What would you do with spoilsports who break rules and on top of that complain about being treated unfairly?

I could give several examples of the latter. I call these poisonous players. Sometimes, it is a question of attitude. A frustrated player will act differently than a happy player. But you can't make everyone happy all the time - a MUD should not be a kindergarten treating problems of people.

I found that people who are great roleplayers often get excluded by most MUDs because they are less interested in hack and slay and aggro-playing.

And of course lack of time is also a problem. Many many many players, who used to play a lot, stopped playing because of reallife constraints. Like work. Or Family.

You wrote that you can't afford more than ~3 hours a week.

I can understand you.

In my peak time mudding... 13 years ago, I played perhaps 5 hours a day, for a week.

I did this for perhaps one and a half year, then slowly I played less and less.
And eventually I became a casual player. A MUD will be very different to a casual player than it will be to an intense player.

It is hard to include all different playing styles in it. And let's face it, running a MUD just with casual players is VERY VERY hard. I'd almost say impossible. If a MUD only has casual players, then it will die.

You need a few key players, addicted players, to drive the MUD forward.