Competition is an important part of most muds.
Fine - that's up to you. I know a lot of the serious roleplaying muds feel that any sort of in-game benefit for any sort of out-of-game activity "spoils" the feel of the game. After all there is (usually) no logical reason why creating an area within the mud should make your character tougher. However many of these roleplaying muds like the concept of rewarding players for good roleplaying - and I'm sure you'd agree that such a concept would not suit many muds.
If you ever try playing a roleplaying game in which some of the characters are much stronger than the others, you'll find that the stronger ones tend to dominate the game. This spoils much of the fun for the other players, as they are never really needed - they become the equivilent of supporting cast, and take a back-seat throughout most of the game. If you have good roleplayers you can get around much of this, but only if the stronger players are willing to hold back so as to make the weaker characters feel equally important.
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