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Where I play, there is exactly the symptoms mentioned, where things are little more than a label. Now staffers are working on a) a detailed history, b) possible redesign and expansion of what makes races unique, etc. Unfortunately, these are all things they should have done before the mud ever left beta. In the early days there was no QC, no interest in a real history to tie it all together, etc. The newest areas, under the QC till don't tie into each other clearly and probably won't until we have a real history to work from, but they are a great improvement. I have had ideas and some hopes to eventually become a member of the design team, but frankly, without a history to work from, I can't be sure how or even if I can work 'my' history into it. I can't makes links and connections to other groups or events, I can't design a culture for the area that distinguishes it from the rest of the mud and more specifically give a reason 'why' it differs or be at all sure that it will. I don't even know if the race I wanted to focus on might be irrevocably changed in some way that makes my ideas useless. My hands are tied. The people designing new things though go on as before. Introducing stuff that is generally in theme, but disconnected from the overall reality of the game.
This is also what I suspect has buried the small RP society that was officially added. Some participants just don't get how to do it on the channel, the game world doesn't give much opertunity for it and other than a few conflicts, like the Kitsune vs. everyone that hunts foxes, stuff that was sort of fun for a while, there is almost nothing to drive it. The fact that we might *eventually* get those things that are needed to change this, doesn't matter *now*.
Frankly, I think the idea, as little imput as it got, of having the players provide history to flesh things out was better than waiting for the unpaid and overworked staff to do it. Many hands could do what one person (and sadly it is only one of the staff on it) can achieve. Unfortunately, the idea got derailed when the wizard who offered the contest found out someone else was already writing it. Races and how unique or well they tie into things all depends on the history and details behind them. You can't build consistently without that, you can't make races more than cardboard cutouts without it and obviously, any attempt to RP without it will collapse.
Even H&S can't survive without at least some limited dedication to the 'idea' of the character and his background, not just how many exp points they have. The prior staff didn't really get that, so they gobbled together ideas, areas and pieces of things, without ever truely connecting any of them. Now 90% of the time spent by the current staff involves not making the 'basic' adjustments needed to tie things together and make the world consistant, but fixing all the balance issues, bugs, etc. that resulted from not taking design seriously in the first place. I suspect that this is invariably what would happen with most H&S muds at some point, if they take the story behind there world at all seriously. Races that don't look like they where simply xeroxed from someplace else require that such things be taken seriously.
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