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shadowfyr · 01-11-2006, 04:42 PM

I am going to toss my two cents in here and say that I tend to agree, as a player and currently *only* a player, that I think some statement of the commercial nature of a mud is a necessity. I can say for an absolute fact that my reaction to logging in some place, then finding out I need to, or even would be massively advantaged, by shelling out money, is roughly the same reaction as I get everything time I see an email in my box that says, "Your free XBox is ready!" Yep, free, as long as you go to 10 other web sites and sign up for stuff that costs you 50% more than the price of the original free gift. Oops! Or even more accurately, what you see with some Shareware offerings, where its free to play the first 2 levels (a lot of games), use it free on one email address (mailwasher), free to check for **some** problems on your system (some registry cleaner), just not the ones you need fixed, etc. Free, free, free, as long as you ignore the **reality** that you eventually have to pay for the product, if you want to have every feature, or use it the same way as everyone else, or want to keep using it, in cases where you have to a) upgrade, b) subscribe or c) only get X-days to use it.

NONE of those things are "free" and I get ****ed off by claims that they are, since it makes finding what I am looking for like trying to find a single brain cell in the mush inside Bush's head. It absolutely guarrentees that I will *never* play at one of the muds that pulls that crap and undermines my ability to find legitimate MUDs that don't feel the need to lie about their commercial nature to trick me into playing, because, "Gasp!", they are telling the truth when they say they don't require people to pay for "anything".

Maybe we need a poll, just to clear up what the "community" thinks free is supposed to mean?

01-11-2006, 04:42 PM	#66
shadowfyr Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 310	I am going to toss my two cents in here and say that I tend to agree, as a player and currently only a player, that I think some statement of the commercial nature of a mud is a necessity. I can say for an absolute fact that my reaction to logging in some place, then finding out I need to, or even would be massively advantaged, by shelling out money, is roughly the same reaction as I get everything time I see an email in my box that says, "Your free XBox is ready!" Yep, free, as long as you go to 10 other web sites and sign up for stuff that costs you 50% more than the price of the original free gift. Oops! Or even more accurately, what you see with some Shareware offerings, where its free to play the first 2 levels (a lot of games), use it free on one email address (mailwasher), free to check for some problems on your system (some registry cleaner), just not the ones you need fixed, etc. Free, free, free, as long as you ignore the reality that you eventually have to pay for the product, if you want to have every feature, or use it the same way as everyone else, or want to keep using it, in cases where you have to a) upgrade, b) subscribe or c) only get X-days to use it. NONE of those things are "free" and I get ***ed off by claims that they are, since it makes finding what I am looking for like trying to find a single brain cell in the mush inside Bush's head. It absolutely guarrentees that I will never* play at one of the muds that pulls that crap and undermines my ability to find legitimate MUDs that don't feel the need to lie about their commercial nature to trick me into playing, because, "Gasp!", they are telling the truth when they say they don't require people to pay for "anything". Maybe we need a poll, just to clear up what the "community" thinks free is supposed to mean?