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It's time for me to stop lurking and start posting. I'm a player that lurked these forums for last few months. Yesterday I formally registered as I thought it could not hurt. I haven't played MUDs for long (Just over a year now). I bring this to the boards- I played only two MUDs and one of them being IRE's (Achaea to be precise). I know zilch on programming and I have no MUD that I operate or work with.
It is possible in an IRE mud to attain the maximum level (And potential) without using money. The caveat here is time. Unless one person has mass amounts of free time and by mass I mean solid weeks, or even months of clocked gameplay. Another perspective is if one graphed this. For example- Population(y axis) against Maximum Potential (X axis). The graph will be a bimodal with the middle being the fewest as there are two distinctive classes or poles. The middle connecting both poles represent players with patience and or minimal sums of money. As the ends represent those who can afford it (time and money) or those who cannot (Not enough time or money).
So yes, Matt is technically right that his MUDs are free to play, since one can attain the maximum level and potential (In a much longer time frame). However, that person would need to have devoted substantial amounts of time to do so, an amount unparrallel to a person that payed.
Was I deceived by Matt and his firm? Well at first, I didn't know what credits were, but it was made evident within the first hour of gameplay having asked "What are these credits that peole keep talking about?". Do I wish that they can make credits more clear on the homepage or to newbies? Yes. Was I peeved? Not really but it was a shock and explained many oddities among players comparing to myself.
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