[Throttle]

I'm extremely picky with my muds so I've only played a handful for any significant length of time. Beyond the things that I'm personally nitpicky about, here are some main factors that will deter me from a non-RPI mud, in no particular order:


- Annoying playerbase. Can be anything from immaturity to cliquish behaviour and newbie hostility; if the playerbase doesn't consist mainly of the kind of people I'd associate with in real life, I won't play there. There's enough of that in real life for me to want it in my hobby as well.

- Poorly written game world. I want immersion; it doesn't have to be on the level of RPI muds where everything has to be perfect and greatly eloquent, but if the descriptions and NPCs aren't written in a serious and consistent manner, I can't take the game seriously. When writing a room or an NPC's description, write what it looks like. When writing an object, put more effort into the description than "this sword glows and it's really sharp."

- Lack of theme. I refuse to play on a mud that consists of a mainly stock version of Midgard, with a smurf town down the road and a Disney amusement park over the hill. As much as I admire many aspects of muds like Aardwolf, I cringe at the thought of playing in an environment that is randomly slapped together with no reason or realism whatsoever. Likewise, some sort of coherent lore would be nice.

- Ridiculous ANSI and combat echoes. I like it modest and I like it customizable. Give me default client color for all but room names, PCs/NPCs, items and communication, and I'll be happy as a clam. I also don't need to <+<+<+<DeVaStAtE>+>+>+> anyone with my [*[*[-Slash of Godlike Überness-]*]*]. I like my muds tasteful and plain in that regard.

- Race and class choices. Please don't give me thirty of each. It makes the game unfathomable and takes forever to learn, and most of the time there's only a handful that are worth playing anyway. I am more than happy with half a dozen races and classes, maybe with some subclasses I can pick and choose from later on when I've actually learned the game. I'd also much rather play an elf or a dwarf than a zcuflz'kraxx or a bluzütskræ demon. Warriors and clerics over heretic half-dragon deathknights from the seventh layer of Hell.

- Lack of nice pace and reasonable goals. I don't need to get a level every five minutes to stay interested, and what does it matter when the maximum level is 1500 anyway? You know what's the absolute main selling point of most games? That sense of achievement that we get when we accomplish something, the sweet rush of joy we had in Everquest after spending half a day getting a level. You take that away when you have me level up every few kills, and you cheapen the goal when there's another thousand levels ahead of me, each one interchangable and without any noticeable difference. I prefer a maximum level somewhere around 50, and I don't mind spending four or more hours getting each level if I can feel the improvements when I do. Also, please do not build your mud so that there is no end goal in sight. If I know that I'll never cap out and never reach the end of the road, there's no goal to motivate me and I know I'll never be among the best. Such muds tend to favor whoever has played the longest and completely leaves out the more casual players.

- Unfair equipment schemes. I want it to be challenging to get the best, but I don't want the next best to be useless. Build your game to be fair to those who can't or won't struggle to remain among the top. Casual players shouldn't expect to become the best, but they deserve the possibility of achieving competence. Give those who can play for 8-12 hours a day an advantage, but don't give them utter dominance and automatic victory if it's a PvP mud. Also, I prefer that the equipment increments are tastefully done and don't end up with weapons that are 25d300 +75/+75 - don't go the Everquest route of mudflating your game to death.

- No pay-to-play, pay-for-perks, donate-for-stats or bribe-for-advantages of any kind whatsoever. It never leads to anything good except for whoever gets paid. I do not want to involve my RL economy in any way other than possible donations for nothing other than my appreciation of the mud. I don't mind cafepress stores, but leave it the heck out of the game itself.