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But that doesn't mean you can't give them a choice as to what they do.
The gathering of exp isn't an activity in its own right - its a reward for an activity. If the only way to earn exp is to kill monsters, then you're forcing players to kill monsters in order to progress. But if they can also earn exp through other means (crafting, roleplaying, exploring, etc) then you're giving them a choice.
Once again, the earning of gold isn't an activity in its own right - its the side effect of something else. If the only way to earn gold is to kill monsters, then you're forcing players to kill monsters. But if gold can also be earned through missions, quests, contests, trading, etc, you're giving players a choice.
The original poster suggested "requiring a completion of a quest before the advancement of each level". That results in a lack of choice; players are forced to perform the quests, or they cannot advance. Molly is proposing the opposite - allowing the player to choose their own form of advancement. If player X doesn't like quests, then he can stick to killing monsters. If player Y doesn't like killing or exploring, she can advance through roleplaying. And so on.
This issue has been discussed many times on MUD-DEV, and is obviously a good idea from a game development point of view, as it allows each player to play the game the way they want to play it - and I think most people who've played games like Deus Ex would agree that it also adds a lot of replay value. It's certainly something worth considering for anyone who wishes to create a mud that appeals to a wide audience.
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