[the_logos]

To me it's fairly sad (and quite rude) that a MUD admin would jump in on a promotional thread to try to disparage the success of another MUD. It's also kind of ironic for you to be telling us that success for a MUD should be based on how much the players play when your MUD - 4Dimensions - has a whopping six players online currently, one of which is the newbie I just created to check.

However, for the benefit of other people who are actually interested vs looking to troll:

MUDs are not just a hobby for us, and that fact is one major reason we're thriving. Revenue matters more than play time (though both matter, as no players = no revenue) because we're professionals that earn our living from this. We have mortgages, rent, bills for kids colleges, etc. 100 thirteen year olds who spend no money but run around going "LOL I R an RPer!" don't do much for us. I'll take 10 mature 25-40 year olds that do what they can to support the game any day of the week.

Personally, I look at it quite opposite: I'm thrilled and honoured that players love our MUDs so much that not only do they play the heck out of them, but on top of that, they're willing to spend money to support us. It's quite a gratifying expression of their love for our MUDs.

Stop by most MUDs today and look at how much effort is being put into making them better, day-in, day-out. I think you'll be hard-pressed to find too many that get the kind of work poured into them that Achaea does, and the fact that we're able to be paid to do that work is why. We're not distracted by other jobs. This isn't a side-gig for us.

This is our lives, and revenue means that we can pour more resources into the MUDs. Hired a new full-time developer on Achaea this month, in fact, as a result of the excellent year we've been having, which means more cool stuff for the players to enjoy. And of course on top of our paid full-time staff we also have a cadre of community volunteers that are in-role as Gods as well as help out behind the scenes.

If you want a MUD with an active playerbase that has very active, productive staff, come check out it. recently had this to say about Achaea:
"It remains immersive to an astonishing degree, even compared with contemporary games—it has its own social mores, cultural life, history and folklore. Its political systems are complicated and well-developed."