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Old 12-12-2007, 07:25 PM   #15
KaVir
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: Games as service

So is a hobbyist mud. But I was responding to your statement "It's so trivial to start a hobbyist MUD".

Well yes, the "commercial" parts - but hobbyist muds also have to deal with security issues, customer service, advertising, recruitment, schedules, etc. And even more difficult, they have to do so without a budget.

Ran, past tense. I'm not saying commercial muds automatically close down the instant they fail to make a profit, but that if they continually cost more money then they make, then after a certain point it no longer makes sense to run them as a commercial business.

Which is why I instead said "if the objective of the mud is to turn a profit..."

Which brings us back to your earlier comment "All it takes for a hobbyist to decide to shut down the world is that he's bored of it."

If the objective of the mud is to turn a profit, and it continually fails to do so, then after a certain point it will be shut down. Conversely, if you're working on the mud out of passion, and that passion turns into boredom, then after a certain point it will be shut down or passed on to someone else.

Last edited by KaVir : 12-13-2007 at 04:27 AM. Reason: Closed [b]
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