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Threshold · 08-26-2007, 10:51 PM

Well that was one thing I was referring to, because it is so easily quantifiable.

I admit that I have no exact statistics on hand, but I don't think it is difficult to understand the truth of my words if you analyze it a bit. The professionally run muds out there have userbases that are many orders of magnitude larger than your average hobbyist mud. Many of them do not even bother to maintain an active presence on TMS (or any other MUD site). I mean besides my own company, you have all the IRE muds, all the Simultronics muds, Dragons Gate (the MUD formerly run by Mythic), Avlaon, and a host of other large, commercial muds. Between all of those companies, you are probably talking hundreds of thousands of users, and it takes a lot of 10 player muds to even start to compare. Runescape lists itself here on TMS as well, and they have 9 million users. In fact, Runescape basically renders the whole discussion moot right there by itself.

So yeah, it is plainly evident that the number of players who choose professionally run MUDs dwarfs the number who choose hobbyist muds. Does that mean the hobbyist muds stink? Of course not. I occasionally play hobbyist muds and enjoy them. But the overwhelming preference of players cannot be ignored.

08-26-2007, 10:51 PM	#108
Threshold Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Home MUD: Threshold RPG Posts: 1,260	Re: What does "Free" Mean? Well that was one thing I was referring to, because it is so easily quantifiable. I admit that I have no exact statistics on hand, but I don't think it is difficult to understand the truth of my words if you analyze it a bit. The professionally run muds out there have userbases that are many orders of magnitude larger than your average hobbyist mud. Many of them do not even bother to maintain an active presence on TMS (or any other MUD site). I mean besides my own company, you have all the IRE muds, all the Simultronics muds, Dragons Gate (the MUD formerly run by Mythic), Avlaon, and a host of other large, commercial muds. Between all of those companies, you are probably talking hundreds of thousands of users, and it takes a lot of 10 player muds to even start to compare. Runescape lists itself here on TMS as well, and they have 9 million users. In fact, Runescape basically renders the whole discussion moot right there by itself. So yeah, it is plainly evident that the number of players who choose professionally run MUDs dwarfs the number who choose hobbyist muds. Does that mean the hobbyist muds stink? Of course not. I occasionally play hobbyist muds and enjoy them. But the overwhelming preference of players cannot be ignored.