Oh, it's definitely both. Having said that, I don't believe there's anything superior about our business model. It's a model. Accepting no money is a model. Pay-for-play is a model. They're all just different, not inferior or superior. They may be inferior or superior for certain people but overall they just...are.
No, I'm saying pay-for-perks offers something for some people that subscription and free games do not. That's not really debatable. I've played games with all three of those business models myself and have enjoyed something about all of them. The most recent mud I played was City of Heroes, which is subscription based. I tell you, I was dying to be able to pay for perks as I just did not have the time to grind my way through the levels to the higher end content. No doubt other people would prefer not to have that option available though, just like some prefer roleplaying over hack n' slash or vice versa. They're just choices, but there are a lot of people who seem to associate 'good' and 'evil' with business models.
Yeah, you're definitely seeing it wrong. I don't mind discussions about our games of any kind going on though. I figure if people are going to attack us, we'll just accept the extra traffic it brings. Why do you think Medievia has a lot of players? Because it gets slammed a lot. There really is almost no such thing as bad press, especially to a small online business.
Thanks! Yes, I am proud of all our muds. However, we ARE free, and whether it's exactly the same free as others is not really the point. As Jazuela pointed out (and she's not one of our players), we are, in every way, completely free. In no way are you ever required to pay money for -anything-. You have the option. Frankly, I think that option exists in nearly all muds. I suspect if I offered 50k to the head admin of <pick your mud> with a signed contract never to reveal the nature of the transaction, I could buy just about anything I wanted in that game. I know some people will object and say, "Oh, not me!" but I'll leave it up to the readers to believe that or not. $50,000. You'd take it. How about a billion? It's a ridiculous example obviously, but if there is -any- price at which things are for sale, openly or privately, then you have a pay-for-perks situation. And realistically, for 99% of hobbyist mud admins, it wouldn't take 50k to buy a single thing. I'm sure $500 would get me some gold or a sword or whatever. ####, I did it myself once on a mud called ZombieMud way back in 1993 or so. (I was the player buying something secretly from the admin).
If they wish to distinguish themselves in some way, they're free to use a more descriptive term. It's also worth noting that the loudest voices calling for this are the same people who attack us whenever possible. Another reason not to care. The line the Michael Bolton character has in Office Space about his name comes to mind, though more in the, "Why should I change? They're the ones with the problem." sense.
--matt