|
I think the analogy of paintball is invalid in this discussion of what's free and what's not. Yes, you can buy pay for perks, such as custom-made weapons, better equipment and such but isn't there a monetary outlay to play anyway? Last time I looked, you couldn't just turn up somewhere and play for free.
With Aetolia, Aardwolf, Achaea, MadROM, Mirkwood, etc. you can turn up and play for free. You can just log in on basic telnet (or a freebie mud client) and play with now capital investment.
From what I know of MadROM and Mirkwood, the IMPs do not accept donations because there is no cost to them for hosting the muds. They cadge server space off academic institutions.
Aardwolf is too big and has too much traffic to live with a free host. Hence it accepts donations so as many people as possible can participate. Aetolia and Achaea are commerical enterprises and must sell stuff within the games to be profitable.
However, this is not to say that Aardwolf, Aetolia and Achaea have no place in this listing. The ranking on TMS is for the most popular mud sites and all three are obviously very popular. And free, more so than paintball or visiting the movies.
I think that maybe a compromise would be to add another option to the Advanced Search on TMC for Pay for Perks That You Can Get In Time Through Normal Gameplay (or accepts donations, or whatever you want to call it). Maybe another one for Commercial Enterprise.
Btw, I quite liked Enola_Phoenix's definition:
|