[Feyona]

How many people do you like to be online at any one time on your MUD?
And posting response do you think it is better to have a large online players or are smaller groups Better?

[Jazuela]

It seems like a bit of a skewed poll...you have a 10-player jump from the first to the second, a 20-player jump from 2nd to 3rd, a 30-player jump between 3rd and 4th, and the 4th is anything over 60 - which could mean as high as the thousands.

Personally, I like rather vast worlds where players are a bit spread out, but different groups have a chance to interact within each area. So for me, I'd like a couple hundred "online," while actively interacting with anything between 1 and 20 people at any given moment.

The world feels more populated when you can sense the thoughts of others on the in-character ESP channel every so often, even if their thoughts aren't directed toward you. Otherwise, I'd feel very isolated.

[Hannah]

Well anything above 10...but NOT in any case more than 60. Then I get that drowning feeling...

[Hannah]

Forgot..of course I mean without multiplaying.

[Feyona]

try to forgive me ill work on my poll skills as this is my first one ever to post. I will try harder next time :-)

[Kyrene]

I'm perfectly comfortable in a player base of 20-50. I think for most people the need to be recognized is important and still for others it's the circle of attention. Some crave it so bad that a large player base would be over-whelming for them and frustrating. There's also something about knowing everyone that is comforting

For me, it's being large enough for multiple story lines and yet not too large to be lost in them or unable to participate in all the SL's I'm interested in. Then I don't feel like 'just another player' but a member of the game.

[Rytorth]

I'm more comfortable with a base of over 60. It's not the recognition that I need...it's the knowing I'm /not/ the only one on the MU* and everyone else who RP's there hasn't forgotten that the MU* exists.

I'm not really social so I don't long for the center of attention. In fact, that's usually the /last/ thing I want. But I can get RP deprived easily if there's less then 20 people on line. Usually because most of those people aren't anywhere near where I am and I have no IC reason to go where they are.

I know I'm a member of the game...but being able to blend into the background is kind of important to me. After all, being known as 'the guy who swept in and slaughtered the evil villan, even though she was overpowered' is nice for a while. But being known as 'one of the people who helped' or 'the one who was attacked by a <insert name of beast here> and survived but didn't kill the <insert name>' is nicer. At least, for me it is.

[Enzo]

I don't like having too many people online because it can get very annoying at times. When people start blabbing over the public channels so you turn them off. Now that you have the channels turned off, you can't hear annoucements from immortals and such. But then I like more people because of lotsa RP and stuff like that. It kinda depends on the mood I'm in personally.

[Shao_Long]

The more the better. Thats what I think.
Simply if you would had 100 people in 100 rooms - its weird.
500 people in 10000 rooms - thats ok, i think.
Simply on a good mud with small player base there is a possibilty that you'll wont like these players, because most often they will be from... 'one category' , and on a mud with large player base you can always just ignore?( its stupid, but sometimes helps ) people you dont like, and 'interact' with other ones.. there's larger possibilty to meet new people, and blah blah blah
I just dont like to be with ALL the same people for a long time

[Brianna]

I prefer what some would call a mid-sized mud, a player base much like Kyrene mentioned 10 to around 50-60. Much larger than that I feel over whelmed and a bit lost, I enjoy RPing and the mid sizs muds work well. Multiple stories running and some even running together works well when the group is good sized. Active immortals encouraging various storylines help too.

Just my thoughts

[mhc]

The more, the merrier. Up, up, up. 60+.

[reyth]

The game I play now needs as many people as it can get, game-design wise, but I wonder if we ever got the people we want if we have the hardware to handle them!

Ah the ups and downs of life.

[Xanferious]

im not gonna vote, i rather see people that will do something in the mud that just be online. rather them to have fun & enjoy the time the spend there.

[Santrilla]

I think it's important to have a large playerbase for a MUD, but the MUD itself has to be large and varied enough to hold them all. 300 people in one town square is NOT fun.

[Neranz Laverani]

I like muds with 10 to 40 players at peak time.

In general, there is an inverse relationship between the number of players and the presence of manners. As the number of players goes up, the level of politeness goes down.

I have to deal with enough crap in the real world. I don't need it in my escape too.

Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge

[Alaire]

First off, I'll admit.
I'm very wierd.

I prefer a smaller, close knit group of roleplayers that have the same core set of values for roleplay that I do.  I'm -that- picky.  I would rather have long periods of solo rp than to play a game where I'm constantly irritated with the person I'm trying to roleplay with who just doesn't value what I do in RP.
I'd rather play a game where I might log in and be one of only two or three people, than to log into a mud that has a hundred that don't live up to my rp expectations.

My preference is MU**s with 30-60 characters on at the times I play, and a minimum of 100 players who have one or more characters and play on a fairly regular basis. The reason for my preference is just the opposite of what some folks have said. I do not want a character who gets along with everyone, who is part of a tight knit, friendly community. As a player, I do want that. For my characters though, there need to be enough other characters regularly around for folks she dislikes, enemies, friends, acquaintances, loves, and strangers to all exist. Larger MU**s might also be interesting, but in truth, I’ve never tried one long enough to know if I like the 100+ players online at all times atmosphere. It would fit my rp needs, I’m guessing, but as for the OOC aspect of player community, I’m not sure if I would like it or not.

[Alaire]

I just wanted to clarify something real quick.

I don't want to play a mud where the characters get along. I want to play a mud where the people are able to play characters that are diverse, evil, good, in-between, hate each other, love each other, don't give a crap.... doesn't matter. But I want those people to live up to my expectations of what roleplay should be... By a tight knit community, I mean people that all have a passion for the mud they're playing, and who have the same value system about what rp should be.

That's not the same as playing in a happy, bubbly little world of sprites and fairies.

Just wanted to clarify that.

[CSmith_Fan]

Small player bases (like 10-20) are ok and decent if the MUD is young or even still in Beta. That way when the playerbase grows, you have the "old timers" that pretty much set standards, records, etc..roughly "the stuff legends are made of" in a sense, but also, I do like MUDs with a player base that is around 100 player but usually no more. One MUD I went to boasts 300+ people on at any time (we all can guess which one that is and probably be right). It was ok at first but then the problems started. 12 people in the semi-stock "caged mobs" area in the Newbie Zone (where people get their initial equipment and sometimes levels) and then later, in a place where the exp was decent (like 50-100exp per mob) there were players whereever you went to. Was told by the help staff that I should try to find other areas within my level range that arent popular. Reason why they arent popular is because the exp given out for a mob kill was way low...like 5-10exp per mob and when you have 1200+ exp tnl, that's alot of hours on typing "k <mob>". Also I've seen that with huge player bases, new players and Newbies do tend to get ignored not by choice but by volume of questions over the (if available) Newbie Channel. Also, seems, Helper type players usually have greetings triggers set for each new "soul" to enter. My current MUD has a pbase of 20 (where about 50% are East coasters and the other 50% are West coasters) and the players there are nice, sociable and even the Imms are nice. With the smaller pbase, you do get (sometimes) personalized responses. One Immy, when you level< actually sends you a tell of congratulations that she manually types out. Just that single action alone, makes playing there far better than some MUD that has a pbase of like 1000+ people. Also gotta figure too, with the larger pbases, the names policies that most MUDs have doesnt get totally enforced and sometimes when an inappropriate name is discovered, the player has already put tons of time into it (and levels) so they tend to get overlooked. Would you rather play a MUD where people are named Thalak, Katrisha and Claiger or one where people are named MacDaddy,BlingBling and SkippyTheWonderPoodle ?
Sometimes smaller is better..