I'd certainly consider Guild Wars a mud, and possibly Diablo2 and CounterStrike. However the same argument could be made about most of the big graphical muds - how many of them have a strong administrative presence within the mud? How often does a god appear in World of Warcraft to blast you with lightning because you unfairly killed another player? How many times can I insult someone on EverQuest before one of the staff "silences" me?

Given that I already clarified earlier in the thread that "By "pretty much runs itself" I'm talking specifically about a mud that requires little in the way of an administrative presence within the mud", it seems apparent that the straw-man isn't mine.

The opinion I stated was that a well-designed mud can be operated with "little in the way of an administrative presence within the mud". I did not say that such a mud "doesn't include non-development support staff". I am talking about explicitly about the roles of administrative staff within the game itself.

Kavir wrote:
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However the same argument could be made about most of the big graphical muds - how many of them have a strong administrative presence within the mud? How often does a god appear in World of Warcraft to blast you with lightning because you unfairly killed another player? How many times can I insult someone on EverQuest before one of the staff "silences" me?
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You do realize that, for instance, World of Warcraft has thousands of non-development support staff working in-world, right?

Yes, and I agreed it can be done, providing one of your goals isn't to have many players.

--matt