
Re: What does "Free" Mean?
I've always supported #5, but I basically accepted arguments that it was too easily gamed and settled for supporting straight 4-option.
At minimum, I think it'd have to have wording requiring that there be no payment anywhere in a benefit's ownership/effect chain for the claim of "available without payment" to be meaningful. If one can make that claim because a player could, conceivably, buy an item for $1000 and then transfer it to you without payment, then the information is useless and MUD owners are disincentivized from following the spirit of the distinction (because if everyone else is claiming it on a BS technicality, you'd better too).
Special-event lotteries and so forth are an annoying technicality, too, but trying to address that raises the specter of the category becoming a five-page legal document.
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