<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other? --> <!--X-From-R13: Dbff @vpbyy <eavpbyyNybfgvpf.qrzba.pb.hx> --> <!--X-Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 08:58:17 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: Pine.LNX.4.10.9906051423100.395-100000#lostics,demon.co.uk --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 375860ED.7F7D0D05@classic-games.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or agai</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00534.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00536.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00513.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00547.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00535">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00535">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00535">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Ross Nicoll <<A HREF="mailto:rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk">rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 14:32:08 +0000 (GMT)</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, Greg Miller wrote: > > The difference tends to be quality. I'm sure, if you looked hard enough, > > you could find free MUDs every bit as good as pay MUDs, but pay MUD admins > > have a lot more time to work on their MUDs, and generally are more > The whole "free trial" thing seems to work well. There are lots of > people that WILL pay if they're first informed that they don't HAVE to > and are given time to get addicted. Yep. Very few people would be willing to play a MUD they had to pay for, from the start, I think, and it does give them time to do a little character generation... > If a player finds himself playing frequently and enjoying it, you can > get a number of them to pay for bonuses ranging from the small (extra > socials, the ability to capitalize their names however they want, etc) > to the large (selling cheater eq, bonus stats, etc). *nods* I do disagree with the larger bonuses myself, though, and wouldn't play a game like that, but that's just me. Having said that though, Avalon was extremely cunning; you paid per hour, and character progression was directly related to how time you spent playing... > > No, look at Avalon, <A HREF="http://www.avalon-rpg.com">http://www.avalon-rpg.com</A>, and Achaea, > > <A HREF="http://www.achaea.com/">http://www.achaea.com/</A>. Calmar (my MUD) was also doing pretty well, player > > wise, until the admins run out of time (I'm at university). > However, it's probably a significant advantage, since most game players > seem to insist on graphics. There is certainly a far bigger market for pay to play graphical MUDs, yes. > > is because of either work or university. Pay MUDs would probably try to > > become better still, and failing that, would disappear. > I disagree. A certain inertia would cause people to play whatever they > first run into, even if it's inferior and costs money. Look at the > StockMUDs, people still play many of them even with better alternatives. [snip] > In short, marketing will bring people from outside the hobby to pay muds > *first*, and once they play a given mud, many will never move elsewhere > even if the mud is both terrible and expensive. Good point. Isn't human psychology so wonderfully broken in places :) > > > Sidenote: I tried Avalon a few years ago. Text-only (even when you used the > > > custom-written client!), and looked and feeled not dissimilar to any old LP. > > > What gives? WHY would people pay to use that? I remember being dumbfounded > > > at the time. > I haven't played it, does it seem to fit the situation I mention above > in at least some respects? Not really, I did actually like it... a lot... if I had time to really MUD, I'd go back to it. > > I left it because of cost in general (we pay per minute here, the phone > > bill was costing far, far more than the MUD), although I do still drop in > > from time to time... > And to think that the FCC is considering giving us an actual *discount* > for connections to ISPs in the US :) The real solution for you guys is > to get American communications companies to move in and attempt to take > over your local company's territory. That'll happen, but maybe not until > revenues in the US stop expanding at godawful rates in several areas. Well, we've got Cable & Wireless, and First Telecom (which I think is one of yours), and a whole pile of cable companies. And certainly, prices are dropping, but it's still a long wait before we get free local calls, methinks... -- _ __ __ __ /_) / / (_ (__ /\ /_/ __) / ______________/ _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00513" HREF="msg00513.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Greg Miller <gmiller#classic-games,com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00534.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or against each other?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00536.html">[MUD-Dev] CVS repository for ScryMUD is online at scry.wanfear.com</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00513.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00547.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00535"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00535"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00507" HREF="msg00507.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev request rejected</A></strong>, Greg Miller <a href="mailto:gmiller#classic-games,com">gmiller#classic-games,com</a>, Fri 04 Jun 1999, 22:45 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00505" HREF="msg00505.html">[MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or against each other?</A></strong>, Greg Munt <a href="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk">greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk</a>, Fri 04 Jun 1999, 22:38 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00510" HREF="msg00510.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></strong>, Ross Nicoll <a href="mailto:rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk">rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk</a>, Fri 04 Jun 1999, 23:04 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00513" HREF="msg00513.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></strong>, Greg Miller <a href="mailto:gmiller#classic-games,com">gmiller#classic-games,com</a>, Sat 05 Jun 1999, 01:28 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00535" HREF="msg00535.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></strong>, Ross Nicoll <a href="mailto:rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk">rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk</a>, Sat 05 Jun 1999, 15:58 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00547" HREF="msg00547.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></strong>, Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Sun 06 Jun 1999, 19:22 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00557" HREF="msg00557.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Mon 07 Jun 1999, 00:53 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00565" HREF="msg00565.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or againsteach other?</A></strong>, Ross Nicoll <a href="mailto:rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk">rnicoll#lostics,demon.co.uk</a>, Mon 07 Jun 1999, 15:17 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00587" HREF="msg00587.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Pay Muds & Free Muds - working together, or against each other?</A></strong>, Christopher Allen <a href="mailto:GMFangs#ASMRB,org">GMFangs#ASMRB,org</a>, Tue 08 Jun 1999, 01:01 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>