[MUD-Dev] Re: Medievia

[Richard Woolcock <KaVir#dial,pipex.com>]

Koster, Raph wrote:
> 

[snip brief overview of Medievia]

> It's also, I think, the most popular free text mud there is.

Realms of Despair has around the same number of players, possibly more -
additionally, it doesn't accept donations like Medievia does.  Is a mud
really free if the only way you can compete with other players is to send
a fat cheque to the implementor?  Is such a system is comparible to the 
'reduced functionality' games which are given out freely in the hope of 
tempting people to purchase the full game?

> Why? All of these players can't be wrong... Anyone familiar enough with
> what it has become to be able to give an analysis?

I've not played Medievia, but I played Realms of Despair for a couple of
years (94-96).  I think the main reasons for their success are that when
they opened up, there was less competition - and so their playerbase has 
had a long time to grow; the features they have added have tended to be 
favourable towards players; they have never wiped their playerfiles (other 
than unused ones).  Finally, the release of their source code (smaug) has
helped advertising greatly - although perhaps not as much as Medievia's 
"bad publicity" campaign.

KaVir.