09 Jan, 2013, KaVir wrote in the 121st comment:
Votes: 0
Hades_Kane said:
First MUD I played seriously had rent, so my earliest experiences were of that. First MUD that I played without rent? Pretty much no going back for that.

I think there are much more elegant and less annoying ways to regulate high powered equipment than rent. That seems clunkier than level restrictions, honestly.

I played a few muds with rent, two in particular I played quite a lot. But in order to level I needed decent gear, and the better my gear the more gold I needed - I reached the point where it took me over an hour to earn enough gold to last me until the next day (and I didn't have internet access at home back in those days).

Eventually I failed to put in my hours on one of the muds and lost all my gear. After that "oh crap" moment I realised that more than anything else, I felt relieved. I no longer had the stress of having to grind every single day, racking up enough spare gold to last me over the weekend. So I gave away all the gear on my other character as well, and then deleted my characters on both muds (without gear I couldn't progress anyway). The muds simply weren't fun any more, the rent system had burnt away my enthusiasm and turned the mud into a painful chore.

After that I stuck with Merc derivatives, as they didn't have rent. The one I really got into was Realms of Despair, back in 1994, and I still have my character today (with all my gear) even though I rarely log on any more. I drop by sometimes to chat though, last time I was there I met an old friend I hadn't spoken to for about 15 years!
10 Jan, 2013, Kelvin wrote in the 122nd comment:
Votes: 0
Hades_Kane said:
I think there are much more elegant and less annoying ways to regulate high powered equipment than rent. That seems clunkier than level restrictions, honestly.


This. Just because it was done on older games doesn't make it a good idea. I've never really been able to keep interest in a game with a rent system because of the feeling of loss I'd have after being away for a while. Apocalypse and T-Dome were two of the better games that really hurt to quit because of this.
10 Jan, 2013, Ssolvarain wrote in the 123rd comment:
Votes: 0
KaVir said:
Hades_Kane said:
First MUD I played seriously had rent, so my earliest experiences were of that. First MUD that I played without rent? Pretty much no going back for that.

I think there are much more elegant and less annoying ways to regulate high powered equipment than rent. That seems clunkier than level restrictions, honestly.

I played a few muds with rent, two in particular I played quite a lot. But in order to level I needed decent gear, and the better my gear the more gold I needed - I reached the point where it took me over an hour to earn enough gold to last me until the next day (and I didn't have internet access at home back in those days).

Eventually I failed to put in my hours on one of the muds and lost all my gear. After that "oh crap" moment I realised that more than anything else, I felt relieved. I no longer had the stress of having to grind every single day, racking up enough spare gold to last me over the weekend. So I gave away all the gear on my other character as well, and then deleted my characters on both muds (without gear I couldn't progress anyway). The muds simply weren't fun any more, the rent system had burnt away my enthusiasm and turned the mud into a painful chore.

After that I stuck with Merc derivatives, as they didn't have rent. The one I really got into was Realms of Despair, back in 1994, and I still have my character today (with all my gear) even though I rarely log on any more. I drop by sometimes to chat though, last time I was there I met an old friend I hadn't spoken to for about 15 years!


Realms of Despair has death traps. Lost all my gear, quit and never looked back.
28 Feb, 2013, Nathan wrote in the 124th comment:
Votes: 0
Rent just to exist and keep your stuff seems tacky. I'd rather see a system where renting kept your items safe, but other players could steal them off you if you logged-off in a unsafe location, say, outside. That requires full player persistence though, and the emergent behavior of killing people while they were offline might occur if it was possible. I think people today want to keep their stuff, materialistic blah blah blahs that we are. In the past people let it slide, probably because it was the best thing around. After you've played a modern rpg, things like Skyrim being but recent examples, you want to keep your stuff or get the gold out of it. Although I suppose you could sell everything unnecessary and thusly have sufficient gold to retain an item or two in that system.
120.0/124