What would it take for MUDs to become popular again?

We seem to have disagreement on certain principles, which means that those dimensions are pointless to talk about.

I for one, prefer magic to actually to have rules and systems, which is what I suppose I mean when I say realistic. That is, it obeys certain "rules" of the game setting. I feel that a general rule which out to be universal is that learning a spell and doing it correctly takes a little more effort than just reading a book and waving your fingers. I don't think anyone is going to wave their fingers correctly the first time, and I dislike the concept that the book somehow just makes you able to do it. It's an immersion breaking silliness. If you want to argue that's hard to represent in a game, then we can probably agree on that. -- The game may be able to do whatever it likes within "that universe", but since those universes are often meant to resemble our own on levels beyond superficial there's no reason to dispense with everything. You know how in most games, gravity still exists...

Just so we're clear, while there is some degree of objectivity to "fun" and "not fun", those are generally very opinion backed terms. I don't

My points with regard to rarity are that: 1) It means nothing for it to be "super rare" if everyone has one 2) Generally rarity also carries an implication of "better than other things of a similar, but non-identical nature". On the topic of #1, this point also becomes irrelevant because there essentially become 0 other things of "similar, but non-identical nature" because the "rare" item is the best one and isn't actually all that rare at all.

I don't find stat "micromanagement" all that bad and would actually argue that WoW isn't any better in that regard, it's arguably worse.

I also am not much bothered by going to the trainer for leveling stuff because leveling is not a super common occurrence and so it is a minimal inconvenience. Not that I would mind if they could a better way to work them into the story, because I think that would make it more streamlined considering that DDO is kind of focusing on the story and quests a bit. I don't know why an NPC that can train someone in being a wizard would hang out at the docks all the time.

It would make a bit more sense to go to their tower/home, etc. It might also make sense to name them and make it so you always go to the same one so that it makes sense that you're learning from some one in particular or some such. At least for wizards, there might be different context for other classes. Part of the issue is likely the world setting, although I am not super familiar with actual Eberron published works.

My limited experience with SMAUG prevents me from engaging further in that conversation, but there is a difference between you need to train to use a -weapon type- and train to use some -new way of using- a type of weapon you can already know how to use. I don't believe that realism intrinsically means busywork, but I suppose there is a threshold somewhere where it can cross into being busywork.

I guess what I was intimating is that there is a question to be answered about whether MUDs want to be popular. What I think is generally wanted is for them to be fun which, aside from other things, means they need a certain minimum number of players, not necessarily to be anything even close to approaching mainstream.

/r/MUD Thread Parent