Speaking for myself, I came to Avalon because I was \"ready\" for a game with an economic system and where time and experience dictated how you advanced more than how much cash you amassed.

I first started MUDding on a game called Moral Decay which had it's own economy in a basic sort of way though it somehow lent itself to bouts of INCREDIBLE inflation. It got really intermittent and laggy so I moved to Lostsouls which was also an LP (I

hated the cardboard cutout Dikus) I think Lostsouls is probably the most creative game guildwise out there--knights are the only sterotypical guild on there. Most of the others are based on Lovecraft, less common myths and legends and the Illuminatus

Trilogy.

It was good in the beginning but as it great and got better in some senses, it became a Powergamer paradise-where you might have 1 person reaching the Hero level once every month and a half, maybe suddenly there would be times 5-6 people would hero in

2 hours time, having only took them maybe 24 hours to reach that level when it used to take 200+.

Now the developers are trying to scale it back while the players whine about how underpowered they are now. (It much worse than the \"you killed me 20 times, but I killed you 30 times\" posts you see here. And they are starting to try to retrofit it wi

th a government and judicial system.

I left it because I was tried of the hack and slash powergaming and wanted more roleplaying and a real economy. I had come to Avalon once before that but laughed at the pay to play requirement. Now I am willing to pay for the privledge because I disli

ke the \"how many monsters can you kill in one hour\" mentality. It is also why I Grundy is part of a guild that doesnt have the power to hack and slash at will.

drink potion25617

I went back to lostsouls after awhile to play from time to time just for the brainlessess of it and to tryout the different creative stuff they do with the guilds. I have never heroed, I just jump around guild to guild having fun. There are people the

re who have played Avalon--and in fact I can see Avalon influence there--alchemists who splash potions are a recent addition.

The people who have played Avalon talk over the channels about how it sucks because you have to accumulate lessons instead of gathering alot of money and paying a teacher to teach it to you. (Which helps you powergame--once you learn where all the loo

t is, you can buy yourself to fairly high skills--though there is a cap on what someone can teach you in a certain area--still imagine a novice with Grandmaster strength skills killing monsters with only novice health.)

All in all--it is all a matter of how sophisticated and mature a player of MUDs you are. I actually had someone tell me they didn't play Lostsouls \"because it is real hard\" and that he stuck with Diku's instead. Go figure.

Grundy

Written by my hand on the 13th of Cloudburst, in the year 976.