> For atleast 7+ years, people have been saying how outdated the old text
> mud is, and that it will become extinct soon. Well, here it is the year
> 2000, and CF still has a fairly strong player base. Many new people are
> attracted to it each day, and many old players who don't play regularly
> will still check in from time to time just to see what's new. While there
> may not be as many new startup muds springing up each week as there once
> were, it is obvious that the muds which have endured this long will be
> sticking around for awhile.

> The people who play CF are a diverse crowd, pretty much any social class
> and nationality is represented, and there's a wide variety of expectations
> each player has for each character. Somehow, even after the initial coolness
> factor wears off, people still stick with it.

> What I would like to know is….
>
>
>
>
>
> 1) Approximately how many hours have you put into CF total, with
> all your characters? Is there any other form of entertainment that has
> taken near the number of hours as CF?

Oh man, that's a very hard question. I would have to say,.. hmm.. I've been playing CF since it came up, with a few month break in there.. so that's say 7 years, about 2500 days, averaging anywhere between of 3-10 hours a day from bare minimum to maximum. So, somewhere between 7500 hours and 25000 hours. :-)

> 2) Have you ever tried any of the graphical pay muds that are out
> there? Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Everquest, etc? Do you think any
> of them could ever replace what CF means to you?

Yes, I bought Everquest and subscribed for six months. $50 for the game, $50 for the six month subscription. I stopped playing after a few weeks... It can never replace CF.
>
> 3) Do you think text-based muds will be able to continue to compete
> in the coming years? Will they evolve enough to continue attracting new
> players?

Yes. I think that text muds are here to stay as long as there is a staff to maintain them correctly. There are many types of MUDS... purely roleplaying, purely PKing muds... There's something for everyone if they look. Text muds have always appealed to me... probably because I type 85wpm (when I'm not hyper) which really helps, and the whole concept is really good. I have not found any mud that compares to CF, although I have not really looked far... CF got me hooked and kept me there. It's educational if you want it to be. Honestly, if you interact and roleplay, your vocabulary seriously gets better. I suggest going to roleplay with the REALLY good roleplayers and have a web browser open to www.dictionary.com ;-)

> 4) When you think of your life 5 years from now, do you imagine
> yourself still playing mud-type games?

I'll still be playing CF if it's around, yes. And I have no doubt it will be around.

> 5) If you had the time, and money/hardware was not a factor, would
> you spend 8 hours a day playing CF in its current form? Would you
> play one of the graphical Pay-muds? Or would you divide your time between
> them, depending on your mood?

My current system has the ability to play any of those intense graphic systems, yet I still play CF... always.

> 6) Have you ever forced yourself to quit mudding, only to lose
> control of yourself at some point and find yourself back? Do you or others
> ever look at CF as an addiction or Illness? Have you ever lost a close
> relationship/job/class because you could not pull yourself away from the
> game?

Good question. I have a healthy mix of CF. When I have spare time, I play CF. It's the same thing as watching TV, reading a book, going bike riding, whatever.. it's a form of entertainment/stress relief. I don't let it consume my life, but I must admit I do have dreams of casting spells and stuff sometimes... :)

> 7) Have you ever seriously considered ways to make mudding a paying
> career or job? Have you ever mudded while working, even though it might
> get you in trouble?

I have coded my own mud called The Rose: Council of Guardians and currently receive revenues from that. The project, as it stands now, is sort of on hold... but it is not like any mud created before. It's been created from the GROUND up... Skills and spells are handled completely differently than CF... and I'm not sure about CF, but in The Rose there are about 45 factors that go into each and every attack called an "offensive pool" and also a "defensive pool"... Also, when monsters are randomly repopulated in an area there are different types of monsters.. strong, weak, swift, clumsy, etc... For example, you could walk through an area and see a clumsy satyr, kill it and then come back and it'll be powerful. All of those description adjectives will affect the monster's own attribute, quite obviously by the adjective, and it makes for a nice flair of a game. Two years in development it has a lot more work to be done on it, including right now the database being completely revamped so that it can be editted through MS Access and such and ported over... Okay, sorry to ramble. :-)