I only play for a short period once or twice a year, sometimes I skip a year, but I've been with the mud since the beginning, both as a player and also as an Imm.

Some things I really feel could be loosened would be

1) The secrecy. Yes, secrets are great when you can figure them out in game, but when the mud is this old, the wall of secrecy covering every little thing is maddening. When there are other players around to share knowledge with, you can try to learn about Hell or that quest item you found, or even where to find protective wands. But trying to find everything out in-game is so time-consuming there's little reason to even try. We want to be able to discuss strategies and tips for games on forums, and having to spend a few hundred hours to learn only a portion of what you need to know makes the learning curve way too steep compared to every other game out there.

2) Still a little too much immteraction required. I really feel like rewards for many things could be automated better rather than waiting for an imm to check in and give me a title, or certain skills, or quest forms, or a lich, or into a cabal. I've been playing this game since 1994 and I've never managed to get a lich, and I've never gotten into certain cabals or certain religions even when I was trying to RP my ass off. Let some of these things just be automated like every other game out there.

3) No ability to be a casual player. Every time I start playing and get distracted for a few weeks, I have to start all over. I understand the reasoning behind auto delete, but it is a huge disincentive for me to even bother creating characters anymore if I can't take time off and come back.

4) Nothing I do carries over between characters. I feel like we really need to have a single ID we can login with and select characters we want to play, and your account accumulates a certain amount of achievement points to reward us for sticking with the game for awhile. A gear locker that lets you trade things between characters (with limits) would also be very much welcome, as would accelerated learning for reaching certain milestones. Having to start completely over gets to be a drag after you've played newbie # 4000.

5) I also feel the multi-charring and botting rules are archaic and could stand to be loosened, but I will save that for another topic.