>Hi,
>
>I've been looking for a good MUD to play lately, and this one
>seems rather different and interesting. However, I haven't had
>a chance to log on for a significant period of time as yet,
>and I can't seem to grasp the basic gameplay from reading the
>website and forum posts.
>
>It appears as if characters are universally somewhat
>short-lived (which I find interesting); exactly how short is
>this living?

I believe minimum is about 450 hours before age death, with some factors like race (arial being shortest lived, elf being longest) and cabal leadership in play. An elf cabal leader might live to 1000 hours old, but very few choose to live that long.

>I notice that characters appear on the
>"Battlefield" forum with a certain number of hours listed as
>their lifespan; does this mean hours logged-on, or real-world
>hours since creation?

Real-world hours logged-on. If you play 2 hours today, tomorrow your character will still be two hours old.

>Aside from that subject of characters' longevity, what is the
>gameplay itself like? It seems as if more of an urgent and
>action-oriented playstyle exists here, based on the game's
>PK-filled nature.

This is pretty accurate.

>Is playing this game equivalent to playing a
>text-based, role-playing version of Counterstrike, or is there
>a large amount of long-term building-up of one's character as
>in other MUDs?

A mixture of both. There is longish-term build up. For instance it will take anywhere from 50 to 200 hours to hero a character. Hero is the maximum level (51) so after that, only build up would be in terms of equipment and skills. These are capped as well, so while your character has some build-up, there is also a cap to pretty much every area that prevents a continuous grind.

>Sorry for the newbishness and, particularly, vagueness of my
>question; I will obtain some first-hand experience with the
>game as soon as possible, but as of now I'm just trying to
>understand what it's all about. Any general insight is
>appreciated.
>
>Regards,
>keriostar

Hope you do, and hope you enjoy the experience. One thing to mention, in CF paranoia isn't a character trait, it's a survival requirement.