Told you. Everything is good as long as it is enough. It's just ridiculous to do what CX2 said, but on the other hand, everything to some extent. Actually Jade, there are very very very few, in fact, the number of my fingers, of that browser-based games that you said, that well, somehow, have succeeded, but still, it's not that much of a thing. And, I just gave you an example; I was not actually comparing anything with anything. You can, as Dark said, compare a mud with Legend Of The Green Dragon and such.

There are dozens of browser-based RPGs, but some of 'em are ripoffs of others and others aren't very good.
There are also very likely a lot of cruddy MUDs.
I won't go so far as to say that the ratio of good-to-bad MUDs is equal to the ratio of good-to-bad browser-based RPGs, but I bet you it's fairly similar, at least.

Dark, the more draconian mud was really over the top. Like I said there are automatically dispensed jobs, and they label you a power gamer for doing more than a couple of them. They even discussed on the forums removing them altogether, so all you could do was wander around talking to people and take part in occasional staff-run jobs. Realism is great, but you have to take advantage of the medium and Awakened Worlds is by contrast RP optional but with a strong RP community still. If you want to go kill a random mob because you feel like venting some frustration, or to test out some new equipment, you can.

For example one of the immortals on Awakened Worlds ran a police raid on a particularly frequented club. This was a one off thing, and no real long term consequences for the characters occured. On the other hand I believe the other mud wouldn't be beyond permanantly killing off a character just for killing a few mobs, which in a mud is not good. This is especially so when you consider that the player might have put serious work into the character. I'm all for there being consequences in Shadowrun, but mostly in the pen and paper. Doing the equivalent of automatically killing someone just for taking a shot at a police officer is harsh, and as I understand it these mobs were tough to the point of being almost unbeatable. I wouldn't be complaining if a couple squad cars showed up, we're talking a team that could threaten well armed and trained commandos and that just isn't fun.

Just so you know mob is short for mobile object, sorry to confuse. It is anything from a shopkeeper to town guards or monsters.

And in case I confused you further both shadowrun muds I mentioned come from the same codebase called Awake, but diverged a while back so there are differences. As well as being less draconian I find Awakened Worlds has set up far more features including working PDA's and the ability to actually transport drones in a van.

lol. Actually in some muds, including the Shadowrun ones, shopkeepers are not killable. Imagine going to a shop for some ammo to find that the guy has been killed, again. Then again Alter Aeon does allow the killing of shopkeepers, if you can survive the guards that appear when you try. I saw a guy once trying to kill the keeper in the newbie "mud school" area and it was a downright massacre, not in favour of the player who was silly enough to try.

And it's less that it's a lawless setting, just that how much law there is depends on how much money the victim and offender possess

I think it varies from game to game. Alter Aeon for example gives experience for killing mobs based on their relative difficulty, as well as certain achievements like killing the bear of this particular forest or a monster at the bottom of a well. I presume they also pay out experience for completing quests, but I never quite got my head around their quest system. Changing the experience payout relative to enemy difficulty is standard anyway, and in a lot of muds you're equally able to be good , evil or indeterminate.

Progression varies the most, in AA you use experience to buy levels whereupon you receive 5 practices. These can be used to either train up skills or increase attributes, with attributes costing multiple practices. Later on it is also possible to use experience to just buy practices I believe. Different skills and spells become available at different levels, and you can have levels in any or all of the four classes the price just keeps going up to gain the new level.

I know Godwars 2, I tried it briefly before deciding it was too much like a beat 'em up, uses a system where to improve your skills with say a sword you have to use a sword in combat. The more you use it the more your skill level goes up.

Then you get some muds, admittedly few but present, that lack any sort of level and/or class system. There was a mud based on the Dune books which lacked classes, although I found it boring, and I hate to mention it yet again but the shadowrun muds lack either class or level systems. It doesn't mean you can't specialise, it just makes it more freeform than even Alter's multi class system.

But as I mentioned there is also a certain element of raising skills and level in fighting style through use in Godwars 2, in addition to that system. It's an interesting method, if I didn't really think too much to the rest of the game myself.