Q: Does this mean the MUD will become a "pay to play" MUD?
A: Absolutely not!  We are totally against this pay structure for
several reasons.  For one, players like to chat -- penalizing you
for just hanging out is silly, as that would discourage your
time on here.  For another, this game being free to play is
the number one way we attract players.  Charging by the hour,
day, week, or month would harm our number one means of
getting new people on here.  Finally, other profitable MUDs
have a pay structure similar to our wish struture -- and they're
doing just fine.  In short -- why mess with a good thing?

Q: Why are you doing this?
A: There's a lot of reasons.  The most obvious is that the MUD
is growing and our "donations" are piling up, more than we can
justify. There's also the simple fact that we spend a lot of time
running this place -- we treat it like a business.  As we get older
and deal with more adult interests like spouses, houses, and
children, it becomes increasingly more difficult to justify staying
on here with no money in return. That means that Retro exists
because of our good graces.  If those good graces should disappear,
the MUD could suddenly cease to exist as well.  Nowhere was
that more evident than our recent crash and bankruptcy -- Rayzam,
Alaron, and Talien were all busy doing other things in real life
and it took quite a lot of effort to fix the problem.   If we had
been really deeply involved in our lives at the time, the game
could have disappared completely.

Q: So why not just charge now?
A: Because our license through the MUDlib and OS does not
allow it.  It's free to use, but you can't make money off of it.
Period.  We are exploring alternatives.  

Q: What about the rest of the coding staff?
A: We will likely treat our staff like freelancers, paying them
an hourly rate just like we pay the administrators.  This freelancer
structure is nothing new -- you submit your hours and you get
paid for what you produce.  Don't code?  Then you don't submit
hours.

Q: What about current characters?
A: RetroMUD is as much code as it is people.  We would never
abandon you.  Therefore, we would make sure you would be
transferred over in some form to the new version of the game.
We have no idea what those details are -- it could end up very
similar to a force reinc.

Q: How will the pay structure change from what we have now?
A: It's likely we would expand the wish structure to include more
wishes.  We don't know what that would look like at this time.
Our goal is still to keep the game fully playable as a newbie.  One
thing that would definitely be coded in at some point is the god
structure when you hit 100.  We want you to keep playing and
the deification ritual at 100 is a key component in keeping Primal
Energy flowing through the Retroverse.

Q: But I thought [BLAH] belonged to some other setting?
A: Part of the Reaver to Jomsviking name change is our attempts
to fix this problem.  You're right though, there is content on the
current RetroMUD that we couldn't carry over because it's too close
to intellectual property owned by someone else.  Names of cities
might have to change, some guild names might have to change,
some races may have to change.  It's unlikely much would be
removed, but there would definitely be a "content review" of
everything on here before it got translated over.

Q: Will you be hiring external coders?
A: This is a question that bothers a lot of people. We're not interested
in hiring coders outside of the game for IN GAME purposes.  We
are interested in developing RetroMUD beyond its current roots.
If that means graphic developers, web developers, java developers,
then yes we may hire external help.  We appreciate as much as you
do keeping RetroMUD "in the family."

Q: When is this going to happen?
A: We don't know.  We have to explore licensing issues, have to
get RetroMUD incorporated as a business (not as a not-for-profit),
have to open a bank account, get an accountant, etc.  Lots of work. It's
not happening tomorrow.

Q: Are you working with anyone else?
A: Yes.  Genevieve will help us with the accounting and, when we get
to that point, will also be paid for it just as Al and Ray will be. 
Additionally,
we are talking to other for profit companies who have taken notice of us,
mostly through our advertising.