Armageddon MUD crumples to the ground.

I largely agree with most of your post. It's clear that you speak from experience and that your view of the matter is quite holistic.

With that being said, I have a hard time being accepting/sympathetic of this state of affairs, as opposed to trying to provide solutions and postulate strong alternatives. We will have to agree to disagree here (likely because I'm more aligned with justice, and you seem to have a more merciful disposition): I do think most staff members are inefficient with their time and energy.

Mostly because the average person is somewhat lazy and unsuited for the unique role of leader/customer service agent/writer/actor, etc. all wrapped into one, and also because the staff structure in Armageddon promotes this sort of behavior. I could elaborate on this, but I won't, because I think there are plenty of posts that already do so, and the massive scale of the Armageddon staff team compared to 99% of games of a similar size should serve to speak for itself.

Of course, maybe it's built for a purpose. By that I mean, having 3 Producers at a time who get to preserve their own time/energy and delegate all of their tasks leads to less efficiency for everyone beneath them, but also lends itself to the game's long-term stability. It has survived 30+ years for a reason, quality aside. The storytellers hampered by red tape suffer and burnout, the players suffer and leave or subsist, but the machine gets to keep on churning; until now. There's way too much gunk in the gears, and finally even the workers are throwing wrenches and whatever they can find into the sheer mechanical mess.

While still far from perfect, as I alluded to earlier, the average MUSH team with 3-4 passionate individuals is much more preferable in my eyes. The workload doesn't change, you're right about that. If you want to do it right, it's a full-time job. But a small team of people with an aligned vision is such a superior vessel for bringing something special, unique, worthy of investment, to full fruition.

There's less restriction, more freedom, and greater potential. These MUSHes cater to more players with a fraction of the team compared to Armageddon. If they have systems that ensure fairness while promoting meritocracy, giving players the tools to enhance their own experience and those of others (these are player-storytellers, every MUSH seems to have their own name for them), all the better. These games often give characters way more social/political mobility than anyone in an RPI could ever hope for, and they don't have the janky hack n' slash combat that should've been phased out 20+ years ago in the MUD community.

Freeform roleplay and storytelling in a cohesive setting with unique mechanics, not shitty twitch-based combat, is the future for text-based games. I can certainly say that much, without starting to shill for my own project. And much like how virtual/tabletop DMs are starting to charge for their services, a clever storyteller/MUSH admin should find ways to leverage their own services and turn their game into a full-time job. The benefits would be tangible for all involved. In fact, it's necessary to save/revive MUDs and this entire medium, in an age where roleplay is actually more popular and widely accepted than ever before. A bit scatterbrained, but maybe someone will jive with this. Any thoughts?

I actually agree. As game systems go, MUSHes are still inefficient (text based, old, it takes the time it takes to use them), but they usually require a lot less from a staffing team, given that the emphasis on skills/leveling is often not there, and the available functions in MUSH code are more streamlined as a result. Permissions are more modular, and there is often a culture of collaboration within them that is far more permissive towards allowing the playerbase to also take part in the creation of game assets, as well as make big swings with story that do not need to be micromanaged or overseen by a staffing team.

MUSHes are the text-based roleplaying/storytelling game environment I prefer (not that I have the time to do anything with this genre of game at all these days) but I don't think the Armageddon community as a whole is suited to that kind of skills-lite, good faith gaming environment.

Can you imagine if Viv water was distilled water, so drinking it just washed essential nutrients from your system and killed you slowly?

I can't help but be disappointed that armageddon MUD is going to end without there being a fucking armageddon.

Imagine if someone like Malifaxis picks it up.

That isn't frightening at all.

Now I'm wondering if Malifaxis ever covered up his Armageddon logo tattoo, had it removed, or just still awkwardly has it.

If he still has it, then he should get the domain name as a consolation prize, because that's just sad.