Voting has been a recent topic of discussion, both between players and
in the Pantheon, so I have decided to address the issue. Let's start
with why voting is important. Each vote counts towards our rank on
TMS;the higher we get, the more likely we are to lure interested people
into joining us. This increases the playerbase and the game's income,
leading to us being able to offer further features, improvements,
expansions and other beneficial activities. For a MUD, recruiting new
players is as important as keeping those who currently play. It is that
growth that allows us to hire new people, have the resources available
to open new systems, and improve your experience within Imperian.

For example, if we wanted to create a new continent, we would need to
have a large enough playerbase to populate both the new continent, and
Aetherius. The higher in the top ten a MUD is, the more likely it is
that a person browsing for a new game will think 'People are voting for
them, they must be good so I will try them.' It only takes a couple of
seconds a day to register a vote for Imperian, but the consequences of
doing so have great positive ramifications for the game as a whole.
Often people will believe that an individual vote does not make a
difference, but the difference between one rank and another are only a
few votes, and they stack up to make a difference.

Another common occurrence we encounter is that some people choose only
vote as a form of rewarding us for something they see as meriting it.
Whilst in one way this is true, withholding that vote is in effect
damaging not just Imperian as a whole, but yourself, because the
benefits that come from an increased playerbase are then unavailable. If
you vote every day, we grow, and are able to produce more content for
you to enjoy. Not voting does little in the way of encouraging us to
produce, because we have no way to know that you have not voted. On the
other hand, voting prompts us further to produce content in order to
improve your playing experience, and is noticeable with the increase in
new people in the playerbase.

Each vote is important. One can be registered every twelve hours, and
only takes a couple of seconds to click a link. You can often code your
client to open up a browser and take you to that link directly, or click
it from our java client, our website, or our forums. Many of you may
still be using Mudbot (or Whyte's), which is an excellent program, but
unfortunately the voting module within it does not actually work. The
vote it generates is registered locally, but not with TMS, which means
in essence that vote is wasted. We would really appreciate you just
taking the extra second or two to navigate to the proper link manually,
thus making sure your vote counts.

Many of you have noticed the regular and rather unique messages that
appear, encouraging you to vote. Some like them, some hate them, some
ignore them completely, but they do have a tangible effect in that they
remind people to vote who may have forgotten, which then further speeds
us through the TMS rankings. Votes are important to us, and provide an
important stream of lifeblood to Imperian, as well as real benefits to
the world as a whole.

To those of you who vote every day, or every twelve hours, thank you
from the bottom of our hearts. To those who do not, we would truly
appreciate you doing so, because the result of each vote is of great
benefit both to us as a game, and to you as a player.

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Halitus, in the year 561 AD.