Genesis is in my opinion, the best mud out there for roleplaying in the literary realms of Tolkien, Dragon Lance, and EarthSea. Add to that the numerous other realms that have been carefully crafted by devoted wizards, all with their own detailed past and vibrant present, and you have probably the best mud out there for the meshing of so many styles of play.

Roleplaying is so much more fun when you do not have 100hp/50ma/100mv flashing by every few seconds in combat and you are always striving to reach 5000xp to reach level 12 or whatever it may be. Instead, if you go to check your health, you might find yourself feeling very well, hurt, or even barely alive. Your mind could be slightly degraded, or in a vegetable state. Levels are not numerical, life begins as a novice, then greenhorne, and you progress through great-adventurer, a hero, and finally a myth, which unlike many muds where there are countless people at the maximum level, is a very rare thing to find.

I think that the best part is that guilds and classes are not things that you are born with, you don't have to decided right of the bat that you want to be a Paladin, a Wizard, or Barbarian. Instead guilds are as they should be, organizations of people who will allow you into their group if you prove yourself to be of like mind or in some cases worthy of their powers and willing to serve. In a guild you don't trained to have 10 ranks in swords and 20 ranks in fireball. Instead you train from student, then on up to journeyman, craftsman, veteran, master, and for the very skillful one can become a true guru of a skill.

Life is hard to start with as there are no 'tells' or chat channels but only post offices and various creatures and peopl who will carry messages, but people are not cold and self centered. The atmosphere is friendly. I remember when I started I had no idea what was happening and so I mailed the only person visible to me, and they happily gave me a few pointers and told me someone who I could contact if I needed further assistance. The one who I contacted was an Immortal, a coder. The usually separated and invisible creaters of the worlds. Not so in Genesis.