Something that I did waaaay back in the day on Seattle was be on runs that were, generally, on the grid itself instead of a plotroom.  I remember the timestops, the occasional chaos, the players backstabbing each other and hiring their own team to do the run instead of letting the chosen team complete it... That sort of thing.  It was all on the grid and -very- little was spent sitting in the OOC room doing runs in the plot room.

But maybe that was just what -I- saw.  I was Trevor the troll, who had a teddybear and they had a lot of fun together for the short time I played on Seattle.

Also, I don't know if the players really -get- the emphasis that the game is FOR the players.  It's here for the players to shape and evolve.  If I remember correctly, Seattle WILL be affected by what happens on the grid and on those runs.  Sorry if this makes little sense, just woke up and am still grumpy.

I think what Noor was trying to get at, in her post, is that there is more to being in a MU then Runs, Karma and +sheet advancement. But character development, telling a story that doesn't involve +rolls, stats and what not.

These stories make up the back bone of your play, you're not running every day, even runners have to lay low once in a while. But we all know Bar rp and coffee shop RP gets old after a while. You need something to fill in the gaps between runs, something to keep you coming back for more.

Sometimes this story telling can lead to runs or TPs as the drama unfolds. Heck I had a runner once that got acquainted with another runner because we decided to have our NPC sibblings hook up. She walked in on her brother and my sister going at it on her kitchen table. It provided cause to connect us, something to RP about and the growing drama that was created around those NPCs was then shared between the two of us.

In a rambling sort of way, I guess I'm saying we need to not just look at how to do more runs, but how to expand and focus upon the other part of our Runner's lives.

What it is they do when they're not working the shadows?
How they learn their skills?
How they get their equipment?
Do they have any goals?
Do they plan to run till they die?
Perhaps a Samurai needs a good doc to help fix some gremlins?
Perhaps a rigger needs some help with their drones?
Maybe some runners can get together in the 'rens to practice maneuvers and techniques?

There's lots that can be done outside of just doing runs.

To put this out there, I play Dauntilus, a Fomori Magician (Chaos tradition) with Wise Warrior/Dagda as his Mentor Spirit (celtic influence)
Some of his goals:
Find a lost sibbling (flaw Lost loved one)
Helping out his Best Friend stuck in a go-gang, into drugs, into debt, in to trouble constant (Flaw Dependant)
Trying to get money to pay off a debt to help out friend in go-gang (flaw in debt)
Looking for runs to make his way
Looking to join a Magic Group
Wanting to design an Ally Spirit

Wants to learn/improve:
Unarmed combat
Pistols/firearms
Assensing
Spell casting
Summoning
Banishing
Enchanting
Data Search

If any of your characters have similar goals, talents or interests. Hit me up.. we can RP, may set up an established past or make a new connection!

*peaks in*  By the way, if you get a chance to RP with Apollo, go for it.  He does excellent story development and random fun RP.  But then, I've always developed characters not just on their skills, but on what the flaws/strengths of their personalities and histories. 

My fondest memories of Seattle MUSH as a persistent world are actually during what some might call the darkest days of the community...

That is, when we had Orgs.

Now the only group I was involved with was the Ancients.  That was a blast because we had various other groups around the MUSH to compete with, fight with, make deals with, etc. - like the Neon Blades, Jive Kings, Yakuza, Mafia, and even Humanis.

I have always thought that if done intelligently using Orgs on a MU community can certainly enhance the fun... and fun that is by and large a player-run affair.

I think the basis should be a shadow economy.  I've pitched this concept for this community years and years ago and I still think it would be feasible.  Have some sort of a shadow economy that players, affiliated with Organizations, can shape.  Tie the economy to a real-life model like the NASDAQ, assign key stocks a Shadowrun counterpart, and then break that down into something that can be manipulated by players to strengthen or weaken their respective Orgs.  

Orgs wouldn't necessarily just have to be criminal in nature.  I never got why we couldn't have megacorporate-affiliations for our characters at some shadowy level.  I think that's an inflexibility that just never made sense where fun is concerned.

The trouble is keeping power in check, not allowing any single player to "metagame" their way into a position that makes them unpopular with the community or creates a nuisance.  The best way to do that is to simply stipulate that all characters are shadowrunners first, organization soldiers second, and that at any time those ties (should they choose to have them), can either get them iced or give them a leg up, depending on the situation they find their character in.  Relative power in their respective Org would have to be capped at something manageable, vice giving them access to ungodly resources... (yes, having Orgs run amuck in the Barrens with APCs towards the end of their hey-day was pretty ridiculous, agreed.)  

That's the "intelligent" part of the way such a system would have to be implemented.