GNSmud

A long long time ago, when there were 30 people on the mud at one time, implementing XP Caps made sense. It encouraged the behavior the gods wanted. People formed groups, higher level characters grouped with lower level characters (which helped both) and generally XP caps improved the mud and playing experience. Since the mud is now significantly less well populated, XP caps don't do much but worsen the playing experience. Reaching max level was never meant to be a grind at 150k kill. And maxxing XP between levels means an over powered character can't kill one mob and end up at level 50. The behavior XP caps now encourage is playing very safe, and grinding out mobs that are just over 150k that don't really stand a chance of hurting the players. If people are good at that sort of thing (i'm not) they could probably automate a lot of a good XP run.

I don't pretend to understand the minds of the immortals, but I don't think that XP caps are creating a desired outcome any longer, or the behavior the gods want.

XP caps have been a part of the mud for 30 years or so and that it's probably something that no one even thinks about anymore, but I think it's worth revisiting in the current state of attendance. It doesn't have to be abandoned cofmpletely, and there are several options to consider. You only turn on XP caps if there are more than 5 players playing, or you could just raise the cap, or any number of things. But it doesn't seem like XP caps are doing anything positive for the world right now