One thing i noticed in the past about games that do well is content updates. OBVIOUSLY this is a FREE game, and when i say free i don't mean free for basic then you buy other things, this game is literally 100% free so i understand that updates will not be often as we all have lives.
On that note however one thing I would recommend would possibly be an update of say a new item like once a month or every two months. This would give people a reason to explore and is not quite as difficult to build as say, a new area.
A second idea i would suggest is global events Some of the coolest things about muds is that you have a global impact with your character. Obviously you guys are VERY receptive to players running events which is fantastic and should be commended. Some of the things that really stand out to me when I'm playing are like that one item that dropped from the sky and all kinds of crazy things started happening. It really made me want to drop everything i was doing and RP to find out what was going on. I really like events where a large group of people have to pull together to try and reach a common goal like a giant demon attacking the cities and people have to pull together to defeat it, stuff like that.
things like the Easter egg contest were really fun, i enjoyed that a lot and gave me a reason to interact with more people. just some ideas/feedback i guess.
