[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting

[Stephen Zepp]

[snip]

>Yes! Absolutely.  This is the reason I feel like we've opened Pandora's
>Box: we've taken what was seen as a not-too-important set of technologies
>(computer games) and unleashed a whole host of very real and powerful
>psycho-social issues for which the players, the admins/designers, and the
>customer support types (if any) are utterly unprepared.  You don't find too
>many counseling psychologists writing MUDs or lurking in customer supports'
>cubicles (and in the worst cases, you do find people chock full of denial
>that there is even a _need_ for something more than technical expertise
>here).  
>
>What this tells me is that we're only going to be able to account for this
>sort of phenomenon and keep it from ruining our games by understanding and
>anticipating the human psycho-social landscape behind it.  
>

I had to handle more social issues adminning Shades of Evil for the year I
was there ( as Zenithar ) than _any_ "real" game issues.  As much as I hate
to say this, since we mostly fall into this catagory too, but mud players
are "social misfits" in some way...for whatever reason, they are
socializing with an added layer of anonymity, maybe due to fears/inability
to interact, ego problems, whatever...most mudders socialize becuase it's
the easiest ( and sometimes only ) way for them to do so...hard to expect
"normal" behaviours from them.
I've also noted that while it's "a game" for a lot, for some it isn't...it
is THEM.  I once shutdown SoE becuase of severe code problems, and I wanted
to clean it up before I reopened it.  Not 30 minutes went by before I
received an email from a player, commenting that I had just literally ended
his only way of interacting that he enjoyed..he had cancer, and was bed
ridden..sometimes so weak that all he could do was to watch the screen, not
even type.  Hit me so hard that I re-opened it that night, and tripled my
efforts...finally found the problems plaguing my code, and all was well.
The point I'm trying to make:  Any admins that stick around and have
"successful" games are probably pretty stable, and do realize this is a
game..but you can't count on that from your players.  I've learned to tread
very carefully with changes in any direction that may affect players...for
what it's worth.
>
>>> > - Yes but it is a persona being arrested.  Anyway, there are plenty  of
>>> >   other muds to go piss on.
>>> Not even another mud; just make a new character in the existing one.
>
>We talked here recently about IC vs OOC communication.  I wonder how it
>would be if we removed a layer of the anonymity of the MUD by allowing you
>to do a "player" or "ooc" command that gives you the *user's*
>description/information -- name, age, gender, that sort of thing, not their
>address or phone number.  At least then (with somewhat robust registration
>features) you'd have a chane of knowing who the *player* was "across the
>table" from you.  This might actually have the result of channeling OOC
>chat away from the main game AND not giving jerks the feeling that they can
>fully hide behind their character.  Thoughts?  


I think this is an excellent idea, and rather interested in using it for my
ooc stuff.  Nemon at AR and Drylock at AR are working on "player accounts" with
lots of real world info, including an overall login password, and stats on
any player chars created under this account.  New people to the mud have to
get a registered login account, and then can create player characters under
this account.  I think this would help with both the ooc persona
interaction ( allow other ooc people to view their user profile, but no
char info ), and the need to control abusive players..

Zoran

>
>
>Mike Sellers                                    Chief Alchemist
>mike at online-alchemy.com                         Online Alchemy              
>
>        Combining art & science to create new worlds.
>
>