[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting the World]

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 10 Dec 97 at 13:24, Maddy wrote:
> Previously, Mike Sellers wrote....
> > At 04:38 PM 12/7/97 PST8PDT, Felix A. Croes wrote:
> > >What I meant is that to
> > >seek out certain players and give them special powers -- apart from
> > >my doubts as to whether this will work at all -- is not going to
> > >significantly reduce the workload for administrators.  Rather, it is
> > >going to put them one step away from the power of influencing things.
> > 
> > No, even in the worst case (IME) it does reduce, or spread, the work load
> > of doing customer support activities.  This comes at a price, in that the
> > players with the special powers ("Guides" on M59) are sometimes seen as
> > turncoats, spies, advanced cheaters, egomaniacs, little dictators, or
> > brown-nosers -- all with some (if small) degree of validity.  
> 
> Giving players extra abilities above their peers alienates them quite a bit. 
> The admin then have to make sure that they don't abuse their extra powers,
> which can easily happen in the heat of the moment.
>

I think I would make a distiction between an administrator giving a player
a special power and a player coopting a special power through the game.

When administrators gift powers to players, as in Mike's example, the 
implicit desire is one of player control.  It's a planned design from 
an administration viewpoint rather than the game in itself. 

Is there or should there be any difference between a player becoming king 
of Ithaca, with all the special powers that entails, or a player coming 
into possession of the great sword of the god GooGoo?  I tend to think not. 
 
> > >If you do go about it in the way that you suggest above, letting
> > >players vote for a police to keep order, what you accomplish is
> > >that every troublemaker will consider bringing down this system as
> > >his highest goal.  They will form the group of most dedicated voters.
> > 
> > Yep.  It's important to realize this: if there's one thing that advanced
> > "troublemakers" do well, it's organize themselves (see
> > <http://www.dragonorder.com> for an example!).  And if everyone is tied to
> > their town in closed universe, this could be a problem -- unless the
> > regular citizenry act to take back their town and put in place strong law
> > enforcement.
> 
> Well this would only hold true, if you only consider the "citizens" as being
> the players that lived in the city/town.  If you also take into account the
> 1000s of NPCs that live there as well, then the problem is greatly reduced. 
> Admittedly you then need some way of letting the NPCs evaluate each of the
> candidates and work out which one is best suited towards them.  A city full
> of lawful, friendly NPCs may not vote for the renowned baby eating bishop of
> Buffingdom, but they would rally behind Bubba the hero who saved the city
> from the evil Dragon hoardes.
>

Exactly.  My thoughts are that this should at least be in the neighborhood 
of 1 PC for 100 NPCs or even higher say 1000 NPC citizens.
 
> >               In a more open universe, the citizens could take back their
> > town or contain the problem areas or go start a new one; it's important
> > that they have these options open (which they're not on the vast majority
> > of muds, it's true).  
> 
> It would certainly add flavour if as well as being able to vote people in to
> positions of power, that you could also fight to get yourself in.  A nice
> evil empire/good rebels kind of thing I'd imagine would be a very popular
> story line *8).

Yes there are so many options here.  Fantasy literature is littered with 
them.  I think you would be hard pressed to NOT find any of these trappings 
in any literary work of significance.


 
--
Jon A. Lambert

Nature comprehends the visible and invisible creatures of the whole 
universe. What we call Nature especially, is the universal fire or 
Anima Mundi, filling the whole system of the Universe, and therefore
is a Universal Agent, omnipresent, and endowed with an unerring instinct,
and manifests itself in fire and light. It is the First creature of 
Divine Omnipotence.
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