[MUD-Dev] Wild west (was Guilds & Politics)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Marian Griffith <gryphon at iaehv.nl> wrote:
>> Actually, they haven't been granted anything.  They have just given
>> themselves the power.  I don't see how you can throw out the owner of
>> the system?
>
>The same should be said about just about any government.
>But yes, if somebody creates a game and makes it available to others
>they have every right to do with it as they please. However it makes
>no difference who grants the power. 

Wait.  "every right to do with it as they please" ?? !!  If it was a
single-user system with no external effects, yes... Or rather maybe...
We are talking about multi-user communication systems.  I can't see
how they can "have every right to do with it as they please", because
"it" affects other people...

>> >Gossiping about the victim and trying to cause arguments be-
>> >tween the victim's friends.  
>> Social interaction, should not be an admin issue.
>
>Actually this should very much be an admin issue.  Players who take
>their RL conflict into the game must be dealt with before they ruin
>the fun for other players.

Hmmm.  How would this ruin the fun for other players (those not
involved) ?  Doesn't RL conflicts give MUDs a certain interesting
edge?  I'm all against administration/support as the main course of
balancing a mud.  To me, that is a sign of a somewhat flawed
design. At least in large scale systems.  Why should the mud existence
be completely without pain?  Wouldn't that be somewhat boring?  My
attitude is this: Make God visible and everyone will blame God for
their miserable life.  Remove God and enable users (or groups of
users) to deal with their own problems.

>> >Real life stalking. And attempted extorsion of certain favours.
>> Dunno what you refer to here, but if it happens outside the system,
>> then it should be of no concern from an admin POV.
>
>You are right about the first one.  The second case was of a group
>of high level players forcing low level players  to do things they
>would not normally do. They were smart enough not to force players
>to do anything serious,  and did it in such a way  that complaints
>were perceived by the admin as whining.

Hehe, sounds like the army.

Ola.