(fwd) RESEARCH: Why do you admin a Mud?

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

 From: darudy at Eng.Sun.COM (David Rudy)
 Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin
 Subject: RESEARCH: Why do you admin a Mud?
 Date: 7 Jun 1997 14:40:17 GMT

Recently I did a survey of the programmers on The Two Towers LPMud,
asking why they were a mud coder.

>From the answers I received, I have tried to put together some sort
of research on why people program muds.

I have found some very distinct areas where people's responses can be
grouped, as well as some fundamental differences in opinions.  ;)


"Drive" : Create .vs. Control
	I found two distinct drives behind people's actions.
The Creators want to make new things which never before existed, while
the controllers are more concerned that all the areas created are
consistant with each other - continuity and balance.

"Focus" : Action/Code .vs. Description
	Regardless of their motives, people generally focus on two 'realms'. 
Those who focus on the Actions (or the Code, which is a bit specific
to certain mud systems) try to make the world "behave" as
reallistically as possible.  A bottle should be twistable, twirlable,
spinable, drinkable, breakable, throwable, and recyclable - Actions.
While Describers try to make the world "visibly" as real as possible.
Every little item must have it's description, and the writing should
set the mood and feel of the area.  Describers ensure the mud tells a
real 'story'.


Using Drive and Focus as axis we can form a plot.  However, we must
first come up with definitions of the combinations of each Drive and
Focus.

The terms I have come up with might not be the most correct, but they
provide a basis to go on and are derived from observed behavior.

Create + Code = Hacker
	The hacker wants to add new features, complex code, faster code, and
is always looking for a better way to do things in the code.
Descriptions are somewhat meaningless to the Hacker.  The hacker 
typically reads all code as "this could be done better!".  Hackers do
not always work well with others, feeling they are above everyone else
- often true when their code is unreadable.

Create + Description = Storyteller
	The storyteller wants to, well, tell a story.  They are  capable of
creating a never-before-heardof place and make you feel like you are
really IN that place!  Their coding skills are not always strong to
give their area special things to do in the area, but the descriptions
make you feel as if you were really there!

Control + Description = EditorInChief
	The 'editor' is a spellchecker and grammar checker, and wants to make
sure that the entire mud is consistant in its portrayal of its
setting.  The editors can be quite harsh on others who provide less
than prime descriptions of their areas.  Editors think in large scale
terms over both distance and time, and every description must fit into
their 'picture' of that world.

Control + Code/Action = Director
	These are the typical mud admins.  They want to control the actions
on "their" mud, and are often quite powerhungry.  They are typically
very interested in the enforcement of the 'laws' on their mud, or even
that all code is produced "to standard" as per the docs and the
guidelines which they have provided.  Their favorite commands are
those involving snooping and information gathering.


Now that we have our axis and definitions, we can plot it!

Director    Controller      EditorInChief

                |
                |
                |
                |
                |
Coder ----------+---------- Describer
                |
                |
                |
                |
                |

Hacker       Creator        Storyteller




So far that is all I have come up with.  What I find more interesting
and as a direction for the research is how these groups interact. Will
a mud with too many Editors scare away the Storytellers?  How many
Hackers does it take to make the Directors completely paranoid about
security?

A followon research would be to relate this to Bartle's research on
players: http://journal.tinymush.org/jomr/v1n1/bartle.html and see how
the four player types are influenced by the four admin types above.  I
am sure we have all read the articles when a player will decide to
complain about the "power hungry admin" on a certain mud.  Some of
these relations are then self-evident.  Killers don't like to be
controlled, Socializers want the Storytellers to give  them more
realms to 'live' in, Explorers perhaps want the Hackers to provide
more of the rare cool code tricks which they live for.


I am posting this preliminary research because I need help in
gathering both data and opinions.  What type(s) of immortals are on
your mud currently, and what state is the mud because of it?

Do you have only one single power-hungry admin who refuses to let
anyone else become a coder?  What type of player base has this
generated and what complaints have hit the newsgroups because of it?

Do you have a lot of storytellers but little consistency from one area
to the next?  Are the players doing hack-n-slash or roleplaying in
these completely different areas?

Do you have ever feature under the sun, measure seconds of cpu time
over periods of days, but not have enough areas to support more than 5
players at a time?  And are those 5 players explorers or achievers?

(NOTE: the above are examples of what I have seen posted to the
mud.admin newsgroup over time, and the reactions they have generated
but are by no means meant to be taken as results or expectations of
this research.)


So, fellow admins, if you would take a bit of time out of your
schedules to perhaps help me gather data and share with me your own
thoughts and feelings about coder relationships I would be extremely
thankful and will note all who have shared their input if this
research ever ends up anywhere.  :)

David Rudy
darudy at aule.eng.sun.com

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...


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 -- End of forwarded message
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--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...