[MUD-Dev] Integrating PK

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 25 Jun 1997, Alex Oren wrote:

> Marian wrote:
> 
> } Don't mess with the wishes of the Gods for they have more ways of
> } punishment than you have to escape.
> 
> A.K.A
> 
> Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
> -- J. R. R. Tolkien

Which reminds me as a side-note, at least two rather hillarious variations
of the above have turned up in Pratchett's works (although the exact
wording doesn't come to mind).

This brings us somewhat onto an interesting PR hotpot; how to deal with
players with regard to enforcing rules and regulations. There are many
ways to approach these things (depending on the sort of breach, of
course), and I've several examples of "how not to do" things I could
quote. I mentioned elsewhere that I particularly head towards the "velvet
gloved iron fist" approach, but perhaps there are alternative ways. I've a
reputation among those who were players on the game I used to run (and
those I have held wizard posts on) for being rather hardnosed, and about
as easy to shift as a monolith - but I like to think I'm flexible. Which
shows that perception plays an important part here.

A player might think that a small punishment for a small infraction is
completely unjust, and launch on a 'whine campaign' (disregarding the
usenet-whining we see - it has no real effect IMHO), on the mud itself (I
mean actually online, not aimed at it), which in turn brings us to more
infractions and eventually the rid/banning of that player (I've seen this
particularly destructive vicious circle in action many times).

Any musings?

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"He can't stop us, we're on a mission from Glod!" - Soul Music (Pratchett)