[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) Re: POLL: Games ruined by bad players (Playe

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 27 Apr 1998 21:01:51 -0500 (CDT) 
Cat <cat at bga.com> wrote:

> There is a small amount of policing done right now by four of our
> adult players acting as volunteers, and by my partner and myself.
> Enough to keep out most of the sexual harrassment, the server
> crashers and the kids that think standing in a crowd and yelling out
> obnoxious stuff non-stop is good fun.  But it's probably not enough
> policing for most concerned parents to leave kids in there
> unsupervised.  We might provide that level of safety when we have
> things like "revenues" and "paid staff" and the like.

This is a direct parallel to a segment of the "POLL: Games ruined by
bad players..." thread running right now on on r.g.m.* (and rapidly
heading for the wallows): the financial and human cost of
administration in capital, expense, and overhead.

My apologies if this seems phrased as an attack.  As a later posting
will go into more detail on, I suspect that such PG-rated environs as
you are attempting are unlikely on a mass-market scale due to the
costs of policing the game world ("He didn't do anything overtly wrong
Guv'nor!  He just picked up and placed pebbles to spell out "<insert
lewd message here>!" on the ground...").

How many man hours does that "policing" currently occupy, and what is
the resultant cost?  Is that expense scalable from an essentially
low-key hobbiest game running on "free time" (is that an accurate
statement of your game's position?) to the expense/revenue ratio
generated by a larger, mass-market and populous game with paid staff?
Do you have another solution than expensive mass human supervision to
to UOL's reputed problem of K3wlD00dz, or must the game scale as a
series of smaller independant games where each, due to its smaller
size, can be "managed" effectively without gaping holes?

Next, given that you do have a scalable affordable solution for such,
you are then, if only by inference, "guaranteeing" a PG rated
environment.  Is liability a concern?  Note Disney's *VERY* extensive
costs and legal coverage in this area.  While I'm not an expert on
this area, I could easily forsee, a sexual harassment suit placed
against DragonSpires as complicit in providing the environment where
the harassment occurred on the basis that DS actively attempts to
manage and supervise that environment and is thus responsible from a
supervisory standpoint for the activity. (cf recent supreme court cases
on workplace harassment, as well as the current case which is still
being considered).

<<I'd love to argue the case that the single largest failing of the
western business model is the concept of a corporation's reponsibility
being distinct from that of its owners or employees>>

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...

--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.