[MUD-Dev] Re: Login and Accounts

[Matt Chatterley]

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On 22-Jul-98 Ling wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Jul 1998, Matt Chatterley wrote:
>> On 19-Jul-98 Mike L Kesl wrote:
>>  
>> > There has to be a way we can do this well...
>> > 
>> > An account is the player's account, it will hold all OOC info as well as
>> > provide them with the ability to participate in an OOC chat room, which
>> > will
>> > be the place for OOC conversations.
>> 
>> Yup. For me it does allow access to lines (all OOC), which are also
>> available
>> from the character as well. This lets they just chat if they want (using
>> fewer
>> resources, and putting no IC risk on the character).
> 
> I use something similar tho the model works differently.  Punter on the
> keyboard is connected to a user account which is an entity in its own
> rights.  This user object has commands (eg: who) , channels and stuff tho
> the punter won't realise it.  The user object floats outside of the
> gameworld. When the user wants to enter the game, the object is connected
> to a body which can be manipulated as if using a very high quality
> remote control.

I actually use a similar construct internally - the account object, and user
object (which is designed to be modular at load-time, so that you can be
normal-user, undead-user or lycanthropic-user, but thats another story;
runtime switching is also possible between these three). The account object
lets you check out the OOC side of the game, and perform 'housekeeping' on OOC
aspects of your characters.
 
> The body object accesses its own bank of IC commands (eg: take, get, say). 
> The minor twist is that admin and staff commands are tied to the user
> account.  This means that they can mess around with the game no matter
> whichever character they're playing with.  Alternatively, staff and admin
> may press a little secret button in the account menu that leaves them
> outside of the gameworld to code/hack in peace but I suspect most will
> prolly wanna sit in some staff bar.
> 
> There's also a chitchat parlour for the user accounts.  I spent ages
> thinking up a stupid name like that.

Heh. It seems to work pretty well in testing. Not sure how players will react
to it, yet. Most staff will probably want to be fully online, one would imagine
- - the socialising is a big part of it, at least, for me. :)
 
>> > Each account might also have one or more of the following:
>> > a builder
>> > a ventriloquist?/storyteller?
>> > a dugeonmaster?/puppeteer?
>> > a god (which is simply all of the above?)
> 
> One day, I'll understand why there's so many neat positions complete with
> outlandish titles in muds.  Internally, I have users, staff and admins, on
> the outside, the admins can label staff with cool position names and abuse
> users until they leave. Then again, I'm speaking with no staff so I'll
> find out how mistaken I am when I open the mud.

*shrug*

I employ five 'groups' of staff: Minion, Governor, Overseer, Tyrant, Dictator.
Each group has three levels of seniority: Petty, <no prefix>, Supreme.

However, you would be sorely mistaken to take the groups as being ranked. The
levels of seniority are ranks within the groups, and although some groups are
'more important' than others in some ways, everyone gets a voice, which they
are free to apply in appropriate situations.

The groups are functional - they lock you to your 'field of service' within the
realms of the Mud. Minions are basic area creators, and the bulk of the
(relatively inexperienced) workforce. Governors are advanced area creators,
guild managers, approval grunts. Overseers are the theory people, and generally
speaking 'middle management', theme folks too. Tyrants are MudLib level coders.
Dictators are management, PR, and so forth.

There is some cross over (I'm a Dictator, of course, yet I still write areas
from time to time), but the grouping is where the majority of a staff members
time is spent. When the way their time is spent changes by agreement, their
grouping is also changed to reflect it. Motion is possible in both directions.
Rank/Seniority indicates how much you have accomplished within that grouping,
and how long you have been doing it. Its just a cutesy clip-on, really.

- ---
        -Matt Chatterley
        http://user.itl.net/~neddy/
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.." -John Lennon (Imagine)

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