Totally OT... (Or is it?)

[s001gmu at nova.wright.edu]

On Sat, 3 Jan 1998, Marian Griffith wrote:

<snipage>

> There will always be a tension between expediency and people's rights.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Marian.  :)

> Hopefully there are enough safeguards in a society  to prevent the ptb
                                                                     ^^^
  "ptb"?

> to throw out the rights for the sake of expediency.
> The same should be true on a mud.  Players have a right to expect that
> the admin behaves correctly.

The players have the right to expect it, but they have no right to enforce
such correct behavior, save through not playing the game.  Reason being,
IMHO, that "correct behavior" is such a vauge term, and depending on the
player's culture/country of origin will vary greatly from player to
player.

> (I'm avoiding to use the word rights here
> because that's topic of another heated discussion).  Admin must ensure
> that players do not abuse their freedom. To do so they must infringe a
> little on the rights of all players.  As long as it is clear to every-
> body how and why there need not be a problem.

I would say it as Admin must ensure that players do not abuse their
freedom, IF the admin wants to maintain a large player base.  I'm sure
there will be some ppl interested in playing a total free-for-all game,
where even the admin fall under a wild-west type system, but I can
gaurentee I wouldn't want to play it.  I can't see too many americans
beeing too interested in it either.

> And of course there must
> be sufficient safeguards against admin abuse as well.

again, only if they want to maintain a large playerbase.  It's my system,
I can do with it as I please.  BUT, if I want to attract other people, I
have to conform to their expectations, to some extent.
As designers we have to generalize about what those expectations are, and
before creating a character, a list of the assumed expectations should be
presented to the player, so they know what they are getting into (possibly
altering their expectations... it's a two-way system).

-Greg