[MUD-Dev] Re: Administrative Meddling

[Mike Sellers]

At 01:20 PM 6/4/98 -0400, Matthew R. Sheahan wrote:
>Mike Sellers propagated a meme to the effect of:
>> insisted in sticking their noses in, always for "the good of the game." =
 In
>> nearly every instance, the consequences spun out of control, well beyond
>> what they imagined would happen.  All of our biggest PR headaches came=
 from
>> admins "just trying to help" in the game. =3D20
>
>this is interesting.  could you give an example or two of the "problem",
>the "help" attempted, and the consequences?

They spanned the full range... our biggest was a running battle with "The
Dragon Order" (a guild that I think is still out there, now probably in UO)
that started because a M59 "Guardian" (admin) thought they were being
unfair (they were), violating the rules (they weren't), and in general were
making the game un-fun for others (some truth to that).  Rather than taking
a hands-off attitude, the admin tried to "fix" the situation in a variety
of ways, including giving aid (like items, information, etc.) to the people
who were being PKed a lot, hampering those doing the PKing, etc. -- trying
to "steady the ark" if you know that old testament story.  It got _really_
bad for awhile.  I think the Dragon Order still has a "we hate 3DO" web
page up. :-) =20

Then there was the guy (an intern who shouldn't have had customer contact
in the first place) who incited a war between two guilds either through
cluelessness or some degree of mischievousness, I'm not sure.  That haunted
us for awhile; one of the players even threatened legal action because the
intern had used a term to describe the player that the player took as
extremely offensive. =20

Then there were the Guardians who tried to create game play and ended up
leaving people feeling screwed over, or those who gave the clear impression
to some players that they favored other players by giving better rewards
for lesser ad hoc quests, or those who gave out wildly disproportionate
"gifts" for no apparent reason at all. =20


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