[MUD-Dev] After a long absense, a semi-return (and TFD)

[Nathan F Yospe]

We've discussed many times some of my favorite topics. AI, NLP, crafting
room descriptions, and simulation persistance... but there is one topic,
which I have never actually seen discussed here, that concerns me. Where
do you put the tabs for admin control? Dikus have imm commands (wizhelp,
etc), LPs have coder privlidges, and M*s have... well, on some of them I
see coder bits everywhere, but... in all cases, there is a handle for an
admin to do things beyond the ken of an ordinary player - *as a player*.

Here I differ a little in philosophy. All players... all characters... a
character controlled by an admin, or one controlled by a newbie... start
out the same, and none has any way - as a character - to affect the game
world, beyond actions as a *normal* character. Admins affect things as a
force of nature, from an administrative account, by such hooks as linked
world addition, transfer, creation, and deletion, control of NPCs, large
scale alteration of environments by means of property editors... all as,
and I consider this important, a purely administrative function. There's
nothing personified about the interface, aside from NPC control, and the
admin has no face or name.

Now... I'd like to get some feedback from the rest of you innovators. Do
you think this is a good idea? A bad idea? Interesting? Been there, done
that? If the last, what was the result?

I don't have a lot of time these days, but... I wanted to toss this out,
as a brief return. I'm still around, and sometimes even reading all your
posts. Not often, anymore. Busy. :)
--

Nathan F. Yospe - Born in the year of the tiger, riding it forever after
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dept of Physics, second year senior (joy)
(On Call) Associate Algorithm Developer, Textron Systems Corp, Maui Ops.
yospe#hawaii.edu http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe Non commercial email only