[MUD-Dev] Re: pet peeves

[Steve Houchard]

> > First, let me explain my situation a little.  I'm currently part of an
> > admin team numbering something like a dozen or so with the great majority
> > too busy to contribute much--no problem there.  There are currently two of
> > us (myself and one of our three imps) who do any appreciable amount of
> > work at all and a few more who are around constantly but who don't
> > contribute much if anything useful.  The problem as I see it is that the
> > persons in question are RL friends of one of the other imps.  
> 
> I'm curious what it is many of you want from your admins. We don't really
> have "imps" or "immortals" or whatnot. We have Gods (Sarapis, the Logos,
> and Daedalus, God of Balance, and Phaestus, the Smith, and Aurora, Goddess
> of Light, and Eris, Goddess of Chaos, etc), and they are mostly there to
> make the game more interesting for the players.  Do most of them do
> anything even resembling coding? No. That doesn't, however, mean they
> aren't doing anything useful. 

I wasn't implying that anyone not building or coding wasn't doing anything
useful.  When I said "...and a few more who are around constantly but who
don't contribute much if anything useful..." I meant they REALLY don't
contribute anything useful.  The people in question don't interact with
mortals except to show off their admin powers and to try to impress them
(and me) with their knowledge of technical topics and muds in general
which I have found to be lacking in the past.  To sum up:  the people that
I'm referring to are annoying to me because: 
   A) they're on the admin staff because and only because they're friends
      of someone with power, 
   B) they don't contribute anything (with very minor exceptions) to the
      game despite being around at least as much as I am, and
   C) because they've proven a lack of knowledge on topics technical and
      yet still try to impress me with their smarts.

I would not disdain them so if the second was not true.  

> I don't mean to be disrespectful to coders,
> but coding is just coding. It's an interchangeable function for the most
> part. You can always find new coders. 

This is fine in the private sector where money is involved.  As someone
mentioned in an earlier post, this is not representative of the types of
muds that people have the most contact with (especially in this case).
I've found that in the hobbyist sector good coders that are more or less
"free agents" like myself and hard to come by for free.  Maybe you don't
pay your coders and they stick around because you have something wonderful
that they want to be a part of in which case I'd say you're very lucky.
If they're proficient enough to do the myriad of tasks you might deem fit
to throw their way in an efficient and expedient manner, I'd say you're
even luckier.  Finding these people in "stock diku" land where the average
player is age 15 and grammatical errors abound isn't as straightforward as
you might think.  

> Finding someone who has a
> charismatic personality and who makes mortals want to be on your game is a
> much rarer find though, and a contribution like that should not be
> underestimated. 

Here, as above, I think you're misunderstanding my comments.  I completely
agree with your point (and many of the imps I've dealt with have not
realized this) and if the people in question actually did contribute to
the gaming experience I wouldn't have made the comments I have.  The ugly
truth of the matter is that they don't.  You can refer above or to my
earlier posting for my reasons for not wanting them around.  

> If you have Gods (or immortals or whatever you call them)
> who make the world a more interesting and intense place for your mortals,
> then they are very worthy of being in that position!

Would that they did!  

> > Now don't get me wrong--I've nothing against these people personally
> > except that for whatever godawful reason the persons in question feel the
> > need to try to impress me with their knowledge of computers (fat chance
> > there).  On the other hand, I don't feel that either of the persons in
> > question (friends of the imp) are qualified or bringing any
> > resources/qualifications to the job.  With that in mind I assert the
> > following:  
> 
> Most of our Gods know nothing about computers. It's not really relevent to
> being a God, I think. Being a God is all about leading and motivating, not
> about being able to code or whatever.

Chances are though that they don't go out of their way to impress you (or
anyone else) with their knowledge of the system, how it works, or how the
code is being written.  The next time you get a newbie asking you to be an
admin, think of how fun it would be to deal with that person if you made
them an admin--that's exactly the kind of person I deal with on a regular
basis in my current assignment.    

For the record let me point out key parts of the above:
   "...I don't feel that either of the persons in question...are qualified 
    or [are] bringing any resources/qualifications to the job."

I would recognize it if they were contributing to the gaming experience
but they're not.  I shall attempt to choose my wording better in future
posts.

Steve