[MUD-Dev] Gender and Mud Development

[Greg Munt]

> [Raph Koster]
>
>I have often heard the assertion that the best administrators in ALL online
>communities (web-based, text-based VR, games, IRC chats, whatever) tend to
>be females. I have never heard the same assertion made regarding
>female-presenting males though. :)


I can completely without question dispute that assertion. This is purely
based on personal experience, and I hope and pray that this is not the norm.
Unfortunately, I do not disregard the potentiality of it being a lot more
widespread. Maybe I mean this with regard to their ability as politicians,
rather than administrators. I guess it depends what you perceive the role of
'administrator' to be, in a mud.

The mud that I used to run (how many of my posts have those words in them -
there have been a few!) had a hierarchial political structure. It had always
had such a chain of command.

Digression: many muds hard code their administrative politics. You have
flags for Gods, and Wizards, sometimes Apprentice Wizards, sometimes
Royalty, etc. If the code of such a mud is released, this enforces its
political structure upon its derivatives. Is this desirable? (But see my
opinion of the/an alternative, below.)

I had risen through the administrative ranks, to a position of overall
control - the coder (and previously, the only god) had 'thrown in the
towel', as it were, with regard to his administrative role (to focus on code
development), and it fell to me to assume his position: to manage 50+
administrators of various ranks, as well as a database of over 1000
characters - with simultaneous connections averaging approximately 100,
daily.

Digression: my eventual ban from this mud caused me to seek to develop a mud
of my own. So, maybe the stress and pain was worth it. Maybe.

The game was a second generation derivative of TinyMUD. It had TinyMUD's God
(renamed The Supreme Being), its Wizards, and its Builders. It also had the
Apprentice Wizards of its immediate parent. Added were Elder Wizards and
Deities (the latter rank initially reserved for use of The Supeme Being - I
was the first 'real' deity, and boy, did it piss some of the Elders off...),
along with Experienced Builders.

Several months after my appointment, it was clear that I was not being
accepted as a replacement for what some called 'the only true deity' - The
Supreme Being. I ran things in a serious businesslike manner, a quick and
ruthless dispenser of justice - fair but hard. This was a totally different
approach to things. Administrators could no longer get away with things, and
the lazier ones could no longer have a 'free ride'.

During those first few months of my leadership, it became clear to me that
the female administrators were being frustrated by the inherited poltical
structure. Male, technically-minded administrators flourished in their
powerful positions, that had been built on hours and hours of work with
TinyCode's grandchild - whilst socially-aware and very very useful female
administrators languished in the lower ranks of apprentice wizardship. I
decided it was time for change, and a new class of administrator was born -
the Druid.

Now, the struggle for power was more equal, and the ladies were freed to
explore the upper ranks.

Now, administrators who devoted their entire online time to meeting new
users, and chatting to old friends, and helping everyone in general with
their own particular problem of the day, were allowed to step up towards me.
This was fair - and this was just. And more importantly, it was 'in the best
interests of the game'. (A phrase later twisted back on itself to justify
the most cruel, heartless and sadistic - and what's more, corrupt -
activities that I have ever experienced.)

Two ladies, in particular, came to prominence - one of them studying for a
master's degree in psychology. Through them, I came to understand that the
true power of an administrator comes down to nothing more than the respect
that they hold in others.

They sought to fundamentally change the very foundations that the game's
political structure was built on. They decreed the hierarchial structure as
unfit for further use, advocating a much 'flatter' system. They declared
that the hierarchial system was built on the 'divide and conquer'
philosophy, and seperated administrators from each other, on several levels.
The principal cause of this so-called seperation was the 'gap' between
ranks. Of course, these problems had not shown themselves until I was in
charge; this was nothing more than personal differences, with me, and a
general disagreement with my management style.

Their solution was to scrap the hierarchial system, and replace it with what
they called 'the family system' - whereby every administrator had the same
political power, and agreements were reached through mutual consent only.
This solution was promptly rejected by myself, on the grounds of its total
unworkability. My many enemies within the administration seized on this, as
their opportunity to discredit me, and my motives for rejecting the
'suggestion' were questioned. The two ladies were amongst my more bitter
enemies, and sought to undermine my authority through disagreement on
principal, lies, innuendo, treachery, and discussions behind my back. An
email list was even set up, the sole purpose of which was me, and how to get
rid of me. Part of their compaign even included romancing senior
administrators who were in favour of my leadership, or apathetic to the
struggle for control. From that position, they excercised ultimate control
over the men.

Labelled a corrupt dictator, a 'domino effect' of events reduced me from
manager and maintainer of a reasonably popular mud, to outcast - and rebel.
The administration, once rid of my influence, degenerated into corrupt
cliques - where ability was next to meaningless, and who you knew on the
admin team meant everything. The userbase halved within three months, and
the code - previously updated at least once a month - hasn't changed since
May 1996.

The last time I spoke to The Supreme Being, his comment on the mud was: "I
don't care if its server blows up tomorrow."

He hadn't connected in over six months.

Greg.



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