[MUD-Dev] Harvey's Rules of Immship

[John Hopson]

The following was written by a friend of mine and I think it contains some
very
good guidelines on how to be a successful imm.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

Harvey's Four Rules of Immship

Being an Immortal sucks -- ask any of them who've been at it longer than a
few weeks.  Still, people keep starting their own MUDs, so people must be
getting SOMETHING out of it.  Personally, I think *I* only keep at it out
of habit, but I've found Immship is a lot easier to bear if you keep in
mind four rules, which I continually pay a sort of hypocritical
lip-service to.

1) Get Over Yourself.  The quickest way to sabotage your efforts is to
convince yourself that you're some kind of brilliant artist, or that your
Immly work is essential to the MUD, and thus to the lives of players.  You
may be helping to create a fun environment, and your mistakes might cause
some unhappiness, but that's as far as it goes.  At some point, somebody
will disagree with your little philosophy, and won't ever be able to
understand why you're so upset about it.  Don't get a philosophy.  Don't
elevate yourself to the position of artist-martyr.  Don't get so entangled
emotionally in the situation that you'll genuinely be upset if things
don't work out the way you expect.  Just DON'T.  Take a step back,
revaluate your priorities, and try to be mature about the whole thing. 

2) Don't Let the Players Get To You.  Oh, and they will.  MUDs attract
many different types of people, and a lot of them are losers.  You may
think this is a cynical joke in poor taste, but if you've ever run or
played on a MUD yourself, you're also filling in names.  Even the ones who
aren't consistently idiotic will get under your skin.  When they say, "I
know how annoying players can be," they mean the OTHER players, and aren't
going to notice once they start throwing a tantrum themselves.  (They're
justified, you see.)  When they say, "I know I must be annoying," they're
implicitly tacking on "but I'm aware of this, so you should forgive me." 
People don't like to believe that they're wrong -- go on, try it -- and so
they'll often fail to apologize to you for being irritating, or for
assuming the worst of you and getting angry at you for something you
consider perfectly reasonable. In some cases, they really haven't done
anything wrong.  Just try, try to keep in mind that they're in the MUD for
basically the same reason that you are, and that misunderstandings can
crop up easily, especially when you start with different expectations. 
Just relax, and let it go. 

3) Don't Let the Imms Get To You.  Oh, and they will.  Even if you've been
clever enough in selecting staff to make sure that nobody is playing
spiteful little political games and everybody is doing their best to
follow rule #1, problems will crop up.  The other Imms will occasionally
be insulting in the way they disagree with you, or will be insulted when
you make some perfectly reasonable or well-intentioned comment.  They'll
do less work than you, and then complain about how much of your work
they're having to do.  They'll act on their own, and get in your way. 
They'll want different things.  It's unavoidable that you'll get angry or
frustrated every now and then, but you don't have to lash out at them. 
Just keep in mind that they want basically the same thing as you, and are
suffering through the same process, and are dealing with somebody as
potentially irritating as themselves -- namely, you.  And when conflict
inevitably springs up, try to remember to be calm and conciliatory, and
don't ever convince yourself that the other person is the irrational one.

4) Have Fun.  This sounds trite and smarmy, but it's really easy to
forget.  This is a GAME, and people make it into all kinds of emotional
issues, and react accordingly.  You've already found yourself angry and
frustrated on certain occasions (I cannot think of an exception among the
MUD players and admin I know) and have probably, one way or another,
fantasized about vengeance.  Maybe you've even taken pains to carry it
out, aggressively or passive-aggressively.  Was it fun?  Is it what you
want to do with your free time, when you could be reading a book or going
out with friends?  If you're not enjoying being an Imm, then there's
really no point to the time and energy you're putting into it.  When shit
happens, when players believe ridiculous things and expect you to agree
with them, when the fellow Imms you should be able to count on act like
psychotics, try to find something funny about it, and don't torture
yourself or the person on the other end of the computer.  Chant "this is a
game, this is a game" to yourself, and try to adjust your attitude until
you're no longer talking yourself into bitter misery. 

If you don't detect a certain hypocritical note in these rules, then you
must not be somebody I know personally.  I'm not a saint.  I get
self-righteous, and spiteful, and irritable, and worked-up.  I don't
always follow my own rules -- but I try to, because when I fail, it ends
up sucking incredibly hard.  At the very least, you can avoid being as bad
as me at my worst. 

Brant Harvey, AKA Azhanith on DragonRealms






_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev