[MUD-Dev] Admins as Mortals

[Sellers]

Philip Loguinov wrote:
> From: Travis S. Casey <efindel at io.com>
> 
> >On Tue, 15 Sep 1998, Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor wrote:
> >> Ok, lets suppose that a mud world doesn't have any gods or other divine
beings.
> >> The admins would then have to find some kind of role in the world,
which,with 
> >> the lack of any immortal beings, would have to be mortal, would it not?
> >
> >Why do the admins have to have a role in the world?  They can exist as
> >game-level admins without existing at the world-level, just as a paper
RPG
> >GM does.
> >
> >(It may be *useful* at times for them to be able to interact through a
> >character, but that's something else -- it certainly isn't required.)
> 
> Thats part just part of my definition of what imms are. I think of imms
> (at least those that have any contact with the mortal population) as being
> gods or other divine beings. Even without total roleplaying on the part of
> the staff, anyone who wanted to interact  IC with the players would have
to
> have some kind of mortal role.
> 
> However, what i want to do is make it so that the staff are 
> true mortals with some powerful "magical" powers.

Then make them the representatives of the unseen gods/political powers.
This gives them a link with the player characters, access to power, and much
needed "plausible deniability."  If you go to the local head priest with a
request, he says, "I'll take it up with our local patron diety and get back
to you."  Even if the player/admin behind the priest is the one who'll
actually be doing the work, the other player doesn't need to know this --
maybe the admin has to get agreement with a few others before making a
policy or code change, for example.  That way, the players recognize the
admin-priests as having in-game power but without the foreboding sense of
them being gods, and without the responsibility-to-act-in-my-favor-right-now
that too many players assume goes along with that.  

Mike Sellers



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