[MUD-Dev] selling Godhoods

[Matthew Mihaly]

I couldn't help myself. I know that the following probably offends many
people's sensibilities, so I had to post. 

We are selling Godhoods in Achaea, for $3000 a piece. Further, they are
not available to everyone. You must be personally approved by me to be
eligible to pay us for a Godhood. My reasoning is thus (and I'd be most
pleased to hear criticism of it, as I'd hate to be making a fatal mistake
here). 

Our Gods are played by real people. They are Gods in the Greek style. They
meddle constantly in mortal affairs, but they also play the role of admins
and customer service people. Our biggest problem with them (and the reason
why I don't find this method very scalable) is that it's very difficult to
find dedicated people who will play a lot, and deal with customers, as
well as possess the ability to lead mortals, and compete with the other
Gods (the Gods can get reasonably hostile with each other sometimes). It's
also quite a bit of work, and you aren't getting paid for it. 

Despite the fact that we do reasonably extensive interviews with players
who catch our eye, we still end up with a high Godly attrition rate. This
is bad for everybody, because the players who have joined that God's
Divine Order have established a personal, and important relationship with
their God, and suddenly that relationship is yanked away. It can be quite
traumatic for players who are into the religious aspects of the game. 

The problem, in my opinion, is a lack of character investment. Newbies, on
average, act like idiots and show a lack of dedication far more often than
those who have invested time and money in their characters (obviously). We
can't let people invest time in Gods without making them a God first
though, so we are left with selling them. My hope is that someone who pays
3 grand for his God is going to think long and hard about just how badly
he wants to be a God, and once he is a God, he's going to want to remain a
God. Now, of course, you'd still have to pass the aforementioned
interviews, as well as sign a contract with us stating essentially that if
you violate our rules, we can, at our discretion, take away your Godhood
with no refund (so you must trust us. Trust begets trust.)

Comments? (particularly if they are not of the "I wouldn't want to play a
game that whores out such powerful positions." You're not my target
audience.)

--matt




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