[MUD-Dev] selling Godhoods

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Tue, 25 Apr 2000, Richard Woolcock wrote:

> Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> > 
> In that case I think you really need to decide exactly what your motive 
> is.  If someone is really good, you'll promote them for free, which is 
> fair enough.  However, if someone is okay (but not good enough to be 
> promoted normally) then they have to pay $3000 to show that they are 
> "really serious" about becoming an immortal, correct?

This is a fair point. I think my answer is basically that a few players
(very very rare) are so good that I simply want them, regardless. Others
are maybe good enough, but I question either their dedication, or I simply
don't have time to interview all the potential applicants to decide on who
is truly right, and my belief is that the act of paying a lot of money
alone will make them better gods.

> > Further, the ultimate prize: Ascension (ie where your mortal actually 
> > becomes a god in-role, rather than the person behind the character just
> > being given access to a God) cannot be bought.
> 
> I would have thought such positions as in-game God, Guild leader, etc, 
> would have been more suited to being purchased than those requiring 
> out-of-game effort.  I'd be curious as to why you've made such a 
> decision.

Ack! No way! Things like guild leaders are elected positions. We try to
give the players a high degree of control over their mortal leaders.

> Note that any of your potential staff who have experience on other muds 
> will *know* that being a god can be very boring and unrewarding work.  
> Equally such people are more likely to have valuable experience and - if 
> they do apply - be more prepared to put up with it (because it wasn't 
> unexpected).  As such, they're likely to have the same opinion as me - why 
> pay to work for someone else?

Quite honestly, and I mean no offence to you free mudders out here, but I
have found (and granted, my experience is hardly all-encompassing) that
experience on free muds is nearly worthless. The standards are simply so
much lower as to be useless to us. This doesn't mean all experience on
free muds is worthless, just that the vast majority of it is (I mean,
considering that any idiot can run a stock mud, saying, "I was an admin on
Diku clone #1117" has no value).


> > No, no refunds. We will explain very carefully to them what is expected of
> > them before signing any contracts.
> 
> If you decide that they should leave (and they've not actually broken any 
> part of the contract) would you still refuse them a refund?

Oh, no no. If we decided they should leave and they haven't broken the
contract, there's no question we'd refund their money. We're not filth you
know!

 
> > No, I'd imagine not. However, I've been offered, in the past, well more
> > than 3k for a Godhood (and turned it down, as the two people who offered
> > more...each more than 5k...were not suitable candidates). You'd be quite
> > surprised how powerful the lure of being a God is.
> 
> True - but mainly to those who think it's all fun and no work.  I suspect 
> you're likely to attract a fair few "rich kids" who are just interested in 
> the chance to flex some virtual muscle.

Naah. I think you'd really be surprised. People love being involved, and
being a God means, for instance, a lot of freedom to build areas you wish
to build, as opposed to having to have every single detail approved by us
ahead of time. 

--matt




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