[MUD-Dev] selling Godhoods

[Richard Woolcock]

Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> 
> 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.

Money may provide motivation, but it won't provide experience.  In fact 
those who are used to simply buying (rather than working for) everything 
they want in life are probably *less* likely to have relevant experience.

> > > 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.

What about in-game Gods?  Surely a player shouldn't be able to elect
*them*?

> > 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. 

You consider experience on "free muds" to be "nearly worthless" and muds 
like UO and EverQuest to be "McDonalds" muds which provide little in the 
way of a quality experience.  While I think all mud admin (to a point) 
consider their mud to be superior to all others, your severe closed-
mindedness may result in you completely overlooking a potential goldmine 
of mud experience.

Sure, there are many muds which are worthless - but judging them on the
basis of whether or not they are free is very arrogant in the extreme.  In
my opinion, admin who run free muds are motivated by the either power or 
the desire to create something - in the former case, you should indeed 
ignore them, while in the latter case they could prove a valuable asset.
Admin who run pay-to-play muds, however, are generally motivated by money.
As you've already stated that you're not going to pay your admin, you really
don't want to attract that sort of person to work in your team.

Personally I would completely avoid those with pay-to-play admin experience
and selectively recruit those with experience running free muds.

> 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).

Agreed - which is why you would ask for (and check up on) references.

[snip]

> > > 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.

Presumably players can't just build *any* area though?  I imagine it would
have to fit into the theme.

Personally I consider building areas to be 'work' rather than 'play', but 
I'm sure many would disagree with me there ;)

KaVir.



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