[MUD-Dev] curses and grief players

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Marc Bowden wrote:

>   In fact, I can be *more* selective as a hobbyist, and I tend to get 
> a better class of person as a result of NOT being pay-for-play.

Depends on how much you charge in terms of pay-for-play. As one of
Koster's principles (sorry, I refuse to call them laws as I see exceptions
to many of them) states, the higher the cost to the game, the higher the
quality of player you'll get (or something like that). I suspect the
highest quality players in terms of maturity level are found in MUSHes
where you have to apply to get a character. It's all about
barriers-to-entry.

 
>   Issues of socialization and background aside, guests on a MUD tend 
> to hold making demands of (and sometimes threats to) the game's staff 
> as a result of both the anonymization of the individual via the 
> internet, and because of the belief that the game is *theirs*, by 
> virtue of some investiture - often the metric for this is time, but 
> especially among American kids simply because it's there and they're 
> allowed to connect.

You know, I find this to be the case too. Americans are _way_ bigger
problems than any other nationality, particularly at the under-18 level.
Obviously this is a sweeping generalization, but it's definitely a trend I
and others have noticed.

 
>   I don't *need* to take that abuse, and neither does my staff. These 
> people have no connection to the issue of the game's continuance. 
> Therefore, as a hobbyist, I can eject them and go on with my life. On 
> a game where these sorts of guests actually contribute to the upkeep 
> of the facilities, this may or may not be available as an option, or 
> may not be available at analogous stages of misbehavior, depending on 
> policy set by managers who may or may not ever have any contact with 
> the problem children.

This really has nothing to do with whether you are pay-to-play or not.
While Achaea isn't strictly pay-to-play (online time is free) it ends up
costing serious players far more than any pay-to-play game would. Yet, we
get very little abuse relatively speaking, because our admins are framed
as in-role Gods. You don't start slagging off a God if you wish to
continue existing.

--matt
"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:24




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