[MUD-Dev] curses and grief players

[jolson at micron.net]

From: Greg Miller <gmiller at classic-games.com>
> Not every individual's best interest aligns with the group all the 
> time. 
> Letting the group decide, however, works out to the groups best 
> interest.

The voting majority's best interest, you mean.  

> As I noted previously, I feel (as do some others here) that my mud 
> is 
> designed for the players. Hence, by definition, there interests 
> are 
> those of the mud. 

Designed for which players, though?  Whichever players happen to be 
active this month?  That group of unruly college freshmen who all 
happened to storm the gates at the same time?  Don't you have a 
responsibility to tailor the MUD to be consistently enjoyable to 
certain kinds of players?  And isn't it often true that a minority of 
players provide the most leadership/roleplay/general value to the MUD?  
How do you hear their wishes?

It has been noted that players don't necessarily know what they want or 
what would be in their best interest.  I know that in my first days of 
MUDding, I would have made some pretty poor choices had they been 
offered to me (Do you want a million gold coins?  Sure!), simply 
because I wasn't experienced enough to realize their long-term impact 
on my enjoyment of the game.  

Most players become pure hedonists when they login to a game - it takes 
getting burned out a few times to start recognizing the value of self-
control and delayed gratification.

-Josh Olson





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