[MUD-Dev] curses and grief players

[David Bennett]

On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, Val Trullinger wrote:

> John Buehler wrote:
> 
> >   My point is that players shouldn't be left to vote unless their
> > opinions have weight.  If I ask your opinion and I don't really care,
> > why ask?  I'm lying to you.  When you realize that, you'll be annoyed,
> > hurt and less likely to trust me or believe me in the future.

Which is why you should choose where you let players have control carefully.
For example, most games leave the running of guilds completely up to the
members of the guild (well, in some respects).  On Discworld we allow
guild leaders to be elected and they appoint all the positions and run the
guild however they wish.  We do not interfer...   There was a case where
someone was elected who did a few silly things and the public backlash
was swift, he was out of office again within a week.  (There is a method
of voting on removing people from office too).

I think players should play a large part in dealing with social rules and
this is where player control is much more useful that admin controls.
Harrassment and other such issues are often very vague and unless you know
enough of the players it is hard to tell the real core of the issue.  Players
tend to be better situated to deal with some of these things.

So targeted areas can be used for player control.

> we've got a system of giving the players input into game changes, called the
> mortal council. the mortal council has proposed a number of changes we never
> would have thought of on our own that are good, and some changes that you just
> can't do with LPC, and some changes that we've vetoed outright.

Why not just have an idea system/bug report system? :)

> his side. players were defending us -- how rare is that?

Not that rare...  People don't like it when people in admin positions
mess up, so they usualy try and see the admins in a better light than
they are.  Even on muds that are really nasty to their players, I have
seen this before through a few friends that played on a mud where the
admin cheated and did all sorts of stupid things.  The players still
defended them, up to a point.  Rose coloured glasses and all that.
After all, the players on Discworld like me and I keep changing things
they don't like :)

Wondering if they are just telling me they like me,
David.

PS They like me!  They really like mem!




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