[MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?

[Madrona Tree]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Rickey" <daver at mythicgames.com>
To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2000 6:30 AM
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?


>     This still begs the question of whether they are working for
> the corporation, or the community.

If they are working as an agent for the corporation, they are working for
the corporation.  If they are not, then they're working for the community.

I have absolutely no problem with somebody making a guild called <The
Helpers>, and 'taking over' an empty building in town where the people in
the guild have decided they will always have at least one person on duty to
answer questions like "why am I not doing any damage to this griffawn with
my Rusty Sword?"  and such.  I don't have any problem with <The Helpers>
making up story lines and getting people involved with them.  I don't even
have a problem with <The Helpers> writing an e-mail to GM George saying:
"Hey George, we want to put on this campaign, and we think it'd be really
great if you could show up in a red suit riding a reindeer at the Britain
Bank at 6pm Eastern" and George doing just that.  I think those types of
things are working for the community, rather than the corporation.

I think anyone who is given powers above and beyond a 'regular player' in
order to solve customer problems (I've fallen and I can't get up!) and/or
adding content (decorating player taverns) or being the 'first line of
defense' in deciding who should get punished and when and how much are
working for the company.

I believe that companies should encourage and support the first scenario,
and let paid employees of the company deal with the second.


>     He's not going to be paid.  The money isn't there. If the absolute
bare
> minimum number of hours were paid at standard rates, the games would lose
> money at current subscriber costs.  There's only two ways to resolve that,
> either charge more (approximately double) or have CS that is even crappier
> than the current level.  The research that says 10$/month is the limit on
> what the consumer will pay is pretty compelling....

I still think that companies can have good customer support without hiring
volunteers.  My phone company doesn't hire volunteers, and their customer
service is probably better than UO's.  Course, I also think that UO's
customer base is probably a little more easily dissatisfied with customer
service than my phone companies.

Realize, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I'm
positive there are good volunteers out there, cause I know some former
counselors, and a couple of guides ... and they're good folks.  But in all
the time I played UO, I never once saw a counselor.  [I'll admit I saw
guides more often than in UO, but probably because I paged more in EQ than
in UO.  :P]  I've talked to people who I trust who say that a lot of them
are, well, slackers (and not in a good way).  I think it would be a lot
easier for Origin to say, "You know what?  You're fired" to a paid employee
than to a volunteer -- and then get one who wasn't a slacker.  I understand
what they're thinking: it's free, right?  Even if it's crap, it's still
*free* crap.


>     You think so?  Think again.  For one thing, 20% of the current
> Guides do 80% of the work, some of them put in 60+ hours a week.
> If they were employees, they couldn't be *allowed* to put in those
> hours.  Yet those people are the administrative backbone of the
> programs.

Sure they could, you'd just have to pay them OT.

Is the "20% do 80%" because of hours worked or efficiency of guiding?


Madrona Tree.



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