[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Fri 23 Feb, the_logos at www.achaea.com wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Feb 2001, John Buehler wrote:
> > Ananda Dawnsinger writes:

> I've been holding out posting in response to this, John, because I'm
> not sure how much or little I agree with you. I think it was Dave
> Rickey who posted that the only ways to get rid of grief players was
> via "hard" methods (banning, deletion, etc). I completely disagree
> with that. Those methods are the most extreme, but certainly there
> are "soft" methods of reducing grief players. I don't believe it's
> possible to ever stop them outright, but there's no question in my
> mind that social engineering can reduce the number of outbursts from
> grief players.

In fact, these soft methods are more likely to be effective in the
long term because they do not show the administration of a game as
"enemies". One of the games I was staff member of I was the 'mama' for
the players. Basically it meant that I was online and listened for
signs of trouble. On finding them I first silently snooped be- fore
stepping in, if I thought that was necessary.  Mostly I just listened
to both sides, let them vent their frustrations and then just
separated them gently.  I had no powers to do anything to the players,
other than being invisible, teleport and echo to a room.  I rarely
needed to scream for help on the wiz channel. Most of the time I could
smother any conflict before it became critical.  Very labour
intensive, but it improved the atmosphere of the game a lot and grief
players were rare.

Banning players is only done when somebody is entirely unreasona- ble
and will not listen to any polite and reasonable requests to behave.
If the social staff finds somebody like that he should be banned at
once though, before he can disrupt the game, because it is most
important to keep the atmosphere of the game friendly and
cooperative. That makes it more difficult for players to misbehave
simply because it is so uncommon.  It will not stop players deter-
mined to cause trouble, but nothing will stop those anyway.  Those
must be banned at the first sight of trouble.  Problem with this is
that it is a very intense job, and you burn out rather quickly.

> These methods might include establishing a culture that reduces
> outbursts from grief players due to boredom. It might killing the
> grief players with kindness (a surprisingly effective strategy. We
> had a grief player once who cheated and irritated everybody
> constantly, and instead of banning him I just had a chat with him
> and explained why it'd be better for everybody, including him, if
> he'd behave, and lo and behold, we seriously never had another
> problem with him.)

Very few players are determined to make trouble. Most just do some
thing without realising that it is bothering others.  It starts as
simple as using rude, sexist or profane language on gossip.  When you
explain why that is unwanted most players will mind their ways for a
while.

More serious problems you want to take to a private environment as
soon as possible.  Even if there is trouble you do not want to bo-
ther the entire game with it, nor do you want to allow either side to
drag the rest of the game in their private conflict.


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey

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