[MUD-Dev] Mass customization in MM***s

[John Robert Arras]

On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, Damion Schubert wrote:
> From: John Robert Arras
 
>> My problem is giving players institutionalized positions of power.

<snip>

> We effectively do this now commonly, with the title of
> 'guildmaster' being the most common.  It seems to work
> marvelously, largely because these systems are usually democratic.
> If you lord your status over other players and they don't enjoy
> that interaction, they'll join another guild, or they'll vote the
> current master out of power.

> The difference between a guildmaster and a mayor, arguably, is
> largely that the guildmaster leads a player-created, nebulous
> concept, whereas a mayor leads a tangible piece of territory
> supported by the fiction.  One could argue that giving players
> that level of lordship over the fiction might give them too great
> of bragging rights.  But I prefer the counterargument, which
> states that fiction will never be meaningful until players can
> assume key roles inside of it.

I just posted a response to the previous response to my message that
essentially covers this point. I like the idea of your guilds. They
aren't official positions. Their power comes from the players who
respect those positions, not from the developers who created a
position and let a player earn or gain the position somehow. Allow
the politics and power to emerge from within the game. Allow players
to organize and band together for a common purpose. Let these bands
of players oppose and ally with other bands of players. Let the
politics flow naturally from the rules of the game. These are some
of the things that I want to see. I just don't want to see players
given positions of power that were set up by the developers.

John

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