[MUD-Dev] Mudding and impact on academic grades

[Eli Stevens]

David Clifton <demosthenes810 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 Philip Mak wrote:

>> Has anyone else thought about this? Any ideas on how to make a
>> MUSH coexist more peacefully with its players' academic standing?

> I ran into several problems likes this while running muds in the
> past...in particular I remember the people who honestly asked be
> to temporarily 'newt' (lock access for) them for periods of
> time. One said that she was obsessive and wouldn't be able to do
> anything while being able to access my mud, another that it would
> just in general make them feel more at ease working and the
> like...

> This always raised tough issues for me, especially when it came to
> those who were honestly obsessive...the environment was a social
> game as well, so what seemed to hold these people in were their
> social connections.  Since we were on a small scale, I would often
> intervene in the form of modifying those social
> connections...speaking with those who were already aware of the
> situation and conversed with the user, and asking them to
> encourage a more appropriate view of the context of the game in
> the user's life.

One thing I thought of once was letting people ban themselves, or
subject themselves to a quota.  Give the players the tools to say
from day X to day Y I can play at most Z minutes per day, per week,
etc.  If I choose to cancel this quota, there will be a delay of W
days before it is removed.  Once the time they allot themselves is
up, the mud kicks them off and doesn't let them back on until the
next day.

This way they just have to have one moment of clarity (just long
enough to enter the requisite commands), without having to explain
to the admins what they want, etc.  Make it a game policy that the
bans are unchageable by admins, and remind people that the quotas
they give themselves are not going to be changed (of course, they
can be set to expire).

Give them the power to police themselves, and I bet they will be
more responsible for it.  Maybe I am wrong...  :)

Eli

--
Give a man some mud, and he plays for a day.
Teach a man to mud, and he plays for a lifetime.


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