Okay,

As many people can attest, finding staff that are willing to work and do well is something that is not easy to do.
Last night on Darkened Legends, someone logged on wanting to be an immortal on our mud. This person had no particular idea of what he wanted to do but did admit that he wanted to be the first person to be an immortal on 100 muds.

Now, I am not sure how you would have handled this, but I turned him down. He is already an immortal on 32 muds and claims to be an implementor on half of them.

He didn't appear interested in doing anything to benefit the realm in exchange for becoming an immortal so I told him to try elsewhere. I need people who are gonna be here and work, not people looking for a notch in their belt.

I am asking all of you. What would you have done?

I would have told him the same thing.

That's like signing on TMS here and posting the most...just what does that get you? What do we benefit from that?

Someone like that does zero to benefit the community you are trying to build. It was in the best interests of himself and you handled it perfectly.

If you accept an Immortal position on a MUD then you need to be prepared to give a significant commitment to that MUD.

Having been an Imm for nearly a year now and seeing the scope of work and the commitment that it takes, I am frankly amazed that anyone would consider being an Imm on 2 MUDs let alone 32 !

The impression of this person is that they are after bragging rights rather than any desire to actually help maintain/improve any of the MUDs that they are an Imm on.

I agree with Vesper, you handled it perfectly.

I would have told him the same thing. If they don't know what they want to do (or can do), then why hire them?

holy shiese. I would of told the guy no defianetly. 32 muds?! damn... An immortal should never be on more then 1 MUD, maybe 2 at the most! An immortal could never spend the proper amount of time to be an immortal on 100 freakin muds. good god

I would have told him what we tell all the wannabe immortals on our mud: Play here for at least six months, get a character with significant skills then submit a resume...not necesarilly something you'd submit for a job, but with the same attention to detail.  Only then would we permit him to be a 'probationary' creator and wouldn't permit him to advance to full creator until he completed an apprentice piece on our testmud, which is totally separate from our live mud.  This is the process all creators go through on our mud.

I definitely think you did the right thing. 100 games? He must be on each one about once a month with just the 32 he has!

We ask that a certain amount of hours' playtime has been reached, maybe they have been promoted to one of the newbie help characters for a period of those hours to show they are responsible and that they submit a sensible resume that describes why they think they are right for the job, as with any "real" job.

Flakey imms mean unhappy clients, and it can be hard to smooth over after a majorly disruptive and immature god spoils things. Vet them properly and make sure they can be bothered to put in the time!

I've got to agree. Imm positions are, in most muds, working positions, and carry a certain amount of responsibility with them. "Imming on 100 muds" seems a somewhat silly goal, unless s/he is going to contribute something to each of them.

should have asked him for a list of the muds for his "credentials" then e-mailed all the owners letting them know what is going on ;-p

When I ran my own mud I required at least 4 hours of work a week. I hard coded a way to tell when someone was logged on and wether they were idle or not.... So those who worked for me, were dedicated and did their work.

You handled it very nicely, then.

I would have told him to get the fvck off my MUD, and not bother coming back.

If he's an imm on _32_ MUDs, he has no time to play a real character on my MUD, much less staff.

-D

I would have told him he was a buffoon and notified the mud admin community with as many details about this person as possible.

What he is doing is really harmful to a lot of the muds out there he is an "immortal" on, since you can be sure they don't know he is an imm on 32+ muds.

This guy was an idiot, who probably has never so much as built the first area. I would have informed him that my mud only hires Immortals from in-house, and only those who have been around for some time, having shown some dedication and interest in bettering the mud.

He obviously isn't contributing much, if he merely wants to be "Imm on 100 muds"

Re: How would you handle this...
 

Definitely would've gone the same course as you. I don't see how he can be making a positive contribution to thirty-two muds simultaneously. Any immortal should be in the position to do just that.

Per wildman, we only hire in-house - it tends to cut down on the ones that aren't really interested in contributing to the game. Plus you then end up with immortals that actually know your system and your mud direction (at least somewhat) so they have a better understanding of how to contribute :)

Re: How would you handle this...
 

The guy has to show work, they guy has to show that he's capable of handing what Players throw at him.

And most of all, the guy gotta know the Game--as a player.

If this person has not shown you a portfolio of work that litterally blows your mind, tell him he's gotta work his way up the ladder like everyone else--or leave.

I can see him doing work on three or five MUD's at the same time, but not Thirty-two. Not at all.


Darren Brimhall

Re: How would you handle this...
 

Everyone in here is correct.

We've had literally dozens of volunteers over the last three years and every single one has represented a significant commitment from one of our staff to recruit them, introduce them to the game, show them the tools available to them and get them started.

If I found out someone had dragged one of our senior staff through all that with no intention of helping, just so as to reach some arbitrary personal goal... I'd be livid.

Well done on showing him the door!