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02-18-2005, 12:26 AM

That's good because I just hate when people agree with me, because that means I have to do the heavy lifting on finding something interesting that we don't agree on. :-)

Ditto on 1. and 2. But there is a lot to 2. that is just simply out of your hands and into the realm of unenforceable like you say. Along the lines of questy stuff, we had players who would exchange maps areas in e-mail. Builders didn't like it much, but the alternative of monitoring player communications to look for secret deals like "hey give me your email and I'll send you my map" was well dumb... also unconscionable.

Well yeah and it's just as obvious to their fellow players who the bad seeds are. Of course in most games like I've suggested here and elsewhere, the players are powerless to do anything about it. So you must judge. Well get out of the judging business. The last thing I personally want to do is to login to my mud and take a look at at the docket of player complaints, play dad, and decide which child is the problem. And as you might be also be aware even a clear cut case with the well-known problem child on the victim side, is usually the result of retaliation by the frustrated but normally good player. You don't have to judge if players have the power to each individually make a decision to exile those they don't like from their space. Peer pressure is a much more powerful force for change than that coming from authority figures.

Well I disagree with you on 5. In the US at least information is not protected under copyright. And whether currency is exchanged for information, or equipment in the mud between players isn't none of my business either. Whether it's real or virtual currency. Why draw the line at exchanging real currency, and not exchange of real services or for something more ephemeral like friendship? Same thing. Hey I can always get great deals when I mud with my wife. I can exchange an uber-sword-of-major-orc-killing for a kiss, and if I really haggle I can even get a better deal outside of the game. Of course she usually wants hard cash for anything she finds. *sigh*

Regarding 4. Get rid of snoop, logging and wizinvis. Really respect their privacy. Why should players have to move their chat outside the game when there's perfectly good chat system in the game? Well it would be after one scrubs the flaws out of it (staff peeking).

My solution to 6 is simply to reverse the progression and provide an advancement track for staff. The advancement track gives higher level staff members less and less powers over the players. Advancement is based solely on contribution, and non-exercise of power. They advance from level 1 (or whatever it is in game terms for a newbie player) to level 0 to level -1 and on to ever decreasing levels of power. Until they are completely invisible and without power over the virtual world. One might ask, well if they can't manipulate anything in the virtual world the players are living in then how do they do anything at all? They do what the do in the meta world of the mud. Creating and coding meta things which are unrealized in the player world and until such time as they (or subset of them), via consensus, collective push a button to make them realized. Yeah it's a zen thing. Sadly many would have to redesign their games to do this.

02-18-2005, 12:26 AM	#32
Posts: n/a	That's good because I just hate when people agree with me, because that means I have to do the heavy lifting on finding something interesting that we don't agree on. :-) Ditto on 1. and 2. But there is a lot to 2. that is just simply out of your hands and into the realm of unenforceable like you say. Along the lines of questy stuff, we had players who would exchange maps areas in e-mail. Builders didn't like it much, but the alternative of monitoring player communications to look for secret deals like "hey give me your email and I'll send you my map" was well dumb... also unconscionable. Well yeah and it's just as obvious to their fellow players who the bad seeds are. Of course in most games like I've suggested here and elsewhere, the players are powerless to do anything about it. So you must judge. Well get out of the judging business. The last thing I personally want to do is to login to my mud and take a look at at the docket of player complaints, play dad, and decide which child is the problem. And as you might be also be aware even a clear cut case with the well-known problem child on the victim side, is usually the result of retaliation by the frustrated but normally good player. You don't have to judge if players have the power to each individually make a decision to exile those they don't like from their space. Peer pressure is a much more powerful force for change than that coming from authority figures. Well I disagree with you on 5. In the US at least information is not protected under copyright. And whether currency is exchanged for information, or equipment in the mud between players isn't none of my business either. Whether it's real or virtual currency. Why draw the line at exchanging real currency, and not exchange of real services or for something more ephemeral like friendship? Same thing. Hey I can always get great deals when I mud with my wife. I can exchange an uber-sword-of-major-orc-killing for a kiss, and if I really haggle I can even get a better deal outside of the game. Of course she usually wants hard cash for anything she finds. sigh Regarding 4. Get rid of snoop, logging and wizinvis. Really respect their privacy. Why should players have to move their chat outside the game when there's perfectly good chat system in the game? Well it would be after one scrubs the flaws out of it (staff peeking). My solution to 6 is simply to reverse the progression and provide an advancement track for staff. The advancement track gives higher level staff members less and less powers over the players. Advancement is based solely on contribution, and non-exercise of power. They advance from level 1 (or whatever it is in game terms for a newbie player) to level 0 to level -1 and on to ever decreasing levels of power. Until they are completely invisible and without power over the virtual world. One might ask, well if they can't manipulate anything in the virtual world the players are living in then how do they do anything at all? They do what the do in the meta world of the mud. Creating and coding meta things which are unrealized in the player world and until such time as they (or subset of them), via consensus, collective push a button to make them realized. Yeah it's a zen thing. Sadly many would have to redesign their games to do this.