[Molly]

This is a rather common problem in Muds, mainly based on envy, and the fact that some people cannot accept the fact that others could be better than themselves without cheating. (There is also a – hopefully small – number of Muds, where the accusations are actually true, but that is yet another question). Again, this mainly is handled by the Mud’s Imm Policy.

First step is, that the Mud has a firm set of rules and guidelines to what imms are allowed to do and not do, and the consequences if they break any of those rules.

Second step is, that those rules are made public, and that they are enforced mercilessly, so that cheating imms get kicked out at first offence.

Third step is, that junior imms don’t even get access to commands that would make it possible for them to beef up their characters or otherwise cheat.

Even so, rumours sometimes occur, especially if you have a certain type of players, known as Griefers, in the game. There doesn’t even have to be imms involved, any ‘successful’ player can be the target of such accusations. I hate these rumourmongers myself, since they can poison an entire Mud with their untrue allegations. And there is no real way to stop it, unless you ban them, which in turn can be hard to justify, since Griefers usually take care not to break any rules.

However, you must realise that having an imm and a powerful player at the same time does represent a conflict of interest – (especially if the game involves PvP). Once you join the staff, your main priority should become the general welfare of the Mud, not the general welfare of your own character or Clan. (Especially when it comes to Clans, people often have a problem dropping their old loyalties for the ‘greater good’ of the Mud).

At some point or other, you’ll have to make a choice between your imm and your mort, if nothing else because time rarely permits you to keep a mort on top, while at the same time doing effective work as a Builder or Coder. I stopped playing my own mort pretty soon after I realised that my main vocation was building, even though I still log her on occasionally, to playtest a new zone. And even so, she is non-PK and has crappy stats and commonplace equipment, which makes her more representative of the average player.

On a side note, dealing with player relations, and in particular personal player quarrels, is one of the hardest and most sensitive tasks that a administrator can indulge in. Wherever there are rumours and accusations of cheating or harassment, too often those are based on personal quarrels and dislikes between two players or groups of players. I rarely try to mediate in personal conflicts myself, since those generally are best sorted out between the parties themselves. You cannot force anyone to love anyone else, and interfering usually just makes things worse.

But sometimes a situation gets so infected that it spills over to the entire Mud, and then you may have to do something about it. Usually trying to sort the facts out results in endless accusations and counter-accusations, lies, half-truths and finally accusation against yourself of being biased in favour of the other party – coming from both parties, because you didn’t automatically take sides. (And it usually takes two to tango, so in most cases both parties are guilty to some extent). The best - and probably only - way to handle situations like that is to place both the parties in a !exit room, with yourself as referee, and have them fight it out between them. (In words, of course, not literally). But this presumes that they both are on line at the same time as you, and that neither of them decide to leave or drop link in the middle of the session. Tricky…


This again is not uncommon in Muds that have a culture of Clans or Factions, and where the usual restricted PK is abolished during a Clan War. I’ve seen it happen twice over the years in my own Mud; in both cases the losing Clan was almost completely wiped out, and lower level players left in droves, when dragged into the conflict.

This too is a tricky situation, since, as you stated, having warring factions adds to excitement, and putting a damper on Clan wars might create a safer environment, but also a less interesting one.

One comfort is that the strength of different factions usually vary over time, that even a wiped-out Clan can recover in time and become even stronger than the opposition, and that the players that left during the height of the conflict sometimes return when things have calmed down a bit.

Officially declaring one of the Factions the winner in the conflict might help a bit here.
Adding a third and a fourth faction might help too, since the ability to seek allies might make them less vulnerable.