Okay. I've been playing the MUD I play for four years, put a lot of time and effort in to both game and characters, made a brilliant lot of rp-buddies. But I'm about to abandon ship (for which I have an odd seperation anxiety, anyone else get that?) despite my loyalty to the game's community, because it's to the point where the things that get up my nose outweigh (or heavily put a damper on) the fun I'm having. So (deep breath) here goes:
1: Constant and intrusive admin plots.
Do we really NEED to be told what and when to rp, or have to face yet --another-- war/disease/national crisis/invasion every other week? I'd really prefer admin to bugger off, and let us create in-game tensions for ourselves. The ones we do build hardly get time to buid momentum before they're interrupted (and a deal of rp is simply wasted). Once or twice, fine-- as a standard practice? Nah.
2: Inconsistent/invisible/pulled-out-of-ass rules and policy/gameplay changes.
For example, it makes me head-desk violently when a race's essential characteristics are changed overnight and with little warning (really, set them the hell up properly to start?), and moreso when this happens a lot.
Also, rules that give admin free reign to act like player-hating assholes, as long as you've minutely trangressed some rule or other. Rules that are not written. Rules that absolve admin from all blame, ever. Rules that allow admin to decide severity of punishments based on thier own levels of like/dislike for the player.
Being punished for minute transgressions by being put in a punishment-room for what could be weeks, with no visible date of release, and no way of knowing how long you're in there, and making it illegal to try and find out.
3: Player-is-the-enemy admin mentality.
The assumption that everyone but the folks who suck up hard or passively drift along ingame are there to cause trouble, or be an inconvenience to the coders/rp admin/status quo, and being treated that way.
4: Having rp vetoed without explanation/waiting interminable periods for rp approval.
Seriously, it is NOT OK to say "no" and leave it at that, or to leave players hanging two to ten weeks waiting for rp/rooms/items to be approved. Momentum is lost, player interest wanes, the iron grows cold -- and so does my interest in staying there.
It is REALLY not OK to rip ideas from players, then use them-- after turning down the player's rp w/o explanation or suggestions for improvement.
5: Stupidly-placed, over-aggressive mobs.
Yeah, putting masses of aggressive, hit-for-a-bajillion mobs on every main thoroughfare so that newbs/low stat players have trouble exploring and roleplaying (without a hugely pricey/rare protective item) is a really great idea. If you don't like players.
6: Badly/irregularly managed OOC channels.
If a game MUST have an ooc channel, it should have consistent rules and calm moderation, or at least some firm policy on what can happen there. Swinging between utterly draconian/lax to the point of nil moderation only creates resentment and confusion.
.... so, there's like points 7 though 50 but that's all I have the energy to type. For now.
except 7
: Admin characters who are immortal/uber powerful/unkillable and that rule whole nations forever, and the admin behind them refusing to acknowledge any rp that challenges the status quo.
and 8: Having ONE admin responsible for approving major stuff and whose word is final, so can say no on a whim even though the rest ofstaff are supportive of the concept.
9: And having too few staff, with not enough responsiblity delegated so things get backlogged horribly.
And one more:
Telnet games (which I play now and then) -- newbie-coddling is a good thing. For those not used to all that code, an in-game newb area that's super-kind and also interesting to play/not ooc really helps new-to-telnet folks not feel like such scaredy morons, and therefore less likely to run away.
k. I'm done.