[Kleothera]

Re-Ide, yes, its not in the original post. It is from one of my replies to Zivilyn who suggested an additional-

# The right to play elsewhere if the game, it's players or it's staff, do not meet my approval.
(Of course... every game has this right, you simply don't reconnect.)

I was suggesting that courtesy demands that staff performs the actions for which they were hired and if the staff takes actions that affect the players, they are entitled to be consulted and their opinions taken. The staff may not agree, but if you are "messing up" (yes, a subjective term too) the game play of people who have spent hours getting their characters up to level, I strongly feel that they are atleast entitled to know WHY. In the previous example, the staff is entitled to make the MUD commercial, however, it should ideally be done in consultation with the existing playerbase and what are the new ground rules need to be made clear to everyone so that any favourable treatment to people buying merchandise isnt seen as something as "strangely enough" (to use the words in the post), but something that players are entitled to by investing funds in the game. Put the new suggested terms upfront. Get peoples' opinions on it. Change the terms based on good ideas from the playerbase (atleast the smartest cookies out there). Ask yourself how much opposition is there and whether the tradeoff of loss of n% of existing players is worth the chance of getting some new ones. Then decide whether you want to implement the change. If you do it in a transparent manner, the amount of grumbling is going to be less. It wont stop, but there would be less of it.