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Jherlen · 01-15-2014, 12:53 PM

I think accusations of cronyism or player/staff cliques will occur in almost every MUD of sufficient size, whether warranted or not. The best way to prevent them would seem to be ensuring the MUD staff have an air of professionalism in their interaction with players. Obviously since staff on free MUDs are volunteers, the word "professional" is used a bit loosely, but I think we get the idea.

Some things that I think help:

- Staff that clearly publish their policies on interactions with players, so that players will know if certain interactions are out of bounds and can express their concerns for a fair hearing.

- Inability to distinguish a "staff avatar" from a non-staff character... staff characters should be held to exactly the same rules as player characters are, including how they advance and how they obtain gear. (Staff characters here are different from NPCs that staff are using to advance a plot, although if staff play an NPC so frequently that it may as well be their avatar, the same limits should apply.)

- Formal channels for player/staff communication that can be logged and reviewed by other staff. In other words, "official business" about the game should be handled via in-game BBS or some other form of request system all staff have access to, not in IM or private chat between a player and a staff member. The idea here is that staff will help keep other staff fair and honest, and if communication is handled more openly that becomes easier. I'm not saying players and staff shouldn't be able to chat to each other, just that requests like "hey can my character please get a skill boost" should be handled more officially.

One final note, I disagree with this statement from PhasmaInMachina:

OOC transparency between player/staff interaction doesn't need to have anything to do with the level of immersion in the IC gameworld. If you divorce the idea of staff from in-game deities completely, your level of immersion doesn't need to depend on interactions with a staff member at all. This breaks down if every staff member OOCly is also a deity of his/her religion ICly, but nothing says the system has to be set up that way.

01-15-2014, 12:53 PM	#4
Jherlen Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 47	Re: Cronyism and Cliques I think accusations of cronyism or player/staff cliques will occur in almost every MUD of sufficient size, whether warranted or not. The best way to prevent them would seem to be ensuring the MUD staff have an air of professionalism in their interaction with players. Obviously since staff on free MUDs are volunteers, the word "professional" is used a bit loosely, but I think we get the idea. Some things that I think help: - Staff that clearly publish their policies on interactions with players, so that players will know if certain interactions are out of bounds and can express their concerns for a fair hearing. - Inability to distinguish a "staff avatar" from a non-staff character... staff characters should be held to exactly the same rules as player characters are, including how they advance and how they obtain gear. (Staff characters here are different from NPCs that staff are using to advance a plot, although if staff play an NPC so frequently that it may as well be their avatar, the same limits should apply.) - Formal channels for player/staff communication that can be logged and reviewed by other staff. In other words, "official business" about the game should be handled via in-game BBS or some other form of request system all staff have access to, not in IM or private chat between a player and a staff member. The idea here is that staff will help keep other staff fair and honest, and if communication is handled more openly that becomes easier. I'm not saying players and staff shouldn't be able to chat to each other, just that requests like "hey can my character please get a skill boost" should be handled more officially. One final note, I disagree with this statement from PhasmaInMachina: OOC transparency between player/staff interaction doesn't need to have anything to do with the level of immersion in the IC gameworld. If you divorce the idea of staff from in-game deities completely, your level of immersion doesn't need to depend on interactions with a staff member at all. This breaks down if every staff member OOCly is also a deity of his/her religion ICly, but nothing says the system has to be set up that way.