|
The problem with having some sort of "solution" to addictions to game is that everyone has different levels of control, different lifestyles, and different methods of dealing with their gameplay (unfortunately, some people have NO methods for dealing with that).
With every command you have in to "help" players control their impulses, there is an override. For example, we used to have a command that locked people's accounts for however long they wished to be gone. 9 out of 10 players would mail before their "estimated time lock" would be up and ask to have their accounts unlocked. People who would delete their own characters (when this command was available) would end up asking to have them restored. Basically, the commands ended up being useless except for a very few people. In the end, we decided people would just have to be accountable for their own decisions rather than doing something rashly and expecting an admin to fix it.
I do agree, however, that having things such as rent for equipment is a crutch for good game design. I've never played a mud that had equipment rent, and from what KaVir has described, I probably never will. I don't, however, believe that it's a bad idea to have a day to day cost for certain in-game things if a character has the option to deal with it while offline. It's not a bad thing to be able to reward the people who do log in to play for a few hours every day.
I do believe that addiction is a word that's thrown around pretty easily to take responsibility off the person who is "addicted" to something. There are professionals that provide help for people who have addictions, and mud administrators are NOT the people to go to solve these psychological issues. We are not licensed to identify, treat, or even to diagnose when someone has an addictive personality or an addiction problem. To try to do so would be a disservice to the person with the problem.
|