Member Discussions

Now Im not an admin, nor do I claim that I ever have been.
However, when you run a mud and your team is behind your back
abusing abilities and insulting your pbase, to the point where
several longtime players are leaving, dont you think something
should be done?
Maybe this is the wrong forum for this, but Ive been part of a
fantastic mud for years that has always had this 'slight'
problem of admin that dont exactly follow an ethical path.
When you see this going on, wouldnt you normally be inclined
to stop the loss of your pbase??

If "you" run a MUD and "your team" is abusing abilities behind
your back and the sort, don't you think it's time to remove
those staff members?

That would be my thought, however the owner hasnt been around
much lately. So the next logical thought would be, ok leave
someone in charge to handle it. But THAT person hasnt been
around. The admin has dwindled and the ones that are left
either are the ones committing the 'crimes' or dont have the
ability to stop them.
And when players attempt to address these incurrences, they
get told to stop complaining. Only not so nicely.

Sounds like someone needs to email the owner and second in
command with the details.

Keep it short so if they're busy (sounds like they could be),
they have time to read it.

If time passes and you receive no response or a "don't care"
response, sounds like it's time to move on.

As an admin I've seen this sort of thing a lot, and I've come to a conclusion: gods pretty much shouldn't have any power. We originally started with all gods having various admin abilities and global permissions. We now have 1 admin (me), and pretty much all other admin related powers locked down. I also come down really hard on gods using god powers to do things other than build.

The official policy is that I am the only admin, but I do delegate a number of emergency powers with limited duration to a handful of people. This works because the powers truly are limited and emergency - they time out by default, and I expect to be told about the reasons behind every use of them. They get used pretty infrequently.

However, I think we can get away with this where a lot of muds cannot, because there are many rules and restrictions that are silently enforced by the code. Players have the ability to create and moderate their own channels; the ignore command is exceptionally strong; there is kill steal protection, pk protection, bot detection and prevention, spam limiters, and a number of other things that serve to keep the administrative workload to a minimum.

Unfortunately, I don't see many other games going this direction. The old standby seems to be, 'make a rule against it' instead of 'consider it a bug and fix it in the server'. Even a bad fix in the server will be more consistent and reliable than rule enforcement, and players are less likely to scream about unfairness or favoritism if they know it's a server feature that hits everyone equally.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD
http://www.alteraeon.com

Some comments:

1. We're only getting one side of the story.

2. Not every MUD has a dedicated coder who cares about fair play. There are plenty that don't, and it is the prerogative of the person(s) running the place, for better or worse. A MUD is not a democracy.

3. If you have a problem with your home MUD administration, and you can't change the culture from within, the only practical solution is to vote with your feet. Venting on a website is not likely to do anyone any good.

I've advocated this in the past, and while it hasn't
normally been widely agreed with, I always suggest in these
kind of situations, if appealing to the top guy in a
reasonable manner doesn't make any sort of change, then
attempt to get a majority of the playerbase on your side,
and if en masse there is a threat of a mass exodus to a
different MUD (afterall, isn't the worst part of leaving a
MUD, leaving behind the social connections and community?)
if changes aren't made, the Admin(s) might be more willing
to pay more attention to the matter. If nothing happens or
you guys start getting deleted/banned or whatever, follow
through with your threat.

If you guys can stick together, the biggest pain of leaving
a MUD will be lessened, and if that MUD is consistently
seeing large chunks of players leaving and not returning, it
might eventually have the intended consequence. If it
doesn't, the MUD will probably end up dying and there's one
less game out there w/ corrupt immortals.

There are plenty of games out there that actually care about
and cater to their players, with fair minded Administration.
The games not ran without any concern to the players? They
should be left to die.

I don't negotiate with terrorists.

Terrorist? Lol ok..
Yes you only get one side of the story. Because the admin are
so wrapped up they cant even spare time to check this. Yes I
get that people can run their muds how they desire. But what
happens when you come back and your pbase doesnt exist? I get
that it may come off like complaining and like Im venting. Im
not. Im trying to get the owner to notice in the only way I
can that he's losing people that have been around for years.
Yeah new people may come around, but they wont stay long once
they come to the same realization as the rest of us.

Sounds like a typical case of imms no longer caring about the
game. Some imms just like the power of immortalship and
aren't afraid to abuse it. Some just don't care about the
game, only their own amusement. It's too bad it's allowed to
happen. You may as well give the name of the mud since it
sounds like it's going to die anyway.

Minus caring what the MUD's name is, I've gotta second what
Jodah is saying here.

I've seen that far too many times, and having had to
experience it so many times as a player has rooted very deeply
into how I run my game so that, generally speaking, players
need not fear feeling like that in mine.

I can think of only maybe 4 or 5 complaints in the last 4
years where someone had felt unfairly treated by one of our
immortals.

Yes you only get one side of the story. Because the admin are
so wrapped up they cant even spare time to check this. Yes I
get that people can run their muds how they desire. But what
happens when you come back and your pbase doesnt exist? I get
that it may come off like complaining and like Im venting. Im
not. Im trying to get the owner to notice in the only way I
can that he's losing people that have been around for years.
Yeah new people may come around, but they wont stay long once
they come to the same realization as the rest of us.

Well, it sounds like you care a lot about this particular game, possibly more than its current admin. Posting here is not likely to do any good if he/she, by your own words, doesn't come here. If the situation is really as bad as you're describing, there's the distinct possibility that the admin simply doesn't care how long the game will last and is driving it into the ground on purpose. If you confront him/her politely, explain your concerns about the future of the game (point to specific examples of losing players), and maybe even offer to take up the torch and run with it, who knows, maybe that's what the admin has been waiting for.

I wish I could. Ive attempted to get on his staff for the past
2 years and have never been responded to by him, or any admin.
It wasnt until recently that a friend who did get on the staff
(one of the only remaining admin who does anything around the
mud) said it was pointless.
Its gotten to the point where certain staff have even told him
that hes running it into the ground and have asked for more
free reign. But to no avail.
The reason I say I post here, is because he USED to respond to
negative reviews as they came in, in an attempt to fix things
if they were legit. Id hate to think hes deliberately running
the mud into the ground after all the work that has been put
into it over the years...

Hate to say it, but it sounds like it's time to move on.

Plenty of games out there would appreciate you as a player,
and however many of your friends you'd bring with you.

Why have you bothered to stick it out? You obviously love the
mud but there are plenty of fish in the mud sea.

I do love this mud. Its one of the reasons I tried to become a
builder. What more could a person want than to leave his
proverbial footprint on a place he loves? I get people can be
*CENSORED*s, yeah its a game online per se. So Ive dealt with a
lot. Because I love the rp, I love the people. Im comfortable
here. While its not the most complex fighting system (kill
(mob) is still the way it works), its got a lot to offer.

I've seen the same thing on several muds I've played on, the
only thing you can do really is gather up your friends and
leave. It sucks to leave, it sucks even more if you took the
time to map out the entire world on zmud/cmud(I left a mud
where the whole place was full of demigod and god RP players
and admins abused their powers). But if your only connection
to the mud is the people and the RP you have, then find a new
one as a group. You may have to start the RP over again, but
thats a small price to pay to deal with good immortals.

Losing a player, no matter how big or small the number may
be, should be an indication that something may be wrong.

I build for MUDs. While I am also given the authority to do a
lot of other things, I find that being respectful towards
it's members is always a good thing. Why not? It's the thing
that keeps you going!

To be honest, any immortal that disrespects a player without
justification needs a reality check and indeed, they need to
move themselves from that MUD.

What MUD? I cannot say. There are still a LOT of options out
there. I guess it depends on taste. I am fond of the Godwars
variety, even though I am bad at PK, but they amuse me.

Fire them all.