[MUD-Dev] The Virtues of Small Muds - was (Our player's keepers? )

[Jon A. Lambert]

> J C Lawrence wrote:
> Jon A Lambert <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> 
> > Perhaps some of us view _some_ of our players in the light that
> > yes, we are our player's keepers simply because we have the luxury
> > of knowing quite a bit more about them personally and have struck
> > up casual friendships with some of them.
> 
> Specifically, many consider that there is a difference between
> making such responsibility-type decisions for an arbitrary unknown
> individual, and making the exact same responsibility-type decisions
> for a friend, team mate, work mate, or just someone we have some
> reason to care about at some level.

Yep.  I see the difference.  I just wanted to point out that there
do exists places on the net that by virtue of a cultivated or club-like
atmosphere that leads to some higher levels of communal sense of
responsibility between total strangers.  And by total strangers _I_
mean internet-only acquaintances and friends. 
(I know there are people out there who claim hundreds as near, dear,
and close personal friends those they've never met.  But that is a 
zebra of a different stripe.)

I don't mean the brother's keeper level of loaning money, offering 
jobs or places to crash at.   Another example...

We had a wizard who happened to be a professor at the college where 
about a dozen or so users apparently logged in from.  She'd pop in 
sometimes late at night or during finals week to berate, nag and taunt 
users that she was going to kick the butts of anybody nodding off 
during her lecture, or warning them she wasn't going to host make up 
finals for mud people.  Some of them would come back with they weren't 
in any of her classes anyhow and to stuff it.  She'd retort about 
intentions to seek them out and perform awful and legally questionable 
things to their academic records as well as their mud characters.  

Cute huh?  Do you think those users enjoyed/appreciated being nagged 
by a motherly professor?  I think they did.  I think most of the
other users who hadn't a clue or interest enjoyed the spectacle.  
How do you qualitatively measure the value of such touchy-feely type 
stuff on the users' perception of a mud?  

No, many of these places aren't care-bear muds by any stretch.  No 
hollow proclamations of we're all family here, hugs and kisses to all.  
Everyone here is happy. <wink> <wink>  Which is similar to the kind of 
the feeling I get when being greeted upon entering Wal-Mart or BlockBuster 
Video, as opposed to the more genuine greeting I get walking into my 
local farm coop, church, barbershop or pub. 
<insert theme from Cheers here> 
 
> One of the topics that came up during the dinner last night (see my
> report) was that we are spending so much lime looking at the
> massively multiplayer and uber-community on one side, and the
> semi-niche on the other that we entirely ignore the question of
> small friendly groups.  I argue that most social groups that come
> into MUDs (ie the group existed before and outside of the MUD) are
> going to be on the order of 5 - 20 members with the mean somewhere
> between 5 and 10.  

Another thing to look at is the pre-Mud Connector era vs. the post
Mud-Connector era.  How new players were introduced by word of
mouth or were friends of players, or friend of friends of players,
or were mostly located at the same installation/institution.  Ever
wonder why many Mushes refuse to even list themselves on the Mud 
Connector?  Perhaps it's because many Mush owners prefer 2 degrees 
of separation in their playerbase rather than the six degrees of 
separation that Mud Connector might effect.  (there's a theory there 
that involves six paths of acquaintance between any two individuals 
on the planet... I can't remember the details exactly)

In other words, supposing my RL friend Bubba goes off to college
X and went off to college Y.  I'm more likely to form quick and
positive relationships with the new college X friends of Bubba merely
through the social dance and interplay of introduction by Bubba via
the Mush/mud, and vice versa.  It's sort of a measure of confidence, 
trust and respect you have for Bubba.  Bubba is really telling me 
Boffo's a stand up guy worth knowing, and Biffy's a real swell gal 
worth knowing.  I think it was either Raph or Adam, that mentioned 
the effect of drop-ins spending 60 seconds in newbieville and 
logging out.  And the possible necessity of having greeters like 
Wal-Mart employees.  Hmm, maybe friends dragging friends around is
even better?    

But assuming that 5-20 member core of RL acquaintances....That can 
mushroom into a population of 40-60 people with one or two degrees 
of separation with all the social civility and interplay that 
implies.  Remember the "by invitation-only" concept?  Perhaps
extend it to include restrictions like "known personally by user 
in RL".  Just a thought.

>If your design operates on that assumption, that
> your game is going to be comprised of many many (hundreds?) of such
> micro groups, each operating as social distinct entities (perhaps
> work mates, school chums, members of a gaming club, coffee klatches,
> pub mates, whatever), and that larger more abstract (and arbitrary
> and somewhat impersonal due to lack of RL contact) social ties are
> going to be less common and less emphasized, you start looking at
> areas and markets that we've never even referenced  here.

Ah...leveraging markets, exploiting niches and large-scale again. 
How many readers of the list one their mud to become the Archer
Daniels Midland of mudding?  How many just want to have fun and play
with a few dozen 'friends' and half-dozen or so of their 'friends'?

There's another poll question for you.  

If you are a mud administrator or part of a team developing, building or
working on a mud, why are you doing it?

1) I'm a professional games designer.  I make my living doing this.
2) I'm doing this to make lots of money and have good time while doing it.  
3) I like interesting people.  I like meeting them, getting to know them,
   and playing games with them.
4) I do it for glory.  I want my name etched in the virtual noosphere 
   as a significant contributor to the mud community to the growing body 
   of open source. 
5) I want to be like a god or king.  I want players to kneel before me,  
   and acknowledge my skills and intellect. 
6) This is a hobby for me.  I just like the challenges of programming
   and building, and entertaining others with my creations.
7) Beats the hell out of me.  I have no idea.  I think it's fun so like
   go away and get outta my face.

--
--* Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD        Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com *--
--* Mud Server Developer's Page <http://tychomud.home.netcom.com> *--
--* If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.*--
 



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