From: wcollins@netcom.com (Walter J. Collins)
Subject: Re: ATTN: skill based muds
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 23:42:40 GMT

In article <BxsnJt.GCz@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> ksdavis@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Karleenus Schwartz Davis) writes:
>
>Promote someone with the ability to code and administrate and
>encourage player involvement to wizard.

Here I disagree minorly.  Promote someone with the ability and desire to 
*learn* to code and contribute to the mud environment in a positive way.
Also, some sort of demonstration of the person's dedication to the 
particular mud you're on is always nice.

>Why must he "win" the game to wiz?

Because that's what Lars put in his file named 'GOALS' forever ago:
the goal of playing is to become a wizard and create.  As you can probably
already guess, I'm not a traditionalist.  I prefer to promote creative
talent from wherever I can find it in order to make my mud (Underdark, btw)
the most interesting and fun one around.

>Why not keep an eye out for the people whose ideas are
>worthwhile and who is generally someone you'd like to have on your
>team?  You can set up some arbitrary numbers, but as I mentioned in an
>earlier post, the higher-ranking players are not necessarily the most
>interesting or the best role-players. 

In fact, they *can* be some of the worst wizards.  Once you've "earned"
your wizard status, you feel like you have some sort of right to do whatever
you damn well please.  And this is supported by the administration, usually.
I've been God-level on a mud where people 'play-to-wiz'.  Trust me, some
of the worst attitudes I've ever seen on muds came from the wizards there.
And to boot, I felt *guilty* about wanting to demote them, because they 
actually *had* earned their status, according to the contract implicit in
the old lpmud "success path".

>In fact, on vanilla muds you
>can wiz in a week (if you skip meals and sleep, that is) -- is
>persistance really your only requirement?
>
>-sz

True enough.  And persistence is only one of the requirements on Underdark.

For a wizard on my mud, the *first* requirement is dedication, the second
is to be responsible to your commitments (if you aren't going to follow 
through, then don't let me expect that you will.. of course, there are always
circumstances...), third is a positive and helpful attitude.  Persistence is
kinda in the second one (above). 

Notably absent from this list is 'coding ability'.  I don't feel that coding
ability is in itself an asset to a mud (though sometimes it's handy, especially
in upper level wizards who do mudlib level coding).  I will promote anyone
with the three requirements above.  Coding ability is just a bonus.

Walt (Cynic@UD)

PS - If any of you are having trouble connecting to UD, we're still on the
same machine, but the IP address has changed and some of the name servers 
haven't caught up yet.  Try the new numerical ip: 138.95.7.14 3001.

PPS - We're not "officially" open for players yet, but will be VERY soon now.
-- 
wcollins@netcom.netcom.com  < Walt Collins / Kristin Harvey >
1011 New Hope St., #12-C  |  Norristown, PA  19401  |  (215)277-2567
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin