On Fri, 29 Aug 1997, Andrew Helm wrote:
-+Although it's necessary to make decisions that "piss-off" the players,
-+it is hardly the "Art of Adminstration." Administrators will undoubtably
-+find that through their oversight or some fault of their own the mud
-+is unbalanced. Perhaps the administrators are only human. Perhaps they
-+did not check a builder's area closely enough. Maybe they did not think
-+about the affect a new skill would have on the overall balance of the
-+mud. There are many possibilities but they all lead to the same
-+conclusion: the mud is unbalanced and the only proper action is
-+to balance it. Players will complain, and they are justified to a point
-+since it is the fault of the people who's responsibility is keeping
-+the mud balanced.
Yes, the Art of Administration, as I said in my original message (and as
you have agreed here), is to provide challenges for the player, but not
to make it so ridiculous that the player leaves. In other words, you have
to create a *balance* between the difficulty and the possibility of
playing the game. Or, as I put it in the original message: how much
you piss-off your players vs. how much you can before they leave. Balance.
If you wish to nit-pick over my choice of words, as the other thread
involving you happened to degrade to (at least, it certainly never
started out that way, and I never had the intention of it turning into
that) then send me private mail; my meaning was quite clear, as you
understood what I was saying (and this is evident from your message
content). Whether or not I use, "piss-off," or, "challenge," the point
of the message stays the same as the extent to which you should
"piss-off" your players is defined in the message. OTOH, saying
something like "Sending" instead of what you mean, can change the entire
meaning of a message. <cough> If you want to go on with this matter,
personal mail is encouraged.
--
Daniel Koepke -:- dkoepke@california.com -:- [Shadowlord/Nether]
Programmer (C/C++/ASM/HTML), Sysadmin, and High-priced Male Escort
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