The Mud Whimping Guidebook Page -Ruin your game by nerfing or wimping players

Welcome To The Player Whimping Guidebook!
(or how to dry up your mud in no time)

uking up a mud is surprisingly simple. With a little bit of time and dedicated effort to your own stupidity, you too can ruin your mud for the players, cause strife beyond belief, and take your mud down a slow spiral to implosion from within. The two best ways to do this are Wiping and Whimping.

You May NOT Copy this page in whole or in part either online or offline without written permission from the author. (write me) You are free to link this page to your site.

For those of you new to being little tin gods, I will be using the following definitions:

Terms Used Here:

Imms, Immortals, Gods: Those who run a mud. These are the admins that build or oversee the mud. Sometimes called Dungeon Masters or GMs, DMs, or IMPs.
Mud: Not the gooey stuff women wrestle in, but a multi-user dungeon. An online game where multiple players interact with each other and computer generated monsters.
Mobs: No, not 100 middle-aged women in a store with a big shoe sale! Mob refers to computer generated monsters on a Mud.
Trolls: People who simply like to cause problems and get off on watching the resultant fallout and fighting.
Wiping: is the act of doing a player file wipe. This destroys all player information, including hours played, gold collected, equipment earned, and all other facets of the character. It may or may not include the player's name.
Wimping: is the act of taking away from a player's skills, spells, or effectiveness in some other way, such as reducing weapon effectiveness or boosting mobs (computer generated monsters) to an incredible degree. It can also refer to the reduction of gold. Wimping is called nerfing or blunting in many circles. Also called mud whimping, player whimping, nerfing, and other names.

Player Wimping A Critical Examination

Generally done under the rationalization of "mud balancing" or "restoring the challenge" the act of wimping players or 'nerfing' is one of the most insidious acts one can undertake. Wimping results in more hurt players, and more shattered morale for a mud than anything any player could ever accomplish. What is worse is that it is done by those who ostensibly are tasked with protecting the game and making it a better place to spend your entertainment hours. Wimping has destroyed more than one mud that I have been on, and has hurt loyal mudders across the world.

Best Intentions:

Almost without fail, when a mud starts, it starts because a player decides the gaming world needs something "friendly and unique" and finds himself in a situation where he is not satisfied with how the mud he is on is run. The player, now a new Implementor (chief administrator) believes that he can do a better job than those whose mud he has left and so he simply starts his own. In many instances he is disappointed or sad at the way that players on his X-mud have been treated and thinks he can do it better, making an environment where people can feel wanted and safe. Indeed the ideal he starts with is to become for his players what he wished the gods on his X-mud had been for him. So he sets about the task.

His idealism is in full bloom as he hires a staff of builders and coders and installs a couple of gods, (usually friends from his X-mud), and he then sets out to make a wonderful new place for people to come and enjoy. He goes to great lengths to find out what players want in a mud and does his best within reason to accomplish it. As part of this process he puts together an Alpha-Test team, (usually a group of players from his old mud), and later he opens the mud up for Beta-Testing. During these two formative stages, adventuring areas are built, weapons are made, gold is calculated, spells, skills and player attributes are decided upon and put in place. It is a hell of a lot of work.

Of necessity Alpha and Beta testing are times of changes, massive equip and spell adjustments, boosting and reducing of mobs, gold and whatnot. The basics are balanced. Weapons are made to be effective but not insane in their power, spells and skills get the same treatment. Mobs are made to be a challenge but not suicidal - which is a demoralizer for players. During the beta-test time, all that is to come is set up, balanced, and put in place for the people who will come to play. When this Herculean task is finished the mud is opened up to the public. Sometimes a player-file wipe is done and all of the beta tester's characters are destroyed so everyone starts out on equal footing. Many times Imps give those kind enough to have been alpha or beta testers some incentive like leveling tokens or something for their efforts and the time they invested in beta testing. The new mud is on the air and everyone is excited!

The Honeymoon:

As the mud opens, the gods and builders are visible and helpful, they give freely of their time to players with little grudging. The Imms make attempts to get people to come try their mud and they are usually responsive to players requests. The Imms and builders PLAY their own mud, (as opposed to just RULING it) , leveling characters and grouping with those players they are there to serve. Imms will sometimes make it known who they are sometimes not so as to judge how well the players are enjoying their new creation. In short the Imms CARE about how the players feel about the mud, and they are more interested in the players than they are in anything else. This period can vary in length greatly depending on the personalities involved and just how idealistic the new IMP and his gods are about making players happy. It is a good time to be in the game for everyone.

At this stage players are the reason for the mud. The Imms know why they went to all this work, it was to make the players happy! And by god they are there to do just that... for a while.

As time goes on however, the mud begins to grow. As may be easily surmised so do player requests for interaction and assistance, requests for special favors or weapons, demands for change to the basic skill set, and a plethora of other demands and expectations that can be expected from the type of people drawn to mudding and role playing games in general. At first, the IMP and his gods do their best to keep people happy, sometimes giving in to truly bad or stupid ideas and even fringe-player demands. It is likely that they will give in against their own gut feelings when they do some of these things. In their rightly motivated effort to please they sometimes go further than they should thus setting themselves up to fail.

After a while things begin to change for the Imms... not in the mud or with the players but within themselves.

Midlife Crisis:

Somewhere along the way the gods begin to feel pressured and they begin to withdraw. Slightly at first, simply going invisible, but they still talk regularly with players. But it does not stop, things slide more and more and they find themselves slowly cutting even simple player discussion down. Soon the Imms find themselves only talking to their peers. They start to see players as a bunch of whiney cheaters who are there simply there to take advantage of the generosity offered by the immortal staff.

Another thing that seems to happen about this time is that the gods begin to re-examine things that a year or six months ago were just fine and were accepted as normal. For some reason they reach a point where they find fault with things that were okay just a month ago. Imms also begin to care less and less about the PEOPLE on the mud, those who the mud was originally built to serve, and they begin to think more in terms of the CREATION - that is their computer-code, damage-tables, or the fact that people seem to be actually having too much success by leveling in a quicker manner than the gods think is reasonable.

In short the admins lose sight of the fact that people are having FUN, and instead choose to dwell upon the fact that the mud didn't evolve, and players didn't play in the way that they had pre-structured in their own minds.

Danger Point:

It is at the point where the players become secondary to the creation that the danger exists. Along with a select group of other gods, (generally the ones perceived by players as having earned the rank to satiate their power hungry or controlling natures), the IMPs begin to look at changing and blunting ESTABLISHED skills spells or weapons. They talk to people who will by their nature agree, asking little if any input from the players that will be most affected by their choices. After all this is "not their mud" and "they didn't work so hard to create it". The imms also tend not to ask others who might disagree. Like generals who believe in their own press-releases this self-serving time will cost them later.

The Imms now go back and revisit some of the 'special favors' they did for people. The realize that they made mistakes in trying to kiss ass to those they tried to draw to their mud and they start to make adjustments to the things that they themselves fucked up in an early attempt to please. Many times this is somewhat justified, one or two spells might just be way overpowered. These are changed, and the predictable outcry from those affected occurs. The imms put up with this, attempting to justify their actions, and taking time to try to mollify the people who have been hurt. They even apologize and in some cases admit their own culpability. However at the same time there is an undercurrent of resentful feelings that the players would "whine" so much and "create so many problems" over something that was obviously so wrong.

This sets them up for the mind set wherein the players become even more of an enemy. All later complaints are relegated to "whining" or "selfish bitching" and when the next round of wimping comes, with its predictable outrage the Imms don't try to explain it nearly as well, instead opting to be aloof and uncaring or they will blame it on players for 'overusing' an item or spell. Some will even blame it on builders or imms who have departed and can not defend themselves. The mindset does not abate even later when Imms are mucking with things they should not be. At that point they actively antagonize players and the 'my mud not theirs' mindset is fully realized. In short they set themselves up against the players and so their rationalization is that no matter what they do the players will be a bunch of whiners...

What has happened is a marked shift from player centerdness to one of worshiping at the alter of their creation - the software program that runs the mud. Damage tables become more important than player satisfaction and they begin to seek out the most minor of things to change in what was once a well established world under the banner of 'making everything equal'.

As time goes by pressures of all kinds, from the external player complaints about other classes to Imms own air-headed want to relegate players to a pre-structured jail cell of how the Imms expected people to play or level becomes much more important than player happiness and more and more things are slated to be wimped; weapons, gold, good-solid established skills or spells.. nothing is safe, nothing is sacred.

Within the players, this produces a natural, rational, and predictable reaction. What they counted on today may not be there tomorrow. These gods that were so kind and helpful before have now become the adversaries, seen as tyrants or people not to be trusted because they have betrayed the implied and implicit trust that the players gave them when they decided to invest their personal time and play the mud on a regular basis.

The Death Spiral:

As the immortals, (and yes I do place full responsibility on the immortals, because it is in fact they who have the power to ameliorate things, and the responsibility to the mud NOT to do it in the first place), continue to wimp players, boost mobs, drop gold gathering abilities, raise prices, and reduce weapon effectiveness, players begin to align themselves into two camps. One group who "backs the Imms, 'because they know best and wouldn't hurt us'", and one group who feels "betrayed and hurt" by the removal or destruction of that which they have worked so hard to obtain.

The first group, the 'god-backers' seems to break down into three subgroups. Before determining how great you are for your wonderful wimping, consider the fact that the motivations of those players that appear to be backing you may not be as pure as you believe.

Factionalization Of The Mud:

Once the wimping begins the mud breaks into little parts. Myopia sets in and people begin to lose sight of the fact that once they were all friends and having fun playing together. Instead it becomes a power struggle and a political infight with groups breaking off into encampments trying to get their way. If the IMPS have foolishly surrounded themselves with "yes-man" type gods, then this won't carry over into the administration, but if the IMP had the forethought to install people as gods who would speak their own mind, this factionalization will also occur in the immortal camp as well.

God backers seem to break down into one of these three groups:

Self-Preservationists - Probably the largest group on the god-backers team are the self-preservationists. They are also the least loyal to your position as an Imm bent on wimping. These people are participating in a typical human reaction similar to that of the pre-war Germany where the populace allowed those in power to take rights and property from others, and even SUPPORTED it in the vain and stupid hope that the authorities would remember them, and not take similar action against their race or class at a later date. As with the people in Germany, this belief of course vanished as soon as the authorities turned their interest toward their particular minority. It is indeed gratifying to watch self-preservationists become enraged and vocal when they get the nerfed as the self-preservationists tend to be the ones that have the fiercest and most vociferous outcry when THEY are the ones being betrayed by the administrators of the mud. The already wimped players will see this as an ironic form of justice for not having stood by them when the imms were mucking up their stuff.

Ass-Kissers - When an established skill or spell is taken from others, a very significant portion of those who back you as an Imm are doing so for the sole reason that they would blindly agree to any damn thing you did! You should already know the kind. These people likely want to ingratiate themselves to you because they have their own aspirations for immhood in the future and know full well that being buddies with a god, (especially when standing up for an unpopular action), will win them approval with you and subsequent favors or other consideration or bent rules. It is also important to remember that many people who want to cause strife to your mud, (See 'Bitchers' in the next section), will pretend to agree with you because its the best way that they can think of to be able to SAFELY (to themselves) stir the shit with arguments which they know will cause problems and hurt others in order to meet their final agenda. Online these people are known as trolls.

Genuine-Believers - There will be a few people who will genuinely and honestly believe that what you are doing is right. A person is most likely to belong to this group if he agrees with what you are doing and it is being done to him. (Although its very important to remember that the Ass-Kissers many times will do this even to their own detriment.) Genuine believers may believe their points after rational and cerebral introspection, or they may simply be blind followers. The fact that you can find people to agree with you even if that belief is genuinely held in no way makes what you are doing right however.

In the same way as the god-backers have subgroups, so too do the wimping-detractors.

The Betrayed - Probably the largest group of those who would be labeled wimping-detractors are those who rightfully feel betrayed and hurt by the immortals. These players have invested very significant periods of time on the mud, and have raised themselves up to a certain level of skills and spells by hard work and initiative. They have gone to great lengths to get the equipment they feel is best, and they have developed a persona and a playing style around the items and rules originally supplied to them by the gods. They operate within the rules and use the equipment and spells to its fullest advantage - as well they should - and then some Imm notices it and BAM. These people have a genuine sense of betrayal. That which they were allowed to earn is stolen from them by the very Immortals that they counted upon to do right by them. They have lost abilities, or had them significantly blunted by those who once said "We made this game for you, and for your fun.". Instead those same immortals are now telling them "If you don't like it start a new character or your own mud... we know what's best". When the immortals take that attitude it simply reinforces the betrayed's feelings and proves him right.

The Bitchers - There is a certain group of mudders who will always cause problems. Wimping is but another excuse for them to attempt to cause strife on the mud and to do the best they can to control other people by using the unhappiness of the situation to make them do things they might not ordinarily do. You will already know these people, as they never ever ever have anything positive to say, they spend no time whatsoever trying to make people happy or doing good, but instead always make it their business to cause shit. They are labeled as trolls in many communities because they do nothing more than spoil things for others. Though comprising nowhere NEAR the numbers of actually betrayed people, the bitchers do present a significant number of wimping detractors. These people should be completely ignored by both sides in this battle as they are there for the sole purpose of causing problems and inciting unhappiness.

The Ethical/Moralists - Most certainly the smallest group in the wimping-detractors are those who have thought the issue through thoroughly, not having taken into account how they were affected, but instead looking at how things really are affecting people and determined that the wimping was just simply wrong or unjust. These people will make good directed arguments which show forethought and a care for players above all else, including the sacred damage tables or other garbage that the imps might trot out to justify their stance. Of course this pisses off the Imms even more because the damage tables and economy tables are now the imms sacred cows, not the players but they cant SAY that for obvious reasons. Hell maybe they don't even see that in themselves!

Almost always the Ethical/Moralists people will find themselves ostracized or vilified simply for speaking out, and because their arguments make sense, they will be seen as a threat to the mud and to the mud by the admins. If the Ethical/Moralists are gods on the game they are usually removed or chastised for not being a "team player" rather than being allowed to speak out, as their arguments are compelling and well directed.

The Effect:

As you can see factionalization shatters the camaraderie and friendships that a good mud will have groomed and encouraged. This downward spiral has resulted in the death of more than one mud that I am personally familiar with and made a couple others totally not worth the time to play... unless of course you simply like to watch people fight. These actions pit friends and players against each other in the same way as a civil war pits brother against brother or adultery pits spouse against spouse. There can be no winners once this occurs, only those who have not lost as much as others. Is this what you want to have happen to your mud? Would you like a nice set of well balanced tables, damages, leveling times, and the other things you seek through wimping, or would you prefer to make 50 to 3000 people happy to play on your mud without infighting?

The above described events comprise a circle where one screw-up feeds off of another which feeds off of another until a continuing and destructive downward spiral occurs. The spiral stops when one of two things happens, either the mud dies because someone with enough power pulls the plug on the mud itself out of disgust, or a large portion of the players and dissenting immortal staff are purged or quit leaving only those who were in blind agreement. The residual players and Imms are battered, bruised and wary from the fight. People in this condition are in no mind set to help newbies or to recruit new players and this apathy results in a feeling of morbidity that takes months to dissipate.

Basically you've fucked yourself and your mud at this point.

Solutions and Suggestions:

So far I have presented the realities of what I opine happens when you wimp or wipe your players and/or their equipment. Almost without exception it results in pain, strife, fighting, factionalization, forced-deletions, players quitting, rules about free expression imposed, and many other negative repercussions. So what can you do? Your mud is unbalanced and players are whining, your mathematical formulas don't add up the way you'd like and you want to change something....

First re-evaluate. WHY are you considering making these changes, is it because players are bitching that one class is better than the other or can deal death out to mobs faster? Is it because you're bored and have nothing better to do and you feel change for changes sake is good? Is it because you have power, and just want to fuck with people? (If so don't bother to read any more, just mail me so I never go to your mud. :P)

Second, look again at what you hope to accomplish and for whom. You likely created this game in part to make people happy. It wasn't an exercise in programming (well not in most cases anyway) it was to serve the public, do do a greater good wasn't it? Or was it so you could stroke your ego? Was it because you wanted to have power over people? Were you attracted by the hope of power to make them sad to ruin their free-time, and to make their efforts worthless? Naw, I didn't think so! If you don't do this wimping will your mud fail? Doubtful. Unless you are a total fuck up and put in dozens of things that were way to powerful from the start, and didn't sweep them out in beta, then your mud will survive without the unfriendliness that wimping will bring far better than after you participate in wimping.

Lastly, is it worth the cost? You are about to lose players and maybe an immortal or two. Is this what you want to occur? Are players worth anything to you? Will you GET more players in return for the ones you lost when the game playing public hears of what a great job of wimping you have done? If so have at it, but think... few people come to muds because they have heard of how great the balance is, most people come because they hear the gods make it a FUN place to play and that the people are friendly. Nerfing begets the antithesis of a friendly environment.

Last Logic:

I am sure that I haven't covered all potential arguments with the following Q&A nor will I try, however you decide to ignore this, I do wish you and your player-base luck.

But Tenny, some of my players are bitching that the classes aren't balanced!

Yea? when have they not bitched? I know it seems rhetorical, but some players will ALWAYS bitch that the classes aren't balanced. Hell if you took all classes off your mud except say warriors, and then you copied all of the skill set into 4 other named classes, renamed the skills and classes, making no adjustments, people would STILL say they weren't balanced. Instead simply state up front, classes do not compare. Tell them, "Play the one you like best for you, don't judge yourself against others, and if the one class is much better make one of them". (don't then fuck that up by rebalancing another class).

Now IF you are so damn interested in balancing classes, and you feel that this is of paramount importance, then they key is to GIVE and not to take. GIVE new skill-sets or powers to the ones you feel are weaker. There will be some bitching from those who are who don't get something new, or increased damage, but that will subside a lot faster and be far less divisive than if you steal that which the others have already earned. If you are worried about it making it easier to defeat mobs, then make a new area with bigger mobs! People will always go for a challenge.

If you had two knives, one dull and one sharp, would it not make better sense to make them equal by sharpening the dull one - not by blunting the sharp one?

Computer generated creatures don't get their feelings hurt if they are replaced or some new mob gets some special power. Players do.

Tenny, I just found out that the Druid Spell 'stick poke' has been overpowered since we put it in!
Lets see if I got this right: You have an established spell that people have come to rely upon that you just figured out all this time later was over powered? Well then in point of fact it can't be that overpowered can it? If it was, you would have seen this class just wiping the floor with the others long before this and you would have corrected it within a month of its inception. You did not. Therefore your assessment that this is going to mess up your mud is fallacious. Had it been that big a deal before, it wouldn't have gone for a period of months without being noticed.

Tenny, I put in some new equipment that makes the other stuff obsolete and too high powered in comparison. Now I have to lower the older stuff so they will want the new or so that there is more incentive to get it.
With all due respect, you are setting yourself up for failure. If your new stuff is too powerful the answer in not to hurt the players that already have the old stuff, its simply to lower the new stuff. You should have looked at this before you put in the new items! If you don't lower the new stuff, someday this new widget you put in today will look a lot like the old stuff you're about to wimp. As for incentive, people will go to great lengths to get that one extra damage roll or even just for bragging rights ("I got me a big mythril sword and I'm only the third person on the mud to have done so!") So don't worry about it... and if the players don't want to get the new thing... so what? Are you trying to stroke your equipment building ego or is your goal to make a fun place to mud where people have choices? Taking that which players have rightfully earned from them is simply wrong.

Tenny, people are leveling too fast. I had envisioned it talking 3 months to make Avatar, and this one guy did it in 2 weeks!!
So the players are having fun at the expense of how you perceived the mud would play? They aren't sticking within your little cage of expectations and are not blindly doing things in the way you had envisioned? Uhm, again with all due respect SO WHAT? Did you see Jurassic Park? It makes for a good analogy. Players are people - People, life itself, can not be boxed into your perception of how to act and how to play. Some people mud to get millions in virtual gold, some to attain levels, some want one Avatar (highest level player) of each class, some come solely for social interaction. As long as they are not maliciously hurting each other leave em be and let them have fun!

To punish the average player for the success of your top ten percent players is ridiculous. Unless your mud is dropping in players because massive numbers of them are telling you 'this twink mud is too easy so I am quitting', let them be! They are enjoying your creation as is! You made this mud to be fun. People are having fun. THAT should be something you should sit back and be proud of not screw around with simply to somehow chase the unatainable ideal of making things appear fair, and never for some mathematical calculation.

Tenny, I am in Beta test, and I don't want my players to keep all the stats and weapons from our testing period, it wouldn't be fair.
This is the time where I agree that a Pfile wipe is appropriate. Also Alpha and Beta testing is the time for you to make all the mods, wimping, tuning and changes you're going to make on the basics. Beta testers should be told in advance that they can count on a Pfile wipe. The problem is that most IMPS look at normal mud life as an ongoing beta test and find themselves continually fucking with established skills and spells. Do it once do it right then leave it the hell alone. If you missed some moderate or small problem after beta is over and people have come to count on it leave it the hell alone. Nobody's gonna get hurt. Also you must give those nice people that beta-tested for you some cool incentive to come back when the mud opens, a few levels, or even a character that's half way up already, special personalized equipment or something else that reflects your thanks for a job well done.

Tenny, I just put in the Mage Spell 'urine pool' and found out that it is too powerful, you cant say that I shouldn't reduce it are you?
Hell no! Though some would argue the point I don't feel I am that stupid. When you have a brand new skill or spell make sure your players know that you will be making changes as they are warranted. But hold yourself to a limited beta period for each item. A month or two at the most. My thesis through this entire treatise has been that it is the ESTABLISHED skills and spells that you have a moral right not to mess with as people count on them. If you put in something new, and people know that its in testing, then they also know not to count on it. Once its in and relied upon, its too late.

Fine Tenny screw you, I will just tell everyone that NOTHING is stable or static and that I can change anything I want to anytime and that if they cant live with it then they should go to another mud.
Good! Now were making progress! At least you're finally being honest and ethical with your players, even though you give them nothing to count on you for - with the exception of change, loss, and pain, at least it is a fully informed decision. You have given them all the consideration you morally need to at this point. If they bitch after this then too bad. But do know this, some people, (those who would be your most loyal 'cheerleaders'), will be those who make a mud a long term home. Many measure this commitment in years. If you take a stance like this, you will also find the loyalty quotient to be fairly low. Nobody wants a long term commitment that fluctuates. How would you like to be married to someone that would fluctuate in how much they do drugs, commit adultery or beat you?

Tenny, I am a player and this wimping is happening to my mud, what can I do?
Hey! You are a PLAYER!?!?!? What are you doing reading this! Go away shoo! Shoo! This was written for people a lot better than you, people more wise and all knowing, people who KNOW that your ideas suck and that you have no right to protest or complain! Go on hit the back button!

Seriously? Sadly my friend, it is likely you can not do not a damned thing... I do NOT think that hiring a good sniper is a really prudent solution and no matter how much you are upset, remember this IS a game and it is completely insane to take any real life action of any kind against an Imm over something as meaningless as mudding or online gaming. Try to write well written notes to the Imps, complain publicly but not in a shrill manner. Make your arguments using all the facts you can, and include in your notes points that they make that you concede. Give them this URL if you like. Try to be direct and always be honest. In point of fact tho, its not gonna do a damn bit of good most likely. Decisions like this are made usually made by people with the idea that players are going to bitch and for whom the people who play their games are longer meaningful so their happiness no longer drives the Imm staff. If that was the case, they would have taken steps to avoid this sort of thing prior to your being upset.

If it bothers you enough, on either a personal level or on an ethical level vote with your feet and leave the game. Let everyone know know why you are taking this action, but don't do so with the intent to take others with you... that's manipulative and wrong. When you go to your next mud or online game, ask to talk to a god or better yet an imp. If one comes to you that's a good sign. If they will talk openly and honestly with you about this topic that's even better. You're about to make a commitment of some months and many hours of your time, I don't think it unreasonable to ask a few pointed questions. If they do think it is unreasonable.... do you really wish to play there? I would not.

Closing Thoughts:

As I close this, it must be more than obvious where I stand on the issue of Wimping Players and why. I am empathetic, even sympathetic to a degree to what as a Mud-God you are trying to accomplish but I can not support that which causes people to be hurt or stolen from. As many are fond of pointing out, this is only a game, and as a good friend, Danilo's mother pointed out "Don't you play this game to have FUN?!?!". We as immortals are here for the players of our respective muds. We are no more real gods than Mao Tse Tung was, despite our power to cause hurt feelings and destroy hours of play on a whim.

Because we posses dictatorial power does not mean we are obligated or even free to use it.

Sadly many of us lose track of the real purpose of what we began our muds for. We lose sight of why we left our last mud, and begin to see our mortal players as the enemy. Is it any wonder why we offer so many times to quit or pull the plug? If the mud stops being fun for us because the damage curve has a little blip in it, or because when we try to correct that tiny mathematical anomaly and the PEOPLE we hurt complain, then have we not lost track of why it began at all.....

I thought games were for the players to have fun, and for us to have fun in serving them.
Was I wrong?

Tenarius the Druid of RECTITUDE

You May NOT Copy this page without written permission from the author.

About The Author:

This missive was written in 1997. It was tuned very slightly in 1999. The message and thesis remain the same as do the main supporting points. The following paragraph was changed in 2002.

Tenarius mudded for many years and moved up through the highest ranks on a couple of muds. The two muds that he most often played were The Realms Of Despair Mud and The Dragon Swords Mud. Tenarius spent a long time as a well loved and respected Immortal on Dragon Swords Mud where he most enjoyed his player interaction where his style put people first. He made a conscious effort of never forgetting from where he started but was tenacious about administering things by the book. Tenarius also ran a website comprised of hundreds of pages for The Dragon Swords Mud at a time when the world wide web was first starting to become widely known - having taught himself html in part to accomplish that supportive task. Because of wimping and what he saw as player abuse and refusal to allow free expression on the mud Tenarius resigned from Dragon Swords in protest and removed the Dragon Swords Mud website from his server. Tenarius was known as "Justice T" or "JT" and was the Director of Operations of both The Maximum Gaming Network, and for GameStats, two formerly fantastic gaming networks.. . Tenarius no longer plays muds and is no longer active in the online gaming community. Tenarius now does web-design and administration for MemorablePlaces.com.

Return Tenarius old mudding page.
(Members of the Dragon SwordsMud and The Realms Of Despair Mud may find the above link interesting.)

All opinions on this page are the personal opinion of the author.

© Copyright 1997- 2013 by Memorable Places Consulting
Revised slightly in September 1999
All Rights Reserved
In order to use this site you must read and
agree to that which is on the legal page.