shell4.bayarea.net/~tenar...mping.html (http://shell4.bayarea.net/~tenarius/mudwimping.html)
It's really an interesting read, and unfortunatly puts us firmly in "The Death Spiral:" section.
<blockquote>Quote:<hr>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.<hr></blockquote>
Of course followed by.
<blockquote>Quote:<hr>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.<hr></blockquote>
leading to.
<blockquote>Quote:<hr>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.
Tenarius<hr></blockquote>
Tenarius= very wise and observant individual.
Read the whole article, you will see what I mean.
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