>Oh, lord .. another one who thinks running a mud is the same as coding
>the mud. Or thinks that the IMP should be the coder.
>I am a true believer that you do not have to know how to code, to run a
>mud. I will not argue the fact that it is better to be able to do both!
>However, there are many out there that can code, but not administer a
>mud and vice-versa.
Hrm. I'd say the same thing about your philosophy though. :P I run a mud as
head programmer and co-owner/imp/whatever you'd prefer to call it. My
counterpart is the WOM manager. Here's what happens when you try to run a
MUD without any coding experience:
(Note: I'm not saying this is typical, rather I'm showing you what I've
seen on MY mud)
- The non-coding imp doesn't understand what's possible as far as code
goes, and in most cases doesn't appreciate what's been done at all.
Example, my co-imp asked me to write an original clan system. I did...it
took me a great many hours. I was told that it wasn't "cool enough" and I
was immediately given a list of things to add/change. Also, during the
whole process of writing the clancode, he kept screaming at me to add
little piddly things, rewrite parts of the OLC for his convenience (since
he can't code or even use the bloody shell...) etc. Perhaps this wouldn't
bother you?
- The immortal staff (at least in my own experience) bypasses the
non-coding imp and asks the head coder about changes etc to be made. If
people have a problem with something/someone on the game, they come right
to me with it. If I'm not online, they don't say a word to my non-coder
co-imp, they wait for me.
- My prgrammers (yeah, there are 3 of us) don't ask my co-imp anything at
all. They see him as a disease and they don't seem to respect him at all.
The reason for this is my first point. I suppose they're saying "how can
you begin to judge something when you have no idea how hard it was to do?".
They've also begun to be a bit resentful, in that the co-imp can do nothing
but say "when will you be done with it? it'd be nice to see xxxxxx in a few
days." when we start on a new project. In their minds that translates
roughly to, "Hurry up you lazy bastards! There's work to be done, and since
i can't do squat, I'm just gonna sit here and eat cheesy poofs!"
Actually this is all FAR from typical, now that I've thought about it.
However, I don't really see why someone who can't code would be qualified
to run a MUD as the lone imp. Until you've seen how much work actually goes
into the bloody thing, I don't really think you've got much room to tell
other people what to do or how to do it, PERIOD.
-R
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