Summary: Player Discussion about Dune III situation

["Jennifer Nottellin" <nefijer@hotmail.com>]

Several players and a few FHs met today to discuss the situation with the 
MUSH. Here is a brief summary of the points that were covered.

The situation:

1. Broncalo has decided to shut down the Dune III MUSH, effective January 
27th, but is willing to consider applications from interested parties who 
would like to revive the MUSH.

2. Boris has headed up such a group of volunteers, including himself, 
Haroon, Petra, Filarion, and Kariana. This group plans to meet and put 
together a proposal to submit to Broncalo for his consideration to keep the 
MUSH open.

The player discussion topics:
(The following were topics brought up by other players -- they are not 
necessarily the opinions of this editor :). In the interest of brevity, I 
have edited the ideas rather severely. My apologies if I have misrepresented 
any of your thoughts.)

1. Broncalo feels that new leadership with a long-range vision is required 
to justify keeping the MUSH up-and-running.

2. The feeling was expressed that the FHs were largely responsible for 
driving the gameplay on the MUSH, as opposed to the admin staff.

3. Boris proposed that the faction heads become admins (with admin powers). 
The admin staff in this scenario would be responsible for arbitration of 
disputes, TP coordination, newbie helping, long-term story arc planning, and 
MUSH goals, and long-term ideas. These tasks would presumably be spread out 
among the FH/admin staff.

4. The idea that there needs to be an ultimate arbiter of disputes was 
raised. i.e., That someone would need to be able to make the "final call" on 
things like replacing FHs, closing houses, opening new ones, etc.

5. The question was raised: Are we sure that the current system doesnt work? 
Should the departing people simply be replaced?

6. The point was raised that combining FH and Admin duties may be a bad 
idea.

7. The need for 'fluid' management was brought up. A proposal was made for 
an admin team of 3 active people -- so that there would be more immediate 
access to 'getting things done'.

8. A number of questions were raised, including:
a) What are the exact nature of the problems which are causing the MUSH to 
close? Is it simply the fact that two admins are leaving? Assuming that the 
problems run deeper than that, what are they exactly? And what must be done 
to address them?
b) What, according to the player base, are the biggest problems in the MUSH?
c) What does Broncalo think the biggest problems are?
d) Can we form teams of people to address these problems?
e) How can we select admins and other positions of 'power' to address these 
issues? Can we do it by dedication and contribution?

9. The notion was advanced that the top-down structure built into Dune puts 
an enormous burden on the FHs, and may make it more difficult for characters 
who are more 'lowly' to engage in fun RP.

10. The players present cited the following as the biggest problems in the 
MUSH (in no particular order):
a) Idle Faction Heads
b) Lack of long-range story arcs
c) Not enough vibrant recruiting
d) Some Faction Heads and Admin with poor "people skills"
e) Central RP lacking
f) Not enough RP generally
g) Factions to "intense"
h) Idle Houses
i) Too many people in some houses, while others are idle
j) Key RP positions idle
k) Too many factions



Again, I apologize if I have either missed your comments, or if I have (in 
my radical editing) misrepresented them. I certainly did not intend to do 
anything of the sort. Send me e-mail if you'd like me to add or modify 
something I've summarized above.

General ideas for the revitalization of Dune III should be e-mailed to:

dune3-dev@fremen.org

Thanks,
Jen
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