I've refrained from commenting on this topic because I had nothing to add beyond what what allready said, and I'm tired of listening to people bitch, wine, piss, moan, complain, take up "It's all about me and my kind" attitutes, and generally take large chunks out of admin productivity in the name of some religious holy war about "The dictator admins are ruining the game. Take back the game!".
I was paying all attention to the topic right up until someone took a hostile attitude to the situtation, and then my attention level dropped right off like a mixer falling from Heaven. The fact that what followed was a post about how admin don't want to hear about it from players and don't listen to what they say is pure irony.
So this is a rehash of something that's been said countless times before. I'm writing it AGAIN people some people never learn the lesson.
I for one always take into consideration player's suggestions, and I can tell you the majority of the GM and coding discussions revolve around 'What the players want'.
So why then do we say things like, "You have no say in this." in response to suggestions?
There's any number of posible reasons why we might give a response like this, but here's a few things you might consider when pondering that topic:
We're human. We have feelings, and more to the point, pride. If you stick us, we bleed. If you insult our work, we'll take offence. When we're defensive, we're much less likely to listen to anything you have to say.
We're voulenteers. We don't get paid to do this. It's not a business, please don't treat it like one or expect it to act like one. A business is commited to serving it's customers with the highest quality product possible, and ensuring their satisfaction. We can walk away any time we choose. We choose to commit ourselves to providing and improving the game, but that's a personal commitment that we make with ourselves, not with you.
We're not business associates. We're hobbiests working on a hobby.
We're not sellling you a product. We're providing you a free (as in beer, NOT as in speech) service.
We're your friends, not your personal-fun-providers.
Our respect dosn't come as a favor. If we choose to piss off someone we don't like, that's our perogative. This is in stark contrast to a business, which has an obligation to keep it's customers happy.
We know more than you about the reasons things are they way they are now, and what's involved in changing it.
We may be obligated to listen to you, but we're not required to. We make no gaurentee about your right to have any sort of say in the game. We arn't even required to be pleasant to you. We, in short, reserve the right to tell you to 'Fuck Off'. We also reserve the right to run the game any way we see fit, regardless of what anyone thinks.
We have guidelines of conduct which we do enforce.
If you don't like what we're doing, your free to comment. If you choose to comment, you can expect a reply. If you commented in a constructive way, your likely to recieve a constructive reply. If you go about it in an inappropiate way, you can expect an equally inappropiate reply. But this is not a gaurentee.
We will complain when players don't act themely because that's the only way we've found to bring them in line. We reserve this right.
We will bitch back when someone bitches about something. That's what the bitch board is for: To bitch. Even about bitching. To expect anything else is only setting yourself up for abject disapointment.
Sometimes people have bad days and take out their anger inappropiately. If you feel an admin's behavior was inappropiate, there's a well defined process for reporting such things, and appropiate action is ALWAYS taken (trust me, I've been on the recieving end of that action before).
So… You can scream, shout, hold your breath until you turn blue, gather a brute squad and pound on the door, set fire to the place, and try and wage war on the admins in an aptempt to 'take back the game'.
Or you can try and work with us in the capacity that we're comfortable with.
You might notice so far no one's been moderated, because everyone's kept it on topic. If we didn't want to hear what you had to say, we would just mod you right off the topic. Or even better, you wouldn't have a BgBB account. But we DO care about what you have to say. More importantly, we care about discussion of your ideas. Even if that discussion is limited to "I think..." "No." "But I..." "I said no.". Discussions like this do several things: They help bridge the gap between player expectations and admin realities, they spark other ideas in both players and admin, and they serve as a record of ideas and when they were suggested. Nothing is set in stone. Things change. And later down the line, we may revisit that discussion and say, "Well, maybe that would work."
If you don't want to contribute, than don't. If you do, but can't handle getting told your idea sucks, then don't read the replies. If you can, but someone replies in an inappropiate way, instead of getting all pissed and flying off the handle, try pointing out how they could better construct their critizism.
Please, don't lower yourself to their level by getting all rightously indignant and starting a flame war.
-Kevlar
