ID:275695
 
I have gone to about 10 or 15 games this past month and just about all I see is GMs abusing their powers. Do people feel a suden urge to use their powers? Or do they not realize they are abusing them? Is there an answer to this question?
I don't play games that use "GMs". If they call it an "administrator", then maybe, but only as long as the administrator is under strict rules.

If there is abusive GMs, just report it to the game's designer.
A lot of it probably has to do with the staffing policies, or lack thereof, in these games. It is easy to find people to take administrative positions in games. It is hard to find good ones.

Many designers forget that administrators (like GMs) are there to make sure things go smoothly, not to wield inordinate powers.
I have gone to about 10 or 15 games this past month and just about all I see is GMs abusing their powers. Do people feel a suden urge to use their powers? Or do they not realize they are abusing them? Is there an answer to this question?

Well considering many of these poorly constructed games hand out GM powers as rewards its no wonder they get abused :P.
In response to Kunark
It doesn't seem to matter what they are called or who is given power, lots of people seem to love abusing their power. They are better than everyone else and they have the verbs to prove it.

It would be best for the game's design to prevent situations that would require admins as much as possible, so that there isn't as much power that can be abused. Or, if the game is hostable, some of the power is given to the host and players that don't like the host can go find another host.
In response to OneFishDown
OneFishDown wrote:
It would be best for the game's design to prevent situations that would require admins as much as possible, so that there isn't as much power that can be abused.

And don't hand out administrative powers when they aren't needed. Like Chatters.
Because most of these games are built so that the owner and their friends can boss players around and feel superior.
why have GM power abuse gone up?

because kiddy-programmers give it away like it's candy to people even less responsible than they are.
Dragon warrior2662 wrote:
I have gone to about 10 or 15 games this past month and just about all I see is GMs abusing their powers. Do people feel a suden urge to use their powers? Or do they not realize they are abusing them? Is there an answer to this question?

Sounds to me like a good game idea. The tilte "GM". People are given lots of gm powers and then who ever uses GM powers following a certain rule set gets a couple points added to their score. Who ever has the heighest score probley gets banned by the next heighest score cause he wants too win :)
In response to OneFishDown
In my own games, I actually tend to tell my admins to abuse their powers :P Mainly because I have only trustworthy admins so I know they won't be more tyrannical than I am.

I tell my admins, that they can be as abusive of them as I am.

Basicly, this includes instant, un-warned bans against people who log in and say "Hey guys, wat do u do in this game", bans against people being morons, or people mouthing off to the administrator (Neither me or my admins tend to do anything about this though because we all find arguing funny because it is usually with complete idiots, so the idiot tends to just logout anyways because the brainpower was so powerful compared to his own.). Always much more fun to get someone to "give up" instead of forcing a boot or ban on them.

Although, that isn't really much abuse... That is just strict administration.
In response to digitalmouse
Last I checked, kids don't give away candy.

They give it away more like... I don't know. Kids are annoying.
In response to Garthor
Hence the reason I never give GM to anyone unless Ive known them for a while. For example, I dont give GM to someone that I met last week, because theres no way I can trust that he wont abuse and mess up my games. I never give GM to anyone unless Ive known them for a reasonable ammount of time, and i know I can trust them.
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
Basicly, this includes instant, un-warned bans against people who log in and say "Hey guys, wat do u do in this game"

That right there makes me not want to play anything you make. Not that I was going to anyway, but that is just crap.

Even if you have something explaining what the game is about to a person the first time they log in, that is still no excuse for a ban without warning. I have gone into such games before and accidently hit enter when an alert pops up and missed something that may have been critical (I will never know since I missed it), and I would not be surprised if others do the same thing on occasion.

Whatever the case, unless it completely explains itself to the player at login, there is no excuse for such action; and even if it does you should still at least say "Relog, it explains when you enter." and then ban if they say they don't want to. And if the game description and rules and whatnot are only displayed the first time someone logs into the game, then they really have an excuse to ask.
In response to Loduwijk
Loduwijk wrote:
Kunark wrote:
Basicly, this includes instant, un-warned bans against people who log in and say "Hey guys, wat do u do in this game"

That right there makes me not want to play anything you make. Not that I was going to anyway, but that is just crap.

Personally it just makes me want to stick to playing singleplayer games. No one ever got banned from a singleplayer game, and you can do whatever the heck you want in them.
In response to Metroid
I think that someone would have to be half crazy to want to be a game administrator, in the sense of kick/ban and troll control, anyways. Who wants to deal with people being disruptive and generally ruining a game?
In response to Loduwijk
first off, "How do you play this game" IS NOT a question that should be asked at all when the game has detailed instructions. What person in their right mind is going to tell someone how to play, step by step when they could get a more detailed instruction booklet, explaining every aspect of the game 100 pixels to the right!

Players who do this have to be retarded, and I don't want any players who are going to do this in my games.

And if you think I am doing it for games wihtout instructions, I'm not. All of my games have very detailed instructions and I am very sick of people saying "Read the instructions, it's not that hard." Laziness with just asking people when they know damn well there is instructions right there, is just immature. Every single person who I've asked why they do it, say that they are just lazy and would rather have people say it than have to read the instructions *GOD FORBID THEY MIGHT HAVE TO READ FROM A BROWSER! OH NO! EFFICIENT DETAILED RULES? PLEASE! WE MUST HASSLE THE PLAYERS!*

Banned. My message to those people: "I don't care if you are a good person. Ask that and your ass is banned in my game. Why? Because I don't like you if you do that, and I don't want you in my game. Learn for once."
In response to Jon88
Actually they never get any of the massivly important codes in my games anyway. I have 2 forms of GM. 1 is the main Admin/GM, which only I am, and theres the normal GM, which everyone else thats a GM gets, which includes any major verbs to screw up the game, like Ban is excluded for one.
In response to Metroid
I'm more of a reader then poster, but I've decided to just comment on this one. All the above posts in some way or another pretty much answered your question. Most games you usually see on the hub are created and ran by fairly new people who are learning DM, which happen to be kids for the most part, and usually they just think its cool to have power. Which answers Jon's question I believe, "Why do you WANT to put up with people and there problems?" No one wants to do that, its just that most people just want the status and recognition of having admin verbs.

When it comes to choosing administrators, thats even if they are needed. I wouldn't pick anyone I am unsure about at all. Someone above stated they wouldn't hire someone to be an admin of any sort if they've only known them for a week. In my opinion, I wouldn't care if I've known them for a year, or a week. I'm pretty good when it comes to peoples mind and attitude and usually am able to tell what kind of person they are and if they really would do a good job. From what I've seen around the BYOND community I've spotted a few people who come off as some decent people. Although they seem to be just striving to impress someone of higher power to get a job. I think that also is a problem when it comes to most people, of any status when they are picking there admins. So I know there is deception involved when it comes to choosing, no matter who it is, it being a young 12 year old, or even someone like Gughunter ;) Although people of higher status won't go with people they do not know, or does not have a good word from other people of the BYOND community.

Thats about all I have to say on that. Expect another post by me in the future at any random time :)

-S2k
In response to Kunark
Another good reason to advertise your game through a website, and not through BYOND. It seems like if people visit the site of a game they're interested in, they're more inclined to browse around the site to find out what the game is about (including looking for the instructions) before they actually join it.
In response to Kunark
I'd prefer an in-game (interactive) tutorial to a page of text in the browser. You want the players to know how to play? Put an NPC at the start that tells them how, and force the player to practice so they get the hang of it and know what they are doing. When I log in I want to play a game, not read instructions. Like Foomer was saying, a website helps. If I go to the website, I'm probably looking for information, so that's where the written tutorial should be.
Page: 1 2