Description
This article is from the netrek
Frequently Offered Clever Suggestions list, by Tom Holub
doosh@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
23. Set up an invitation-only clue server.
Problem: There are so many clueless weenies flying around that I'm not
having fun anymore.
Proposal: Set up a clue-only server. Access would be by invitation
only, with players selected by the admin or invited automatically
after achieving a certain rank on certain servers.
Why Not: It's been tried. auk.warp.cs.cmu.edu was run this way, and
nobody ever played there.
There are two fundamental problems with the proposal. First, the
invitation mechanism is bad. Either the server admin has to spend a
fair amount of time adding players and passwords, or it has to be done
automatically. However, as discussed earlier, rank is a horrible
indication of clue, talent, and skill. Automated systems will be prone
to adding clueless players with lots of hours or missing clueful
players who just don't care about rank (or reset their stats).
Even if that were solved, there's another problem: it's not easy to
get 16 clueful players in one place at one time. Players come in and
out constantly. Getting it organized is a pain and is just too
inconvenient for the players to make it worth doing.
auk failed miserably because nobody worked to get the players there
(apparently it was also a bit on the slow side). If you propose this,
be prepared to accept the burden of organizing it. Many people have
said, "somebody should do this", but nothing will happen until
"somebody" steps up and does it.
If you want to set one up, feel free, but don't expect much UNLESS you
are willing to spend a LOT of time massaging the player database,
sending e-mail to players, and doing general organizational stuff.
One acceptable alternative is the "minimal clue" system that Nick
Trown came up with. Basically, after you sign in the server tells you
to send a message to yourself. If you don't, you get blown up, and
eventually get kicked out. All this does is require the player to have
the message window *mapped*, which is a big step toward playing in a
clued manner. It has been tried and generally accepted as a Good
Thing, though many feel it doesn't go far enough. It's now in the
vanilla server, and most Bronco servers have some form of
clue-checking.
The common scheme these days is to announce "clue games" on
rec.games.netrek the clue-pickup mailing list, and/or the Netrek Game
Board. See The Netrek FAQ for details on accessing these resources.
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