It Works Both Ways
A MU* is a curious environment: flexible, ambiguous, anonymous. And volatile as a bipolar two-year-old on acid. In fact, when you've been MU*ing long enough, you may begin to wonder if all your fellow players actually are bipolar two-year-olds on acid.
Or if the administrators are.
That's the fault line, you see: the dividing line between the players and the staff. All kinds of instabilities stem from that perceived division.
I say "perceived", because when you come right down to it, there's virtually no difference between your average player and your average staffer, from an objective point of view. They're just two geeks in front of a monitor, usually with strong opinions and a caffeine habit. Neither is necessarily more intelligent than the other, or more mature, or better at coding, or a member of longer standing in the game.
But there is a difference. It lies in expectations. Having been on both sides, I can state fairly simply what those expectations are.
The player of a MU* expects her local admins to be friendly, helpful, open-minded, and fair. She expects them to keep the code working, the news and help up to date, and the game running. She expects them to run TinyPlots from time to time to keep her and her friends amused, and to settle any OOC disputes that arise between players, and generally to make the MU* a fun place for her to be.
The admin on a MU* expects players to be creative, reasonable, open-minded, and polite. He expects them to play nice, and not to ruin each other's fun by powergaming or OOC snarkiness. He expects them to accept his decisions on matters of game policy, trust his judgment when he mediates disputes, treat him with courtesy, and not to expect or demand preferential treatment.
So far, so good. But here something breaks down. The Internet is notable for fast communication, but not particularly for clear communication. Misunderstandings abound -- ask anyone who's been in the middle of a flamewar -- and MU*s are no exception.
Ask a longtime MU* player, and he may very well tell you that most staffers are jerks; they play favorites, they invade privacy, they're rude and unfair to players, deny character and plot applications even when the idea is patently brilliant, leave the newbies to fend for themselves, obstruct everyone's attempts to have fun. He'll tell you this with all the bitter emphasis of righteous indignation.
Ask a longtime admin, and you may very well hear from her that most players are jerks; they want everything their own way, refuse to follow the rules, won't take no for an answer even when what they want is patently stupid, harass each other, shut out the newbies, talk back whenever they don't like what the staff has to say. And she'll say this with fully as much indignation as the player.
Neither of them is taking into account that it works both ways. They need each other, and they both deserve to be cut some slack.
What your embittered player ought to remember is this: MU* staff are volunteers. They're taking time out of their real, paying jobs, or their studies, or their family lives -- not to mention, in many cases, their own RP time -- in order to provide a bunch of complete strangers with something fun to do. They deserve respect for that; and when they try to prevent you from doing something, it's because they're maintaining the game's integrity (at least to the best of their abilities), and not because they're having a power trip at your expense. Give them credit, and be kind.
Conversely, what embittered admins should remember is that players are the lifeblood of a MU*. Without them, your improvisational drama is just so much scenery, your interactive novel is nothing but endless pages of description. They and the stories they have to tell are the whole point of the game; and when they come up with out-there proposals, it's not because they're trying to wreck your carefully crafted world. They're giving their creativity free rein, and after all, that's more to everyone's advantage than apathy. Take it as a compliment, and be gentle.
After all, we geeks have to stick together.