.DT Liaisons $MUDNAME$ concepts Liaisons .SH Name .SI 5 Liaisons - those who are here to help things run more smoothly .EI .SH Description .SP 5 5 Liaisons are an important link between players and creators. They take suggestions, questions, comments and complaints from players and pass them on to those creators who can best deal with the issues raised. They also help players get started with the game if needs be, answer questions on general topics and direct players to help files and, of course, replace items of inventory that are lost from time to time. Liaisons are regular creators, although the emphasis is obviously on interacting with players as the creators' representatives, and vice-versa, rather than on coding. Just like other creators, Liaisons are not permitted to use their creator character to play the game or interact with players except in their role as Liaisons. Since they are first and foremost Liaisons, they are expected to be always available, when they are logged on, to help players, answer questions and replace inventory, taking the weight of such activities off the shoulders of other creators. Obviously the rules that go for all creators, like not giving out items and xp for free or giving away quest information, go for Liaisons too, especially as they have a more obvious presence from the point of view of players. While it is important for a Liaison to be aware of current playing conditions, this awareness ought primarily to arise from discussions with players rather than from first-hand experience: while actually playing the game is a good way to see it from the player's point of view, it is a slow way, since the same amount of time could be spent polling a number of players' opinions. Quite apart from the fact that, as will be seen below, a Liaison's duties are considerable, Liaisons are also the visible side of the creating part of the mud --- in fact, non-Liaison creators are quite entitled to do their best to hide from players --- and so, much of a player's impressions of creators, including how hard they work, will come from Liaisons. As for all creators, it is important that the domain Lord be told if the Liaison is planning to be absent for an extended period, both so that the Liaison's duties can be covered by others, if necessary, and also so that the Liaison is not dismissed for having disappeared! .EP .SH Liaising for a Domain .SP 5 5 One of the biggest problems a domain Lord faces is getting players to apply to be creators and then keeping those creators enthused and working. As the representative for a particular domain, then, the Liaison is expected to work with the domain Lord to promote and advertise the domain in order to attract players to it and encourage them to become creators. The Liaison should then keep in contact with each and every creator in that domain to keep up to date with what they are working on, so that those projects can be advertised to players, to, again, advertise the domain to potential future creators as well as simply give everyone an idea of what's being done, as well as trying to keep the creators interested and enthusiastic about their projects by acting as a sounding board for ideas. .EP .SH General Duties .SP 5 5 Each Liaison is expected to spend a certain amount of time simply getting to know players and talking to them about their general opinions of the mud. Many people have valid complaints, ideas or comments to make, but for some reason they do not post them to boards or leave them as bug reports. It is up to Liaisons to get people to open up and share their thoughts, either so that they post or report them themselves or so that they tell Liaisons who can then pass them on. Related to this is the fact that it helps domain Lords, mudlib coders and other creators who are less easily pigeonholed if Liaisons can compile opinions and condense comments before passing them on: these people are already busy with their coding projects and administrative duties and do not generally have the time themselves to sort through a lot of text to work out the overall message. Since Liaisons are expected to be up to date on current opinion and recent developments and plans, it is of paramount importance that Liaisons read the boards for all of the domains, as well as the creator boards and the more important player boards. .EP .SH Final Points .SP 5 5 All of the above sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Being a Liaison creator requires a considerable amount of dedication to the mud and effort on its behalf and it's not something that everyone can do, much as they might like and be good at "helping people". In fact, the larger part of being a Liaison is not about "helping people", at least not in the obvious and immediate sense of the phrase. A better phrase to represent what a Liaison does is probably "helping the mud", since as well as assisting players generally, a Liaison also advertises the plans and projects of a domain, both to enroll new creators and bolster the work of existing creators, and acts as a conduit for information to pass between players, creators and Lords. All of these together are the duties of a Liaison and they are all vital to the health and prosperity of $MUDNAME$. .EP
