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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes </LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Dan Root <<A HREF="mailto:dar#thekeep,org">dar#thekeep,org</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 19:49:13 -0500</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
In message <<A HREF="msg00497.html">11A17AA2B9EAD111BCEA00A0C9B4179303D6E33C#molach,origin.ea.com</A>>, "Ko
ster, Raph" writes:
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dan Root [<A HREF="mailto:dar#thekeep,org">mailto:dar#thekeep,org</A>]
>> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2000 4:01 PM
>> To: mud-dev#kanga,nu
>> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes
>>
>> At what point do you cease to have a real community and
>> revert to a couple
>> of people who are friends or acquaintences governed by
>> multiplepersonal
>> interactions, rather than an group entity governed by social dynamics?
>
>"A few people governed by multiple personal interactions" scales up to a
>couple dozen at most, and certainly social dynamics can be observed in a
>group of three. :)
Ah, true. I suppose I should clarify the question then.
At what point do administrators generally start to find themselves
considering seperate groups as single entities, rather that concerning
themselves with only indiviuals.
For example:
On newly-opened BrandNewMud, there are only a dozen regular
players, normally on in groups of four or five. When Bubba
the admin decides make a major change to game balance, he can
think about all of them and consider the outcome of his
decision.
versus
EstablishedMud, now a year old and with a couple hundred normal
players, has a couple dozen of whom might be online any given night.
Bubba and his friends that run the mud decide to make a similar
change. Now they consider Boffo and his cronies, who have taken up
the role of the PKers on the mud, plus Billy and his friends who
hang out and chat most of the time, and a bunch of faceless players
who just play the game, but don't seem to get involved in anything
else.
versus
SuperDuperMUD, now around for many years and with a player base
ranging into the tens of thousands, with hundreds active at any one
time, attempts to implment another change. Bubba and his multi-level
staff no longer consider individuals players at all, they consider
only groups, such as the several PKer clans, the five distinct
primary social groups, and seven clans of regular players.
My question was more along the lines of: when do these changes generally
happen, in the experience of mud-dev members? A dozen people? Two-dozen?
A hundered? Obviously there is no "right" answer, just like there's no
concrete answer to when trying to keep everyone a single community seems to
fail.
What (little) I know of classic sociology, and what I've seen here states
that you can't grow a single community much past 200 people without
fragmenting. But I've seen relatively little on how small you can go and
still have a community, as opposed to just a collection of individuals.
-DaR
--
/* Dan Root - XTEA cipher */ static unsigned D=0x9E3779B9,l=0xC6EF3720,s;
/* t=64bit text, k=128bit key */ #define m(x,y) ((x<<4^x>>5)+(x^s)+k[s>>y&3])
void enc(int*t,int*k){for(s=0;s!=+l;){t[0]+=m(t[1],0);s+=D;t[1]+=m(t[0],11);}}
void dec(int*t,int*k){for(s=-l;s!=0;){t[1]-=m(t[0],11);s-=D;t[0]-=m(t[1],0);}}
_______________________________________________
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00497" HREF="msg00497.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00501" HREF="msg00501.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Tue 29 Feb 2000, 02:51 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00502" HREF="msg00502.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</A></strong>,
David Bennett <a href="mailto:ddt#discworld,imaginary.com">ddt#discworld,imaginary.com</a>, Tue 29 Feb 2000, 03:30 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00503" HREF="msg00503.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Tue 29 Feb 2000, 04:12 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00497" HREF="msg00497.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</A></strong>,
Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Mon 28 Feb 2000, 23:40 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00499" HREF="msg00499.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Minimum community sizes</A></strong>,
Dan Root <a href="mailto:dar#thekeep,org">dar#thekeep,org</a>, Tue 29 Feb 2000, 00:50 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00493" HREF="msg00493.html">[MUD-Dev] Pike codebase</A></strong>,
Daniel Podlejski <a href="mailto:underley#underley,eu.org">underley#underley,eu.org</a>, Mon 28 Feb 2000, 18:46 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="00490" HREF="msg00490.html">[MUD-Dev] Privateer-style mu*?</A></strong>,
Bobby Bailey <a href="mailto:chil#gate,net">chil#gate,net</a>, Mon 28 Feb 2000, 15:42 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00498" HREF="msg00498.html">[MUD-Dev] chil#gate,net</A></strong>,
Joel Kelso <a href="mailto:joel#ee,uwa.edu.au">joel#ee,uwa.edu.au</a>, Tue 29 Feb 2000, 00:50 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00485" HREF="msg00485.html">[MUD-Dev] MSP</A></strong>,
Richard Ross <a href="mailto:rross#rross,eurobell.co.uk">rross#rross,eurobell.co.uk</a>, Sun 27 Feb 2000, 18:29 GMT
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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