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By Root 302 0

the multi-user dungeon. It is notable that wizards are drawn from the ranks of players, and that this is often a goal for multi-user dungeons—in other words, the aspiration of many players in multi-user dungeons is to become a member of the coding authority. As such, they are given special privileges beyond the purview of the player base, like immortality. Wizards are responsible for runing the game, enforcing the rules, and creating new nonplayer characters and adventures. Multi-user dungeon hierarchy varies, but generally speaking there are at least three levels:

• Administrator: Coders with access to the game’s core rules. They also maintain the game’s codebase, financials, and are the final authority on the game.

• Archwizards: Coders with much more responsibility, usually the highest and most active presence of coding authority within a game. Archwizards have responsibility for keeping the other coding staff productive and the player base engaged.

• Wizards: Entry-level coders, these staff members are dedicated to creating new content, be it areas, classes, guilds, races, monsters, or something else.

Each of these hierarchies is distinguished by levels, a public badge clearly identifying who is more powerful than whom, with the implicit notion that wizards are more powerful than players because they are higher-level.

On RetroMUD, this hierarchy has served us well. Wizards tend to be tremendously productive at the outset, but eventually real-life responsibilities or simply lack of interest causes them to slip out of the position and back into the role of player. Archwizards are the select few who dedicate their time to the game, taking on the responsibility of an entire world within the RetroMUD universe. As such, they are responsible for bug maintenance, approving new areas created by the wizards, and otherwise keeping the peace.

Above the archwizard role are the administrators. There have never been more than three. Generally speaking, each administrator has a highly specialized role. In my case, I am the “talking head”—less a coder (although I have coded several areas on RetroMUD) and more responsible for the administrative and financial obligations of the game. As such, administrators tend to be on the game less than archwizards and wizards.

RetroMUD has one hundred levels, but we do not require those who reach the hundredth level to become a wizard, nor do we offer it to them. Instead, coding positions are offered to those who have at least twenty levels under their belt, the idea being that it is important to play the game first—we have rejected would-be applicants on these grounds alone—but it is not critical to fully master the game. Level is also a poor representation of mastery, per se. A high-level character can achieve such power through a very narrow but effective path. This sort of narrow-mindedness does not make a good wizard, as the role requires creativity and imagination that is sometimes lacking in a level grind.

One complication that arises is when coders decide to “dewiz” and become players. These once-immortal players are in the enviable position of having knowledge of the codebase and knowledge as advanced players. Generally speaking, this is unavoidable. Without knowing every player’s identity and carefully tracking each player’s path through the game, the task becomes impossible.

And yet there are significant cultural benefits for having a coding staff so tightly intertwined with its players. RetroMUD has a thriving bug-reporting feature as well as an idea-suggestion group, and both see significant usage— far more than any other aspect of communication in the game. Contrast this with massive multiplayer online role-playing games in which customer service people are faceless, the coding authority never intervenes, and player concerns are ignored.

Participant Roles

In Wizards of the Coast’s survey, 51 percent of tabletop role-playing gamers reported that they had played a game on the Internet, with 28 percent reporting that they played an Internet game monthly.