I'll be brief.

1) You're writing your personal opinions on what we should be working on. That's fine. What is incorrect is how you generalize your specific wants to be universal. Example: "We only need new content, not new features." (You later define content to be areas, and features to be code.) Scroll up and down this board and read the other threads. Plenty of them are started by players, and are entirely about adding new code. You do this a great deal, here and elsewhere.

2) I don't see us ever making major decisions by public voting. An oft-unspoken reality you are overlooking is that the average immortal staff does know the game a lot better than the average player. It's not even debatable. That average immortal was selected for their position because they displayed some expertise. They have since spent a four-digit number of hours helping administrate the game. They have vastly expanded access to information, both in terms of data about the game, and as far as future plans. Most importantly, they have proven to the staff that they can be trusted to make sound decisions for the betterment of the game as a whole. Immortals who establish a track record of bad decisions end up ex-immortals.

Players do not accept any of those responsibilities. They aren't accountable for fixing things if one of their ideas doesn't pan out. They won't have to do much of the legwork to make the idea happen. They can step away at any time, for any length of time, and there aren't any consequences, and they aren't letting anyone else down. Players who establish a track record of bad decisions end up... often still playing if they want.

And yet, there are a ton of examples of things suggested here on our forums that do make it into the game. We interpret player feedback. That's crucial to the success of any game, but so is knowing when not to follow the popular trend.

If you are aware of a MUD that has prospered making their major decisions by a public vote of the players, please cite your source. I think I've seen one that tried, and I logged on to check on it, and saw no one else on. (To be fair, it was fairly new.)

If you want the kind of decision-making authority you're posting about, feel free to submit an application to be on the staff. Another thing you're underemphasizing is that every immortal (excepting the founders, I guess) was once a player, and the vast majority of us currently play mortals when time permits. We only hire from within our playerbase strictly because we do trust our veteran players with that sort of responsibility.

Other than that, I've read your post, and it's a lot of things you've posted before. I'm aware of your argument. I just disagree with it.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com