There are two ways you can run this kind of game:

        1)      Let people behave as they see fit.
        2)      Let people behave how you see fit.

        In BL, I try for the former. Sometimes, yes, people do foul up and we get a nasty mess that needs cleaning up. That's the price that has to be paid for freedom.

        In other games, they go for the latter. Anyone who doesn't conform is speedily despatched. Enforced niceness is the rule. Rock the boat, and they throw you overboard.

        This non-BL approach is fine if you don't mind having unimaginative players doing unimaginative things. Indeed, since most people in their leisure time tend to be unimaginative, it even makes commercial sense. I still opt for the BL regime, though, because I don't like snuffing out personalities that sparkle, I don't like the thought that I'd be running a sham with a facade of niceness beneath which dull people are saying dull things about what would be a dull game, and I don't like stifling creativity.

        If you want to play a totalitarian, "managed" game (I'm not saying IOK is such a game, by the way, but there are some UK MUD-lookalikes that are) and have fun because that's what the management tell you you're having, well, fair enough. BL CAN be run that way, but I prefer it the way it is. If I wanted to make money from milking cows I would, but where's the fun in that for me? I'd rather take nectar from the gods.

                Richard