Governance System

[erwin]

I think players should be able to have a governance system, in which they can decide and abide by the unwritten rules of the game, without much imm intervention.

There are some ways off the top of my head in which players can ruin a mud, and act within the scope of the rules, such that very little can be done to them. (*In-game, at least.) So if you want to act like a prick, and the PLAYERS decide that you are acting like a prick, you'll be treated like a prick.

What I propose is a small 'group' of people, comprised of one person from each clan, to be formed, with the membership rotated 3-4 times a year. So say, maybe from Jan-Mar, the person representing Chaos would be Virisin, from Apr - Jun, it would change to say, Kitolani.

This group can decide on the Mud's unwritten policies, rules, and any pressing matters, and would meet up with the Imms weekly/monthly if needed. They can also choose their successors every few months too. They can have their own channel if they require one as well.

The members of the group get some special abilities to use only if a minimum of two to three members are online, and if they agree to use it. These include HERO like abilities such as silence, freeze, slay, transportation of a player to a !RECALL room (where the player can only be released by aforesaid members OR imms OR after a period of time). 

Misuse of these abilities would have an extremely heavy punishment.

What do you guys think of this idea? Only code that needs to be done would probably be the adding of a private channel (if needed), the rest can all be scripted, and it does allow players to effectively have a greater sense of belonging / contributing to the Mud.

[Leonardo]

I like and approve the idea of the Governance System, I've thought about it many times myself. But seeing the situation around I resigned before even commencing developing the idea.

We can't even make the Clan system work properly let alone something like the Governance System. I've tried to do something similar with the Fearless RP group - but when time has come for us to answer the call of duty and meet to discuss a PK matter, they all disappeared without notice, I think no one even answered the meeting note.

There are not enough players around that care about the mud. It could work, but not with people joining the mud less than once a week. As example Virisin lately disappeared.

Could be an idea that the players selected as Governors could be reached at least by e-mail or build a Governance forum and they promise to visit it at least once a week and answer and vote the discussed problems. Once we get a majority agreement, the imms evaluate it. But what will happen if 10 people should discuss and vote upon a matter and only 3 show up discussing it?

Of course it'll work well identifying pricks and giving them what they deserve without having to disturb the Imms that anyway don't want to mix in these problems. So instead of having players quitting we'd have pricks in jail for crimes against humanity

[Iwku]

I do not think it would be fair to have a formal group of players interpreting the MUDs "unwritten rules" and "unwritten policies" and then making decisions about a players behaviour and taking action against a player based on "unwritten rules" and "unwritten policies".

[Kvetch]

As, I think, Iwku was saying, you can't enforce unwritten rules - at least  not without seeming like "pricks" yourself.  After all, how can you know you're acting like a "prick" (acting against the rules) unless you know what those rules are?  Also, I wouldn't want this to turn into "oh I don't like (let's use Cati as an example, I know she won't mind), so I'm going to... (choose one: silence, freeze, slay (oo.. let's loot her too...) transport into !recall room (where she gets fed up enough she quits out and then no-one's ever on when she is to let her go...or knows what the heck is going on to know if she SHOULD be let out...))."  I wouldn't want power like that rotated among people just because they happen to be filling in their time for their clan.

My 2 cents.
Kvetchy

[Virisin]

I don't like it..

[erwin]

Well, as a seperate question, what can players (or IMMs for that matter) do when players start to:

a) PK AFK people and junk their EQ, and then hide in clan hall / not log in for certain periods of time, and then starting the cycle again?

b) Chase away newbies by giving them false information while sounding helpful

c) Act like a twat on gossip channel and won't shut up for hours


The thing is, these commands would be logged, so it would be easy to check for abuse. I would think that the players from different clans would have different opinions, and it would have to be a majority vote to use such commands, hence it can't be *that* easily abused.

I'm not saying that the governance system was thought of because of the above problems, because it can very well solve other unexpected problems that may pop up in the future.

[Virisin]

The problem of PKers junking AFK people then going to hide in their clan HQ's is a problem, yes. But it's something I'd rather prevent from happening rather than making up a punishment for it. If clan halls are open to all then it won't be a problem. And I'm sure there's a way we can prevent people from hiding in houses..

Who honestly chases newbies away by giving them false information?

If people act like a twat on gossip they can be silenced.. That's one of the things HERO's are for. The only problem is we only appoint HERO flags once players have gone inactive. 

A player government system is just stupid in my oppinion. Especially with a playerbase of under 10.. 1 player from every alliance would be hard to find, let alone rotate.  :'(

[Leonardo]

We can avoid having special commands to deal with twats and pricks. Would be nice to have a KILLER flag set on them like in the old times. Where a KILLER player could be summonable by anybody PK or non-PK and killed. I had one once when I was a newbie long time ago, and I remember it being a pain in the ass to be played like a ping-pong around the mud and killed

Another good thing would be to really have access to clan HQrters by Clan War. Like when Asmoday looted an AFK player using a love potion and then quit, he would have thought twice about doing it if then a War could be declared to the entire clan and his members would have started being killed and looted.

I mean if we give tools to the pricks to act like they have to (it's their nature we can't avoid having pricks now and then and neither we can convert them to good beings), give the tools to normal players to defend themselves too.

About twats over gossip, every hero can silence them. And since I got my flag I haven't been INACTIVE! (points his finger at Virisin)

PS: Vir, where have you been all this time? We kind of missed you

[Virisin]

For a while I was extremely pro bringing the KILLER flag back. And Molly and I were about |-| <-- that close to bringing it back.. Then we both had a change of heart reading an offsite thread about KILLERs, and since then I have no desire at all to bring them back.

Yeah, clans being open would be great.

Umm, I've been busy unfortunately.. I turned 18, and all my friends are turning 18. Life just got more interesting.

[Kvetch]

Well, as a seperate question, what can players (or IMMs for that matter) do when players start to:

a) PK AFK people and junk their EQ, and then hide in clan hall / not log in for certain periods of time, and then starting the cycle again?

b) Chase away newbies by giving them false information while sounding helpful

c) Act like a twat on gossip channel and won't shut up for hours


The thing is, these commands would be logged, so it would be easy to check for abuse. I would think that the players from different clans would have different opinions, and it would have to be a majority vote to use such commands, hence it can't be *that* easily abused.

I'm not saying that the governance system was thought of because of the above problems, because it can very well solve other unexpected problems that may pop up in the future.

a) Don't go AFK if you're pk.  Simple as that.  If you're going to do as Lionheart does and constantly sit at recall to "make the player base look better" create a non-pk character for that.  Know that if you're PK, there will be found a way around any walls we make so that people can't pk in a certain spot (like recall).

b) If you see this happen, you try to give them the right information.  All I can say is the newbie would have to decide who to trust if given two differing answers.  They shouldn't have to, but what can we do, stop all players other than helpers (which there aren't enough of) access to the newbie channel?  A newbie shouldn't have to do this and will probably leave, you're right.

c) Depending on what you decide acting like a "twat" is.. they can be silenced by imm's and heroes, frozen, slayed, banned...  But just because you don't agree with what someone is saying doesn't mean they're acting like a "twat".  The gossip channel on 4D seems to act quite a bit like what the OOC channel should be for.  Should we slay/freeze/silence anyone that talks OOC on the gossip channel?  When I feel things are getting out of hand, I usually try to tell the people (yes, usually it's more than one and they're badgering each other keeping it going) to knock it off before I resort to such matters.  Now if it's a real twat like we had before - a newbie logging in and just gossiping something stupid over and over and over again - to the point that Virisin paged me (I was Busy on the build port) to ask me to make it stop - I'll quickly step in and put a stop to it.  Such people really don't deserve a chance.

Once you're given the commands to be used, unless there's a way to code it so "3 of 4 of us say yes" and that's the only way you get the command to use, there is no way to stop people from using the commands. 

In a way, you do have a governing system.. it's called Heroes.  Make them work.

Kvetch

[erwin]

Umm, I've been busy unfortunately.. I turned 18, and all my friends are turning 18. Life just got more interesting.

Yes. No more under-aged drinking / smoking cigarettes / drugs / watching restricted shows / sex. Now it's all in the open.

[Virisin]

I like cynicsm. I don't like spelling.

[Iwku]

I should have asked this at the time, but it sill bugs me because I'm not sure if it refers to me.

Quote:
Well, as a seperate question, what can players (or IMMs for that matter) do when players start to:
b) Chase away newbies by giving them false information while sounding helpful
End Quote

I'm not the best player and so my information might not be to accurate and I have no sense of direction so my directions are crap, but if there is a newbie question over the newbie channel and there are no helpers or GMs or heros or imms on line or if they are AFK and not responding, then I try to answer it to the best of my ability. I usually wait a few minutes until I'm sure no one answers and then answer. I usually qualify my answer by saying this is what I think but it might not be accurate and confirm with a helper later.

I don't think I've chased anyone away with inaccurate information. I may have. But now I find myself really warry and nervous if I'm doing the right thing by responding on the newbie channel. Are you suppose to shut it off after you get to Tier 2? Would imms, heros and helpers prefer players aren't responding on the newbie channel?

[Virisin]

Lol, you're hilarious.

Keep doing what you're doing, cept reply as soon as you see a question. If you're sincere in your info then there's no problem. Players only chase newbies away by either never answering questions, or just purposefully answering wrong.

Only do it if the player is a dick.