[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting the World]

[Mike Sellers]

At 09:26 AM 11/25/97 PST8PDT, Jon A. Lambert wrote:
>On 23 Nov 97 at 10:51, Marian Griffith wrote:
>> On Mon 15 Sep, Jon A. Lambert wrote:
>> > On 12 Sep 97 at 14:21, Marian Griffith wrote:
>> > > On Thu 11 Sep, Jon A. Lambert wrote:
>
>> I found this old post in my mail and I thought it deserved more atten-
>> tion than it had gotten two months ago.
>>
>That's odd so do I. :) I thought it had inklings of pointing in the 
>direction of that elusive gender neutral game some have been looking for.  I
>think the "A place of my own" thread also had strong tugs in that direction.
>I was about to finish a summary and extension of that thread, but in the
>meantime... 
>
>> > > > A politician holds a position.  That position should allow control
>> > > > of certain environmental systems.  Those systems should affect the
>> > > > game in positive and negative ways.  If there's nothing the
>> > > > statesman can do, it's merely a title.  A couple things come to
>> > > > mind. Allow statesmen to control taxes, pass laws, commission
>> > > > buildings and improvements, regulate guilds, raise and equipment
>> > > > armies, etc. Create positions that have effects on players.  

I think maybe I've posted on this before; I've definitely spoken in various
places on the importance of player government.  This allows for people to
play a variety of sub-games if they choose, or to ignore the whole thing
almost entirely if they want.  It also provides a great, non-wiz way to
address various IC greviances, and allows you to put stealing, PKing, etc.,
in your game without making others effectively defenseless from them (or
defenseless without deus-ex-machine solutions, such as we see in UO).  

A canonical example involves a government for a city or city-state,
comprised of a Mayor, Judge(s), Sheriff, and Guards (all PCs).  Briefly, it
goes as follows:

The Mayor is elected by the people.  People vote for a candidate for their
"home" town, typically the place their character began in the game.  A
number of voting forms are possible; the one I like best is one which
allows every character to throw their support behind whomever they like
whenever they like, so you have no "voting deadlines" or polling booths,
etc.  No matter what form you use, this sets things up so that Mayoral
candidates will need to spend money, curry favor with the populace, be well
known, etc.  But it also means that the highest level character will not
necessarily be elected, and in fact a solid player who doesn't do a lot of
quests (i.e., is not super high level) could end up "commanding" characters
who are much higher level. 

The Mayor sets the tax rate and (automatically) collects taxes from the
people and businesses.  The money for these pay for the salaries for the
Mayor, Judge, Sheriff, and Guards, and must also go to things like city
defenses (other positions and money-drains are certainly possible).  As an
example of the kinds of consequences this can have, if the Mayor sets the
taxes too low, the defenses may not get maintained, and the possibility of
orcs getting into the town increases.  

The Mayor appoints the Judge (or Judges, as needed), who adjudicates
disputes between characters.  If someone is accused of stealing from
another, the Judge is given power to look into both inventories and
transfer items from one to another as he/she sees fit.  The Judge may brand
a character an Outlaw after hearing a complaint against them, may Marry and
Divorce characters, and may Pardon characters of past crimes.  

The Sheriff is a PC also appointed by the Mayor.  The Sheriff is generally
responsible for keeping the peace in and around the town, and for hunting
down and bringing to the Judge all Outlaws.  The Sheriff may employ PC
Guards (with monies coming from taxes via the Mayor) who can cast an
implicit "hold" and enforced "follow" on any outlaw, and who may kill
outlaws without any negative consequences.  These Guards receive pay,
typically free armor and weapons, and may have other privileges -- but they
must return to town and/or do the Sheriff's bidding at a moment's notice.  

Now, if the Sheriff is a bully or the Judge is unfair, the people can
appeal to the Mayor for redress and/or to appoint new people to fill those
positions.  If the Mayor will not do so, or if the Mayor is dishonest
(taking tax money for himself, for example), then the people may at any
time elect a new Mayor -- when 51% of the people throw their support behind
a different person, that person becomes Mayor, and all Sheriffs and Judges'
power is suspended until restored by the new Mayor.  

An important aspect of this scheme is that it separates civil from martial
power which creates all kinds of opportunities for interesting situations
and gameplay; a further separation of the civil into executive and
legislative by having some form of Council could be used if the situation
called for it (the council could be made up of the most powerful
guild-heads, for example).  Ultimately the people have the final say in who
runs the city, but the government is not entirely democratic; it is almost
like a post-Magna Carta monarchy edging toward democracy (note too that you
can constrain who gets a vote -- only men or only women, or only people who
have been around for at least a certain length of time or are a certain
level, etc.).  

Also important here is the fact that now there are official avenues for
treating important social events such as marriage and divorce; and official
recognition and avenues for redress for things like PKing and thieving
(punishment left up to the Judge in this example, though that need not be
the case).  

I'll write later (whenI have more time) on the importance of "social
ecologies."  Just as we have producers, consumers, and decomposers in
biological ecologies, similar closed-loop cycles are important in online
societies, even in games.  Many of the social dysfunction problems we have
are because we do not recognize the importance and position of all the
social ecological roles, and thus the game quickly moves to an artificial
point of stability, rather than reaching some sort of homeostatic
equilibrium.  


Mike Sellers                                    Chief Alchemist
mike at online-alchemy.com                         Online Alchemy              

        Combining art & science to create new worlds.