Mud governance

[S001GMU at nova.wright.edu]

Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 10:49:18 +0000 (PST8PDT)
From: coder at ibm.net

>On 21/10/97 at 09:28 AM, Mike Sellers <mike at online-alchemy.com> said:
>
>>However, I believe we can begin to approximate the same sort of power we
>>have in the physical world in MUDs by enabling "special powers" in the
>>form of executive, judicial, and police/military forces under _some_ form
>>of popular control (somewhere from post-Magna Carta monarchy to
>>democracy). 
>
>The Habitat papers and others suggest the value of handling such in-game. 
>It certainly reflects on player value when you do.  I'd question the
>requirement for "popular control".  It is almost tantamount to a
>requirement for democracy; an experiment for which I don't see much sign
>of success.

Full blown democracy would probably fail, yeah, but I think you do need to
accept some feedback from the players as to the effectiveness of the
judicial system, which amounts to at least a little 'popular control'.
If you ignore everything the players say, they will cast their final vote
by not playing anymore.  :)

>> It'll be a heck of an experiment anyway.  
>
>Many MUSHes and MOO's would seem to be doing this now, with the LambdaMOO
>rape case and its handling and after effects being a specific case in
>point.
>

-Greg