Governors and Administration

[Argentis]

Relatively speaking it is not, and whatever. The only artificial political system that I see is the one that exists inside the game right now. Artificiality is a very abstract subject and is only dependent on the will of the people to deem an object real or artificial. Look at your faction and how they struggle to affirm their legitimacy. Now imagine how much easier it would be if that legitimacy would be backed up by the power of the King ingame. But that power would only last so long as you are elected. It would actually incite more drama and excitement as events unfold in the wait for the election. There would be campaigns, there would be wars, there would be tears, blood and sweat.

[Lallaith]

Relatively speaking it is not, and whatever. The only artificial political system that I see is the one that exists inside the game right now. Artificiality is a very abstract subject and is only dependent on the will of the people to deem an object real or artificial. Look at your faction and how they struggle to affirm their legitimacy. Now imagine how much easier it would be if that legitimacy would be backed up by the power of the King ingame. But that power would only last so long as you are elected. It would actually incite more drama and excitement as events unfold in the wait for the election. There would be campaigns, there would be wars, there would be tears, blood and sweat.

I don't know what you think is going on, but no. Your ideas on 'legitimacy' are strange to me. Makes me recall Dallane's point about meaningless circle jerk. This idea just sounds worse and worse to me the more you talk about it.

[Procne]

Relatively speaking it is not, and whatever. The only artificial political system that I see is the one that exists inside the game right now. Artificiality is a very abstract subject and is only dependent on the will of the people to deem an object real or artificial. Look at your faction and how they struggle to affirm their legitimacy. Now imagine how much easier it would be if that legitimacy would be backed up by the power of the King ingame. But that power would only last so long as you are elected. It would actually incite more drama and excitement as events unfold in the wait for the election. There would be campaigns, there would be wars, there would be tears, blood and sweat.

Legitimacy of authority is always determined by people willing / being forced (by other people) to subject themselves to this authority. In this case by players who either choose on their own to support a specific faction or are made to by force. If a faction struggles to affirm its legitimacy then it means it's too weak militarily / politically to gain enough followers. And inventing game mechanics which would make up for this lack is a terrible idea.

The more we talk about authority and its legitimacy the more I hate this idea. I don't want Salem with dominant factions. Argentis, were you here when the tribe was regularly ***** the forums?

[Lallaith]

Relatively speaking it is not, and whatever. The only artificial political system that I see is the one that exists inside the game right now. Artificiality is a very abstract subject and is only dependent on the will of the people to deem an object real or artificial. Look at your faction and how they struggle to affirm their legitimacy. Now imagine how much easier it would be if that legitimacy would be backed up by the power of the King ingame. But that power would only last so long as you are elected. It would actually incite more drama and excitement as events unfold in the wait for the election. There would be campaigns, there would be wars, there would be tears, blood and sweat.

Legitimacy of authority is always determined by people willing / being forced (by other people) to subject themselves to this authority. In this case by players who either choose on their own to support a specific faction or are made to by force. If a faction struggles to affirm its legitimacy then it means it's too weak militarily / politically to gain enough followers. And inventing game mechanics which would make up for this lack is a terrible idea.

The more we talk about authority and its legitimacy the more I hate this idea. I don't want Salem with dominant factions. Argentis, were you here when the tribe was regularly ***** the forums?

Indeed. The thought of having people give a damn about me or anyone... let alone having some sort of power bestowed upon them because of some stupid voting instead of what they've done and are capable of etc, is sickening to me.

Just imagine, every noob who got sick and was saved by sky cardis gets a vote and suddenly look who has some title governor of providence?

I like the guy and all but i don't think i could live in that world.

[Argentis]

Relatively speaking it is not, and whatever. The only artificial political system that I see is the one that exists inside the game right now. Artificiality is a very abstract subject and is only dependent on the will of the people to deem an object real or artificial. Look at your faction and how they struggle to affirm their legitimacy. Now imagine how much easier it would be if that legitimacy would be backed up by the power of the King ingame. But that power would only last so long as you are elected. It would actually incite more drama and excitement as events unfold in the wait for the election. There would be campaigns, there would be wars, there would be tears, blood and sweat.

Legitimacy of authority is always determined by people willing / being forced (by other people) to subject themselves to this authority. In this case by players who either choose on their own to support a specific faction or are made to by force. If a faction struggles to affirm its legitimacy then it means it's too weak militarily / politically to gain enough followers. And inventing game mechanics which would make up for this lack is a terrible idea.

The more we talk about authority and its legitimacy the more I hate this idea. I don't want Salem with dominant factions. Argentis, were you here when the tribe was regularly ***** the forums?

Indeed. The thought of having people give a damn about me or anyone... let alone having some sort of power bestowed upon them because of some stupid voting instead of what they've done and are capable of etc, is sickening to me.

Just imagine, every noob who got sick and was saved by sky cardis gets a vote and suddenly look who has some title governor of providence?

I like the guy and all but i don't think i could live in that world.

Oh but you could rebel or that man could be a mere puppet as he is threatened by one of the more powerful groups in the world of Salem. And of course if he was to be killed then a new election would happen almost right away - maybe leave a grace period of a week to gather the candidates and do a small campaign.

[Lallaith]

Oh but you could rebel or that man could be a mere puppet as he is threatened by one of the more powerful groups in the world of Salem. And of course if he was to be killed then a new election would happen almost right away - maybe leave a grace period of a week to gather the candidates and do a small campaign.

No, no, no.

Your idea is bad and you should feel bad!

[Procne]

Oh but you could rebel or that man could be a mere puppet as he is threatened by one of the more powerful groups in the world of Salem. And of course if he was to be killed then a new election would happen almost right away - maybe leave a grace period of a week to gather the candidates and do a small campaign.

If people want voting then they can gather and agree to vote. No need for an artificial system to enforce the voting. Besides, bashing you enemy's base or backing up your allies in a fight is also a way of voting.

[TotalyMeow]

I'm not "excited" about my idea,

You should be.

I would love to see more politics going on on the server, but not at the expense of our sandbox. Salem is meant to be a game where you can do anything, politically speaking. If that means setting up your own empire in a corner of the map where you force everyone to pay you tribute for protection or maybe for 'protection', you can do that. Or if you want to set up a group of rangers who fight for justice and accept no payment, you can do that. Or you can just pillage across the map like some kind of anarchist. I think an enforced administration with server goals determined by one player or a few players would take away from that.

The expeditions will have themed mechanics, and I suppose we can go with almost any theme, but I'd still be against enforced political administrations.

[Argentis]

The thing is that it is impossible to enforce an election on the forums. Video games by definition are anchored in the virtual world and thus enforce a distance between gameworld and realworld. This distance is not a narrow sea -unless you got some psychiatric issues that makes it difficult for you to differentiate reality from the virtual- but a vast ocean and people will never commit fully to the rules of the game, even for the most diehard RPist. Even if there was an election tomorrow where all current players agree to the results then there would be the issue with new players. Forums and games are two separate entities that are linked by thin individual threads formed by the players themselves. No abstract notion can really be transcribed from one world to the other and so no governor, ruler or whatever you may call it, may exist in the game if not protected by the rules of the game.

[Procne]

The thing is that it is impossible to enforce an election on the forums. Video games by definition are anchored in the virtual world and thus enforce a distance between gameworld and realworld. This distance is not a narrow sea -unless you got some psychiatric issues that makes it difficult for you to differentiate reality from the virtual- but a vast ocean and people will never commit fully to the rules of the game, even for the most diehard RPist. Even if there was an election tomorrow where all current players agree to the results then there would be the issue with new players. Forums and games are two separate entities that are linked by thin individual threads formed by the players themselves. No abstract notion can really be transcribed from one world to the other and so no governor, ruler or whatever you may call it, may exist in the game if not protected by the rules of the game.

You just provided an argument against your idea - it is impossible to make an election among all Salem players