I read the 'Play Nice' rules last night and was completely flabbergasted.
The rules are ill-conceived, nearly impossible to enforce, and don't address
the real problems most people see on a nightly basis. The rules do endorse
the following, farming by 50th level wizards who want to just wander into an
area and take a rare spawn as you have to share; no one ever calling CS
(hereafter referred to as Big Brother) as the wording makes it perfectly
clear their intent, Make up your own compromises because if you bother us
you WON'T (Sorry Harm) like the decisions we will make; and lastly forget
role-playing in any sense, we don't care about it, we won't support it, and
if your role-playing causes anyone to lose game satisfaction we will punish
you. Notice that while such actions are not allowed to adversely affect the
enjoyment of others, other acts which are approved and definitely do affect
one's game enjoyment are specifically protected such as the right to camp
guards. Does anyone who plays this game really not care that the guards of
their own race's city are being slaughtered before their eyes? Does this
act not reduce anyone's game enjoyment?
All in all I think the 'Pay Nice' rules are worthless at best and
destructive at worst. Every instance of EQCSSR could be replaced by Big
Brother which makes me uncomfortable. The one line that actually made me
laugh was one which is almost a direct quote from the old Role Playing game
Paranoia.
From the Producer's Letter
"It is recommended that players make judicious use of the /report command
when reporting abuse. The proper course of action is to file a /report, then
file a petition informing the EverQuest Customer Service Staff that a
/report has been filed."
From Paranoia as I remember it, forgot to go look it up
"It is required that all citizens judiciously report unapproved activity.
The proper procedure is to file a report, then notify The Computer that a
report has been filed. Failure to do so will result in termination. Thank
you for your service, The Computer is your friend."
A pretty sad attempt on Verant's part. From what I could read the majority
of these rules are designed for high level players only. I have never seen
a group or guild monopolize an area at the levels I have played (up to
28th), but have heard of it happening at higher levels. Many of the rules
seem designed to force people to accept overcrowded servers by making them
share spawns that really cannot support multiple groups.
Other comments?
Kit
-----Original Message-----
From: Sylly Songsynger [mailto:
jgs@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 7:42 AM
To:
EQ_Innoruuk@onelist.com;
eqbards@onelist.com
Subject: [eqbards] Worldly Issues & "Play Nice"
From: "Sylly Songsynger" <
jgs@...>
Here are 2 articles that deal with "online worlds" worth reading (well
skimming at least - first one is ok, but second one is very long)
Basic premise of game mechanics:
Jonathan Baron's article entitled, "Glory and Shame", which may be found at
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991110/Baron_01.htm.
For "politcs" and community issues within a world:
Check out
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000309/mihaly_01.htm
With Verant deciding they want to go 'hands-on" with their "Play Nice"
policy, these have some merit reading.
Play Nice is doomed to fail. The number of issues that will come up for
resolution is so much greater than the resources that Verant has allocated
to handling them (ie not enough Guides to handle all of the whiners that
will surface.) Verant should have stuck to the mechanics of computers that
gives them power: program code. If a program lets the user do something,
some user (or many users) will do that thing. If Verant wanted to stop
KS'ing, they should have done it in code. That way they stop each and every
instance and rules get applied to everyone.
Sylly
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