It was a very busy weekend for me. So busy it spilled over to Monday. Now where was I?

Puddleby Government! Exiles unite!... Err, maybe not.

I'm going to offend a good friend of mine who's making the big push for this government thing, but it already reeks of disaster. I'm not walking any where near that bog. I don't see any real IC benefit. I don't see any real OOC benefit. What I do see is a lot of mailing list pissing matches. A few people showing how damn smart they are, and a lot of smoke. The Puddleby Goverment mailing list is so high traffic, that it's only a matter of time that the flood of noise pushes almost all but the diehards right out. And then it'll die a quiet death.

I was involved in the Puddleby Clan Council, which I still think is the best first step. It makes much more sense to leverage off of existing social structures than to try to make a perfect, fully inclusive government. The Puddleby Clan Council wouldn't be a government any way, it would simply be a forum for the clans, so we could role play some politics. The fun part of politics, that is. In the damn game, not endlessly in a mailing list that takes hours and hours to consume. The Puddleby Clan Council, because of it's limited scope could be tons of fun, and good for stories.

Sure, it's not perfect. But it can be done, and without a lot of fuss. This "mandate from the people" thing is pissing in the wind. Trying to build universal consensus online always leads to catastrophe. Frankly, I'll probably vote for anarchy, since it's far from clear what the real plus side of an "official" government would be. Anyone would really wants to walk down this road should look at the history of other MUDs and MUSHes. Every time someone tries to build a utopia that was totally fair to everyone, the whole thing sinks into swamp. Skip perfection, kids. It's a game. Let's have fun.

Of course, for the people engaged in the effort, if you are having fun doing it, all the power to you. But you are going to be screwed if you think everyone playing Clan Lord is going to join in that kind of fun. You'll never get full support, because most people don't want to bother.
posted 2:13 PM | link |