- Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:13 pm
#21319
Interesting discussions. Let me clarify as Light and Kress both have already, that in both Philo's A and B, there is a 14 day exodus period that acts to protect the belongings and habitat of the bought out player, hopefully long enough for him to get the hell out of dodge himself.
Without providing a bias in either direction, I'd like to add just a few things:
(Note: these are not my direct arguments. They are a composition of thoughts I have heard in both public and private discussions with me, with just a taste of my thoughts mixed in. Please do not attempt to argue with me, as that's not what I'm doing in this thread.)
Philo A Flaws
In philosophy A, need I point out there will exist a great controversy over the Staff protecting certain realms. More often than not, we will likely step in to protect bought out properties, as in most cases, it usually ties in with some form of harassment. This leads to an enraged purchaser of the realm, a spoiled, protected unofficial owner of the realm, a huge flaw that essentially requires players to read the Staff's minds regarding which realms they well end up protecting (Or: Ask before you Act), and like I said in the OP, a big, fat, glaring irony. More importantly, it leads for major headaches forum side, which eventually leave the threads in a trail of ash that has questioned the moral fiber of the server, policy consistency, and other really obnoxious things to have discussed.
The idea of "survival of the fittest", as well as "if you can't put the work in, don't reap the benefits" are direct arguments against Philo A. The current environment allows for free-riders of the realm system, who are in effect protected by the concept of realms without actually buying one, which is both a glaring irony, and unfair to those who do buy in to the realm system. If you are too irresponsible, too lazy, or otherwise too incapable of purchasing a realm, then why would you put so much faith and effort in to that piece of property that you know very well could easily be snatched from you?
Philo B Flaws
In philosophy B, there lie separate problems. With a policy that allows for the purchasing of any realm, it is blind to the intent of such purchases, which very often is directly tied with harassment. The question is, then, why would we create a policy that allows for harassment in the form of purchasing realms with intent to harm another player, when we very strongly oppose and ban for the practice of harassment?
This philosophy does not provide any invitation to new players, other than those who travel incredibly far from spawn. More often than not, they do not comprehend the realm meta at early stages of gameplay, and so may find themselves completely screwed out of their own property. While you players who may be more experienced may argue, "Well, if they are too dumb to learn how it works, why should we protect them?" Hopefully you all have the humility to remember at one point in time, you were the one asking how the /sethome command works, how messaging works, how coordinates work, etc. Even if you learned these things very quickly, assume that every player that first steps foot here doesn't know it to begin with.
This policy isn't just a question of how to guarantee the property rights of players, it's how we will carry out moral policies as well. Will we allow for harassment in the form of sweeping the efforts of a player up from under him, ruining possibly weeks of work?
