Urgench wrote:Well far be it for me to point out that the "real politics" you describe is in fact a collective effort in story telling regardless of whether those writing that story have an eye for drama.
Far be it, indeed.
No; while there is a certain element among the older players that views Gameplay as a field revolving, by necessity, around interregional drama (which they then use as an excuse for various controversial escapades), it is no more a "collective effort in story telling" on the part of everyone involved than is 20th century history in RL. Sure, the Cold War makes for a great dramatic element and a good deal of international tension, but anyone who thinks the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. got together and collectively decided to act as each other's opponent because it would make for such terrific books and movies later on, needs to think again. No more do we create collaborative stories in the sense that RPers understand them. It's not a story that we create, but a history, with no ability to dictate the outcome or ensure the cooperation of the other players.I'm struck that you say that more voluntary systems would not be welcome, and that self regulation is impossible. I have no personal objection to the SC using powers to enforce its laws, but if it has such powers then they must be held to an even more responsible standard which will require a serious collective effort in rules writing. If there are significant punishments for non-compliance with an Ethics resolution the tendency for misuse will be all the more pronounced, therefore the safe guards and checks and balances will need to be more robust.
I didn't say they would not be welcome, but that they would be completely superfluous absent a means of enforcement. I would like nothing better than to see, for instance, some variety of the the raider/defender guidelines hashed out at the Global Summit in 2004 be put into place if we could finally put some teeth behind them. We already self-regulate to the greatest extent possible. Pushing that into the domain of the SC will accomplish nothing new unless, again, SC guidelines can be backed up with meaningful sanctions we can't inflict on our own.
I agree, however, that creating guidelines in the SC for the use of legislation that actually affects Gameplay activities would be a good place to go. I seriously doubt that we could hammer all of that out in a single document, and I would prefer to handle specific issues regarding, say, the legitimate use of ejections, as they come up in the political field, so that we can talk about these things with concrete examples rather than staking out a legislative position in a historical vacuum.