[Discuss] Mechanics of change of Battlemaster

[Frédérick Deslauriers]

In the three years I've played this game, I have seen a lot of changes and 
the vast majority of them have been made in order to make the game 'more 
realistic' or because of players complaining about abuse. And I'm sure a few 
changes have been made after suggestions by these same players.

After looking things over, although that there changes that I like, there's 
some that I don't like, and in general I can say that I think I enjoyed the 
game more three years ago. We had less restrictions.

I personally don't like most of the restrictive changes that have been made 
to protect bad players.
i.e.
1) The newbie that can't go outside the realm for the first week, that's a 
restrictive change to prevent that newbs from causing trouble. In my opinion 
if newb going attack your neighbours and cause trouble, it's because your 
ruler is a bad diplomat and doesn't deserve to occupy his position.

2) the 1 message per turn while in prison to the judge or ruler, it was 
implemented after a ruler (or judge) complained about a player that spammed 
him. In my opinion if you're too stupid to hit the ignore button you don't 
deserve to hold such a position.

The point of my message is not that I want the game to stay the same and not 
evolve. What I want to illustrate is that change in the game had been made 
to correct a situation that affected only a few players but created 
restrictions for all the other players. I believe that in
this game, like in real life, you will never be able to please everyone. 
Therefore, rules should be made for the majority and not taking in 
consideration only a few players.

Unfortunately, like in real life, the majority stays silent and those who 
speak are usually  those who really care that feel that they have to speak 
(not many people) and those who speak to complain. And changes are made 
after hearing opinions of those who speak. The discussion list is the best 
example, out of all the players of BM, how many are frequently expressing 
their opinion on the list? And how many have, even just once, written to the 
discussion list? If someone has time on their hands, you can calculate the 
percentage. I  would be surprised if it's over 5%.

This brings me to the mechanics of change:

The fundamental motivation behind making changes in a game is to make it 
more enjoyable for the majority, and I'm sure that's what you're trying to 
do. But I think that we have a big problem: we don't know what the majority 
thinks.

We cannot change the silent majority. They will not suggest or speak up 
before the change is made. So we can't change the fact that those who care 
keep on suggesting and those who whine will keep on whining.

Therefore, you make the change that you think will improve the fun factor of 
the game

In reality, what we need is to add a feedback mechanism that requires very 
little effort on the part of the silent majority, otherwise it will be 
ignored (as the mailing list is currently).

I suggest that after a month or 2 after the change has been implemented, you 
add a quick link to a survey about that change, in the login page.
For example:
-I love it
-I like it
-I don't like it
-I hate it.
Comments:

I do know that I will be frustrating to work on a change, implement it and 
see it be thrown away, but we have to keep in mind that our goal is the 
level of fun of the players.

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Finally, after writing all this, I think that it would be really fun if it 
was possible to play for a few weeks like it was years ago, because it's 
always when you lose something that you really learn how
much you cared about or needed it. And all players would realize what 
features are indeed fun and good for the game.

If someone ever decides to run an old-time BM, let me know.




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