[Discuss] Abuse of Resommendations

[Andrew Asche]

On 2/18/08, Jeremy Stephens <jstephens at georgefox.edu> wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces at news.battlemaster.org
> [mailto:discuss-bounces at news.battlemaster.org] On Behalf Of Daviald
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:13 AM
> To: discuss at news.battlemaster.org
> Subject: Re: [Discuss] Abuse of Resommendations
>
> My character Gregory has used unique items to give recommendations to
> specific advy's.
> First an RP point.  Gregory does not believe any commoner should get a
> recommendation.  Rather in an arrogant way he believes that a person
> that clearly has noble blood running through his veins should receive a
> recommendation.  As only a person with noble blood could do the things
> that would impress him enough to say to everyone "This person is a
> noble."
> Perhaps my RP is out of line.  Or perhaps it is my method for working
> with the rp under the game Mechanics provided.
>
> "It is very strongly suggested that recommendations only be given for
> the most valuable services and loyalty. For example, for selling you a
> unique item. In fact, right now that is the only game mechanic that
> offers the option of handing out a recommendation." - Wiki
>
> From that single line I was under the impression that a recommendation
> should be given out for services that warranted it.
> Therefore, I RP'd a public ceremony (Not just me here others deserve
> credit for the creativity) in which a unique item was passed around that
> allowed my fellow players to protest should the feel it was unwarranted.
> The in game restrictions and punishments lay with the nobles in the
> realm and not game mechanics.  They could judge the situation and
> protest the council members for giving a recommendation to an unworthy
> person.  It was not a surprise to me that the nobles in the realm
> demanded to know what was going on and demanded to know why.
>
> Various reasons for the recomendations were Traveling to the
> Netherworld, surviving a mission that carried a 60% casualty rate,
> Closing a portal, spending months spying on other networks of advy's,
> making a last ditch run through netherworld regions to get spare stones
> to a portal closing when one of the characters carrying stones was
> captured by a daimon that was still in the region, etc...
>
> Quite frankly, it seems to me that when a character risks their life to
> do something for you, is successful and this act helps to end a
> continental wide daimon invasion, that character deserves a
> recommendation a lot more than for simply stumbling across a unique
> item.  Especially considering that the players will not get another
> character if their advy dies.  So far the only game mechanic that allows
> for the giving of a recommendation is to pass a unique item back and
> forth.
>
> Gregory has not yet given a final recommendation using the pass the item
> method to any character that he did not believe deserved it.  I do not
> believe that the other players in Old Grehk would allow him to do it
> either.
> It has been my experience that the players are often the best method of
> preventing abuse and doing it with IC means.  Perhaps Old Grehk is just
> a realm filled with an above average amount of honest players that want
> to keep the game fun.  I would like to believe that every realm has
> those kinds of players.
>
> A simple don't do that would work but I recognize the need for an
> example to be made from time to time.  Besides bolting my character or
> even freezing my account for a bit won't really upset me.  I have no
> intentions of winning BM.  Doesn't sound fun.  After all Gregory is
> getting tired constantly winning the war with the Sintian dogs and
> beating down the Netherworld and I can't even imagine how boring it
> would be after he got the whole Continent to himself.
> So if Gregory needs a bolt of lighting, he will be waiting for it atop
> the keep in Ossmat.  I can roll with the punches on this if I presumed
> too much.
>
> On the other hand, my suggestion is keep the unique item system, but
> every time a noble hands out a recommendation, the entire realm gets a
> notice.
> Furthermore encourage judges to act upon it and if it is a council
> member, encourage nobles to protest.  If the person doing it is a power
> gamer they wouldn't like losing a position and they wouldn't like losing
> all their precious H/P stats.  If its justified, he has nothing to worry
> about except politics.
>
> =========
>
> Wow... just wow.  IMHO you just did a massive end run on the intention
> of the game mechanics.  Creative, yes.  But total crap IMHO.
>
> -jer
>
>
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I personally don't see this as exploitation, because it was RP'd, and
in that sense, the item being passed around was likely RP'd as being
sacred or at least symbolic in some way, so "posessing" it, even
though it was not destined to be their item, was a great, but symbolic
honour.

And I agree that most things are best policed by players.  That is
done in most cases, except in certain cases:
-When the majority of players do not consider a certain action to be
"wrong", or...
-When an action can be done quietly, without the notice of other
players not in on the scam.

This situation falls under the second one.  IMO, by RPing it and
opening it up to anyone who wanted to hear, you corrected the
situation and did what you could to get a good mix of RP and
Mechanics, even when the Mechanics coudln't do *quite* what you
wanted.

However, there was no *need* for you to do it.  You could have just
handed the item around sans RP, and given out the recommendations
without anyone knowing.  From there, it isn't a long step to handing
around the item and giving recommendations *without* services
rendered, and thats where we've gotten to the exploit.

Perhaps a region wide message needs to be sent in the event of a
recommendation being given.