TSO Style Coup!

Ok so i see alot of people are against game wide governments, I'm with you!

We had the same problem in The Sims Online, many ambitious people started goverments and tried to run things, instead of fighting them, we just beat them at their own game...

A bunch of us just put our weight and support behind a mock government that had no centralization, no reason, no rhyme, no power, and worked on the self-apointation system. Everyone picked their own titles, usualy they were around 12 words long. If we actually had a meeting (usualy spontanious when alot of us just happened to be in one spot) we spent it drinking punch and rethinking our longwinded meaningless titles.

Thats the only kind of government I would support in SL!

Here is a silly website about when the Self-Appointed Emperor met another TSO government leader:

Self-Appointed Emperor meets Self-Appointed President

This is actually a valid form of protest. As a big supporter of grass-roots protests, walkouts, and boycotts, I think this is something you should explore. It is much more useful to take action in a virtual world than to complain about it in a forum.

~Ulrika~

I want in!

(Though I'm slightly disapointed that Ulrika considers it valid )

Don't be.

After all I am the person who created a political party (SDF) to fight for free speech in the forums, who held an anti-Bush demonstration that almost took down our city project, who organized a boycott against SLEX's unethical business practices, and who is always looking for evidence of unethical business practices of land barons.

Plus I take great joy in knowing that an organized protest against politics in SL is itself a form of politics in SL. Thus, the very act of protesting is contributing to a culture of free and organized politics in SL -- exactly what I want to see.

~Ulrika~

So true, thats what I like about it

I should have been a little more presice with my sords in my first post. To clarify my position im not nessisarily against player run governments, particularly because they are voulentary. Unlike real governments, in a game like SL if you disagree with their policies and practices you can just choose not to participate or live in their rule. It's that simple. Which is why I think they are a little silly. i think its just the word 'government' that scares people. Often these 'governments' are just groups of players trying to organize a large project.

The mock government itself was a protest and a satire on other governments in TSO that held BS elections and such to deem themselves 'president' even though they basically just appointed themselves. We were straight forward about it and took great pride in self-apointation, and nobody cared because we did not force ourself on anything, or try to control anything.

As my in game profile says "Those who humor me just understand me." that was particularly applied in this case, people just humored us : )

All Hail, Emperor Barnesworth!

Long Live the Emperor!

Random Unsung
Grounds Manager and Royal Parksman to His Eminence the Imperator Barnesvorth I.

I know whose alt you are.

I have a post concerning land and its relationship to government coming within the next day or two that will be right up your alley. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

~Ulrika~

Barnes:

Barnes, your lighthearted protest government was a great response to a non-threatening self-declared president and his organization. That was in Alphaville, but in Test Center (where we did bug testing on new updates) we had a threatening type of government, fully aligned with a particular mafia run by bullies. For various reasons there were more kids in Test Center, and that gave the bully mafia an endless supply of minions they could exploit to harass residents.

I formed a neighborhood, Revolt Headquarters, to oppose the 'government' by holding a crazy election using a forum poll. Voters were invited to choose between presidential candidates Bobo the Clown, a 13 year old, or the incumbent, who had never actually been elected by the citizens...or a Nobody/None of the above choice. Since this whole effort was my idea, I made sure to create an avatar named Nobody so nobody else could do it. : D

Voter participation was very high for a forum poll, and Nobody emerged as the clear winner with two thirds of the votes. Bobo the Clown didn't like that much. and the old self-declared 'president' was apoplectic. I certainly didn't want to rule anything, so I took my Nobody avatar, and challenged Bobo and the ex-'president' to stake *the presidency itself* on a roll of the dice. The incensed ex='president' wouldn't cooperate, but Bobo did, and fortunately he won (we had a witness). Bobo proceeded to have fun as the new fake president, and the bully mafia started harassing Revolt Headquarters citizens. It was interesting to see my neighborhood steadily growing as the harassment continued, and got worse, including exploits used against players. We had a great time!

Obviously the calls for SL government are a very different thing. I'd like to see complete freedom, myself, but I respect people like Ferren Xia and the Nestor folks who start voluntary grassroots residents associations having no aspect of financial gain.

Yes! I agree that it is a critically important that opt-in governmental sims must be nonprofit.

~Ulrika~

that doesn't actually solve that much.
money is the reification of quite a few things. the thing that is often most salient is power - the power to make things happen.

the love of money may be the root of all evil.
but power corrupts.

Hi Ulrika. Could you please say a bit more about this? I know you don't object to profit-seekers within a governed area. For example, residents who sell plants, furniture etc at Neu... Neualt... Neualtenb.... bah, I refuse to Google the spelling again!

So do you mean that you don't think that SL governments as a whole should have profits as one of their goals? I can imagine lots of government-types which I had previously assumed you wouldn't object to. For example, a hypothetical government where all the members/residents pooled every single Linden dollar they had between them, collaborated on a business together, and agreed to split the profits equally.

This is fascinating because it makes me think about what the differences are between governments and businesses

-- Neal Stewart

You know you have my full support and backing. As long as I can be Minister of Beaurocratic Red Tape, Paper Shuffling and Shuffle Board.

Just call it "Nburg". I do when I'm in a hurry.

If some or all members of an opt-in government would like to create a business that doesn't bother me.

I was specifically referring to single-owner or corporate-owned themed sims that function as a for-profit business. My worst fear is that these sims will be profitable leading to a spread of a hybrid plutocracy (rule by the wealthy) and autocracy (rule by one) at the expense of democracy. I feel this is something to be watched (it's happening right now).

I'll have more on this in a couple of days.

~Ulrika~

I have always seen protests as desirable for the people who are being protested against.

If you want lots of free publicity, all you have to do is piss off a bunch of radicals. They stage a protest and you get marketed without spending a dime. The vast majority of the time, sales skyrocket as a result and/or people associate the potester's cause with kookiness due to the more radical and outspoken (and thus most visible) protesters.

Traxx, it is a very effective tactic to use ridicule to expose an unrepresentative government. From your description, it sounds like Sims Online had problems with controlling bullying behavior. This is the surest way to drive players away, and we must be vigilant in exposing and counteracting any such behavior in SL.

Traxx, it's inappropriate to incite some players in the already commerce-allergenic environment of SL, with scolding bold letters about financial gain, when some are campaigning with hate and boycott signs against Anshe and others. It isn't right to define communities as "legitimate" only if they have no financial gain -- implying that those who seek financial gain are "evil" and to be hated by all "right-thinking" residential associations and the community at large.

There is nothing wrong with financial gain. It is legitimate. Architects who charge for their work and complain about giving out "free architecture" would know something about the issue of "financial gain".

There's nothing evil about any group that got together and decided that part of their residential/group experience would be a business of some kind, perhaps small businesses in their homes, i.e. workshops, perhaps group businesses of some kind that might help pay the tier on the commons, and even simply an enterprise that runs at a profit, whatever it is, on that sim or not, that just breaks even or doesn't.

It creates a completely unfree environment in SL to imply that the "higher road" or "the more noble cause" is one that is not taken for financial gain. It implies that the desire for financial gain is some kind of ill feature in any player who comes into this game, yet it will never grow behind a few very opionated tekky types if it can't admit in all kinds of people, including those with a profit motive.

Indeed, the people who actually put their money where their mouths are, like Anshe for example, or Nexus, have been able to put the incredible amount of time and money needed to make upfront purchases of sims -- and pay tier through the fallow periods before the sales take off -- precisely because they have some profit motive, a motive which is legitimate. Any effort to try to detract from that legitimate goal in SL is suspect.

I want to remind you all that Linden Labs sells land on the auction at a profit to its own company. So there is no reason to be sentimental about non-profit work in SL, when the costs are so high...starting with the Linden's own auction.

Some people can afford to just turn SL into a passtime, to just hack around and not really think of a bill each month, it's like some kind of big phone or cable bill. But for other people, the game consists of the challenge of trying to make businesses recoup expenses at least, if not turn a profit. To set up some artificial bar to residential/community living involving a forced non-profit march is to make this game merely a hobby horse for for a few with big ideas. It's supposed to be something bigger than that. If a few enterpreneurs can come along and make zoned residential communities work, more power to them -- non-profit types certainly don't have a monopoly on forms of organization in a free game.

Real freedom from government -- real freedom in general -- means freedom from people's ideologies and allergies about commerce, too. There is already too much of that in this game.

Ferren, if you're going to be so vigilant about "driving away bullies," you'll have to include in that goal driving away the ideological bullies who insist that SL be "non-profit" or "commercial" as all-or-nothing proposition. It's entirely inappropriate in a free society.

Don't forget, I am Princess of Quite a Lot.

coco

And Barnes, don't forget my avatar RAVER DAVE who captured the emperor's splendid contest house, thus obtaining 5 victory points in Strategic Level TSO!

BUT you get -100 points for ruining it.

Then another -100 points for not finishing ruining it.

Yah I know I should've finished ruining it : D

But I was bored of TSO. My pattern is to play a game to death then BAM -- I'm outta here! Never go back. And it was time to enjoy life as a newbie in SL.

Hey, Barnes -- you never build in that *style* any more. Wonder why????

Yeah, you got *that* right!

And the story of *how* you got access to the Fugly House such as to win the 5 Strategic Points...well *that* will be told someday, too!

As for Barnes not building "fugly" in SL...well..it's understood. Barnes is a newbie. He can't be more than what, seven months old? SL has a terribly steep learning curve. The building tools are terribly cumbersome. Even a Bright Center of the Universe like Barnes with incredible god-like building talents is going to have to have his fits and his starts...

...I am confident that the true fugliness which Barnes is capable of reaching will find its reflection in this game some time soon. It's just a question of Barnes mastering the game's tool just a *little* better LOL.

He made it but it looked odd in SL. It worked in 2D but not 3D.

"A steep learning curve" means that something is easy to learn. If knowledge is the ordinate (y axis) and time is the abscissa (x axis), something which is easy to learn will rise more quickly (more knowledge) over a given time and thus have a steeper curve.

It's a common mistake. I think it's because algebra has such a shallow learning curve.

~Ulrika~

I was always under the impression that the y axis was "difficulty" or "complexity" and the x axis was "level of understanding".

But then again, I am isn't good at the math thingy. My strength are writing.

Well what do you know! We're both wrong.

Here's the Wikipedia page on the learning curve. It's quite interesting.

In short the learning curve shows cost as function of units serviced (it's an Army study). This is essentially the equivalent of ignorance as a function of time. Note that something difficult to learn will still have a shallow learning curve and something easy to learn will have a steep learning curve.

~Ulrika~