Pigs and Zoning
A simple hypothetical:
You spend $250,000 to buy your dream home. You spend another $200,000 in remodeling to make it just perfect.
Two weeks later, someone buys the next-door property, knocks down the house and establishes a commercial a pig farm.
You don't have anything against pigs, per-se. However, simply put, the farm stinks.
This is called an "externality" in which the price of something is borne by other than the one who derives the benefit. In this case, the neighbors are enduring the stink of the farm but the farmer is gaining the benefit of selling the pigs.
To avoid these problems governments step in and establish "zoning" ordinances. That uses the power of law to prevent people from using land for other than the purpose for which it is "zoned." Needless to say, there's huge bodies of law (and litigation) involved in changing zoning as needs change.
On the MUCK we have the mission and the various rules to guide proper use of the MU "world." For instance, our system precludes building a space station populated with lions. This isn't quite as formal as zoning, but it serves the same need: a way to regulate those aspects which are shared.
However, there are behaviors "not against the rules" which result in externalities -- which result in people losing value because of the actions of others. People who "lose value" in our world then quit playing -- we lose them as players. The whole world suffers for it.
To some degree, this is inevitable in any limited shared resource. However, our system is supposed to be guided on principles more than rules.
One of the key principles is our audience. Our audience members, as defined by Brian Jacques, are kids. He wrote the books to entertain children. While adults do read and enjoy the books, BJ's official audience must be kept in mind.
When using "Is this appropriate for the audience?" as a basis many aspects of play which are legal become problematical. Play in which the issues the characters face are adult in nature, such as alcoholism, complex inter-personal relationships based on mutual dependency and self-loathing, or topics which "touch on" subjects outside the G rating indirectly (such as rape or abortion) are out of place for the audience.
In some cases, the content is acceptable but the style in which the content is delivered causes players to feel excluded or unwelcome. Play styles that demand strict "pose ordering" for instance are not appropriate, because that forces some players into silence instead of being allowed to interact. Other play styles are domineering and intimidate players. Some play-styles demand "the camera" and enforce the demand through the use of biting "internal commentary" included in poses which can't be responded to by the targeted victims.
For most of the period of the MU the staff has avoided getting involved in disagreements unless there was a rules breach. However, we're now getting complaints in which there's behavior "at the edge" of the rules, or behavior that is legal but causing destruction of role-play situations, and the answer, "They're not breaking the rules" leads to the response, "It sure doesn't seem like BJ's books!" and ... the objection is correct.
I've been hiding behind the rules, instead of enforcing the principles. As Chief, I apologize for waiting over-long to promote the audience more. I had hoped that letting people play would cause them to form clusters where each player enjoyed the style of the clusters they chose. That was a hope that turned out misplaced.
Complaints about style and content should go to the Chief (Otter). The Chief will act as "referee" and attempt to ensure that the shared areas are run such that a guest of our target audience coming into the game would wish to stay based on their period as a guest.
The complaints should go to the Chief because any staffer that was asked to "decide" could be over-ruled in an appeal by either party and thus be put in an untenable situation. Please do not complain to the staffers.
This is a change not in rules but in style ... style of the management and management involvement.
Complaints about the change should go to the Chief (me) as well.
Keep the Light,
Otter
Chief Wizard
