User:Orrin/DP

A bit about Orrin

I played a short (1 month) part of T3, and have been playing T4 since the beta. I'm a UK player, so that's a nice easy euro time, and am married in game to Aryballa. My RL work is in many areas, software development, digital art, photography, but my main area of work is in ecology. Photography requires infinite patience, especially when photographing small insects ([1] large-ish file!), which is my major area. It's not often that they stay still! My experience with ecology means that I have experience with making long-term and important decisions, as well as a good practical grounding in project management.

My native language is English (typonese), and I am fairly good at at French, and can also speak/understand Spanish.

In game I work on many things, wine, beer, alloys, research, festivals, cooking etc etc. I constructed the list of cooking stats for use in cooking, founded the guild NERF for investigating cooking mechanics, created the first Egypt-wide dowsing map, founded the group of players which ran the Phile and Het-Iah events (the Player Run Events Team) and Keep Pumping, the Meroe aqueduct guild (any Meroevian {or anyone else} wishing to build a tower, let an elder know!). Myself and my spouse are also responsible for placing many Meroe techs on timer, with the aid of the Meroe Research Guild. I am an Elder in HHOF, which is the guild run by Kuupid and Patriarch in Oasis. These two guilds are two of the largest mentoring guilds in Egypt, and are the two 'Main' guilds of Meroe. I was the initial driving force in getting the recent festival organised, and would like to thank everyone that took part, but especially Asheara for mentoring all the new people through, all members of Alpha that helped supply the ambrosia and perfume, and the numerous other festival providers. The festival was an excellent example of how well we can do when all work together, and I am proud to have been involved in the organisation. A special thanks to my spouse Ary for being bartender at the after-party too, we got through around 200 bottles of wine!

Why I want to run for DP

My main reason for running for DP is to give me a greater ability to help, and to help encourage new immigrants. As I've said many times, the main addition that comes with being a DP is the added 'presence', which grants extra authority, and the dreaded Bans. The Bans will get their own paragraph below I think, since that's quite an major issue. Bans aside, the role of DP will allow me to stop player-vs-player conflicts escalating out of hand. I am a firm believer in 'playing by the rules' in Tests, so I will not intervene in a test-related dispute, unless of course I am called upon to do so by a person involved. I feel this it is important not to imprint my own opinion on tests, and only become involved as a DP when asked for. A DP is elected by Egypt, and must think of all of Egypt, not just individuals. Regarding new immigrants, it saddens me to see the active number of players dwindling down, and I want to do everything possible to reverse this and get more and more people to play. This game is much more enjoyable with a decent sized population.

The Bans

Bans. Yes... Ideally, of course, a ban would never be used. They are not guaranteed to be successful, since they only ban the player account and not the IP, which leaves them free to create another account and return. After that, they have an IP restriction placed upon them by Teppy, which was designed to stop the creation of multiple unpaid accounts for use as mules. However, since it is entirely possible to create a paid 'Alt' to do the 'dirty work', this further reduces the effectiveness of bans. Bans may also make the situation worse by creating a sense of 'injustice' to the player banned. So in the end, the ban is by far the worst method of resolving any conflict, and should only be used when all other methods have been considered, or when an instant reaction is needed, in which case a short ban should be used, in order for DPs and the general playerbase to work out what has gone on. Since it is possible to extend a short ban into a permanent ban at no additional 'cost', there is very little to be lost in doing it this way. An example of where I believe a snap ban would be justified would be if I was told by a number of trustable people (I say 'trustable' since once the conflict has reached the explosives stage, opinion is likely to be very divided, and people are always liable to jump on the bandwagon, so to speak) that X player was rampaging through Meroe with explosives, detonating everything in sight. That is a textbook case which the DP bans were made for. The suspension of the accused player allows myself and other DPs to verify the claim, upon which we can then decide on further judgment. The decision to permanently ban should always be a group decision in my opinion, since a group of DPs are much more likely to be able to work out the true story amongst themselves than one solo DP. The same holds true when writing events, it is much easier to come up with a good event in a team rather than solo.
I would base my decision to ban on the intent of the person, contributing factors, the ownership of the buildings damaged, and the number. It is no use to say 'I'll ban *anyone* that causes damage to *anything*' since that means that if someone accidentally detonates a flimsy brick rack, then you should then perma-ban them, which is completely over-reacting. Likewise, deliberate damage of a 'public' structure (school, uni, chariot, voting booths etc) I would consider as a more serious offence than damage of a 'private building'. That is not to say that I view damage of a private building as 'non-serious', more that damage of a public building should carry an extra penalty. Again, a more serious situation would be the destruction of 'bystander' buildings. For example, if player X and player Y are fighting, and player Y decides to blow up player X's camp, but in doing so damages player A,B and C's structures, player X would become an immediate candidate for a perma-ban. If you want to throw me some situations, please contact me in game and I'll do my best.

So, if not a ban then what?

So I don't think bans are much good. So what else is there? The truth is that in my opinion, if the matter has got to the state where I'm thinking seriously about a ban, then something went wrong a long time ago that should have been fixed. Early intervention has the potential to reduce the usage of the ban down to almost nothing. Mediation on a simple argument may stop that argument progressing into an all-out war. Mediation can take many forms. Simply talking to the people involved can help, maybe talking to their guild elders, their peers. In the case of suspected game exploits, a GM should be involved, but other than abuse of the game engine, GMs are not here as personal problem solves, that is the role of the DP. The simple truth is that a small intervention early on can stop nearly all arguments from escalating into a ban. In the case that someone wants to complain about me, I am perfectly happy to let other DPs decide on the outcome.

Why should we trust you?

For starters, I have progressed to this final round. So there's already a lot of people in Egypt that trust me. I have also put in a lot of work to this game, in exploring data, regional research and writing events. I have made a lot of friends, and enjoy the game, both of which I'm not likely to give up. Finally, should you wish for personal assurance, Kuupid, who is herself a DP, has agreed to vouch for my trustworthy-ness (if that's even a word).

Anything else?

Only that if you want to talk to me, leave me a chat, but be aware that I may be AFK, or it may indeed just be Ary logged on as myself. I'll respond as fast as I can. Oh, and Ary doesn't have access to my password, so neither does she have access to the bans.