User:Yendor/DP

Q1. For those who have never had the opportunity to interact with you before can you share a little about yourself, what you enjoy about ATITD as well as how long you have been playing?

My main page gives a summary of my activities in the different tellings, but in brief, I joined ATITD 44 days before the end of Tale 2, and was able to pass 5 architecture tests before the end. I played all of Tale 3, and became a DP and led the Architecture Monument. I took a long break, and returned as soon as I learned that Pluribus had bought the game from Teppy. What I enjoy most about ATITD is the extraordinary wide variety of systems - for example safari is utterly different from pathmaker design which has nothing in common with festivals, ...

Q2. As some specific examples, would you consider any of the following playstyles as worthy of DP intervention? Obelisk queue violation, bonfiring of a clay patches to prevent others from building, using large quantities of alts to rig elections, mentorship advancement, or other test passes?

"Intervention" is a very general word. Mediators can help in a wide variety of situations even if (or sometimes especially if) the situation has a clear answer. But it is also nearly impossible to provide universally-applicable rules. To take one example, suppose Alice is upset that Bob has used bonfires to prevent her from building. Before siding with one or the other, I'd want to know whether these bonfires are in Bob's camp, Alice's camp, or out in the middle of nowhere. As a general principle, none of the issues described sound ban-worthy to me, but even that has exceptions - I supported the ban of GeoGuy, but his activities could be described as "building woodplanes to prevent people from building."

Q3. If the general consensus of the rest of the DPs were that that person should not be banned, but you felt strongly that they should, what would you do?

I have a lot of respect for our current DPs, so I would need to consider things carefully if most of them thought I was over-reacting to a situation. Am I personally involved, and need to recuse myself for a neutral third-party? Why do I think the event was ban-worthy? Why do they think it was not? Would a slightly more severe situation cause them to think it was ban-worthy? Would a not-quite-as-bad situation cause me to think it was not? Ultimately, if I remain convinced after deliberation that someone deserves a ban, I would ban them.

Q4. How's your progress in other Leadership tests?

Yendor has passed Kingmaker, Retired Pirates, Bureaucrat, and Plantation. I have not built any hegemonic census buildings yet, but I do anticipate passing that one as well.

Q5. How are you providing leadership in the game and amongst the player base?

I have been an elder of zFree since the end of T6. It's a very large guild (possibly the largest in Egypt). I've had a hand in most of zFree's projects -- including Zlopolis (the zFree mega), Zemples (47 reali ovens allowing zFree members to pass Funerary Temple), ZPhoenix (allowing zFree members to pass Seven Pheonix), and our not-so-secret throne group (1 group of 7 passes, with group 2 expected to get their second advance shortly). In addition, I founded ZAQ, the River Plains aqueduct guild (97 towers and 60+ passes so far). I was a member of RPMega (the first Megalopolis guild in the game) and was one of three promoted to elder once the original elders quit playing; after the promotion, I was active in bringing that project to completion. Hmmm, what else? I am an elder of the Festivals guild which is starting to gear up for the Test of Festivals, I am a moderator for Egypt Today and Egyptian Exchange, and a teller for The Goods.

Q6. What specifically have you done to further the growth of the community?

I am a member of The Hive which bills itself as uncensored chat but could better be described as an Egypt-wide chat channel that has occasional sexy talk. I gave an interview to Eimear's Daily Scarab. Honestly, I think many of the guilds I mentioned above, such as the microphones and The Goods, contribute to the community.

Q7. How do you feel about sometimes heavy use of macros in this game by many players? and If there was a choice would you support complete ban of macros in the Tale?

The game seems to be balanced around the use of macros. For example, the Tomb of Immortal requires 600 paint and was released prior to Mass Production of Color meaning paint was made 1 db at a time, for approximately 6000 clicks needed. Similarly, Flax Automation research required 70,000 db of Flax to unlock, Thone of The Pharoah requires a shockingly huge amount of charcoal, etc. I play on a Macintosh, so I can not use Automato, but I support people who do (as long as they follow the rules of being at the keyboard). I would want to see (1) a re-balance of requirements across the board and (2) clear, consistent and workable enforcement mechanism prior to removing the permission to use macros. If the only change made is "Oh, you can't use macros anymore" then some people would cheat and continue to use them, and other people would be forced to buy from the cheaters.

Q8. Spouselog allows access to ban powers. Do you know who have access to your spouse account?

Lukeera has been a DP, and I have no trust issues with her. I know at one time her real-life best friend had all of her passwords including for ATITD; Lukeera was not sure whether she still remembers them (and Lukeera's friend rarely/never plays ATITD so would have no reason to use Lukeera's spouse-logging ban powers).

Q9. As DP do you think you should share your password? Do you think a DP should have access to other DP accounts?

There are sometimes legitimate reasons for allowing someone else to use your avatar. For example, the worship test Festivals requires Egypt-wide coordination; if a player has a conflict with the festival time, their choices are to either not pass or to share their password. Likewise, some players are lucky enough to have cheap Megalopolis build requirements, and are generous enough to allow other guilds to benefit from this. Ultimately, I see this as just one more scenario in which it is very important that players are able to trust the judgement of their DPs.

Q10. What other powers would you like to see DPs hold, in the interests of improving game play?

I'm very sceptical of giving DPs anything else. Right now, the election decision is 'simple': Whom do you trust not to abuse the ban power (and immunity from being banned)? If there were other benefits then some players might campaign on how those benefits could be used in good ways --- except this has the risk of allowing untrustworthy people to have access to the ban power.

Q11. What question would you like to be asked, and why?

I think these are a good set of questions. One of the things I've consistently said is that people don't need to be DP to be a leader - Questions 5 and 6 clearly show that. The only thing become DP does is give access to the ban-stick. I know players are sick of hearing of the standard answer "only in a last resort" but honestly it's a good answer, and routine or not the banstick is the key issue. So I'm glad Q2, Q3, Q8, and Q9 are all covering various aspects of this. (Sidenote: Yendor was asked slightly different questions in an earlier DP election. You can use the View History tab to see the questions and answers if you like)