Difference between revisions of "User:Shaudawn"

Revision as of 20:24, 22 April 2016

Not only a forum profile, but a character too!

--Shaudawn (talk) 04:43, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Player Rights

note: see (talk) page about this section

1) The Capital Rule serves the players. The players do not serve the Capital Rule.

• The operative term players means the collective player base as a whole and not one individual.

(Thus, for example, you cannot violate the rule on consensual adult roleplay simply because you, as a single player, want to. Nor does it mean that because your character is a creep that you, as a single player, can ignore that rule.)

2) Reporting a player for Capital Rule breaches is at the discretion of the offended player and shall not be obligatory.

i.e. If it doesn't bother you, don't sweat it.

• If it bothers some other player whose character is directly involved, it is the right of that player to bring the complaint to the appropriate game authority. The players right to bring such a Capital Rule breach shall not be punishable.
• Additional players have the right to remain uninvolved in the dispute if they wish.
• Additional players may be questioned by the appropriate game authority to give evidence or opinion concerning the perceived violation, but are under no obligation to provide evidence or opinion. Furthermore, any refusal to provide any information concerning Capital Rule breaches shall not be punishable.

3) A player is assumed innocent of Capital Rule breaches until proven guilty.

• The primary concern of this right is the perceived and Capital Rule violations in which character action, interaction, and knowledge are in dispute.
• At the moment, the judging authority is solely the Players Department. However, if there should come a time when a jury or player input becomes implemented, the right to trial shall not be infringed.
• A player can be warned, educated, enlightened, etc., but punishments such as player account suspension, player account deletion, or other access to the game cannot incur.

- One possible exception might have to be in terms of consensual roleplay involving minors or nonconsensual acts of an adult nature due to legal obligations outside of the game.

4) Canonical Hierarchy, the Capital Paradox, and Character Knowledge

This part is a work in progress as it will take some serious thought to come up with a good, fair hierarchy.

• This is both a game and a simulation.
• Anything not mentioned in a canonical source can be roleplayed without being deemed a Captial Rule breech. (e.g. the "Do bees exist in Cantr?" question. While a beehive is an in-game machine and produce honey when you apply various flowers or beeswax when you apply honey, bees themselves are not part of the game mechanic. Some people argue that roleplaying getting stung while nearing a beehive is a Capital Rule breech. Likewise, any mention of the sun, day or night, oxygenated air, etc. Since there is no explicit rule stating that bees absolutely do not exist in Cantr, it is reasonable to assume they do exist and can be legally roleplayed as such and should not be considered a Capital Rule violation. Likewise with other reasonable entities.)

1. Canonical Hierarchy (Suggested. This can and will change and may end up being more of a matrix than hierarchy.)
   1. Jos Elkink, speaking in the capacity as Word of God. (His game, his rules. Jos as a player...that's different and not even the Almighty incarnated should be allowed special privilege (in my humble opinion).)
   2. The game mechanic (only insofar as that the function is maintained devoid of perceived meaning)
   3. The Capital Rule
   4. CantrWiki (as it pertains directly to game mechanics)
   5. Forum posts explicitly declared authoritative by current, sanctioned members of their respective Departments
   6. Physics, human biology, animal biology and behavior
2. The Capital Paradox
   1. As a simulation of human life in a fictional setting, the simulation does not simulate real life.
      1. Cantr life is canonically both real and not real. For example, is explicitly states in the Game Rules that every character must be played as human (and not centaur, robot, etc.) and that there is no magic in this world, but when the game mechanics violate real world physics, biology, etc. the game mechanics supersede real life. Thus the crux of the Capital Paradox is when to know what is real life and what is Cantr real.
      2. Human Biology:
         1. While it is simulated that there is a need to eat, there is no simulation for elimination of waste.
         2. There is no game mechanic for sleeping.
         3. Sexual reproduction is either not simulated or it is not accurately simulated.
            1. Cantrians spawn whereas real human beings are born.
            2. In some real life cultures, not having a family is inhuman. In Cantr, it is impossible in the game mechanics to have families.
            3. Every Cantrian spawns at twenty years of age (due to legal reasons involving adult encounters) but the Rules state "characters should not have a background story describing the time before they spawned". Players are not even allowed to talk about it. For every human to have amnesia or inconsideration of their childhood is unnatural and probably even grounds for some mental illness.
         4. Disease is no longer simulated
      3. Animals
         1. The quantity, distribution, and behaviors of animals do not reflect real life.
      4. Environmental Conditions
         1. The world of Cantr is meant to be simulated to behave like Earth. It fails by paradox.
         2. Resources never exhaust, nor are subject to season, disease, nor any other real world influences.
         3. Ships can sail directly into the wind (and before weather, sailed with no wind at all) and can be operated with just one person or will cease to operate if the character goes below deck.
3. Character Knowledge
   1. Every character shall have the right to know:
      1. any fundamental human function, such as breathing, eating, sleeping, walking, running, swimming, adult physical intimacy, etc.
      2. at least one sanctioned language (i.e. english, polish, spanish, dutch, etc.) and, under certain circumstances, an additional special language (e.g. sign language in addition to the sanctioned language as it would be unfair to force the player to have to learn one or the other, though it would be their right to be ignorant of either.)
      3. how to read and write
      4. how to practice any skill
      5. how to operate any machine or use any tool
      6. how to make or create any tool, machine, food, or piece of clothing
      7. how to gather any resource
      8. how to operate any vehicle including steeds, land vehicles, or ships
   2. Any character shall have to right to be ignorant:
      1. This includes not knowing or partially knowing language, how to do certain actions or perform certain skills, how to wear clothing, how to read/write, or any of the aforementioned knowledge rights.

5) What a character says is not a Capital Rule Violation. What a character does may or may not be.

• A character is not a player.

Thus, for example, if a character says that they can create a coconut out of thin air using magic, that is not a rule violation against the use of magic in the game. The character may be crazy, lying, or delusional. But the claim itself cannot occur in the game due to the actual game mechanics. However, if the player indicates that an actual action is being performed by their character (in the english world, usually denoted with asterisks -- such as "Player says: *He hovered six inches off the ground and turned into a bat.*) then the action may be reported. Reading another character's mind or knowing something is said or occurs on another island (assuming no radio contact) is an action.

• Likewise, a character's beliefs shall not be infringed. (i.e. whatever a character believes about the Cantr world shall not be considered a violation of the Capital Rule. The character may be wrong. The belief may even be contrary to the game mechanics. But when stated as a character that it is that character's belief to the contrary, it shall not be considered a violation.)
• A player shall not be in violation if they speak a foreign language incorrectly after learning how to speak it through legal means (i.e. learned through role play). Nor if a dictionary is used shall it be considered a violation if the phrases or logically deduced phrases from such a guide are used, correctly or incorrectly.
• A player that uses a word in the Cantr world may use that word despite being incongruent with game mechanics.

For example, characters that refer to other characters as "family" or by familial roles like "father", "mother", "brother", and "sister" shall not be considered in violation of the Capital Rule. This includes other words.

6) A player has the right (but not the obligation) to divulge basic information about their character out of character (OOC), including on the forums, IRC, or other extra-game venues provided that the Four Day Rule is observed. This includes, but is not limited to:

• What characters they play.
• General character actions, including death.

• The responsibility of using that information from another character is up to you and not the divulging player. e.g. If player Alice says she plays the character Agnes, player Bob cannot use his character Brad to act on that information. In other words, player Bob has the responsibility to keep OOC information out of character Brad's head.
• It is wise to not divulge that information OOC. It is kind of a spoiler. It may even be dumb. But it should not be punishable.

7) A player has the right to name their character. This includes repeated names provided the following:

• The name is not legally offensive (i.e. has a potential for legal problems outside the game which include racially offensive or sexually explicit names)
• The character is not a reincarnation of the previous character with the same name.
• Does not have the knowledge of any previous character
• Does not literally impersonate the character of another player (have explicit knowledge of another character, though after enough role play may, as a character, choose to impersonate another character)
• Likewise, a character has the right to a basic, general, and/or vague background story (I realize this is in direct contradiction to what is stated in the Rules) provided that it does not involve any already existing character, event or location.
• Likewise, a character has a right to their own personality, motivation, physical description, and goals before spawning provided they do not come in direct conflict with game mechanics (e.g. saying that your body is build like a brick outhouse when, in fact, you are "very weak." Granted, people on steroids might actually be like that, but the lack of steroids in the game make that very difficult).

8) Events that occur as a result of legitimate role play cannot be held against the player.

(e.g. If a character steals your boyfriend that you really, really, wanted to date, you cannot contact the other player through PM and tell them, "Back off; he's mine!" Bullying like that is wrong (and illegal in some places). Likewise, if some bloodthirsty pirate character shows up out of nowhere and kills your character without a word, the Players Department cannot automatically rule that a Capital Rule violation. It might be bad roleplay. It might made you angry, and you have that right to be angry, but it doesn't mean the other player has to be punished. You have a right to report it, but don't expect that the Players Department is obligated to sanction that person.)

9) A player has the right to briefly use out of character (OOC) communication in-game to help other players play the game.

This right should be allowed (I recommend in whispers and with clear markings such as ((OOC: You press the 'Talk' button.)) ) since the other player may not wish to divulge their personal information through the forum or other non-game means. There may not be any other way to let game play proceed.

• The term briefly is loosely defined on purpose and may depend on the collective tolerance of the other players whose characters are within communication range.

10) Having two characters in the same location does not automatically constitute a Capital Rule violation.

• Due to the player base reaching historical lows, it becomes increasingly paradoxical to expect characters to never interact with one another in any way. The paradox becomes that the OOC knowledge of which characters are where comes into conflict. For example, say you have a character as part of a ship's crew and the captain (not yourself) chooses to dock at a location where another of your characters happens to live. It becomes unreasonable for one or both of them to "play dead" without any interaction. This kind of encounter begins to come under the conflict of the following Rules:

• "If you cannot avoid having two of your characters meet, it is best that one 'sleeps'. If interaction is unavoidable, you must carefully play as if they were played by strangers. But keep in mind, that since you as a player are controlling when your characters are awake and what they know, there are some intrinsic advantages to their interaction that no kind of roleplay can mitigate and which are unfair to other players." and
• "Some exceptions are occasionally made in new and developing regions to allow players to have multiple characters living together."

• Since the player base remains at historic lows, nearly all locations should now be considered the same as "new and developing regions".
• The operative word is automatically. Players should still be extremely careful and it is wise to avoid such contact, but neither shall it be a violation. Note that the rule is worded with the idea of other players in mind (see Right #1).

11) A character has the right to inaction. OR, a player has the right to not play their character.

Grudgingly, though I'd much rather people take up the challenge of doing their utmost best even if they have crappy skills or start off in a lousy location, since every good writer knows that drama comes from conflict and not being a Mary Sue, sometimes you just don't want to play. Real Life gets in the way, as it annoyingly does.

• Likewise, a character has the right to die. OR, a player has the right to kill their character.

This isn't the same as Character Removal. You're on your own, there.