[LURKERS] Sweet 16: Civ Party Fun Time and Philosophical Debate

[Ichabod]

I don't want to make a big deal of all this, but it annoys me that I, as game admin, am not receiving full information regarding the game from the players. It's disrespectful and it makes my job impossible to be done properly. How am I going to explain to the other players that a player posted in the lurker thread, when they find out about this after the game is done? And how am I going to explain this situation to the other players right now, like I'm supposed to do, without ruining the game with the storm that will happen if I do?

Now that I had some time to digest all this information, I'm feeling pretty annoyed. I'm considering just leaving my position. I'll give it a night to think some more after my head cools, but I think it's pretty likely that I won't be game admin anymore starting tomorrow.

[sunrise089]

I think that's actually very well said Jowy.

@brick - very true. Most of what I posted as it pertains to this game assumes Mike is an alt than that the CFC Mike's identity was stolen. My stance softens somewhat if that's not true.

[scooter]

The internet. SERIOUS BUSINESS.

[Jowy]

[sunrise089]

FWIW as a non-player, I hope Ichabod remains as admin. Hopefully anyone else knowing something can keep him in the loop and then the game can go on as normal. My own philosophical musings aren't intended to negatively impact the game.

[Bobchillingworth]

inb4 Speaker is Goreripper

This was the first thing I thought of after I did the Sulla / Mike IP check



@ Ichabod- honestly, I would just let the alter-ego thing fly. Sulla posted here before anyone wrote anything of significance and then never showed up again. I wouldn't reveal that he's playing under a smurf account to the game at large, the resulting drama would likely sink the game for good.


I can see why Sulla would want to use a pseudonym; he's one of the most polarizing people on the site, and I'm sure he (for good reason!) doesn't want to deal with drama in his own thread whenever he criticizes other players. He was already getting a bit recently as "Mike" (even though I think he's been a lot nicer this game than in PB 2 or 5), as Sulla he'd probably be facing an all-out shitstorm. Trying to change how opponents treat you by using an alt is sneaky, but I don't see anything really wrong with it.



Honestly, the Big Issue with this game is that there has been an enormous skill disparity between the top and bottom three teams, maybe the worst for any game ever run on this site. Sulla is a part of that, but the real issue is that the first 8 or so signups for this game were low-to-middle skilled players, and then nobody but lurkers considered locking the game down at that level of play before the last few slots were taken up by hardcore vets. Cue months of people (accurately) decrying the PB as a farce.

[Jowy]

Well the game was pretty much locked and ready to go, but we had some drop outs (Dtay, TT, Flugauto) which kinda created those open slots. We weren't really looking to fill them, but they joined up and everyone for the most part were too polite to deny them.

[Lewwyn]

Honestly, the Big Issue with this game is that there has been an enormous skill disparity between the top and bottom three teams, maybe the worst for any game ever run on this site. Sulla is a part of that, but the real issue is that the first 8 or so signups for this game were low-to-middle skilled players, and then nobody but lurkers considered locking the game down at that level of play before the last few slots were taken up by hardcore vets. Cue months of people (accurately) decrying the PB as a farce.

Mike signed up before Gaspar/Noble and Seven/Krill so it wasn't like he signed up to play against stiffer competiton.

[WilliamLP]

One is pretty obvious in this very game forum, the other is less conspicuous around RB.

You're retep? Holy crap, I knew it!

There are like maybe two other puppets playing in this game (Goreripper...

Yeah, signing up in Jan 2013 to play in this game is a little suspicious. Is it an inside secret who that guy is?

Now playing with Sullla is probably largely a good thing, but what if to player X it isn't?

Interesting, I tend to have the same sensibilities as you and I think this is the first time I've ever disagreed with you on anything like this. If this were billed as a greens game or with criteria like "not reasonably described as top 10 on RB" it would be a definite problem. But it was clearly anything-goes for skill level, evidenced by Seven and Krill's signup.

If skill level isn't the objection (and I'm not sure how it can be) then I'd never considered that players actually might have a right to be able to react (or decide whether to play in the first place) based on a specific person's reputation. Maybe if it were LP (the other one) it would be an interesting case.

I'll give it a night to think some more after my head cools

I think you're doing a fine job being balanced and level-headed about it. And this game needs you to keep it from exploding, and you're also doing a service because it's perhaps the most compelling game for lurkers right now. (At least, those of us who aren't able to lurk PB13.)

[Zargon]

I don't want to make a big deal of all this, but it annoys me that I, as game admin, am not receiving full information regarding the game from the players. It's disrespectful and it makes my job impossible to be done properly. How am I going to explain to the other players that a player posted in the lurker thread, when they find out about this after the game is done? And how am I going to explain this situation to the other players right now, like I'm supposed to do, without ruining the game with the storm that will happen if I do?

Just the 2 cents of a perpetual lurker, but why do you need to do anything? Sullla posting to the lurker thread over a week before the game started is a violation of the letter of the law but not the spirit. The point of the rules, all the rules, is to preserve the integrity of the game and the player's enjoyment of the game. That wasn't broken, so it seems like the default action should be to let it slide.

Maybe in the future a rule ought to be added "if you're playing under an alt you must inform the admin". Maybe the community will decide it is in poor taste to hijack somebody's pseudonym (if that actually happened here). Maybe the community will even decide "no alts allowed". But none of that is at issue right now. It seems to me that the integrity and enjoyment of this game will proceed unperturbed if we all just sit on out hands and do nothing, so let's do that.