Hey guys, i kind of always hated the way admins force specefic aspects of gameplay, such as being nice to each other and not destroying stuff.
I did a thought experiment.
Imagine a server were admins only ban hackers, there are rules, but they are player enforced. All players are encouraged to cooperate and build a settlement, a city, some community with personal privacy. The players that do not want to cooperate should leave the place now, or be driven away by mad aspies with sticks. So now we got alot of players playing together, trading, some make animal farms and some chop wood, while others mine, some leave the area and hunt for monster items, they trade for stuff. But enforcing rules is hard without somebody to enforce the rules, we make a law enforcement organisation, take enough people to keep atleast one patrolling all the time(shift duties), but not so many that all in the city are guards. Every person must donate a valueable item to the communal share for their own spot of land inside the city walls, or else they would have to either live outside the city, or in some kind of appartment. Say a stack of planks for a 16x16 spot, a stack of lumber/2-4 pieces of iron for a 32x32 spot. So we got a fixed amount of large and small spots designated, now we need walls surrounding the city and infrastructure done between the spots, all communal buildings up and recreational area's reserved, we also need everything lit up so no monsters will spawn. So with a completely functioning city, we also need a law, the rules usually enforced by admins should be enforced by steel sword wielding guards:
1. Everyone must donate atleast a quarter stack of products every real day, if one does not donate to the communal shares, they can be subject to any kind of fitting punishment.
2. All citizens must obey the laws, the law enforcers are not lifted above the law, law 3 can, however be ignored in severe cases of violence. Failure to do so will result in fitting punishment.
3. You must not commit violence or murder, punishment varies from minor damage resulting in fines, serious damage resulting in imprisonment and death of the victim direct or indirect resulting in banishment/death sentence/long time imprisonment.
4. If, in any given circumstance you are arrested by the law enforcers, resisting arrest may result in fines being raised, and in cases of violence towards the law enforcer, the enforcer is allowed to respond with violence, if the attack is not ceased, the enforcer may kill the offender.
4.1: Dropped loot must be donated to the communal share
5. A citizen must keep the settlement intact, any kind of vandalism will be punished with a fine, and in serious cases, imprisonment. In cases of death, follow law 3.
6. In situations of initiation or emergency, everyone must share their goods of use, failure to do so will result in morale punishment and possibly dehumanization/being marked as personae non gratae.
7. A citizen can posess basic tools like shovels, hoes and pickaxes, however they must not posess weapons of any kind, swords, bows axes. And must not posess potentially dangerous tools such as buckets and fire kits. A persons habitat may feature storage faccilities, non-flammable lightning and stoves, crafting benches are restricted to crafters due to the potentially dangerous items you can procure with such faccility. Breaking this law is subject to fines, and in serious cases, imprisonment.
8. The communal share is for purposes of helping the new comer, the poor, the unestablished and for maintainence and security, treasury and fine crafts are the mayor's possesion and may be used in trades with privates and other settlements. Greed is subject to banishment.
9. A working citizen, must posess faccilities and tools related to their work, one may sign up for communal work, were all prvileges and faccilities are at their disposal for free, given that all product goes to communal share. Privates may invest in privileges such as crafting, weapon possesion etc. for a grade 1 valueable. However they must specefy the purpose.
10. 1/8 of the population may be of administrative rolesm the other unemployed citizens.. 1/4th of the population may be communal workers and the rest private citizens.
11. All citizens have the right to privacy, possessing ther items of their own, however any illegal action may be punished by confiscation of the item used in the crime.
12. One may not infringe others rights of privacy, this includes tresspassing, harrasment, sexual harrasment, and actions such as unauthorised access of another citizens chest.
If the enforcers would actually enforce this (incomplete) list of laws, and no admin interference other than in cases of hacking, things would be top dolllar, so outside the city is total anarchy.
Please respond to this, it took time to write.