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Nov-17-2006 00:24

“Never explain yourself. Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.”
--Elbert Hubbard

I’ve been putting off addressing the growing dissonance over what some players believe to be unfair abuse of the agency system. There have been several reasons for my hesitancy. First, I wanted to see if the community could come to some sort of consensus (or near consensus) without a dictatorial decision from me. Second, it’s a complicated issue and I wanted to decide on an official position before jumping into the fray. And lastly, navigating this kind of social minefield is always tricky and I’m a much better game designer than I am a conflict mediator.

It seems that patience with my hands-off approach has now run its course. I’ve gotten several direct appeals from players that I should intercede, clarify, pontificate or proselytize, and that the time for me to speak up is now.

Many sleuth players have voiced the opinion that it is unfair to combine cases from multiple accounts in order to raise a single detective’s standing in the High Scores List faster than would be possible without sharing cases. This basic argument has given rise to several related disagreements, along with a healthy dose of finger-calling and name-pointing. There are several threads in Sleuth Talk devoted to these debates, so I’ll assume that everybody reading this has a grasp of the arguments on both sides.

First off, I think it’s important to note that everybody on the high scores lists has put an enormous amount of time and energy into a difficult game and should be proud of what they’ve accomplished. We’re not talking about a bug that allows for solving mysteries in under a minute or an exploit that gives you thousands of free experience points. Every detective on those lists represents thousands of solved cases and many, many hours of game play.

Nov-17-2006 00:49

"Our solution to this is simple, we’re eliminating agencies!"

Thanks for making me crap my man-pampers. Geez...them things is expensive yo...

Nov-17-2006 01:32

Thank you for the clarification Ben, this all seems very fair and well thought out.

Crunch my heart skipped a beat at that too lol

Nov-17-2006 02:03

Oh… he wrote more after the eliminating agencies comment?

*Steps away and stops spray-painting “Anarchy in the UK” on the side of The Hitchhikers: London office*

Thanks, Ben and Sunny. This all seems simple and fair.

Nov-17-2006 02:56

I am glad that I had just put my coffee down just before reading the agencies suggestion...

Those are very sensible and well thought out changes - you are a great conflict mediator after all!

Nov-17-2006 05:10

I had to run and grab my inhaler after the asthma attack "we are eliminating agencies" caused. However, after taking a few puffs and returning from the emergency room to see if my chest pains were really a heart attack or just stress related I was able to read the rest of the message. **whew**

Thanks Ben for the mediation. I'm still freaking out about the no-password sharing, but I'll get over it with some counseling.

Nov-17-2006 05:35

I agree with roamie, I'm a little upset about losing password-sharing, but can't really complain about it.

Nov-17-2006 05:42

I'm with Roamie and Odie in that blocking PW-sharing is a scary concept. But if it comes from Mount Sleuth-lympus, so be it. It just means that agencies will have to adjust their strategies to fit the new paradigm.

I do have a concern though that might or might not make a difference...

My wife's agency (Milliway's Cigar Room) has 3 detectives-- herself and 2 characters that are for all intents and purposes "abandoned". She has occasionally left the agency to take part in item trades, and the only way to get back in would be to use an abandoned teammate's password to send herself an invitation. Would any PW-sharing changes affect her ability to rejoin her agency as it is right now?

Nov-17-2006 05:49

I think the rules are fair. Thank you for your feedback on what has happened and for posting once and for all, the ''honour system'' and rules in one place. :)

Nov-17-2006 06:07

I like the new rules, but banning password sharing gives me pause.

Perhaps we can take a poll on that one?

Nov-17-2006 06:11

Thank you very much for the clear layout here. I think that if the unsubbed detectives are treated like that is will help keep our "family members" together for the social aspects of agency life without impacting the competitive side of things.