Solve A Lot2
Assistant Postman
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Nov-16-2006 12:51
RAnstett,
I think you are saying the same thing we are.
1) I have given out gift subscriptions to "friends and enemies", does that mean I am now in control of that detective?
NO, You are not in control of this detective, because you GAVE it to someone as a gift. You did not create this detective for your personal use.
2) The other point of somone being unsubbed and you just logging into to use their contact (a very reasonable and common use of PW sharing). If the only reason they are in the agency is for that use, then it seems you are controling them.
We do not keep unsubbed players in our agency to use their contacts, although that is a perk. We prefer to have an agency of active players - trust me, working on PE cases all day is not fun for me. We may keep INACTIVE players in our agency (all are subbed btw) because they have been with us for a long time. They may just be taking a break for work or health reasons. If an active player approaches us to join our agency, regardless of their contacts or lack of, we bring them into our group - and let the inactive go to an agency we have created for the inactives. That way, they have a home.
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BadAss
Charioteer
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Nov-16-2006 20:08
I can see your point ranstett how you might look upon using an unsubbed detective by one or more team-members as control. However, don't forget that this player can change a password any time if he or she feels abused by that.
It's a matter of choices. An unsubbed player is in some ways a "handicap" (pardon me for this loaded word) as not able to travel. If this player specifically states he or she doesn't want the character to be used by others, then this should be respected. The consequence of course could be that we'll ask this player to resign should another (subbed) player show interest to join. If the unsubbed player however is someone we grew fond of and for some reason not able to get/want a new subscription I guess I'd prefer the social aspect over the element of competition.
So, to get back to your original statement. Yes, it could be considered control but the kind of control that is allowed on a voluntary base.
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crunchpatty
Old Shoe
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Nov-17-2006 00:16
I'm very glad people have returned to the question of what constitutes "control" here, and I would agree with these recent posts from S.A.L2, roamie, RAn and BadAss -my own personal understanding of control relates to personal use, rather than agency use. In other words, irrespective of subscription status, I understand a person to be controlling a detective if that detective's cases are put towards personal, rather than collective advancement. What I mean is, in MY personal definition:
a) It's not at all problematic for a given agency to retain a detective provided that that detective is retained for collective reasons - e.g., a particular PE contact that is useful to others, used for treasure hunts, etc. - it's entirely possible for a person to use an 'in-house' detective to advance agency goals without taking credit for the cases they solve while using that detective.
b) Payment does NOT constitute control.
c) (and this is a slight departure, yeah) it might be the case that there is a third option here in the form of a house detective, who is understood as formally 'uncontrolled', or collectively controlled, by members of that detectives' agency up until a point at which it is clear that that detective is being used for individual, rather than collective advancement.
So, having said that, I find myself returning to the question of enforcement. And again, it seems to me that the only way to control whether a given detective is being used for personal rather than collective goals is to limit the number of cases an individual detective can solve in a day or to reduce the value of cases solved by an individual detective after some threshold.
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