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Two Sleuths with one Brain
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Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

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.



Replies

Lady Ruby Caplan
Lady Ruby Caplan
Well-Connected

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. :)


AndreaX
AndreaX
Thespian

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?



R Anstett
R Anstett

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.

LilRach
LilRach
Well-Connected

Nov-17-2006 06:14

I know I am in the minority here, but I do like the concept of not being able to share passwords. I feel this new aspect will cause agencies to have to communicate more with each other, work more as a team, and hopefully lead to stronger teams.

Barry Grant
Barry Grant
Old Shoe

Nov-17-2006 06:24

Mr. crunchpatty,

The way you phrase things (man-pampers) is fantastic. I am laughing uncontrollably. Really.

Mr. Serges,

Re: Your wife's Agency. This situation brings to mind my suggestion for a shipping company. That would not require any agent to leave the Agency. There could be some company at City Hall where the item is dropped off for shipment and can be picked up by the intended agent the next day after he/she deposited the item for swapping. This would eliminate the newest need for password sharing, at least.

*tips hat*
Barry

Mr. crunchpatty: I'm still laughing

Carrie Mehome
Carrie Mehome
Huntsman

Nov-17-2006 07:19

Thanks Ben for the clarification and notice about your intentions. My concern now is with password sharing. I am not very technical with these things but the only way I think you can do it is by IP address and that does not always tell you who actually is playing. I hope you give us warning when this is taking place as then there is no sense of me subscribing any more which makes me very sad as I love this game.Woody and I both play from home. In the last 6 months I have logged in from at least 6 IP addresses which I think you can verify. Both Betty and I play from work so I guess we wont be able to anymore ( so sad for us). I play at Casa's when I am there doing my laundry. I play at my Mom's when I visit her and we play at the cottage. I even played when I was on vacation this summer. Maybe I am addicted but it will be sad to be forced to leave. Also Eye Spy does not ask for others passwords which would have been handy at times to have. Could you please clarify how and when this will happen. And again thank you for creating a great game!

R Anstett
R Anstett

Nov-17-2006 07:52

Carrie, there has been some discussion of this in the past. Not speaking for Ben but as someone who understands log-in limitations. It can easily be configured to allow a reasonable number of locations to log into one detective. Couple that with setting a time frame for number of different IP addresses to log in and I am sure Ben can create a way for individuals to continue to participate in the ways you describe.

Solve A Lot2
Solve A Lot2
Assistant Postman

Nov-17-2006 10:36

Thank you Ben for posting rules about this.

I do disagree with limiting passwords for various reasons. One of which, is what happens if heaven forbid, a Director stops playing. Does the agency have to dissolve because other directors can not kick her/him out?

As for the cases - why not let cases accrue.
Sometimes, I log in and store cases for my team mates when I am unable to play. If they do all the work, I don't think it is fair for me to get half of the points.

Autumnsprings
Autumnsprings
Con Artist

Nov-17-2006 10:56

I agree with solve a lot2 on both points she raises. Thank you Ben for speaking up about this.

Autumnsprings
Autumnsprings
Con Artist

Nov-17-2006 11:08

Ok, after giving it some thought, what if the divided experience thing kicked in after a certain number of cases solved per detective? I am a computer moron, so i have no clue how easy or hard this would be to implement. It would still give the player in SAL2's example the experience they deserve, but would keep players from abusing access to multiple detectives.

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