Enforcing no-communication games
Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:06 am
Players,
It seems it's time for a reminder about the importance of keeping communication out of a no-communication game. The point of the no-communication game is to provide a simpler, mechanics-only game that doesn't involve the kind of sophisticated diplomacy and interactions you get with a normal RSW game. Many people enjoy playing this simpler kind of game.
Of course, being able to communicate with your neighbors, successfully forming strong alliances and planning tactics together, is a tremendous advantage in any RSW game. Taking out the ability to communicate is a disadvantage to everyone; it makes the game much harder to win. It also makes it tempting to try to restore this advantage for yourself by comparing notes with your fellow players in other games. Resist that temptation! All it does it make the other players in the game feel like they are being steamrolled by a group of jerks who have no respect for the rules.
Many of you have discovered that the RSW server goes out of its way to make sharing notes in a no-communication game difficult, by scrambling up the world and fleet numbers, and even the names of the other players. There's a reason that we do this. Of course, it's not too difficult to work around this; but if you ever find yourself saying something to your friends like "I've arrived at a world with 6 I-Ships and 4 connections, do you see a world like that?" then you have crossed a line, and you are definitely breaking the rules.
There's no way I can enforce a strict adherence to the rules here, but if people continue to work around them, then it eliminates the fun of a no-communication game for the people who enjoy playing them the way they are meant to be played. So I have to ask everyone to please, respect your fellow RSW players, and respect the rules. If this doesn't happen, I'll have no choice but to remove no-communication games from the offerings.
To put some teeth to this request, I'm laying down a new policy: anyone caught colluding with other players in a no-communication game will henceforth be evicted from the game, and their RSW membership status revoked. (This is not the same as canceling your account, which I can't actually do anyway since your account is free. You can still play non-members-only games. Your membership status can be restored, but you have to re-apply, which takes a minimum of 45 days.) I'm also going to recommend that no-communication games be created as members-only games in the future.
David
It seems it's time for a reminder about the importance of keeping communication out of a no-communication game. The point of the no-communication game is to provide a simpler, mechanics-only game that doesn't involve the kind of sophisticated diplomacy and interactions you get with a normal RSW game. Many people enjoy playing this simpler kind of game.
Of course, being able to communicate with your neighbors, successfully forming strong alliances and planning tactics together, is a tremendous advantage in any RSW game. Taking out the ability to communicate is a disadvantage to everyone; it makes the game much harder to win. It also makes it tempting to try to restore this advantage for yourself by comparing notes with your fellow players in other games. Resist that temptation! All it does it make the other players in the game feel like they are being steamrolled by a group of jerks who have no respect for the rules.
Many of you have discovered that the RSW server goes out of its way to make sharing notes in a no-communication game difficult, by scrambling up the world and fleet numbers, and even the names of the other players. There's a reason that we do this. Of course, it's not too difficult to work around this; but if you ever find yourself saying something to your friends like "I've arrived at a world with 6 I-Ships and 4 connections, do you see a world like that?" then you have crossed a line, and you are definitely breaking the rules.
There's no way I can enforce a strict adherence to the rules here, but if people continue to work around them, then it eliminates the fun of a no-communication game for the people who enjoy playing them the way they are meant to be played. So I have to ask everyone to please, respect your fellow RSW players, and respect the rules. If this doesn't happen, I'll have no choice but to remove no-communication games from the offerings.
To put some teeth to this request, I'm laying down a new policy: anyone caught colluding with other players in a no-communication game will henceforth be evicted from the game, and their RSW membership status revoked. (This is not the same as canceling your account, which I can't actually do anyway since your account is free. You can still play non-members-only games. Your membership status can be restored, but you have to re-apply, which takes a minimum of 45 days.) I'm also going to recommend that no-communication games be created as members-only games in the future.
David