I liked when MR used to be self regulating. There was a time when if a CL was shit, inactive or fucked up the other CLs would remove them, but that time seems to be gone. Izzy has had to code in more and more regulation just to get people to do what was once automatically done.

So I am suggesting further regulation coded in. The reason being, we see folks lose their HQ through inactivity, and immediately set back up again, no harm, no foul. Where is the regulation from the players?

Therefore, I am suggesting that if you lose your HQ through your inactivity, or the inactivity of your Hands that the Mayor prevents you from setting up again for an extended period of time. I would suggest somewhere between 72 and 120 hours (3-5 days), applied to the CL and both hands, to stop them simply rotating the CL position. Also, as nature abhors a vacuum as does Tyler Durden, I think one of the nasty Durden Invasion crews should set up immediately in your place if there is no other CL in place at that time.

So, for example, CL X is in charge of Old City District (Chosen just because I am here right now and no other reason). The Mayor closes his HQ because He or one of his hands has failed to log 1 hr in the last week. Immediately all 3 are banned by the Mayor from establishing a crew for the next 3-5 days. Tyler Durden immediately Checks to see if there is a CL in that District. If not, he moves in and takes over. 

I would also like to suggest that Killing BGs and the members of these crews do not enhance your gun (and also for the other Durden Invasions for when a District lies empty too long), as i could never understand why people are being rewarded with notches on their gun for failing the game.

Pros: Perhaps people will pay more attention to their activity when they can't simply set back up again. Perhaps also other CLs will be less forgiving when the same useless people lose their crews time and time again, and perhaps lose a District to the Durden's in the process. Perhaps also other players will avoid joining crews of people who continually end up dumping them unsponsored onto the streets through a lack of participation. 

Cons: Some people may decide that being a CL is too much like hard work because they have to log in for at least 1 hour every week.

Caveat: I think Squishy should have the ability to suspend the disbanding of a Crew if the CL is dealing with serious IRL issues (Sickness, bereavement etc) if it is brought to his attention, after all, MR is a game and not an Occupation.

Thanks to Dr. KennethNoisewater for the impetus to make this post following a recent conversation.

I think this is a capital idea. I know Izzy would much rather see us manage the game ourselves and that is the way it should be.

Sorry Izzy I know you always have a mountain to work already but unfortunately this might be worth considering.

This is an excellent suggestion in my opinion. There has to be accountability otherwise this little society of ours will writhe. This thing is technology, might as well use that fact to our advantage. Unlike IRL were we can't program accountability into leadership.

The cooldown on setups might actually make wars a bit more interesting with the CLs constantly disbanding their hqs to bypass distance penalty.

I won't go into detail on your specific proposed implementation, but will just add some general thoughts about "Further Mayoral Regulation" as a whole and some other things you mentioned in your post as I think it's an interesting topic to discuss.

I have always felt that it is up to the players to make/inspire the behavioural changes they wish to see and am personally against further behavioural-strongarming-disguised-as-mechanics. I think a trend you see as of late is that players want someone else to uphold a standard of how things were 10 years ago today, but won't (or can't?) do it themselves.

There is a vigor for change in words, but an apathy for it in action.

Where is the regulation from the players?

It's easier than ever to train a gun to wipe someone (either as a rogue or as a coordinated strike as a city), hell in recent years we even saw a group of players wipe almost the entire upper-structure through a coordinated rogue attack (the foreverwar of '22) so just getting rid of people obviously isn't the problem.

So where does the problem lie?

I think part of it lies in the fact that while you can control your own actions/behaviour, you cannot control those of other people/cities unless you can replace them. It is not an option to wipe someone and be done with it, since then the city will be filled with NPCs making everyone's time miserable and being a huge drain on resources. You cannot ignore the NPCs either as it will become a progressively worse situation.

To wipe a city who doesn't meet your standard you will need, with the way the rules/cities currently are, at the very least 9 people to replace them (1 CL + 2 hands per district). For these people you need to be able to guarantee that:

• They meet the game's codified minimum bar (+1hr/week of activity, CL posts auth thread/crew description/job description)
• They meet your own standard of what makes an acceptable leader
• They have the diplomatic sensibility not to get you killed through their actions
• (and perhaps most difficult) They need to remain like this for however long they live. They cannot lose interest, they cannot become occupied with other things and must remain reliable. Otherwise you end up with the same situation as before.

My very limited experience showed me that because of these factors (and how thin the playerbase is spread across cities at this time), the reaction when wiping a city often isn't "Yes! We have more space to fill now" but often "Fuck, now we have to spread ourselves out even thinner and have more positions to fill".

Ask yourself: if you wanted to wipe a single city due to not upholding your desired standard of play, could you pull 9 people to replace them out of a hat which fit the requirements above? What if you wanted to change the behaviour of the entire game as your wish is in the suggestion?

Sure, the old adage of 'if you aren't happy, rank up and do something about it' will be spewed by the haters and status quo junkies, but it is never that easy.

I think it's crude to say that everybody who is against further behavioural regulation is a hater or status quo junkie, I hope this is a bit more nuanced than that.

I guess my main point is that the higher you set your mandatory codified bar, the harder it becomes to actually enact any change as a player, and the less likely you'll see the players regulate each other. If more hurdles are put in place, "rank up and do something about it" just becomes more and more difficult.

I think that would be a shame, as I always thought "rank up and do something about it" was one of the fundamental things that make MR, MR.

A lot of valid points StandbyJudgeHarold

Only issue is, why would I remove a poor player from a position of power? If you are only on an hour or two a week, you will never be a threat, allowing me to concentrate to the perhaps 5 or 6 serious players.

And I'm not claiming that everybody who is against my idea is a hater or status quo junkie (even if that quote was in another post), but it is often spouted by people who can't formulate opposition to an idea as you have done, and is often just a throw away comment to shoot down what they don't understand or can't be bothered to discuss. 

The problem is we have reached a tipping point, one where the game population is now too low to encourage change, for all the reasons you have stated already. removing a city results in the loss of 6 or 9 decent players from your own crews, players that can be hard to come by in this day and age. So we are left in a position where there is no self regulation, and that in of itself is driving players away from the game. It still takes a good 1500-2000 kills to effectively remove a CL or GF, and whilst they are easier to come by than any other time, it still requires a fair amount of work, work that you are risking to be that one stand up guy, who can be taken out by a friend of a friend of the guy you just expunged, so people don't bother. 

It amazes me topics like this are not of importance but having a pretty little flier for our post is.  I cant even tell if its laziness or lack of creativity. The fact that the only sustainable feature for activity is jails is absurd. Quite literally there is nothing to do on here.  Yet we still blame inactivity on the player base. 

I should have been specific sorry. I meant more the topic of lack of things to do,  referring to the posters comment above me. Prob should have just started a new one.