Case #  2005 Idea: Bribing to learn who placed contracts (vote proposed)

Rhoads reported [Tue Dec 17 08:29:55 2002]:
     Greetings members of the Mortal Council
      
     I have been thinking about the following idea for quite some time and
     after
     talking to some people it was asked that I shared with you all. I know it
     might be a little polemical, specialy to assassins, but it could make the
     game a little more interesting and reduce the harassing by constant
     contracts.
      
     I think it would be interesting if either there are no more anonymous
     contracs
     or that when you buy it off, for an extra fee, you could see the name of
     the
     one who placed it. How could this help the game at all? Well, easily, at
     first
     it would reduce the harassing of players with contracts, a contract of
     course
     dosen't (or at least almost dosen't) affect the life of a high level char
     who
     is at least an avarage player, but for the rest, it surely does. I have
     seen
     characters getting destroyed by contracts for no reason at all. There is
     a
     char who is level 7 by now and everytime she log's on she has a new C
     placed
     on her head. Take a notice that she is a nice person and we know the
     contractor
     is doing this just to piss off and make her stop playing. As a level 7
     she
     praticaly stands no chance at all agains't the killers, specialy if he is
     higher level. Please notice that this is just an example. Right now the
     PoL
     only consider SOME cases like that as harassment and it is a little hard
     to
     handle since usualy people contract with several diferent chars to make
     it
     seem like there are a lot of people contracting, when behind all that
     there is
     only one typist.
      
     Another thing that this would proly stop is how people play with
     contracts.
     Contracts are IC things yet are treated like an OOC feature. I have seem
     people
     do more or less like this: Player X interacts with player Y, player Y
     dosen't
     like it so he get's on as his thief Z and places a contract on player X,
     after
     that, when the contract is matured, player Y get's on with Zero, his
     assassin
     char and goes after player X. I don't know how you all see that, for some
     might
     be normal but what I see is a missuse of the contracting system. So, in
     theory
     people would stop doing that to not reveal their alts.
      
     I think it would be more interesting if you discovered who placed the
     contract
     when you buy it off and pay an extra fee, but anyway I included those two
     idea.
     Enjoy.
      
     Rhoads Redbeard Antragon - Marshal of Helm's Deep


Lukas [Tue Dec 17 09:12:30 2002]: 
     I'm for this idea.
      
     The only problem that i see here is balance.
     Grima would loose it's credibility if such data would leak out.
     I'm aware that it's not impossible.. but just look at Grima...
     how much would you have to bribe him?
     a) maybe he doesn't like elves ?
     b) maybe he's pissed on servants of the Hand?
     c) maybe he's just greedy?
     d) maybe he has weak memory?
     e) maybe he values his life a bit?
      
     There are many ways to conveine man to speak... why not let
     people have them here.
      
     Lukas


Deboraha [Wed Dec 18 06:27:58 2002]: 
     I like it. I think it should cost a fortune, but I like it.


Arthlor [Wed Dec 18 13:46:21 2002]: 
     Strangely, I like this idea, too. If you make the bribe cost as much as
     the contract, that would encourage larger contracts, too.
      
     Art


Redival [Thu Dec 26 10:27:56 2002]: 
     I think Rhoads' idea brings up some interesting ideas. Indeed, it would
     be neat if you're spending so much to buy off a contract anyway to be
     able to learn who placed it. My main concern would be for the segment of
     people whom the contract system benefits most - the lowbies who have no
     other means of revenge. I know this isn't the primary population using
     the contract system, but in my mind it is the redeeming factor. Worst
     case scenario: Bob the dunedain Bushwhacker gets killed in a random
     "practice" pk. Saves up for a few hours, and manages to scrape up 1.5k or
     so to put on the guy who did it. Then the bit-shot player comes, buys off
     the contract and says "aha! It was Bob who placed it, I'll make an
     example of him" and goes out and kills Bob a couple more times. Now, I
     know this is an extreme example and I'm not against the idea of being
     able to pay to find out who contracted you. I just think it would be good
     to examine all of the implications of implementing something like this.
     The contract system is a great equalizer in this game and any major
     changes to it should be carefully thought out. 
      
     Redival Pharanor, Edoras rep


Deboraha [Sun Dec 29 14:25:19 2002]: 
     I would like to propose the following vote in this case:
      
     Ref. MC 2005: Should the Council pursue the idea in this case
     for players being able to bribe to learn who has placed thier
     contracts?