Player elected mayors of towns

I don't know how many towns there will be; therefore, this may be a useless question. However, can we have player-elected mayors of towns. I played a UO emulator once in which players could register as a citizen of a town. Each player could also go to this register, in-game, and select who they'd like to see as Mayor. The player with the most votes was mayor and had a certain amount of abilities within the town, setting tax, spending money on things within the city, decorating the town to a degree, sending announcements to all the citizens, and some other things. I always thought this was a brilliant idea. I'd like to see it in this game if it is at all useful or possible.

 

I'm hoping for systems like this but yea they may need some kind of test modes to get these working right before going into the main modes of play.
Whats nice is that we could just jump in and out of test modes to try things.

 

I also quite like this idea but could being mayor or the voting be exploited in some way? also, remember only a certain number of players are ever going to see a "mayor" at one time...

 

Maybe leave out names but all Government dealings could be made known to the people so they could vote on if it was fair or not.

 

That's a good idea, jondavis.

 

The only problem with elections that occured in the emulator that I played was that a mayor could be elected and then the player might stop playing; therefore, not fulfilling his duties. The absent mayor couldn't get voted out because about 20 inactive players have him as their perennial vote. The town had about 50 citizens, of which the remaining 30 didn't vote on a single candidate. My character, Vladimyr Boyar, led a "Bleeding Kansas"-like campaign in which I inspired out of towners to flood the towner and re-register as citizens of Skara Brae, my endorsed candidate won the election. However, it was declared a fradulent election and my candidate resigned; however, a new candidate was selected as mayor. Therefore, I still achieved my goal. The game wasn't overtly political as I make it seem, but my character kind of enhanced the political flavor of the UO emulator I played. I really enjoyed the political touch. It made everything seem much more real.

 

Honestly, I have found putting players into roles of leadership outside of Guilds to have bad endings. This usually ends up with someone having another's will forced upon them. Players are usually not good in government positions where other players are expected to bend a knee or follow their rules.

If I place my house in a town I don't want some fool to get elected and harrash me about extra taxes or the trash cluttering my lawn. If guilds can run cities filled with guild members than fine, but this won't make sense in other locations. For example, with the matchmaking, someone may never even see the "mayor" if its another PC because they are never matched with them.

 

I vote no to this idea, because the elected mayor could be a nimrod. Or quit playing.

and then like, what about single player?

 

Maybe there is a way to do this that makes it less invasive. I just think it adds a realistic touch to a city to have a mayor, especially if it is one that one might be able to talk to and vote in or out of office.

 

If there is to be any voting in villages I'd prefer a direct democracy. Let each person vote on the issues, rather than a representative making decisions and imposing rule.

 

Maybe have like 3 NPC candidates of which change their promises every month or so and players can vote one in, say for example, one of them has a low house tax for that city but a higer cost for resources, the other the opposite and the third something new, but they'd need to mix these up and have many options.

 

I like that idea, RecoElgred

 

I'd like to see this as the ultimate goal, but don't expect it in the first episode. Ultimatly I see towns being run by guilds, who control them through castles, who form into kingdoms as a lord/vassel relationship.

Towns should grow a la Civilization or Lord of Ultima.

 

There was an event in Guild Wars 2 like this recently where you had to complete quests to get tokens which you could then spend on 'votes' for the candidate you wanted. It was a cool way to implement more quests and get people involved.

I like the idea of player-run cities; I think maybe if a city was run by a particular guild it would be fun if other players came and stayed as guests.

 

Good ideas!

 

Im with Umbrae on this one.

 

Ultima Online has this feature. You put your name in the hat and people vote on who they want as mayor. You get special town abilities. Of course my Knight's house it tax free I don't care if you tax others.

 

I'm just a little worried that a player who is elected mayor could not be fair in situations and harrass a player becuase the mayor's friend might not like a particular player and tell the mayor to mess with that person perhaps unfairly which could start issues in the long run if too many players have problems. Perhaps an impeachment option as well in case people opt to kick mayor-elect for not doing a fair or good job.

 

It sounds like we all understand that player-governance is risky. The faction system in UO allowed for faction leaders to govern controlled towns through the abilities to hire more/less guards, and modify NPC prices (1), and both of these abilities led to issues in game.

Despite being really difficult to implement safely though, player governance is desirable and fun, and adds a rare form of depth to online games. I agree with PrimeRib that it is something worth adding later on, but that isn't to say that we shouldn't discuss it now.

 

I think recall elections should be easily implemented and the admins would be able to remove someone for abuse of power. I think even having a mayor that doesn't directly influence player's is enough. Maybe the mayor is someone who rallies the citizens when a city is attacked and if a mayor performs at a certain level personally, it somehow adds a benefit to the town--cheaper prices, more town-related events, beautifications of the town, etc. The mayor could have some sort of ability in decorating the public buildings, if there are any. There's a lot of "harmless" things a mayor could do. Although, that may take the fun away from voting a mayor out. I think people should be able to opt out of citizenship if they don't want to be part of the town election system. They won't have to pay taxes, but they also won't benefit from what the mayor brings and also can't vote. That way people don't have to partake in the system if they don't want to. They can register with a town if they change their minds.