Teppy distributing drug paraphernalia and demi-Pharaoh exiles troublemaker

[Righ]

Kind of interesting news (the second part, the first just provided an irresistible hook):

Citizens of Egypt,

  I am very much looking forward to this weekend's events. Beginning this
Saturday, 1/28/2006 at 1:00PM EST (GMT-0500), Egypt will celebrate its
first ever Garlic Festival. The format will follow that of the Mutton
Festival held earlier this Tale: As a Gourmand, your goal is to enjoy as
many high-quality Garlic-based dishes as possible. As you sample dishes,
you'll notice that you start to get full. Since your score is based on both
the number and quality (effect length) of dishes sampled, it's best to
avoid filling up on low-quality food. Who will provide that food?
  Why, Egypt's finest Chefs! As a Chef, your goal is to have your food
enjoyed by as many Gourmands as possible.
  Prizes will be awarded to Egypt's top 49 Chefs, and top 49 Gourmands. It
is possible to win a prize from each category.
  We'll also be trying a totally new event type: The Great Egyptian
Smoke-Out. The goal of this special event is simply to enjoy a bowl of fine
herbs, smoked out of a beautiful hookah, with as many friends as possible.
We'll do two kinds of scoring for this event: The 49 top smokers by number
of friends smoked with, will win a special artistic Hookah. Furthermore,
the top 21 "most improved" smokers based on Fumeology skill point increase
will also win an artistic Hookah. Note that the "most improved" category
actually gives an advantage to new players who have few Fumeology points to
start with. This is a great chance for those new to ATITD to win an exotic
and collectible item!

  In other news...  A Tale in the Desert will celebrate its 3-year
anniversary next month. In that time I've done a lot of interviews, and one
question that inevitably comes up is "in what ways has the game gone
differently than you expected?" My answer often takes the interviewer by
surprise: I fully expected this unique form of in-game democracy that we
use, to breed an ever-growing, increasingly intrusive government, just as
real-world democracy often does. In fact, one big advantage I saw to
Tellings was the chance to undo the implosion that I thought was
inevitable. The culture that evolved in ATITD was just the opposite, and I
still don't have a good explanation. The force of law has always been
applied with the lightest touch. And it's not just in law that Egypt has
been cautious...
  In three years we've elected about 20 Demi-Pharaohs, players with the
power to permanently exile up to 7 of their countrymen. And in three years,
that power has never been used...
  Until this week. The circumstances were unremarkable. A player, Pili, was
accused of griefing by another player. This other player contacted
Demi-Pharaoh Deeva, who investigated, and determined to her satisfaction
that the griefing did in fact take place. She traveled by chariot to Sinai,
and used the power of the Demi-Pharaoh to permanently exile Pili.
  I wonder what this all means. Is it just a single griefer that will soon
be forgotten, or have we broken a taboo that has existed now for three
years? Are we now more willing to let power be wielded? This newsletter is
going out to over 40,000 people. If one of you could take a moment to file
it away, and observe the character of Egypt over the next year, I think it
would be a most fascinating study. Let's have a chat a year from now.

On the Nile,
Teppy (Pharaoh)

[Nyght]

  Until this week. The circumstances were unremarkable. A player, Pili, was
accused of griefing by another player. This other player contacted
Demi-Pharaoh Deeva, who investigated, and determined to her satisfaction
that the griefing did in fact take place. She traveled by chariot to Sinai,
and used the power of the Demi-Pharaoh to permanently exile Pili.

Well, its nice to make it sound all dramatic and whatnot. And yes, there are more then a few players wringing their hands over whether the ban was used appropriately or not.

But the the player that was banned had stolen and scammed from multiple players multiple times and had been warned and asked to stop several times by Demi's besides Deeva. He continued and was at this stage, targeting newbies for scams and theft.

It should also be noted that the ban is just a restart, unless the affected player chooses to ask to quit and for a refund of his remaining subscription. Not sure what happened this time.

While all this might be interesting many feel that the time and interest would be better spent on making the game fun and less tedious and try to finally get a continuing population that stays above 1500.

There have been other developer 'events' in recent days that have temporarily negated hours and hours of work by about 50 players. Many of these players are angry as one might imagine and some have threatened to quit as it greatly diminishes their chances to pass the related test, even were the 'event'  problem to be corrected soon.

Teppy might do well to quit shaking the ant farm. Telling 3 Alpha will start in about two weeks, followed by a closed beta, and a final week or so of open Beta.

[HaemishM]

My answer often takes the interviewer by
surprise: I fully expected this unique form of in-game democracy that we
use, to breed an ever-growing, increasingly intrusive government, just as
real-world democracy often does. In fact, one big advantage I saw to
Tellings was the chance to undo the implosion that I thought was
inevitable. The culture that evolved in ATITD was just the opposite, and I
still don't have a good explanation. The force of law has always been
applied with the lightest touch.

Maybe the lesson is that restrictive, totalitarian governments generally tend to spring out of the depersonalization of the masses. When the population is small enough that you actually could theoretically meet any or all of your subjects, or that you could one day be subject to the very totalitarian powers you wield, you tend to act pretty responsibily.

Or, there's a reason communes work, but communism doesn't.

[Righ]

I guess it depends on the communes and the communism. Most Kibbutzim are robust and functional, most American and British hippy communes and new age traveller communities became disfunctional and have dissolved. Philosophies and work ethics aside, probably the most striking difference between the two would be that unlike even the more functional of the hippy communes, Kibbutzim have changed over time to adapt to the changing world that they exist in, however grudgingly. In the case of Teppy's social experiment, there is only the commune and no significant external constraints.

[Akkori]

I agree Nyght. I am just waiting to see some improvements in AtitD. A government currency and offline sales 'ala Vendors would be a great start. Autonomous Mines would be great. Functional Boats for 2 or more players to fish and travel from. Chariots for the skilled (running sucks). Horses to ride. More variety in buildings. Etc...

Egypt could easily hold 10k players. There is a LOT of barren terrain out there that is just too damn hard to get to, and takes WAY too long to run to.