Alternate LIving Communities
OK here is a caveat before people overreact. I love LEW – I think the judges are fair and the current leadership does a great job running the community. So this is not directed at anyone in particular nor is it an attack.
I just have some concerns about the centralization of power over the current gaming community with a few select people. Also the view that they are somehow uniquely qualified for this because they have experience is a bunch of BS.
Before, they were just like the rest of us. Saying that hey are the only ones who can now figure out how to successfully run such a community from he ground up (especially since there is a group to turn to for help) without them is, to me, rather an arrogant statement.
Also, the philosophy that the current judges of LEW are somehow uniquely more qualified than anyone else who plays or Dams D&D on a regular basis to set policy, rules or make approvals or judgments effecting the community or tone of the game more than anyone else who has been playing the game since its genesis is wrong. .
I say they are just a bunch of good guys who worked out how to make a place for us all to play on LEW, asked for the space and got the support from someone here at ENW to get it.
Think about it, how’d they majority of them become judges. They laid he framework for the site and through that work are entitled to a lot of say in how their creation develops and this is how it should be BTW. If you lay the framework you would have say. Not all that different than any group of people making any club for that matter. I got to say as I have observed in most clubs the general membership gets a vote on a lot of the decisions made especially about the leadership. (I know we can speak on any topic but without a vote it’s almost useless IMO.)
However, what’s the process for selecting the judges who came after them? It’s voted on by only the current judges themselves. The general membership has no say and will never therefore have a real say in the business of the rules.
There is no reason to impugn anyone’s integrity (it’s been all good here so far) but that system is just asking for the perception that it is little more than a popularity contest. If you agree with the current party line and they like you they might make you a judge if not…well you get it. It’s probably just perception but that is the very thing that most organizations have checks and balances in the first place.
Not so much because impropriety is such a frequent thing but that them membership has no reason to believe it might be happening. I say there should be some voting for judges by the community at large. It was proposed and shot summarily down.
Which brings me to another huge issue with me, should that small elite group also have say over who controls all the living environments on ENW. This part makes me say hummmm…..
Don't worry, there won't be a full cross staffing from LEW and LE. And this has already been discussed by the judges.
This is saying to me that the current judges for the LEW project have already discussed and divided up the pieces of the LEB pie for one and latter the Living FR pie and if not themselves running it they will be the arbiters of who will run it. Who will they allow a piece? What are the criteria and why are they even choosing they already have their community. This is a different one and should be well, different not influenced by the same people
This I say is too much centralization of authority with so few people. I say the rule should be one judge position for one living community period. That way the communities are indeed unique not influenced by the same people over and over. Now that I’ll caveat with unless no one else steps up to take parts of the development of the world then it can be opened up.
Now here is the question I should have asked last time.
I guess I wasn’t asking the right question. When all these uniquely qualified Judges were just a bunch of people who played D&D and DM’d games at home like the rest of us where did they get the forum room to make LEW.
By that I mean who granted the forum space and accounts for them to make a living campaign at all. Because I think a new fresh set of people might be a better choice for an alternate living game with perhaps a different set of rules than the current judges would allow.
That’s why I was asking if I talked to PC or who about it.
Again, in closing, I love LEW, think it’s a great place but would like to do a living community here with an entirely different feel and tone - choices not limitations. I will ask for the help of and most likely will use a lot of the lessons learned on LEW cause why reinvent the wheel.
Another issue is that being a judge and playing in the community is a lot different than just playing in a community. As a judge one’s personal character proposals like feats and spells have a tendency to get a little more of a quick and serious look probably from the other judges out of professional courtesy (it’s totally natural and ok with me). Same with other things you are a judge and because of it (even if you don’t ask and never would) people will treat you differently.
I think that one judge position in one living community is plenty. Perhaps being a player in one community would do some good for the judges to make them remember how hard and frustrating it is to get those character special feats and other proposals approved. When you are the judge you can influence the game when not you are at someone else’s mercy. That would go a long way towards all the communities working together and keeping the judge’s heads in the right place so they remember where they came from.
