WARNING: Long post ahead. TL;DR is at the bottom.

There is a fine line between rewarding those that have selflessly worked for our city, and a system that leaves those that are less established behind and underestimated.

Today, there was a bit of an argument between a few players over the ore factory. Honestly, it was fairly unimportant and overall a misunderstanding- but it did highlight something that bugged me a bit in 2.0 and has so far been slightly harsher in 3.0 (but hopefully sure to change in the near future). This same problem has been spotted by a few in the past.

I am not going to go into the argument very much (It was kind of a clusterfuck. Plus I barely said anything or sympathized wholly with either side- so I can't remember everything), but here's kind of a summary:

Essentially, those that give to the city and aren't getting anything in return, seem to feel underappreciated and not taken seriously. When they try to get involved in government or planning in Slack, MC, or elsewhere, they are ignored or brushed aside.

Someone said "the current system is kind of like 'I scratch you, you'll scratch me back"' while another player said that some scratch but aren't given one in return.

The problem is as follows:

There has been, and likely will continue to be, a group of powerful elites in CW and Concordia that have always decided things. From my experience in 2.0 and, to much less of an extent, more recently, this has almost always been true.

So what does this mean for Concordia?

It means that players will be less likely to stay in a city that they may feel like there is little chance of being included. It means that for many, their participation won't be anything more than building a house (much like it was for most of late 2.0).

Due to it being literally only 2 weeks into 3.0, I can't say this for sure, however. Nor can I say that this split between those taken seriously and those not will remain for more than another day. But this does mean we have an opportunity to remedy any wrongs that may be found before they spiral out of control.

One thing seems clear though- in order for our city to thrive in the long term, we cannot have an oligarchy like we did for late 2.0. The Federalist party has said this in their party platform and will most likely advocate the same during the next few months. Hopefully other parties will believe in the same thing.

Now, speaking from personal experience, I found it fairly difficult to become involved in any part of the CW government outside of Isenburg. This was mostly my fault for not striving towards it as hard or efficiently as Apepp or earlier players did. However, the reality was that there was already an established power structure that did not seem to want to include others. I had always wanted to make my own small city state, and this established community where I was more or less an ice hermit, made it more important for me to start planning something where I would have more freedom and control over the game. This would not come to pass.

As some oldies might remember, the wall project cut straight through Isenburg without consulting me before hand. I was angry not solely because there was suddenly a huge ditch in my borough, but mostly because I had never been consulted. Even when I had proposed alternative wall routes (both months before and a little after the incident), I was ignored and later insulted by a player. Thankfully, it was more or less worked out eventually. A few weeks or a month later, I left Commonwealth, and a little later, Civcraft.

That no longer matters and I don't hold any grudges. People make mistakes, and I sure must have come off as annoying and counter-productive to those that had by far put more effort and time into making Commonwealth a great city than I had, with my half-completed cathedral. mostly empty promises to help with the canal, and small ink sac business. Its a game of e-legos where nothing truly matters outside of the time we put into it. I had certainly not put as much time into it as those that truly made the city something important. safe, and beautiful.

However, the point remains- being excluded from the decision making in my own borough sucked. The fact that my opinion wouldn't and didn't change anything before things escalated, sucked. The fact that I wasn't part of the oligarchy or group that trusted each other and worked together frequently, also sucked.

I am afraid that something similar will happen in the future.

So what can we do about it?

I learned two lessons from my experience at the end of 2.0

1. That while an oligarchy may be efficient and easy, it often does not make for a refreshing, healthy, or active city. The founders seem to understand this and have thankfully pretty extensively and tirelessly created a draft constitution that addresses this.

2. That players cannot be lazy if they can afford not to. Life always gets in the way- and it should. Minecraft should be getting in the way of living life, and not the other way around. However, in order to create a city that truly works well, citizens need to participate. This means that ministers have to stay active, and that buildings cannot remain uncompleted for a month. The framework for maintaining an active community exists in our draft constitution with the Parliamentary 'refreshes,' but ultimately it is our choice to make sure that this happens and that we remain active.

One thing that can certainly help (not just in maintaining activity, but also in attracting players), is to include those that want to be, into the non-parliamentary decision making. This means that decisions cannot be made on mumble by a small group of people, like they were in much of 2.0. As I said before, so far those that drafted our constitution, and those that are currently in charge, have done a fucking fantastic job. Making sure that Concordia doesn't become an ineffective Orion with little actual power for the people, has been mostly dealt with. The planners of Concordia have created the governmental structure we need to survive and thrive.

The primary problem is that it is not up to some foreign ethereal governing being to make sure this actually happens. Its up to us. We have to make sure that we follow the rules and not cut corners for the sake of easiness. That is how oligarchies are created in Civcraft, and we don't want that.

In order to prevent this once and for all, we need to make sure that the group of friends and acquaintances that have been part of CW from nearly the beginning include those that don't use mumble, don't have mics, and/or are ignored on the Slack. The reason why the ore factory argument became such a huge deal for 40 minutes today is because of the above not happening. People felt unincluded and like their ideas and work were not taken seriously. More communication can help tremendously with this. In addition, older players should not assume that players outside of the core group don't know at all what they're doing, or that they themselves are 'entitled' to power.

This means, as painfully inefficient it can be at times, that we need to use the subreddit more for planning (not just posting the finished google doc or spreadsheet!). We need to talk more in the Minecraft chat about city planning. Players should not have to wade through thousands and thousands of Slack messages to find the plans for roads in a particular district. In order for people to stick around, we need inclusion. This also means that those that have the means, should participate more on mumble or discord, and should make the active effort that I didn't make in 2.0 to be involved.

It also means that we need to be more willing to elect officials that are not part of the established group from early-mid 2.0. This does not mean we should banish or exclude those whose advice and know-how is essential to our survival- it simply means we need to be less eager to take the easiest path. This way, we have a greater chance of being an inclusive, interactive, and fun place to live. In the long run, this is better for our city and our players.

And finally, we MUST stick to our government form and court system. In times of crisis, we may waiver, but we have to always go back to our parliament and prime minister. Otherwise, we will go down a path that ended in inactivity and frustration for others in 2.0.

Thank you for reading my mostly-incoherent rant. Please let me know what you think in the comments. Remember, that no matter what government form our city is in 2 years, it is in the end our job to have fun and include others in that fun. After all, most of us are here for the civilization-building experience. Why not satisfy that collective hope?

TL;DR:

In order for a better experience in 3.0, we need to include discussion of the city planning and government more on the subreddit, in the minecraft chat, etc. and less on the slack and mumble/discord. This way the government and community are more accessible to those that don't have a mic, and/or aren't part of the established community of players that have existed for the past 2-3 years. In order to keep players in the city, we need to be active in places that are more visible and easier to reach. We cannot make decisions in private or outside areas and then publish them for players to see elsewhere. We have to make decisions in areas where common players are able to take part at this a bit. In addition, we need to make sure that we don't cut corners and become a sort of oligarchy where the rich and established control power.

While the founders have clearly and wonderfully created the structure to get rid of most of the inactivity and oligarchy of 2.0, it is up to us to create change and make sure that these things happen and that we don't take the easiest route.

EDIT: Fixed some grammar and punctuation misatkes. Its 2 AM after all. Sorry if I missed a few. I also clarified some points in the second part of the post.