With the creation of an outpost on Empire Minecraft (or any community anywhere), a decisive government is always in need of establishment. On EMC, outpost/community governments are a tad trickier. Everything always goes back to the server rules and regulations, so in some sense, outpost governments are always in some sort of an authoritarian state. However, the division of the governing body below EMC staff is where, in all honesty, players can leave this part to themselves. While we get the privilege to create our own macro-governments, always deciding on one is a bit of a hassle. That's where you come in. Zalidon is a new, rising outpost on SMP7 with just a couple of handfuls of people, who are working hard to create a community that welcomes all with open arms. A clean, happy, and friendly atmosphere is what we're striving to create before we open the floodgates that is the public. Yes, Zalidon is currently closed to the public, and anyone who hasn't been given permission to visit has been politely escorted away (wouldn't want any peepers before we're ready! ) We need your help to decide which governing path Zalidon will go down. As of now, Zalidon is ran by a very small group of people in the unofficial Zalidonian Reigning Council. But, as our community develops, so does the need for a stable government. Below are several options that have been thrown up in the air in Zalidon, and some, I pondered about throughout my own time. You do not have to be a planned resident of Zalidon to weigh in on this, this is something that should be mutually taken up! So please, vote! Keep in mind that the option that gets the most votes isn't guaranteed to be the city's next government beyond the Reigning Council. However, we take the votes we receive seriously, so we hope you do too. The top options will be considered throughout the span of this poll, as well as time after it closes. EVERY VOTE MATTERS! Don't know what some of the types of government below are exactly? Brief descriptions of them are provided below, however we understand that a more stable understanding may be necessary for a true and honest vote. Please, take your time. These votes impact the future of our city! The polls will be open for three weeks, so please, vote! (The polls will end at 10:30PM EDT/EMC on July 1st!)
As founder, owner, and current leader of the Zalidonian Reigning Council, I will not be voting, in order to keep things fair. I wouldn't have created this poll if I knew what government I wanted
Edit on the first option- when I mean no official enforcement, I mean there's no official governing body I worded that wrong
If you want to see how a total direct democracy can go, search the "Global Outpost". Although its run was short (although anyone can resurrect it), it had a very active group for a short time. When I couldn't even pay people to come out, I realized we were probably done. The biggest problem with a direct democracy system on EMC is that things move incredibly slow. Unless you are specifically aiming for some kind of government/society simulator, I would recommend autocracy. Minecraft manages to avoid many of the problems of irl governments and much of the oppression and problems that can be caused by an autocracy aren't a thing here. You still get all of the benefits though. Specifically, you can make decisions with incredible speed and focus on the game. Once again though, this assumes that you want an outpost first. Otherwise, I think direct democracy is pretty fun assuming you have the numbers.
I think it might be best to let this depend on the size of your outpost and the kind of players you'll be attracting. So base this decision on what your players might want, not on what all players on the server (note: this includes players who aren't even a member or involved in any way) might think is best. For example.... If you got a group which is also really interested in helping to run the whole thing (the whole outpost) then it might be a good idea to decide that you'll all be voting on every decision which will matter to the whole outpost. But this could easily become tedious for players who are not interested in all the politics but only want to focus on what they enjoy most: building. If there are plenty of players who don't want to bother then it might be better to limit the staff section so that players who want to focus on building can do so without having to bother themselves with politics, while others who do want to be involved can. I do have one suggestion: Since you're the founder it might be a good idea to add a failsafe into the whole scheme by stating that you'll have the last say if you guys run into a deadlock. That way you can more or less ensure that you won't get into situations where you might have to start all over again (depending on what hierarchy you set up) without having any guarantees that you'll succeed this time. I'm sorry to hear that Have to admit that I haven't paid attention as of late, but I was under the impression that it was still going. Still, for what's it worth every outpost has its ups and downs. Although I'm not directly involved I do like to keep taps a bit on Underhelm. It's a decently sized SMP2 public outpost which is also relatively easily reached and you see the same thing. Some periods the whole thing seems dead, no one comes there and we also had moments where rhe founder had gone AWOL. Until... Suddenly it turned out a few people kept going there, and once they started talking about it they attracted the attention of other (newer) players and before you knew even the original founder stuck his head back in. Those things can easily happen, and could also apply here.
We aren't aiming to attract a specific type of players, however we are striving for a rich and diverse setup. Different players like different things, and we hope to acknowledge that! And as for the size of the outpost, that's expected to change over time. The type of government that is decided upon via this poll won't necessarily be the government system we use forever, however it's options I and my fellow townspeople thought would be good options for Zalidon to start off. It's unknown how long exactly the chosen system will be enforced, however it all depends on how the city develops internally.
While we are slowly (as in, this process has somehow taken us two years) morphing into something else, the LLO has always been a fine example of direct democracy working in an outpost. The only reason we began to consider change is because EMC started loving government-based outposts, and we needed a system to revive the outpost - I came up with an idea that we could stimulate this by advertising certain regions as their own outposts (while being under the umbrella of the LLO) and federating it. It never really finalised, but stuff is changing. It all depends on the type of outpost, really.
So like the US and it's states? All the states being pretty much their own thing, yet having to listen to Washington officials. Sounds like a similar scenario to your LLO idea- outposts listening to LLO.
I think my plan back then was more for how the European Union works, but yes - like the US and its states.
Possibly. They'd have their own threads and act independent from eachother, coming together in times of need and sticking to a common principle and ruleset. Kinda hard to explain. Thinking back on it, it probably wouldn't have worked though. Federating rather than confederating is probably the way to go for something like that.
Like Shell said, size matters. Think of what is natural and who takes responsibility for what. A small group does not need a formal structure, a medium sized will naturally have something like a council of elders. Natural structures are family and tribe. A very interesting concept is when a family / tribe as a whole is responsible for actions of the members. This solves numerous problems. An outpost could be partitioned so that each section belongs to a group. Unless you want to "play government", you'll probably want to minimize the need for formal decisions. Special care needs to be taken when creating rules. Rules need to serve the members. It's not good when members are slaves of the rules. Arbitrary, unnatural rules drive the fun away...
