PewPew Feeling philosophical this evening, PewPew? COUNT ME IN 😛 ! I can see your point as a well considered and healthy outlook and quite optimistic. I freely admit that i, however am cynical. I don't think people are altruistic by nature, i think people are mostly selfish by nature. Nurture and experience can mold a person to any extreme of the spectrum, but base instinct of all life is selfish for from birth for the sake of survival. Personally i try to ignore what someone says is there intentions and look at their actions and consequences instead. That usually gives a good measure of where someones interests lie. I also disagree that the intentions of others are indecipherable. Sure, knowing one hundred percent is impossible, but a fair idea can be judged from their actions and how that correlates to their interests.
A good example can be made here, these forums and what Walt is doing here, so i'll try to read his intentions 😛. First lets look at the actions. Walt is developing a game and giving early access to players for testing and feedback. He is also being actively involved in the process and taking pains to make sure the player base feels like they are being heard.
The consequence is a small community of loyal and mostly good minded people who feel they are involved in the game creation process, that are a fond of this forum and have an excellent regard for it's creator, Walt.
I'd propose that Walt's intentions are two-fold.
1. Excellent game testing and feedback leading to a higher quality game upon release. This feeds the ego and fulfills a longtime desire for this accomplishment.
2. Creating a preexisting and loyal market to guarantee some profits when the game is finally ready for sale.
I don't think these intentions are maliciously profiteering or overtly selfish, rather, I see it as a smart business modal and Intelligent design with foresight and clarity which not only seeks to benefit Walt greatly, but to also keep his future customers invested in the product for the long term in the process. I'm happy to be wrong or way off the mark, but i'd still wager that this forms at least some of the elements of his intentions.
What is the best course of action to the clumsy or ill-intentioned? If it doesn't impact others it's not a big deal. If it does? That is a matter for serious debate, but the direction is always the same: Course correction. Allowing a person to continuously make clumsy or ill-intentioned decisions that affect others without recourse feeds their psyche with verification that what they are doing is ok or will have no consequence.
Ideally the best solution is productive dialogue, but that doesn't always sink in or work. Sometimes it's actively seen as a challenge or up for debate because after all, how can i be wrong? That also comes along with the selfish need to be right, or rather, win.
If a person can't be left to continue what they are doing without learning anything, or reasoned with for successful compromise, that only really leaves punishment or exclusion, after all, you can't very well reward the person in question for such actions. Excellent example, which is coming up A LOT this last week is Epic's Ban.
EpicJP was banned. He broke the rules of the medium he was participating in at least 3 times. 3 times he was warned and spoken to, and 3 times he did not learn or change his ways to accommodate the community rules. This led to punishment, and now sadly he is now no longer welcome amidst the forums. Is this a good result? Not really, someone had to get banned. But he is no longer negatively affecting anyone in the community as he wore out it's tolerance of his behavior.
Do you think his scenario was handled correctly? Would you change how it was approached? Would you risk undermining the rules to undo such a ban if you thought it was harmless?
