A Senate

This trial got me thinking about a few things that might make the world of AO more involving etc. (Not that I expect to see anything like this happen any time soon, just throwing ideas out there)

This is from an OT point of view but could be adapted for clans and neutrals as well.

A Senate, funcom wants our ideas and I have a feeling they get A LOT of them. So someone (probably a lot of 'someones') end up going through all this stuff to find the good ones. Why dont they have players do it for them?

My idea is to have elected officials (think about it, we all get to vote -- there could be campaigns, would really add to atmosphere to have political banners everywhere etc -- but limit it some for no spam) that are real players. They would have to be willing to devote a lot of time to AO and there would have to be a screening process to make sure they're serious. Model it after the real world systems -- getting signatures etc. And it wouldnt have to be in session all the time (so the players would get a break).

Then if we wanted something new in the game we could stay in character and send a letter (or some sort of feedback) to the senator for our district. The Senator could then make a bill (im sure funcom can think of more futuristic names for these things) and if the senate passes it then funcom implements. Because funcom would only have to interact directly with a limited number of people those people could be informed about the more complicated workings of AO and just what can and cant be done. Making everyone's life easier/ more fun.

This would be a MUCH more effecient system for user feedback, would greatly enhance the RP factor of AO (by not just empowering the roleplaying population but opening up goals that dont involve leveling/killing monsters etc), and just be darn entertaining. Events like public debates between candidates, assasination attempts, scandals etc.

Senators could employ guards (praetorians(sp) anyone?) envoys, and interns (no jokes) etc. These occupations could be implemeted with player missions or something else (just ideas here).

Well its just my 2 cents but I would love to see something like this actually happen

Sounds like a good idea... Funcom could get much better/clearer feedback this way, and wouldn't have to sift threw pages and pages of posts.... This could let them focus on other aspects of the game.

I think they mentioned something like this about a month ago in an update on the community site.

It's a pretty cool idea, but I don't like the "players vote on something, and FC has to implement it." Maybe, just have FC agree that they'll take a look at it.. I mean, what if there was a big campaign to turn everyone into chickens?

One of the purposes of a legislative body is that it will normalize things. In real life people have lots of different interests, some are really wacky (sometimes involving chickens I'm sure) but others are useful. It is up to the Senator to decide how feasable and/or rational an idea is.

It is entirely possible that this Senator could be a big fan of chickens so the idea could get through. Thats why there are a hundred other Senators that have to vote on it.

A structured form of representation (a Senate is only one possible form, but a well tested one) is the best way to take the interests of *everyone* and make laws (or in this case changes to the game) that make the most people happy while being feasable.

As far as FunCom implementing everything the Senate passes.... of course it would be impossible to implement everything but if they cooperated enough with the Senators to give them a good idea of what can and cant (or wont) be done then they would really have very little excuse not to implement the suggestions.

Then only downside I can see for FunCom is that they will be held completely responsible for not listening to players under this system.

But on the other side it would be massively good PR if everyone could point to the Senate and say "FunCom has implemented 90% of player suggestions passed by the senate" (or some other high percentage).

In short: A system like this would make it possible for FunCom to have a source of feasable, rational and most importantly *popular* ideas for the game.

Throw in making a heck of a lot of people really happy, being the first to do something like this, and having someone else do a lot of your work for you *for free* while adding a huge wholely new aspect to the game... just how many birds can be killed with one stone?