


12:29 am
September 17, 2011

now, we hav all passed by the courthouse at some point or another. Some of use worked on building it, others decorated it. now it sits at spawn and just looks pretty. now while looking good is a very importaint thing, i am one for giving things a specific use. so why don't we give the courthouse a chance and hold a trial in it.
Jobs:
now ,as is seen in many trials, there would be five possitions in any trial
Judge: this would either be Meat, Frelling, or someone that they have decided can best fill the role of an enforcer of the laws of VC
Lawyers: these would be players that know the rules like the back of their hand. these clever people would try to find a way that the rules favor their side oposed to the opponants. also, the people would be trying to sell their side as the victim to the jury, as it is their dessision who will win.
Jurors: the people would just be random(somewhat) citizens who are not just going to say\"i like Bob, therfore Bob is right\". perferably, these people would not hear about the trial's topic untill they show up, to keep them from getting to one-sidded.
Prosecution/Defense: i lump them in one but they are two separate jobs. these would be the two people who have the dispute. their job would just be to work with their lawyer to try and get their side as the winner. they would also be able to be called as witnesses
Witnesses: these people would have seen the argueing/comflect and somehow can give further insite into the situation. such as: saw someone do something.
of course this wouldn't be used for petty disputes. no \"he stole my sweet roll\" kind of trials, but actual problems people are having such as: a land dispute, requests for a structure to be torn down(if the player is still un-banned), ETC.
This would give the Courthouse a functional use, as well as givving people a break from the normal SMP game and give VC a bit of a Role-Playing edge.Just an idea, what do you guys think?
We've considered that, and still might work some aspect of role play into the court house at sometime in the future, but the main issue that held the idea back is essentially the logistics.
1. If we offered a trial to every single accused, we'd spend countless hours giving attention to these, and 99% of the offending players would not even respect the trial anyways.
2. Staff ban dozens if not hundreds of people a week. We don't have the time or desire to waste time on most of those people.
We've thought about using it as sort of a civil court, where users can sue each other for various reasons. Not bannable offenses, or perhaps the person has been unbanned, but the person they've wronged desires reparation. For example, I steal 5 diamonds from you, get banned, appeal, get unbanned, but I don't have diamonds anymore. So you're without diamonds still, you sue me, the judge determines I owe you 5 diamonds plus 2000 shillings (or whatever the judgement ends up).
This would limit the time spent on this, and also give a bit of a use for it, although there wouldn't be a jury, as it's not a criminal trial, just a civil court *(judge makes the call).
The one downside to this idea we had is frivolous lawsuits. So IF we did this, we might put a stiff penalty (like 10,000 shillings) if the judge determines the lawsuit was frivolous, imposed on whoever sued.
12:39 pm

Staff Alumni
October 23, 2011

As a person who deals with law in real life, you do NOT want to deal with law in a game. It's a big waste of time and emotion. I say you leave the rule-handling to the mods and owner. Despite its very flexible and friendly staff, this server is not a democracy, doesn't have a set of civil-rights, and is actually a dictatorship (albeit one with a good dictator). Getting into law while in a game just seems dangerous and irritating to me.
If you want to use the court for something, I'd use it for enjoyable mock-trials and things like that. Get some players together and see if you can out-debate each other in a party chat and have your judge settle the matter based on the jury's decision. But it should never be anything serious and never result in anyone getting their feelings hurt. We play the game to enjoy it. Keep enjoying it and leave the depression of actual law in the real world.
Just my two cents. You guys can do whatever you want, obviously.
6:00 pm
September 17, 2011

i dont knwo if people had gotten this, but i wasnt saying to go with actuall problems. i mean if we actually handle problems in the courthouse then suddenly tats a whole new workload for a bunch of people. i was more suggesting that we do a more role play aspect that is maily for fun. i was also just seeing what we could do to get a use for some of these buildings at spawn that arn't used and just sit there gathering theoretical dust
6:20 pm

Staff Alumni
June 3, 2012

Honestly I'm against the whole role play feel. To me the courthouse makes for aesthetics for spawn. Just because its built doesn't really mean it has to have a purpose. I mean we have an aquarium at spawn as well lol. The court just fits there in regards to buildings.
Dalferes said
I mean we have an aquarium at spawn as well lol.
That was in hopes we could move squid to it, but maybe down the road there will be better sea life to add to it, lol.
As far as role play at the court, it seems like most of you agree with me that it would be impractical and not fun to apply a 'justice system'. Mock trials would be the most reasonable thing, because you guys can just pretend.... But yeah it makes for a good sentiment, but in reality, impractical and probably not fun.
8:18 am
August 18, 2011

Pherian said
As a person who deals with law in real life, you do NOT want to deal with law in a game.
Amen! It is hard enough to keep rules simple letting common sense fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, that "sense" isn't as common as we'd like to see it. Rather than scribing tomes upon tomes encompassing all deviations from the norm, its easier to throw them in jail for a moment of reflection Simple, effective, and efficient.
8:42 am

Staff Alumni
October 23, 2011

frelling said
Amen! It is hard enough to keep rules simple letting common sense fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, that "sense" isn't as common as we'd like to see it. Rather than scribing tomes upon tomes encompassing all deviations from the norm, its easier to throw them in jail for a moment of reflection
Simple, effective, and efficient.
If only real life were that simple, huh? Be so much easier if we had mod commands for real life
9:31 am

Viceroy

Senior Mod
June 1, 2012

I agree with what people are saying, especially Pherian, and really think that holding trials, even mock ones, would be a bad idea.
Of course, I'm all in favor of having the courthouse be more useful, but perhaps it can be done in other ways?
Examples:
- Offices for the moderators (since they're essentially Judges)
- Legal Information Repository
- Location of the "Official Rule Book" of Veterancraft
- In-game list of Punishments for Rule violations
- Appeals process laid out
- Execution Chamber (since we bury our banned)
I'm sure there are other possible uses as well.
9:37 pm
August 18, 2011

LightWarriorK said
I agree with what people are saying, especially Pherian, and really think that holding trials, even mock ones, would be a bad idea. [snipped in the interest of saving space]
I concur with everything you've stated Especially the execution chamber! A pit of zombies or other nefarious ills, which upon their death bans the hapless sole that tested fate. I'll have to think about that one. muhahahaha
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