Damn. I called that one.
”No confidence” was not included as a poll option for the Rhydin Governor Election.
A few players have already questioned the reasoning for this in the What Power does the Governor have? thread at Dragon’s Mark. Unfortunately, I don’t think questioning will amount to much. Despite the concerns of many players, it looks like Admin-sponsored elections are here to stay at Dragon’s Mark.
Thinking about who Alysia would vote for, I kind of ran into a wall. Most of the candidates seem to be well known among the Rings of Honor / dueling crowd – and Alysia doesn’t duel, so she really doesn’t know any of the candidates:
- Gnort: She met him once briefly and knows he unsuccessfully ran in the last election.
- Matthew Simon: She’s never seen him or heard of him.
- Karen Wilder: She saw this woman a few times in the Inn before, but thinks Karen is a frothing religious fanatic.
- Wolvinator: She doesn’t trust Wolvinator at all, not since she heard him bad-mouthing Kitty Helston in the Inn one night.
Then again, Alysia grew up in a time when there was no “official” government in Rhydin, so she doesn’t see the need for a governor/mayor at all.
As a player, I might be inclined to vote for Gnort, just for all the articles he put up at RhydinWiki – but that would be Out of Character, not In Character.
So I couldn’t come up with any valid IC way to address the vote.
But I just realized that this is not intended to be an In Character election. It really is an Out of Character player popularity contest:
((Please one vote per player. We will be monitoring. ))
–Amaltea “Election Candidates“
The players are voting. Not the characters.
I understand the reasoning for this, that they don’t want a bunch of sock puppets skewing the results as with the 2007 election. However, if you have two different characters who support two different candidates, you’re just screwed.
I decided to support the No Confidence storylines anyway and had Alysia hand write that in on her ballot. I encourage you to have your characters cast a No Confidence Vote as well. I don’t think it’s going to do any good, but if nothing else, it will let the winning player know who probably won’t be acknowledging his character’s Admin-sanctioned authority.
I could rant for eons about this now, but I’ll refrain from spamming your journal too much.
I’ll just sum up my feelings in one word: Disappointment.
..there’s a few others, but.. *shakes head* And since No Confidence is being overlooked anyways, I voted with Lydia (for Matt actually. Was able to justify it ICly) and Carley did No Confidence. She says ‘no’ heartily to government, and it’s also me trying to show my support to the player. Others want to treat this as a popularity contest, that’s fine. I’m still treating it ICly as it should be.
I’m also not going to hold Amaltea’s actions of taking over the SL against the ones that have already been running. They’ve worked hard, and if the winner is respectable about their play? I will be okay with that.
I do worry for the future. What else are the administrator’s going to take over and regulate?
It’s a shame. But I cannot say that I am surprised at all.