Proposed Amendment: Renaming and Fairness Pledge

[DaveShack]

The following amendment has been proposed in the main MTDG forum. We should confirm our team position before it gets formally answered.


Do you agree to the following amendments to the rules:

Old 2.4:

2.4 - Misleading through Renaming

Description: No team or individual is permitted to rename a unit or city with the intent of misleading or confusing opponents.

Definition: Cities can be renamed to names of tech or sums of gold or anything else in an effort to not trade what that opponent agreed to. Units can be renamed to other units and appear to be something else entirely.

Purpose: To prevent the misleading or confusion of another team through malicious use of in-game features.

Verdict: Using this 'feature' or any other feature or exploit that allows misleading or confusing another team is a violation of this rule.

Punishment Level: Once – Red (5-Expulsion and forfeiture of double what was not legally traded)

New 2.4:

2.4 - Renaming Units and Cities

Description: Teams are permitted to rename their units and cities as they please.

Definition: Cities can be renamed to names of tech or sums of gold or anything else in an effort to not trade what that opponent agreed to. Units can be renamed to other units and appear to be something else entirely. For this reason, we encourage teams to formally write out their trade proposals and submit it to the admins to prevent this from happening.

Old 4.3:

4.3 - Fairness Pledge

Every team must agree to the fairness pledge before the game starts:

“I pledge to compete fairly and within the rules of the game. I pledge to adhere not only to the written rules, but also to the unwritten, spirit of the rules. I understand that failure to live up to this pledge may result in penalties for me and my team.”

New 4.3:

4.3 - Fairness Pledge

Every team must agree to the fairness pledge before the game starts:

“I pledge to compete fairly and within the rules of the game. I pledge to not tamper with the game itself, to not unfairly gain access to secret information from other teams, and to follow these rules to the best of my ability. I understand that failure to live up to this pledge may result in penalties for me and my team.”

 

[Bootstoots]

I may not have been very active here, but isn't renaming cities to other things in an attempt to deceive your opponents a bit of an exploit? Why exactly should that not only be legal but protected in the rules?

 

[DaveShack]

The concept behind this rules change is to say that deliberate and unfair deception is still against the rules, but anything other than unfair deception is allowed.

 

[zyxy]

I am against the amendment and I can see no other reason for its proposal than the wish to abuse the limitations of the game interface. This opens the door to all kinds of exploits, as language is not a formal construction, despite what some people seem to think.

 

[Robi D]

The concept behind this rules change is to say that deliberate and unfair deception is still against the rules, but anything other than unfair deception is allowed.

How can deception be fair???

 

[DaveShack]

C'mon, only 3 votes? Guess this wasn't open long enough...

I'll hold off a little bit on casting our official vote. My vote was the yes vote, and it's not so much a statement that I really like the change, just have nothing against it.