[SPOILERS] - PBEM26 Lurker thread

[NobleHelium]

Honestly Ceil, your posts are generally excessive.

[Ceiliazul]

Honestly Ceil, your posts are generally excessive.

Hmm, i suppose you're referring to Pin re: Astronomy? or really just in general?

[NobleHelium]

That's one of the examples, yeah.

[Ceiliazul]

That's one of the examples, yeah.

Things that brought me to RB:

• never say die attitude
  
• multiplayer without the trolls
  
• mutual learning environment
  
• honorable and fair play

RB isnt perfect on those attributes, but far and away better than elsewhere! I want to support those things. I see others pointing out pitfalls for players, as long as it has nothing to do with other spoiler threads.

I'm still new at this so please help: where is the line?

Edit: Is this for all games, or only PB2?

1) Lurkers may respond to civ4 mechanics questions (eg how many turns for a worker to chop a forest? Why didn't my cottage grow? How does the AP work?)

2) Lurkers may congratulate players on achieving a goal (eg Well done on getting that city spot)

2a) However, don't reveal unnecessary information on your comment (eg Well done on getting that city spot - I really thought that Greece was going to get it)

3) Lurkers may participate in option discussions but only after the player has articulated the options and only to the extent of pointing out additional strengths / weaknesses of options that the player might have missed.

3a) Lurkers should NOT suggest additional options that the play might have missed - do not give strategic or tactical advice that isn't known previously
3b) Lurkers should NOT express opinions about various options - ditto

4) Lurkers may express opinions on player agreed rules, but should also point out that rules agreed by the players should be discussed by the players

5) Lurkers may ask a team to explain their opinion about in game situations and developments, but must do this without writing leading questions, or implying information gained from other spoiler threads. It may be wiser to ask how to phrase such a question in the no players thread already, before posting it in a spoiler thread. Basically, be careful.

6) Lurkers may not ask sequence questions -

7) Lurkers may ask for screenshots.

8) Lurkers shall not contact players regarding RBPB2 outside this forum by any means.

[SevenSpirits]

There are no formal guidelines (you don't have to follow that post, for example). Also the culture has definitely changed since that post.

There are two main possible reasons for staying silent on a topic.

1) Spoilers. This is obvious and I think you understand it just fine. Back in the day it was a problem though. For example, there would be no lurker posts in someone's thread forever, and then suddenly a solitary question: "what turn are you going to finish X wonder on?" (And yes it would be because someone else had posted that they were building it.) So spoilers - they're bad because they ruin the integrity of the game and punish people for posting their plans. (In fact you may still run into some players here who don't post important stuff out of fear it will be spoiled to someone else, which I always find disappointing.)

2) Letting the players play their own game. You'll notice people have varying degrees to which they ask for lurker advice. Some ask never, some ask lots. I don't think there is an overriding consensus on this topic, and IMO it's up to each individual player or team how much help they'd like. Giving people general advice does not screw up the game like spoilers can. However, it can affect the game. And therefore one needs to be careful not to give a level of advice that the players receiving it don't want or appreciate.

That is where I draw the line. Some people have a stronger negative opinion about the second kind of thing. They want it to be just one player (or however many originally signed up) to be making all the decisions for each team. I think this attitude has been on the wane.

Edit: I'll add that I personally enjoy discussing the game a lot and am happy to have all kinds of lurker posts in my threads, as long as they're not spoilers. To me we're all just trying to learn how to play this awesome game, by trying stuff and talking about it.

[NobleHelium]

Generally speaking I point out mechanics errors and answer mechanics questions. I will generally respond to topics the player is already discussing, and ask questions that will not cause the player to suspect anything about what the other players are doing. I don't bring stuff out of the blue or ask leading questions, or offer unsolicited, direct advice (like "I think x tech is important"). You can do that after the fact of course, in most cases.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I try to do that too, but sometimes if I feel a statement goes a bit too spoilerish, I just edit that entire post out of existence.

I can't help pointing out cool little mechanics though, like rebasing air units to recently captured (and disappeared) cities, or how to spot if a resource is improved and connected.

[NobleHelium]

Also, I never post statements that clearly indicate what other players have posted about, like "I hear you got a great scientist!" even if that is obviously not spoiler information to the player spoken to. (It is a spoiler that other players have noticed this fact.) Opinions vary here from what I've seen.

[Ceiliazul]

Wow, so Yuri finds a treasure island and flat tells GasCom about it and suggests a race? Against 6-move galleons? It might still have been smart for Yuri if it keeps him out of war...

[oledavy]

Pity GasComm missed that island for so long. Settling a foodless dye site when there was a treasure island with silver and plentiful food resources just a dozen tiles away.