Iain on Sun, 9 Jan 2005 04:29:02 -0600 (CST)


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[s-d] Re: [s-b] Peter tries to Scam


The "standard"(?!) interpretation of r18 is that it applies to the effects of actions, not just the cause: so the creation of points and the changing of rules are both regulated elsewhere in the rule set, hence neither is permitted by r18. I think this (or a very similar) scam has been attempted before.... but since we stopped giving titles for such things, I cant recall when or who...

If I had sufficient time and anal retentiveness, I would try to go through the list archives and write a history of this game...

cheers,
Iain

Peter Cooper Jr. wrote:

I'm almost certain that somebody must have tried this before. But I
figure that if that's the case, it'll just get CFI'd down and I'll
learn why it doesn't work, since I'm really curious what would stop
this from working. But, I figured I had to try, and don't really have
anything to lose by trying.

I create the Society "Pete's Scamming Society" with the following
Charter:
{{
For the purposes of this charter, "Peter" shall mean the Outsider who
first joined the game on nweek 76, nday 1 under the name Peter.

Peter is the only member of this Society. This society does not accept
any other entity as a member. If Peter is somehow not a member and
applies for membership, e becomes a member. If at any time any other
entity becomes a member of this Society, they are Ousted by it.

Pete's Scamming Society performs any action which Peter asks it to. It
will not perform any actions Peter does not specifically request.
It will not accept any items transferred to it by any player except
Peter unless Peter specifically requests this Society to do so.
}}

I ask Pete's Scamming Society to perform the following two actions,
which it does due to its charter:
Action 1: {{
Increase Peter's Score by 1000 Points.
}}
Action 2: {{
Modify Rule 393 by replacing the word "Players" with "Game Objects".
}}

In case you're wondering why I think this works, here's my reasoning
(which I'll try to explain in more detail if this gets CFI'd, but I
think that this is mostly it.):
- r578, Societies, section II, says "Societies may only take actions
which the rules permit them to." - r18 says that "Whatever is not prohibited or regulated by the
 Ruleset is permitted and unregulated."
- There is nothing that prohibits or regulates Societies arbitrarily
 changing the game state. Therefore, r18 allows it, and r578 says
 that Societies can do it. There *is* a rule (r393) saying that
 players can't arbitrarily change the game state, but no such rule
 exists for other entities.
- Presumably, if a rule were needed to stop players from changing
 things, a rule would be needed to stop other entities from changing
 things. Hopefully, my change to r393 fixes it, but even if it
 doesn't we may want to prop a change to clarify things.


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