Winner’s Trophy Bought & Round Reset

On Thursday evening, the S.P.E.C.T.R.E Conglomerate clubbed together to buy the Winner’s Trophy and thus end Round 36. They had decided between themselves that whoever gained the most assets percentage-wise would be the one that bought the WT. Mr Hockey gained the most assets, 64% to Sandy Guarjardo’s 56%, so he was the one who bought the WT and therefore ‘won’ Round 36.

Yesterday afternoon Neo, the Holy Owner, reset the round, thus starting Round 37. Ordinarily this would be ok, apart from the fact that the Government’s own rules weren’t followed…

Round Resets

A round ends when the Winners Trophy for that round is purchased.

After that point the game is reset, after a minimum of 24 hours.

When a round is reset, all assets are removed from every player, this returning them to 1 million spenn. A Winner’s Trophy for the new round is released. All other aspects of the game are unaffected.

Within the first week of the new round, a “best good” (defined as a non-limited good, which gives the most status points per spenn) is to be released. A riddle as to the nature of the “best good” is to be released in the closing days of the round, at the discretion of government

Obviously 24 hours hadn’t passed, nor had any riddle been released to enable people to find and buy the “best good” and so the rankings and all-time points were pretty much based on how well people had invested in the round overall. I finished 8th and received8 all time points, I was pretty pleased with that, having started late in the round.

Kris Even noticed that the rules hadn’t been followed and mentioned it in the Game Forum. As it is, most people don’t seem too bothered over the fact that the round was reset so quickly, so there isn’t that much of a furore. I expected more, to be honest, but I’m kinda glad there isn’t.

In the political arena, the Election ended with 6 of the 7 candidates getting into Parliament. They have started well too, with two votes already being held and passed, and plenty of discussions ongoing too. The two votes were for an amendment to the Apprenticeship Act and an amendment to the Parliament Act, we’re still waiting for Government approval but neither amendment is likely to be rejected. Current discussions in Parliament are focused around attempts to escape justice by transferring assets away before Court action or on the commencement of such and also on the use of hostilities towards the Newbie Conglomerate leader.

I’ve had some input into the NC leader, via the Cafe, suggesting that the NC leader should be a transferable account that is given to the current Newbie Forum moderator. By making the account the leader of the NC, the moderator of the NF wouldn’t have to change his conglomerate to help the new players. Nor would the NF mod be protected unfairly against the use of Hostilities either, as the NC leader account would be gov funded and not able to invest and therefore protected either by programming or Gov Rule from Hostilities. The NF leader would only have access to that account for the distribution of spenn to new players/moderation of the NC, etc… If the NF mod changes hands, then the NC leader account would do also, meaning only the password on the account would ever have to change, everything else can remain in place. We’ll see what happens re: the NC in the future…

I’ve alluded several times to the poor judicial system since my return to Jottonia. President Silverdragonclaimed to have been ‘taught’ Law by ‘the best Chief Justice’ Shane McMahon. Shano, when CJ, introduced BA based fines, which are unfair to all but the very richest players and in RL is only a paralegal. The best CJ, imho, was Tap Dance, a RL lawyer and a good friend of mine when I was a Judge (way back when Jottonia was fun, LOL). Silverdragon may have originally recieved a law licence from Shano, but his last licence was granted by myself and Silent Ninja from our first University Law School. Also a graduate of that Law School was Eskimo, the CJ between Shano and the current CJ Guitarboy.

That brings me nicely to the current case being held in the Magistrates Court. Eskimo is self-representing himself as defendant in a slander case based on an article he wrote in the Jottonian Times. Now, theoretically, the JT is guilty of libel rather than Eskimo being guilty of slander but in Jottonia there is no libel law… At the same time, there is no law that allows groups such as conglomerates to sue individuals but again, the case has been allowed and is the Vikings Conglomerate vs Archbishop Eskimo McMahon.

To prove slander one has to show that the alleged slander influenced a third party negatively, i.e. I heard that x did y and thought that it was true… So, the prosecution have called a witness who has stated under oath that she was negatively influenced by the article and now Eskimo is badgering the witness into trying to change her testimony. the prosecution has objected and yet the CJ has OVERRULED the objection!! I, of course, being the great judge I was *cough* have posted publicly (in Pinto’s bar) that this is wrong and that the CJ should be protecting the witness and not allowing such aggressive questioning. *Quick Update* This is a GREAT witness, turned the defence’s question into a killer answer… one expects this case to be over fairly quickly now.

What one has to remember is that Eskimo is a former GovBot, having been the CJ AND the MoGSP in the past. Also one has to note that. whilst CJ, Eskimo’s judgements and what he allowed as evidence was seriously flawed… erring on the side of the Government in more than one case and refusing evidence in several others that should have been allowed as relevant. Basically, Eskimo was a sham as a Judge/CJ but he WAS a Gov friendly CJ… enter the new CJ who, to be honest, isn’t that much better… and you get a farce!

Jottonia’s legal system has all but disintegrated, with the lawyers having hardly any skill, the only Judge being the CJ and he has no clue either. The best Judicial system was when the CJ was Tap Dance and we had at least one RL lawyer working as a lawyer in Tommy Tomohawk. I was also a Judge at the same time but learnt from both the afore-mentioned players and so would like to think it was because of them that I was regarded by Silverdragonas an ‘excellent jurist’. I’d like to see a complete overhaul, with ALL of the legal brains in Jottonia receiving a full and comprehensive retraining from someone who has RL law experience. Who would that be? Well, Thooper is studying Law and I believe there is at least one other RL law student in Jottonia, so maybe they could do it?

One thing is certain, the legal system is screwed at the moment… I’ll keep you posted on developments in Jottonia, until then… tweet me.

Hira

Election Time

So the Election has begun in Jottonia and, as usual, it is not without it’s fair share of controversy. First of all the new MoDA, Rodklieven, called the election early which upset Captain Griffen the leader (and only member) of the one Political Affiliation in Jottonia, the Association for the Welfare of Everyone (AWE). Then the MoDA altered the Parliament Act to allow players who were only 15 days old to stand in the election if they wanted to from the previous 30 days old limit. That was slightly more controversial because the Parliament Act is a Law and not a Government rule as it used to be.

In my time away there has been a shake-up of the Laws and Rules with several former rules becoming Laws (and thus subject to alteration by Parliament) and several former Laws becoming Rules (thus falling under the jurisdiction of the Government only). It is this change that has caused the main problem, as the MoDA changed what was a Rule but is now a Law, effectively, without permission from, or even discussion with, Parliament. The fact that Parliament has been non-existent in the last session seems to be irrelevant despite it being the reason for the change cited by the MoDA.

The shake-up has also caused one or two other problems. For example, the MOLA (Maximum Ownership Limitation Act) which limits how much of a company’s available stock that can be held by one person has now become a Law after being a Rule for as long as I can remember. This is good because it means that Parliament can alter it, if they choose, and Gov would have to comply. At the moment the MOLA states that a player can only own 35% of a company, even if it is possible to own more (some companies it is possible to buy more than 35% of the available stock). However, the punishment has never been changed so, although the MOLA says its a crime to own more than 35% and that it can be punished by warnings and fines, it doesn’t state who would be the person/entity to police the law or to dole out the punishment if the law was broken.

And the law WAS broken, but it was broken by a malicious transfer to someone who owned a large portion of a company and thus taking them over the MOLA… but as it is not defined who is responsible for ensuring that the MOLA isn’t broken and who would deal with any violations; neither the malicious sender nor the unfortunate recipient who had more stock than the MOLA allowed can be punished. There are other problems with the laws too, certain things I’ve highlighted, others I’ve alluded to, and yet more have been raised by other players and even the candidates themselves.

One hopes that because of the problems, this coming session of Parliament may actually produce some results for the first time in many sessions. The current standings in the election are as follows (5 seats available unless tied for 5th):

alex123 ID: 29311	2
Lord McRad ID: 28532	1
King Slayer Guajardo ID: 21944	6
bill guajardo ID: 26557	4
Akse von Van-Waelda ID: 29248	2
Gras ID: 21298	5
Thooper ID: 17554	6

I have yet to cast my vote, although if I was going to vote on the basis of their ‘manifestos’ then I would have a tough choice to make. Only 4 of the candidates have made any sort of ‘vote for me’ post and of those, only 2 of the candidates make any real sense. Those being Thooper, who is an old player, former Govbot (MoE), and currently the round leader by a long way; and Alex123, a relatively new player who recently won the Newbie Spotlight award (no idea what that actually is…). Both of their ‘vote for me’ speeches have been well thought out, well articulated, well presented and made a lot of sense. Thooper’s RL Law study makes him an obvious candidate for fixing and creating Laws in Jottonia; whereas Alex123’s newbie status means he is able to come to the table with fresh ideas and is also able to explain the difficulties that new players face on joining Jottonia (along with possible solutions to those problems).

I’d like to vote for them both to be honest. In reality though, I shall probably use my vote strategically, either to ensure that Parliament is made up of as many members as possible or to ensure that both the above get into Parliament. Although it’s early days, Thooper looks to have a certain seat, Alex is looking a little precarious… time will tell where my vote goes but for now, if you are able, vote Alex123!

On the stock trading front, well I am now at around 8 billion and 12th richest overall. I’ve been a little bit lazy recently but made a few inroads today almost doubling my assets in the process! Of course, I am way behind the top5 but perhaps have a chance of sneaking into the top 10 over the next few days, time will tell I suppose and then the stocks will have to be kind. I’ve been far less controversial in my posts this time around although, earlier in the week I did make a risky comment.

Smuss, a former double round winner, had passed away from inactivity and, when the President asked why he died, I replied ‘Couldn’t cheat anymore’. Of course, those who were friends of smuss didn’t like this comment but I maintain that smuss was a cheat, to the point that I actually once watched him exploit a bug within the game. This was many, many rounds ago in my first lifetime in Jottonia and was something I highlighted at the time. My questions in the Game Forum were ignored by the then Gov, I was called a liar and smuss went on to win the round.

However, the bug he had exploited was busted wide open by Weasel and Swish during a later round and it was admitted that a lot of players had exploited the bug, smuss included. I felt cheated out of a WT that round, and probably harmed my own growing reputation at the same time by highlighting the cheating in the GF when I did. Be all and end all, when I reminded players of the circumstances re: the bug, and therefore backed up my ‘couldn’t cheat anymore’ statement, the thread fizzled out. I’ll have to be more careful though, probably upset a few people with my comment, true or not. More from Jottonia next time, until then… tweet me :)

Hira (AKA -Devil’s Advocate- / Lazaru5)

Court Case and Cafe

So I made an error of judgement. I forgot about the Improper Use of Jmails Act (IJA) and kind of slated Brynjulf in public after a minor disagreement in Jmail, publishing his mail in the process. Oops!

So, he sued, as is his right… But he asked for 6 Base Amounts as compensation… A Base Amount (BA) is 10% of the average player assets… i.e. {total player assets/number of players}/10. Great if you’re rich, a BA is nothing compared to your assets, but when you’re poor, (like me) a BA is huge! Why we have a BA based court system I have no idea. When I was Judge Lazaru5 (way back when Jottonia was fun to play) I always based my fines/compensation amounts on percentage of assets. Government imposed fines are based on percentage of assets; Court imposed fines/compensation are BA based… UNFAIR!!!

However, I asked for more time to counter the prosecution’s claim of 6BA and was refused! The prosecution Lawyer, Bill Guajardo, has asked for (and been granted) extensions in all 3 of his current cases… I ask as a 9 day old player and am refused, point blank! Not only that, but the Court failed to see the excessive nature of the Prosecution’s claim…

So consider this, at the time of the offence my total assets were less than 2 BA and dropping, yet the prosecution have asked for more than 3 times that as compensation. Also consider the fact that, at the time of the offence, my assets were around 85million $penn; 6 BA at this time is equal to around 1Billion $penn… Again, I scream UNFAIR!!!

I’ve posted my argument, albeit with less than an hour to spare before my ‘deadline’ for posting following the Court’s refusal to grant me an extension. I’ve also protested at the lack of understanding although I doubt it will make much difference. So, what to do? If I scream unfair in public, (i.e. not in the court arena), then I’m likely to be accused of slating the game, bringing the game into disrepute and all manner of other allegations (and most likely they will come direct from the President himself!!). But… there’s an election due to start, which brings me to the Cafe!

The Politica Cafe in Also is where to find all the political activity outside of the Parliament building. On my return to Jottonia a little over 10 days ago there was nil activity in either the Cafe or Parliament. in those 10 days, 2 new MoDA’s have been introduced, first Gras who has decided not to take on the role at this time and then Rodklieven. Rod has called an election and that’s a good thing, in my opinion.

The calling of an election has certainly fired up Captain Griffen, though, as he felt that he should have been invited to join Parliament as a replacement MP. He seems to be failing to take into account that NONE of the current MP’s were active, so even if he and Skoen (the only other candidate in the last election) had been made MP’s, there would still be a massive shortfall in the number of active MP’s. I’m actually with Rod on his decision to call an election even though I kind of understand Griffen’s point.

But I can use this, I think… There is an election due to start next week and I’m a voter (well I am once I hit 14 days). Once the outcome of my Court Case is known I am then in a position to cry foul, perhaps. One way or another, however, I can ask the candidates privately (i.e. via jmail) their views on the current Court system and it’s BA based fines which are unfair to the poor. Obviously I will make it clear that I am intending to vote for the person who is prepared to ‘fight for the little guys’. We have a good number of candidates at the moment, surprisingly, so we’ll see if any of them actually have a campaign up their sleeves. The only person active in the Cafe besides the MoDA is Griffen, and he has yet to register as a candidate… nothing new there then.

One way or another I shall find the person most likely to ‘fight the system’ as it were and try to change the Court fines/compensation to percentage rather than BA based. If nobody will, then I guess I’m stuck as I have no intention of giving the President or anybody else a reason to make yet more false allegations against me… I even found a ‘zing’ by the President that was aimed at me from November last year, when I wasn’t even in Jottonia!! But it’s allegedly ME that causes the ‘mayhem’… of course it is.

As far as the investing goes… well I’m up to 3 billion now and hovering between 13th and 20th depending on market forces at any given time. I think I’m actually 14th richest but those around me are close to me (within a few hundred million or so) so that’s why it keeps changing. Besides that, of course, I still have the Court’s judgement to hit my assets and that could be massive or it could be reasonable, if the former then I have no idea where I’ll be…

I’ll keep you updated on progress, especially on the outcome of the Court case. I’ve asked that compensation be limited to 1BA but we’ll see… until the next time

Hira (AKA -Devil’s Advocate-/Lazaru5)