Things that annoy or puzzle you about Cantr

[Brujah]

Bloodthirsty townsfolk attacking your char because he/she has different opinions than them.
Also, town leader's word is law, inequality, lack of justice, lack of freedom.

Cantr could be a great game but stripped down to the basics in most towns it's like this: If the town leader likes you, you have everything you want. If he/she doesn't you are gonna have a very bad time.
Cantr towns are run by dictators no matter how friendly they can be sometimes.

[bnlphan]

Bloodthirsty townsfolk attacking your char because he/she has different opinions than them.
Also, town leader's word is law, inequality, lack of justice, lack of freedom.

Cantr could be a great game but stripped down to the basics in most towns it's like this: If the town leader likes you, you have everything you want. If he/she doesn't you are gonna have a very bad time.
Cantr towns are run by dictators no matter how friendly they can be sometimes.

First, welcome to the game. I'm fairly certain you are a new player.
You'll find a variance of different leaders and laws in towns across Cantr. Some better than others. Some friendlier than others. There are a few things that you will find is pretty well universal (though there may be a few exceptions) Things like items on the ground belong to the town which mainly means they belong to whoever holds the keys, especially items dropped by a dead character. Some places have restrictions on gathering, machines and buildings. I'm not sure what issue you have encountered but those are a couple of the major ones that new players seem to have trouble with. My advice to begin with is be nice, be helpful. Hopefully you will gain trust and get paid. Maybe look at moving if this doesnt help. Starting out fresh with no belongings is frustrating when someone controls everything and doesnt want to give it up much, but stick with it and eventually you can be in that position and can do things how you see fit. If you have some major issue with rules in the game you can contact the player's department. If you need advice or anything of that nature, you are welcome to send me a private message and I will try to help with what I can.

[Auryn]

Cantr towns are run by dictators no matter how friendly they can be sometimes.

Can't really argue against this point. The dictatorship is the most common form of law in this game, mostly because of its simplicity to carry out. I have a character involved in trying to create an oligarchy, and it's hard to get everyone together to agree on anything.

But that being said, I really wish there were more power struggles that actually went somewhere in the game. Everywhere there are people upset with the current leadership, but those leaders have been around so long that their skills are miles ahead of any upset newspawn, especially if they have no weapon. I almost wish leader players wouldn't be so perfect. They would make more mistakes and let some conflict actually happen, not simply knock down any resistance immediately.

Are the new leaders going to fail? Probably. Sounds like that would be a good time for an old leader to step in and regain power...

[bnlphan]

I definitely did not mean to defend the questionable town leaders in my post just stating how the game seems to take shape. Certainly if anyone has an issue with a town leader I guess it is their right to try to over throw them or any means in game that they care to take. Just be prepared for the consequences if you fail. A coup d'etat in game would be very interesting.

[SumBum]

Those leaders often have some good reasons for being "iron-fisted and greedy" as so many like to complain. How often does it happen that chars change on a whim and betray those around them? How often does someone gain your trust only to fall asleep indefinitely the next moment? It's a risk to hand out the keys to the kingdom and most players in those positions aren't willing to take that risk. I'm not saying it's right, wrong, or good/bad for the game - just some of those little quirks that develop over time and maybe makes older players a little more jaded.

As for verbal conflict, sadly it's far easier to toss someone in a jail, kill them, or chase them out of town versus putting up with it. I know there have been times when I got home and just wanted to relax - not deal with someone being "disruptive" and that can affect how much patience my chars have. I have even less patience if it seems the other player is just being a troll for the sake of being a troll. If there's obvious RP and I can tell that the player is putting some effort into their char's attitude, then I'm far more lenient and willing to interact.

From what I've seen and experienced, subtlety works better than in your face stuff and the amount of effort you put in determines a lot about how other players will react. If you want to oppose things, don't go all gangbuster the moment you spawn. People are distrusting of newspawns, especially when they start spouting off about how bad the town is after only being there a few days. You wouldn't walk into someone's home and expect them to respond kindly to such criticism unless they knew you.

[ObsessedWithCats]

Sorting through 3 pages of turn reports to figure out if your character knew someone who was mentioned to have died because another of your characters knew someone with the same name (or possibly the same person) so the search function doesn't much narrow it down.

[kicking jay]

Funny, I'm having a relatively easy time setting up and now running a sort of democracy.

[Brujah]

First, welcome to the game. I'm fairly certain you are a new player.

No, I'm not. I play Cantr for two years. I have found one or two town leaders that I consider to be truly good, but I still consider all of them dictators. Some are worse than others of course (Knights, etc), but deep down nothing changes much. What bugs me most is this:

Cantr is a game. Probably the best game I've ever played. It gives you the freedom to do literally anything within its world. People who play the game could have their characters live peacefully and truly free to do anything they want, unless of course they try to hurt or take away the freedom of other chars. Yet they choose to live in dictatorships in a world where they could truly be free. If we choose dictatorship over democracy in a GAME, two things can be proved:

1) Democracy is a much more difficult choice (it is a choice) and something that every person should fight to obtain and fight to protect both in game and in real life.
2) People are used to being controlled by others and do nothing to change it. They also believe (most of them, both in real life and in game) that there's nothing you can do about it and you simply have to accept your fate and be quiet if you know what's good for you. Fatalism.

All of us live in nations that deep down are dictatorial. Most people do nothing to change that and think there is nothing to do to change it. The same thing applies to a game. We don't even try to change our lifes IN A GAME! That is what bugs me and dissapoints me.

[Brujah]

Cantr towns are run by dictators no matter how friendly they can be sometimes.

Can't really argue against this point. The dictatorship is the most common form of law in this game, mostly because of its simplicity to carry out. I have a character involved in trying to create an oligarchy, and it's hard to get everyone together to agree on anything.

An oligarchy is still a dictatorship. It's somewhat better than monarchy but still the people aren't free.
Ancient Sparta had an oligarchy: Two kings and five curators. Slaves produced the food, the clothes etc, and all male spartan citizens were obliged by law to becomes soldiers from the age of 7. They also killed all babies that were born with deformations.

So, I think that changing a town's political system from (essentially) monarchy to oligarchy won't make much of a difference. I'm not saying that there will be slaves or anything, but simply instead of having one person run everything you'll have 5 or 6. After all, nowadays, in almost all countries we have oligarchies. And war. And poor people. And homeless people. And unemployment. And and and.

[*Wiro]

If Cantr society mirrors our own desires then we must all be communists.

[SekoETC]

Democracy assumes that there is more than one valid candidate per position of leadership. If the community only has like three active people, this is usually not the case. Usually there are people who have too many obligations in real life to be able to log in enough to manage a community, so they wouldn't run for office, not to mention all the crazy or retarded characters. I once had a character who was a bit retarded and occasionally saw dead people, but he was still respected as a village elder. Someone even trusted him with a crowbar once when he saw that someone was unfairly imprisoned. Also my husband once played an idiot character who could say maybe one word, yet people tended to assume he was the town leader because of his age.

[Chroma Key]

Chars do give too much credit to the others. What really irritates me is when chars are assumed to be intelligent just because they are nice, and someone who has so far been acting like an idiot (albeit a nice one) is given liberties/responsibilities just because they've been oh so polite and helpful, obviously then messing up spectacularly, and of course their c**k up being overlooked for the same reason. Nice doesn't equal smart/intelligent!

As for the leaders... My leader has been trying so hard for others to take some responsibility. At one point five people other than her had the keys to the castle, and three of those betrayed her, one with the intention to empty the storage. She hasn't handed out keys so readily since then, even though one more person has been given the keys, too. It appears to her that people find it much easier to slag her off and expect everything from her than to step up. She is still giving opportunities to the youngsters and secretly tears her hair out when they repeatedly mess up, fail to follow simple instructions and worst of all, learn from their mistakes. Her hard work is too valuable to constantly being expended on dealing with that.

[bnlphan]

I don't envy anyone who plays a town leader. By far the most frustrating role to play in the game. I have tried it twice and quickly gave up. I only have now by default because the town's population is one lol. When you try to build a town up and have 6 people watching you and sleeping or repairing bone tools, you realize it isnt worth it.

[Genie]

There is not much to envy about that, but I appreciate few characters doing it so well. I certainly know some cities are based on trust and friendship and I know one is trying to run democracy even in a very symbolic way. Also rebelling and starting own civilization is always an option. I have seen it working once.

[Tiamo]

... An oligarchy is still a dictatorship. It's somewhat better than monarchy but still the people aren't free...

Even the most democratic country in our world is, by design, an oligarchy. Politicians are chosen to lead the country. This small group of people is 'holding the keys' and NOBODY else can do anything about it. Changing your democratic vote just hands the power to other politicians within the same small group.

The reality of human society, any human society, is that there are leaders and there are followers. Just a few leaders and many, many followers. Cantr societies are no different: there are a few 'leader' characters and many 'follower' characters.