The IC and SE System

[fferyllt]

As a mod, making sure your teaching really is neutral could be an interesting challenge.

[fferyllt]

I wasn't thinking of activist mods at all in my reply. The timing of advice can already be problematic. IME mods tend not to follow games as closely as players do. I think the mod commitment would be a lot higher than it currently is if you have to keep an eye out for theory questions and then make sure you're answering them in a neutral way, and then on top of that the natural gaps in online presence could have a disproportionate impact depending on the time zones of the questioners, and their alignments.

There's a tendency to second guess the mod in general in games IMO. This is less of a concern in newbie/open games, but I think putting a teaching component into the mod duties would introduce more second guessing than probably happens in a game where you can look at the player's alignment indicators and decide what you think of their advice.

As a player, I look for data in everything that occurs. In newbie games, I don't have to think hard about mod info, mod meta, etc, though once in a while something comes up that could be mod-specific. I think mods as instructors could affect that.

I've played a couple newbie games on a site where each team has a coach that players can PM with theory questions, site meta questions, game mechanics questions, etc. The coaches don't post in the game thread and they try to stay fairly neutral. It's a different sort of approach to teaching the game and familiarizing people with site meta. Although the coaches have to be very careful not to play the game through their students or give unfair hints, they don't have to worry about scrubbing the least hint of partisanship from their advice. They are on the side of the person who's asking them for advice, and the player can take what they say at face value.

[fferyllt]

Why would second guessing a mod be any worse than second guessing a player who actually, by the nature of their role, has an agenda in the game?

They aren't necessarily worse, but the effects would be different, and at this point the differences are hard to anticipate.

[fferyllt]

Nobody would want that job.

I wonder if that's true. I don't really enjoy playing as an IC, but I've enjoyed coach-like consulting both as a player and as a coach on other sites. I doubt I'm alone in that preference.

The sheer number of newbie games in progress all at once might mean that there wouldn't be enough interested coaches to go around, though.

[fferyllt]

Nobody would want that job.

I'd rather do it than IC.

[fferyllt]

And the same problem doesn't arise for ICs?

I think an IC's advice is automatically considered with at least a small grain of salt because even though they're bound to a code of conduct, all the town players know the IC isn't necessarily on their team. A mod would be considered neutral, and in fact should be neutral. The way a question is asked as well as the question itself could put a mod in a tough spot deciding how to answer a theory question, though.

[fferyllt]

Were games seeing tangible benefits from 2 ICs?