On Wed, 26 Jun 2013, Alex Smith wrote: > On Tue, 2013-06-25 at 15:58 -0700, Kerim Aydin wrote: > > On Tue, 25 Jun 2013, Charles Walker wrote: > > > I have heard of the UNDEAD a few times before, but may I ask what it is? > > > > You can certainly ask, but if the above action was at all successful, I dare > > not say. > > Well, given that I have no particular UNDEAD ties,
It also included a clause that members should regularly deny any UNDEAD ties. Or so it is rumored. > Basically, a long time back (before the era when contracts dominated > gameplay, but when contract-like constructs nonetheless existed), a > group of Agorans decided to make an agreement/construct/similar binding > structure with, apparently the purpose of hiding its own details. Rumor is that it was a full Nomic, that claimed to be an independent agreement from Agora (like Lindrum's aforementioned trading exchange). It's possible that, at its inception, it was designed as a full-scale Nomic with win conditions, so that leaders/winners of the UNDEAD nomic could compel other members' votes in other nomics, so winning the UNDEAD nomic would lead to a strong position in multiple other nomics. It's rumored that, from this independent agreement, UNDEAD members then sought power in Agora by forming official Agoran "contract-like" constructs (called Groups, simular to current Parties). This is somewhat different, legally, than if the UNDEAD had started out as a Group. It's also rumored that while a bit of this gameplay lasted for a while, it served equally well as just a hatching ground for some nice schemes (whether or not the official UNDEAD mechanisms were used to compel members' participation in these schemes, scams were hatched). The fact that it was known to exist, but secretive, generated a surprising amount of paranoia in some non-member Agorans. There were a couple genuine witch hunts looking for members, for a short time Agora was genuinely like a game of werewolf. Rumor has it that members earned doubloons by gently provoking paranoia and making posts of actions into the Agoran PF (some fake, but some were real). A genuine highlight was non-members genuinely offering to "shelter" members who wanted to break away without facing UNDEAD wrath. It is rumored that at one point close to 50% of active Agora were members, at least half never "revealed". The player now known as G. was an early reveal, so was able to be more overtly active in public interactions. Rumor also has it that a combination of fake and real information is the UNDEAD modus operandi, up to and including this message. The last "fully admitted" project that was definitely traced to the UNDEAD was the Town Fountain. > Apart from ehird, Agora mostly just left the UNDEAD alone. It was the other way around. So it is rumored. > Eventually, it almost certainly disappeared as an Agoran legal construct > with the repeal of contracts. It is rumored that the real state of this subnomic was maintained for some years past the repeal of Groups and the Fountain. It was certainly never formally dissolved. As an independent contract, it's certainly arguable whether it would (today) meet Zephram's definition of natural contract/ partnership, and if so whether Agora could have any say over it. It is rumored that at least a few members have recently (within the last couple months, including people not around at the time of the Fountain) asserted in the right places that they are generally abiding by it. > (Whether the other members of the UNDEAD would attempt to punish > them for doing so would, of course, be another matter.) You might think so. I couldn't possibly comment.
