This is actually very interesting to me. Why is being able to strictly enforce secret deals *even necessary*? In Blognomic, secret alliances are rampant but there's never anything formal that forces you to do as the alliance tells you to do.
Instead, people do it because it's an IMMENSE faux pas to betray people. Kevan puts into good words why people are so adamant about being honest or at least professional to their teammates ( https://blognomic.com/archive/eff_this_rule_in_particular): "But betrayal rarely if ever happens in BlogNomic, because we’re often the same people playing the same game repeatedly. If I betray you in this dynasty, I win, but you (and probably others) won’t trust me if I try to make a secret deal in the next one (or the one after that, if ever again). As a result, teams can safely shift into the kind of bland alpha-player routine that you sometimes see in co-op games, where one player calls all the shots and everyone else just does what they’re told, to get the team to victory." So - even if there ARE mechanics to strictly enforce secret deals, I don't think it *actually* changes anything about the problem. Unless it's just a cultural Agoran thing where people are way more permissive of being backstabbed and betrayed, which I'd find jarring and would love to have explained if that's the case. On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 11:01 PM Aris Merchant via agora-discussion < agora-discussion@agoranomic.org> wrote: > I'm going to regret saying this. > > I want everyone to remember that you can have a contract with secret terms. > It can't allow acting on behalf or that sort of thing (in the part of it > that's secret), but it can impose obligations. You just need to make a > public contract that refers to another private document for the exact > obligations being imposed. > > I'd also ask that you publish the detailed terms eventually, because never > knowing what was going on is less fun and leaves a gap in the historical > record. But that isn't strictly required, just a request on my part. > > I figure a fair portion of the reason that this isn't happening right now > is that this sort of contract is more beneficial in the economic end game. > But I also suspect that many players have forgotten this is a thing, and as > the player who formulated the proposal that implemented this policy, I feel > some responsibility to make sure people remember their options. Plus, > secret plotting is fun, even if not knowing what's going on is kind of > infuriating. > > -Aris >
