Baalz' good player pledge

[Baalz]

As most of the more experienced Dominions players know, the scourge of playing pickup games is people just abandoning the game due to lack of interest or discouragement after a big fight, and throwing everybody left into a lurch. Sometimes this can immediately trash a game, but more often the impact is more subtle with a couple players reaping huge benefits from an absentee neighbor thus giving a much less satisfying game to both the somewhat hollow victory and the virtually unpreventable defeat if this happens several times in a game. I’ve seen much sentiment growing among vets that they’re only going to play private games with people they know to be reliable. The problem with this is that it’s not only unfair to the good new players who can contribute to the game, it’s also a sure way to stagnate the community as it chokes off the fresh blood. So, what to do?

I propose a good player pledge, and future games I host will only allow players undersigned in this thread (any other interested game host can link here). By posting “I pledge” in this thread you’re swearing to abide by the pledge at the bottom of this post. A little cheesy? Maybe. Gonna be 100% effective? Definitely not. Hopefully though it’ll make people think about the commitment they make to the other players when joining a game. Anybody who thinks this is a bit over the top to play “just a game” is free to play with whomever they want very casually, but I’m only interested in playing with others who share my commitment to the games I join given the amount of time and effort I put in. Note, this pledge is to put in a reasonable effort, so nobody should ever be put into a miserable situation by taking it. If you're honestly bored to death with a position that just won't die and can't in good conscience inflict it on another player...do what you gotta do with a clear conscience....but just don't ever walk away leaving a staling nation.

Here’s Baalz’ Good Player Pledge:

I pledge to do my part to bring to completion the dominions multiplayer games I participate in which link to this thread. I realize that while it’s “just a game” it also represents a significant amount of time and effort by all the other players of the game and I will make a reasonable effort to fulfill my responsibility to their enjoyment just as they are doing for me. If for any reason I can’t or don’t want to keep playing a game in progress I’ll try to secure a substitute player to fill in for me (generally just make a post asking for one in the forums). If real life prevents me from doing this (emergencies, lack of internet access, etc) I will at the very least try to contact the game administrator and ask him to do it – realizing this is an imposition that should be reserved for things other than lack of interest. I will not set my nation to AI until 1) No substitute is able to be found after a couple days or 2) My capital has fallen (feel free to play through this if you like). I’ll do my best to at least put up a token defense with the last of my forces when defeat is all but certain – this doesn’t take much time and makes the game much better for everyone else.