Lawmakers Game The System

Thanks to Wired News for its article discussing government officials and massively multiplayer game designers sharing ideas on the best ways to deal with community feedback. Neil Eisner of the Department Of Transportation explains: "We're both dealing with large populations, and (like with the public-comment process for legislation) the public helps them design the rules for the game, or petitions them to change the rules to have things happen." Raph Koster of Sony Online adds that it "was startling to me... that (the federal comment process) is identical to how we build our patches and patch notes", although since the government has "a legal obligation to protect the privacy of people submitting comments on legislation", this means some disadvantages compared to MMO feedback, as Koster explains: "We get to know the people who are good testers, who are good at catching bugs. The federal government is legally not allowed to do that."

Comments

Voting for all!

[TheOtherKiwi]

Massively multi-player voting system with feedback! Cool!

Re:Voting for all!

[Vengeance_au]

Knowing my luck all the powerful senators with good drops will be camped....

Re:Voting for all!

[Absurd Being]

MMPVoting? I'd call it Vote-Vote Revolution. Keep practicing voting, and vote, and you can overthrow the government!

All we need now is Anti-cheat software for politic

[Kor49]

Something like Punkbuster for politics would have definitely caught George W.

PWNED !

Uh oh

[rune2]

Now let's hope that the government doesn't actually start playing these games. The last thing we need is for the bureaucrats to be playing Everquest (Evercrack) all day.

Beta Test US Government 2005 XP

[dave_oc]

Applicatants must have experience with SimCity, Communism v1.1 or higher, and experience manipulating the Everquest or Ultima Online Economy. Player Killing is a plus.

Billmaking + Public Online Forums

[Da Rabid Duckie]

Billmaking + Public Online Forums... /.gov, anyone?

Re:Billmaking + Public Online Forums

[Walkiry]

Your vote "BUSH" on February 25th,@11:45AM (#112734123) has been moderated "-1, Troll".

Somewhere else: Your moderation to vote #112734123 -1, Troll has been meta-moderated "Unfair".

And most importantly, CowboyNeal would be in every single voting and election!

I dont know but somehow..

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont see 30 people armed with BFG's helping :)

Re:All we need now is Anti-cheat software for poli

[MachDelta]

G30rg3_BU5h69 has joined the game
G30rg3_BU5h69: WASUUUUP!!!
France: Aw damneet, 'ow deed he getz in 'ere?
Australia: Oi! One of ewe buggars betta' notta' told 'im tha' passy!
England: Aw now, don't be silly chaps! No one 'ere woulda done a thing like that now!
Russia: *growls*
England: Hey! Wot ewe lookin at me for?
Germany: Ach! Ver ish das admin?!
UN: Hey guys how do buy stuff???
Korea: Bah! Admin is dumb like bowl of noodles! No good for us!
Cuba: Si, and without admin, we stuck with this... loco muchacho.
Afghanistan: Pfft.
Bomb has been planed!
G30rg3_BU5h69 was killed by Afghanistan
G30rg3_BU5h69: WTF!?!? OMFG U R CHETER!!! U SUCK BITCH IMA PWN JOO NOW!!!
Afghanistan: Eep.
Afghanistan was killed by G30rg3_BU5h69
Iraq: Hahaha! George is silly, like little infidel boy!
G30rg3_BU5h69: WTF FAG U WNT SUM 2?!?
Iraq: You cannot touch me! The will of Allah will not allow it!
Iraq was killed by G30rg3_BU5h69
G30rg3_BU5h69: PWWWNEED!!!
PUNKBUSTER: Warning, cheats detected!
G30rg3_BU5h69 was kicked: WMD-Spoofing
France: Haha!
Germany: Haha!
Canada: Haha!
Russia: Haha!
Italy: Haha!
Japan: Haha!
Switzerland: Hey guys, whats THAT?
CONNECTION ERROR: HOST NOT FOUND - #877: Catastrophic Meteor Event
Disconnected.
Exiting game.
Logfile closed, 02/13/04 02:11:32

an end to lawyers???

[drgonjo]

If the government started patching all the exploits inherint to the system what would all the lawyers and accountants do?