Now that books can be made, how "free" will be the press?

[Raleigh]

I am not sure about this specific detail yet, as there is no law regarding it. Player characters will be able to write their own books, right? Now, what happens if somebody is caught with a book that has "subversive" or "indecent" content? Or is there freedom of "press" in Yliakum? Basically, I opened this thread to question about whether there will be some kind of IC censorship or not on what PCs write(Of course, I'm not referring to "mature" content in this thread, as then it's an OOC problem). Or, contrasting to the "medieval" nature, Yliakum is a "free" country?

[Feline Prince]

I find most people talk in a very liberal way. If that's the way they can talk in public you can only assume they are allowed to write in the same way.

[Raleigh]

I find most people talk in a very liberal way. If that's the way they can talk in public you can only assume they are allowed to write in the same way.

     I find nobody pays taxes yet too. This is a question regarding a not implemented yet feature, that is a functional government, and as a definitive law about "freedom of speech"/etc. is yet to be fleshed out by the Settings Team, this mean all of us might be wrong on the way our characters are open to speak or write about anything, I think it's rather a OOC thing, as most of us are used to free places IRL and as there is no mention of it, we assume Yliakum is quite free.

[Waylander]

To be completely honest, I don't think the Dev or GM teams will have the time to have anything but a land with free speech and free press.

So, I'm guessing that's what will be.  I'd like to hear Xillix comment, though.

[Kiern]

Uh.  Yliakum isn't a country.


Nor does it have a single widespread government.

That would be fairly stupid.

[Mrriyah]

Yliakum does have one solid and central government, known as the Octarchy.

It seems likely that this government would be heavy-handed with dealing with subversive books that encourage citizens to break the laws, or ones that somehow put the government at risk. Read the Octarchal Decree in Jayose's book for more on in-game law. I doubt the GMs have the time to enforce these laws, but one should probably roleplay with them in mind.

[drah]

Maybe Jayose can be the gatekeeper for publicly available literature... so that if you want him to include a book in his library you'd have to run it by him (aka the settings team) through some sort of mechanism.

As for books not in the library, many civilisations have had banned books yet those books still existed, traded by those who had a desire to seek forbidden knowledge... so in that sense.. outside the library I think a free-press is something that's almost unavoidable.

[Kiern]

Yliakum does have one solid and central government, known as the Octarchy.

Key word is "widespread".  Yliakum is big.  There will be places controlled by it, and places that aren't.  There is no possible way one SINGLE government could control all of that land.  At least not one that is possibly able to ban certain books effectively.


At least that's my assumption.  Otherwise, like I said, that would be fairly stupid.  But then maybe I speak too soon.

[Manar]

Yliakum isn't all that big.  The Dome's diameter is only 50 kilometers, the other levels are successively smaller.  That's tiny, as countries go.
The Octarchy has very little say outside of Yliakum, ofcourse.

[Duraza]

Yliakum isn't all that big.  The Dome's diameter is only 50 kilometers, the other levels are successively smaller.  That's tiny, as countries go.
The Octarchy has very little say outside of Yliakum, ofcourse.

Yes but it also has 7 levels (correct me if I'm wrong) making it sound like a much more massive world to me.

Yliakum does have one solid and central government, known as the Octarchy.

Key word is "widespread".  Yliakum is big.  There will be places controlled by it, and places that aren't.  There is no possible way one SINGLE government could control all of that land.  At least not one that is possibly able to ban certain books effectively.


At least that's my assumption.  Otherwise, like I said, that would be fairly stupid.  But then maybe I speak too soon.

You are right. The Octarchs don't control all of Ylikuam. Look at the Stone Labyrinths. we can't control them for the fact that we have to fight what comes out of them to protect ourselves.

[Nikodemus]

You are right. The Octarchs don't control all of Ylikuam. Look at the Stone Labyrinths. we can't control them for the fact that we have to fight what comes out of them to protect ourselves.

Stone Labyrinths aren't Yliakum.

[zanzibar]

I am not sure about this specific detail yet, as there is no law regarding it. Player characters will be able to write their own books, right? Now, what happens if somebody is caught with a book that has "subversive" or "indecent" content? Or is there freedom of "press" in Yliakum? Basically, I opened this thread to question about whether there will be some kind of IC censorship or not on what PCs write(Of course, I'm not referring to "mature" content in this thread, as then it's an OOC problem). Or, contrasting to the "medieval" nature, Yliakum is a "free" country?

Even if there isn't freedom of the press, characters should be able to make illegal books.  It makes for good roleplay.

To be completely honest, I don't think the Dev or GM teams will have the time to have anything but a land with free speech and free press.

I'm not so sure.  Controlling such things is an extremely high priority for this game's devs.

[Karyuu]

Controlling such things is an extremely high priority for this game's devs.

I would be careful of such statements. The only "control" we are most likely to exert is moderate for OOC abuse.

[bilbous]

One thing I am sure of is that if the gm's and/or devs catch wind of a manual floating around that contains methods for abusing bugs or somehow creates a bug on its own, it will not go over very well. I do not think that books describing how to do quests or how to combine glyphs should create much of a problem. The former might have to be written in the manner of a diary to remain IC while the latter could just be a recipe book.

[Raleigh]

I am not sure about this specific detail yet, as there is no law regarding it. Player characters will be able to write their own books, right? Now, what happens if somebody is caught with a book that has "subversive" or "indecent" content? Or is there freedom of "press" in Yliakum? Basically, I opened this thread to question about whether there will be some kind of IC censorship or not on what PCs write(Of course, I'm not referring to "mature" content in this thread, as then it's an OOC problem). Or, contrasting to the "medieval" nature, Yliakum is a "free" country?

Even if there isn't freedom of the press, characters should be able to make illegal books.  It makes for good roleplay.

To be completely honest, I don't think the Dev or GM teams will have the time to have anything but a land with free speech and free press.

I'm not so sure.  Controlling such things is an extremely high priority for this game's devs.

Yes, I'm not asking about an OOC system that blocks you from writing a book, but for what would happen IC if you were caught with a book pointing certain flaws of justice system, defending other forms of government or telling things "the Man doesn't want the people to know". And about the last statement, I don't think so, it is a ridiculous waste of time to work and develop a game just to control others. As exemplified below:

"So as a munchkin, I  want and am making/supporting a game that will take decades to be finished just to control it and then to roleplay being a god/emperor/etc and do whatever I want with the other people characters on it because it is pleasant to my ego because I can't command anybody IRL." Now that is what I call a far-fetched statement on other people's motivation(and yep, it's what I interpreted from it). And anyway, having GMs to assume gods/etc is(and if not, should be) a temporary solution while certain game mechanics are not implemented. In fact, pulling a bit more offtopicness I think there should be much more support to player-made events instead, and a solid and dynamic quest system.

Until now though, there is no written law in-game declaring that it's illegal to write things of that nature, or non-mainstream religious books, so all that is left is to wait for an official answer from the Settings, or if it doesn't come, write this on the next Q.A.

One thing I am sure of is that if the gm's and/or devs catch wind of a manual floating around that contains methods for abusing bugs or somehow creates a bug on its own, it will not go over very well. I do not think that books describing how to do quests or how to combine glyphs should create much of a problem. The former might have to be written in the manner of a diary to remain IC while the latter could just be a recipe book.

It's obvious that OOC things will be controlled and removed if necessary, I'm more interested on whether there is or not an IC censorship of the stuff. Now about quests, I think would be quite weird to have the solution to some quests written ICly. I'm not sure whether some "big brother" of books exists or not, so I'm waiting for an answer, as I said.