Thanks @You_Fool for posting this, and everybody for your thoughts.
There is truth to all sides of this. The players can take much into their own hands, and it isn’t even a new thing. Take unofficial NAPs and Galactic Congress for example: those are things in our history that empowered players to self-govern.
Self-governance was even a defining characteristic of the betas before the IA rule was ever a thing. It isn’t impossible by any means.
However, to the point @MTG_Dad and @kingray are making, there needs to be at least some adjustment on the game side to better facilitate this.
Our challenge is finding the balance while being realistic about our available dev time. We have to be very picky about what gets priority. We want it all, but we have to pick. @OrBit is also very much correct that a lot of our issues are with the game itself, not the community.
It’s not a matter of which: it’s both, and there is overlap between the two.
I proposed an idea recently about a more formalized Galactic Congress in which family leaders could vote to provide help or to impose penalties depending on what is happening in the round. This came out of a discussion about UA but it could just as well serve @You_Fool’s ideas here.
What’s even better is, such a feature could evolve with the players because it doesn’t define any rules itself: it only gives players the tools to better control their environment. This is literally what is being asked for here in that the community could influence behavioral change without staff having to oversee anything.
This all boils down to behavioral reinforcement. If we want players to act a certain way, we need to reward them for doing so. If we want players to not act a certain way, we need to deter them.
Some of this is a matter of game design and UX design, like @You_Fool’s point about other ranking types influencing how people play. However, some of this should also be in the hands of the players themselves. Not just because it’s more practical for me as the owner, but also because it gives players self-determination.
Player autonomy is not just an option; it’s our only option. Player churn will continue and we simply cannot grow if these problems are not addressed, and done in a way that scales. Staff oversight does not scale. Self-governance scales.
You don’t need to wait for staff.
I will be exploring changes further, but to the original point of this post: you don’t need to wait for staff.
There is nothing stopping players from getting together and agreeing to standards right now.