Topic

Free store

Another issue is this urge for people to put food items on the ground and then have one person come along and "steal" it all. Can you create some kind of "free store", at the very least in the party spaces and maybe the teal key places, where people can do the take one, give one thing on the street without it turning into a conversation of who is stealing? Anything not in the free store is free for the taking, by anyone - as the game is designed. In the free store, you get to take one for every one you put in up to 3 or something every game day. Strikes me as this would solve a lot of nonsense teeth gnashing.

Posted 11 months ago by Meander Thralls Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Hi.. I think it's a great idea to facillitate the giving and the taking. I posted an idea awhile ago about a vending machine after watching what happened to donations at the Missing Floor. www.glitch.com/forum/ideas/...
    Posted 11 months ago by Ooola Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1; we need a new mechanic for generosity that does not allow for grief.
    Posted 11 months ago by CrashTestPilot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I liked the picnic blanket idea that was proposed awhile back.
    Posted 11 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Currant value. Someone could leave a bean and take an awesome stew.
    Posted 11 months ago by Sororia Rose Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I will keep repeating that I really feel that a picnic basket/blanket idea could be ideal to deal with this issue.  People want to be generous, but they don't want to be one person's sole benefactor.  Most people say that they don't want to stop people from taking stuff but they object to one or two people "hoovering" up everything that's been donated.

    So one more time, the idea is discussed in detail here and here.

    The picnic basket works like this - it is an bag, takes up a bag slot, has X number of slots.  As the owner, like with a still, once you put it down on a public street no one else can pick it up.
    Once it is on the street, anyone may add stacks of items to it until all its slots are full.  Anyone may remove either one item, or  possibly one item from each slot, before a cooldown of 2-5 minutes is in place where no further items can be removed.  After the cooldown is over, then more item(s) can be taken.  

    After the party, if the basket is empty, the owner may pick it up.  If it ihas items remaining, the owner has to "dump" them out where they are free for any to take (including the owner).

    What I like about this concept is that it doesn't prevent the same person from taking everything, but it does force them to hang out with you and wait around in order to do it.  They have to work a little harder.  And in the meantime, it creates space for other people to have the opportunity to partake if they desire.  But sometimes no one takes that stack of lemburgers for 30 minutes or more ... so if no one else wants them, you can feel free to take them.

    The other iteration of this concept is that food from the picnic basket can't be added to your inventory, it can only be consumed directly out of the basket, and again, one at a time with a cooldown between.
    Posted 11 months ago by Scarlett Bearsdale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for repeating Scarlett. I've never seen your picnic basket idea, largely because I try to avoid the forums unless I see a major enough problem or bug that Tiny Speck needs to address. 

    I think there is a problem in both of our ideas because often what people are doing is decorating - for fun, or as a sign that they really did some work to try to make the party fun, because they like seeing all the food available on the "banquet table" in Bliss or whatever. 

    My preferred solution is that people gift each other rather than use a picnic blanket, free store or put things on the ground, but unfortunately, that's not going to work. I'm not sure what will work, but it is definitely a problem that TS needs to think about.
    Posted 11 months ago by Meander Thralls Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, some of the reasons I can think of that just giving people things directly is not going to work: you have to be relatively close to someone to give them something; they have to have an open slot.  You have to find them if you are looking for someone in particular. You have to keep track of who you have given things to - one to everyone? One to anyone within reach?  Anyone doing candy-exchange parties knows that some of the frustration in a more spread-out group is having to scan through a large list of avatars, trying them and not knowing which you can gift to.

    People do like to leave things out on the ground, and I agree, it's at least in party because it looks pretty!  There's a whole budding movement based around food art at the moment I find really interesting.   But it's also for convenience, because you can drop 4 or 6 or 12 of something and walk away, and know that it's available "to the party" in some sense, and you don't have to decide which 4 or 6 or 12 people will get your stuff.

    Philosophical aside: enter at your own risk: [and aaaactually ... thinking on it, it's the sense of making your donation available "to the party" that might be key in the philosophical analysis of this issue; because the sense of unfairness arises when someone takes a significant proportion of the food donated, it is no longer available "to the party" but when someone takes a "fair share" the donation as a whole, although diminished, is still available "to the party" in the same capacity.  I think that this is probably still the case even when you leave only one item ... and even when you take the last one, in the sense that "the party" made use of it.  Thinking about party food, we usually do check before finishing off a plate of appetizers - "Mind if I have the last one?" especially if we've had several of the previous few pieces.  Hmm.] end aside.

    But as far as aesthetics go, that's why the picnic blanket or table was also put forward as an idea - works exactly the same as the basket, but is larger on screen and the items in the slots are displayed on the blanket/basket. 
    Posted 11 months ago by Scarlett Bearsdale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Maybe when someone purchases a party pack in future, one can request the "Ayn Rand doll hosted" version or the normal glitchy version. Because that's how I'm seeing this go down right now.
    Posted 11 months ago by Epilady Subscriber! | Permalink