Knowledge Base Contest Finished

Posted by Mat on 24 Oct 2016, 8:56 pm

After encountering a number of hurdles, the Knowledge Base Contest has been finalized and we are thrilled to have a new batch of player-written entries in our new Knowledge Base. We thank all of the members who participated in the contest, and congratulate the winners! There are some grand prize winners (who received the Spiny Mouse) we would like to invite to contact us for their PayPal prizes.

Second, the moderation team had a meeting and have made some additional changes to the rules and infractions. Most important is that moderators have noticed a need for different infraction point levels for sexual content violations. We now have three levels of infractions to address different levels of violations so that players who make a sexual comment aren't immediately permanently banned for violating the rule, and instead the punishment better fits the infraction. We also split the "exploitation" infraction into two, the new one being a lesser infraction, per moderator suggestion.

We have also introduced some new rules, which you can review on the rule page:

- Don't post frightening or sickening content. Frightening content is defined as graphic real life photographs or photo-realistic artwork indistinguishable from a photograph depicting violence toward humans or animals. Please note this rule isn't intended to police Painties, and exists because of issues with players posting graphic photographs in the forums to disturb others.

- Players may not use the reports function to file false reports about others. Players may not file multiple reports on the same issue, or contact multiple moderators, to have another moderator review the report when a report has already been resolved. Escalation of a report may only be done by contacting Admin-Deinmaar. This rule was added because we have had instances of players reporting others multiple times to get them in trouble despite no rule-breaking behavior having occurred (a form of harassment, unfortunately).

We have also clarified a handful of rules:

- Don't sell, or attempt to sell, your account, items, villagers, or any other Furvilla content (this does not include Painties) for real money. We have clarified this includes attempting to sell account contents.

- Doxxing is defined as posting the personal information of others, including their real name, address, location, IP address, school, real life photographs, or anything that may compromise their privacy. This is not allowed. Previously, this rule stated that posting personal information of Furvilla members is not allowed, and this clarifies a person does not have to be a Furvilla member to be protected under this rule.

Last, here are a couple of general updates:

- The Paintie Team is currently interviewing a new potential Paintie moderator. We are looking forward to potentially adding this new person to the team and are working toward training them for the opening.

- We will be testing the Protection Quotient feature (that was turned off in early beta testing) soon. Please make sure your warriors are prepared for testing as we will be turning it on and adjusting factors as necessary.

- The majority of the features that have been released in the last couple of weeks (such as the Giving Tree and Quests) are not complete yet. While you are welcome to play around with them in the meantime, we will not be formally announcing them until the features are complete with all of their art and rewards. The Quest feature, for instance, will likely be getting its rewards in late November after the Plush feature has been complete.

- We have heard a lot of your criticism regarding the changes we have made the last couple of days. While we understand your concern, we feel that your goals and ours are unfortunately not aligning. Our goal is to ensure a healthy economy for the game and fixing supply issues that have cropped up in the course of beta testing. We are studying the economy of the game and ensuring that any problems in supply and demand are addressed prior to the game opening (and there have been many, as you may have observed from most materials having no value except to sell back). While we know that our decisions have not been popular among the beta testers, we feel they are important for the health and longevity of the game when it releases, and the ability of the players, upon the game's release, to be able to enjoy their game experience. Please remember your job as beta testers is to test features and help us simulate the game's economy post-release so we can identify supply and demand issues, and not to play the game as if it were already released.

When considering future changes we make, please do not consider how it affects you as a beta tester. Please think as if you were a new player in the released game economy, and whether these changes will allow you to make money off the items you collect and craft by ensuring they require time and effort to achieve. The purpose of restrictive changes in the game's design is to ensure that supply isn't wildly outstripping demand. Players will not be able to sell their items if every player is capable of making them in excess.

Thank you!