Zanz wrote:Aquinas wrote:Since Cobura has ratified the RP Accord, its players would be expected to respect the RP Team's guidance in terms of how Cobura's economic and military character is defined. If they did not follow the guidance, then theoretically the RP Team could approach Moderation and ask for a ruling (although so far this is not something that has ever happened). However, at least as the rules are framed at the moment, there is not really anything to explicitly stop Cobura's players from role-playing in a way that might seem to contradict the rankings the RP Team has assigned to other nations outside the RP Accord like Hawu Mumenhes.
This is an interesting interpretation of the RP Accord that flies contrary to my own understanding of how it should work. If this thread isn't the right place for this discussion please feel free to split it off
My understanding was not that ratification of the RP Accord by Cobura meant merely that Cobura must follow its own ranking as per the RP Team, or else face potential RP Team/Moderation intervention. My understanding was that ratification of the Accord meant enforced recognition of the rankings for all nations, whether or not they had ratified the Accord. If this interpretation is starkly incorrect, I do have concerns that my own wording in drafting the economic rankings in the OP of this thread (which has been copy pasted to the RP Accord Index) is perhaps misleading:Zanz wrote:•For nations which have ratified the RP Accord, these rankings are canon and will be enforced by Moderation under section 20 of the Game Rules beginning on Feb. 22, 2016 at 12:00 AM CST. At that time these rankings will supersede any contradictory information on the wiki, the forum, legislative bills, the national debate page, etc. Utilize these rankings to inform your roleplay, your wiki writing, your history writing, etc.
This to me is relatively explicit in that "these rankings" (plural) are "canon." Your suggested interpretation would better be written "each nation's ranking is canon for purposes of the players therein." This would lend itself to a confusing scenario where Cobura could be high development to every RP Accord ratifier except to players in Cobura, who are forced to RP it as medium development, despite a world of opinion to the contrary.
I think the much less confusing interpretation is to expect that if Cobura ratifies, it must subscribe to its own ranking. But even if Cobura does not ratify, all ratifiers must subscribe to Cobura's medium ranking. Does that make sense?
I can only say here that when section 20 of the Game Rules was introduced, which governs the working of the RP Accord, the intention was that for RP Accord nations, the RP Team may "define the nation's military and economic character". There was no intention for players in RP Accord nations to be be required to acknowledge the rankings assigned to nations which weren't even in the RP Accord. So at least from how I am seeing this, it would not be reasonable to ask Akhenaten to change any of his Esinsundu Empire RP.
But I agree this is an area where the rules/guidelines could be clearer, and perhaps some things need looking at again.