Village socio-economic systems

[DatOneGuy]

Ants clearly use the most efficient system, we need some telepathy going on here.

[Potjeh]

Nah, man, it's pheromones. So all you need to do is stop bathing.

[CrazyChris]

1- The leader is more like a referee, the people take decisions on everything and the leader keeps track of who is for or against a certain project.
If the project is accepted by the majority those against it are free to not get involved, but are suggested to get in for the sake of the village.

2-More like a collective ownership. Need a tool? Get it from the storage and put it back when you are done. Need curi? Take one from the storage and try to make another if you can. etc... Of course, everyone is closely watched so no one abuses the system.

3-I didn't stop to really think about it, but i do prefer to have a system where everyone gets a chance and its not every man for himself. So i guess Socialism/Communism.

4-At its peak we had around 12 members, but due to RL events we are down to 4-5

[SuchANerd]

We are ruled by an associal and lonely despote.

And by "we", I mean "me".

[NaoWhut]

Communism ftw?

[2D]

I've been a hermit for the this world and my W4 village didn't really have a system to associate itself with.

But if I was to start a village I think a socialist village would work well. Where each could work independently on their on projects and goals, but we could also cooperate on certain things such as food, water, and share some tools that we may need.

[Koru]

When we had few members, we were sharing everything without any rules.
Now with a lot more ppl, we have law that everybody must obey (a list of really basic rules), LS has the last word and when something is not clear, ppl ask him. We only share best ql tools and craft alts. Rest, like curio, items, food, ppl have to do themself or trade with other members (barter stands and coin system). Exept warriors, town buys food and curios for them.
It is more complicated, but general assumptions works like that.

[novaalpha]

Monarchy.

[Kaios]

During my time in W3 and W4 I played with Angkor. The type of system we used was one I do highly recommend for smaller villages. When it came to decisions the Lawspeaker had final say as is usual with most villages, but of course everyone's opinion was valued in determining an outcome.

Each person was designated their job (Farmer, Smith, Miner, Hunter, etc) and that is what they mostly raised their skills towards as well as combat. Rather than each person making their own food there was in fact a cook(s) that made food for the entire village.

Everyone had a personal plot for storage of their own things, but otherwise, equipment, tools, food, materials and pretty much everything else was publically available to all villagers.

I enjoyed this system very much, and I just want to say again that I believe it works wonderfully in a small village.

However, in world 5 the village I am in now utilizes a system that is probably most relatable to this:

Best thing is a mix from both, communism and capitalism, which means that everyone focus on something (like smith, metal digger, silk, trees) and gives their stuff out for free. But everyone is doing his own food, except for some unique positions like sewer. And with shared alts, like carpentry and survival. And always focus on bigger village targets, so everyone is busy.

Both styles have their benefits and disadvantages, and I do like both, but in my opinion, if you're just a small, casual village wanting to have a bit of fun then I would go with the first. Larger villages who are a little more serious about making their mark in the world should definitely go with the second style. It really does work great for organization and the general rate of progress is pretty fast if you and your villagers work at it.

[burgingham]

When it came to decisions the Lawspeaker had final say as is usual with most villages

I think this has been a reason for countless troubles in the past. People are still playing a game here and while some are ok with subordinating themselves to decisionmakers, most are not. While strong communities offering protection are valued by players up to a certain point, they become a bother beyond that point. People want their freedom in a game like this. A town with walls and other kinds of security offers more freedom at first, because it protects players from small harms such as griefers, thieves and the like. There is a classical dilemma between freedom and security though. A higher security is made for more freedom, but in the end also takes away freedom on some ends. Now the same is true for the position of a strong lawspeaker just that here the players are also subject to the arbitrariness of another player. While in the real world there exist real power structures that people cannot easily escape, they have options to avoid being subject to such power structures here: Shutting down the game. Moreso before doing that they can cause some harm simply for the lulz or to "show them".

Of course from a certain size forward a purely communist system doesn't work anymore and will cause more troubles than it helps. So some kind of decisionmaking power is necessary. People are more likely to accept those decisions if they come from a group of players though, when they get the feeling there is really a decision that has been made after debating and discussing the pros and cons. Even in cases where this isn't true a "we have decided that" always sounds better than a "I have decided that" and is bound to earn more acceptance.

What I am trying to say here is that the decisionmaking powers in a town should go easy on their villagers and above all should give them the feeling they are participating in the decisionmaking processes (and preferably really let them do that or give them special tasks they can feel some responsibility for). Menial and tedious tasks have to be done as well of course, reward your villagers for them and if it is only with a: "Hey, nice job. Thanks for the help."

For a well structured system there are many other helpful little things one can use, helpful as incentives for your players and helpful for structuring the town and the tasks. I won't give away all our secrets here though