c:\Government

[Encephalon]

You think you have it bad, I badly need wheat seeds and cant find wild ones anywhere.

http://havenandhearth.wikia.com/wiki/Wild_Windsown_Weed

There you go.
Reading the wiki before blurting out stupid questions and such is generally considered smart.

You sir, are an hero

[Thijssnl]

You sir, are an hero

Why thanks.
Also, that stuff above wasnt meant mean; Its just the truth.
Enjoy the wiki!

[niltrias]

I mostly run the hell away from the leader types, and offer useless advice and opinions from a safe distance.

Back-seat driving is much easier, in my experience.

[Darkren]

Let's face it, when it comes to villages, communism is superior. The word communism comes from the word community, and if your village can't be a community, good luck getting all too far. Do what you want, give what you want. If you ask for something, one of your many villagers will likely be glad to help. Greedy, selfish assholes who never give back just aren't given stuff anymore. I find it ironic how many people are all "OMG FUKEN COMMIES", when they themselves are working in such communities.

When I was in Prontera, NotStop wanted a coin-based economy. While the idea of using money simplifies trade, it's meant to encourage trade, and trading takes away from the community feeling. You wouldn't sell cheap stuff to your co-villagers, friends or even best friend, you'd just give it to them. Not sure whether to call a H&H coin-based system Socialism, Capitalism, or something else.

[Chakravanti]

Technically it's closer to facism than socialism and communism since unless a village has at least 20 highly active members then the government and appropriation of community efforts and resources is based on military contribution and rank.

[Thurrok]

Bringing capitalism into an inter-village community is more destructive than helpful imo, it's just like Darkren said - if townspeople only contribute if they get "coins" (objects of value, whatever they be) in return, they might just as well join another faction/betray their town/sell out info if the opponent pays better. Communism, on the other hand, tends to make (small groups of) people stick to each other and doesn't eliminate the possibility of making friends in the first place (I mean, come on, would you trust a guy who wants to rip you off?)

Ofcourse then there's that problem of communes getting too big, and clever people installing oppressive control mechanisms to manipulate the masses. But that's by no means to be considered a communistic form of government. Neither do I think that this will ever become a problem in HnH

[akaienkou]

The role of government and the interactions of people, villages, and societies in this game is utterly amazing to me. Especially studying anthropology.

From that standpoint, I run my own village rather like a ranked tribal society. The leader of such is a "big man" rather than a chief, king, or otherwise, due to having no true power. His power is simply that the people trust in him and will listen to him solely on the basis of that trust. I can't force anyone in my village to do anything, nor would I want to, but through the use of conversation and charisma I can convince them to do things that are beneficial to us all. Also, the main responsibility of the leader of a ranked tribal society is redistribution. Not quite in the communism sense, but similar. That leads into the next idea of such a society: Three things make up status in any society: wealth, power, and prestige. Since all in a ranked tribe have the same wealth and no one has any power over another, prestige is all that matters to such a society. And prestige in a ranked tribe is earned primarily through generosity. Give items and knowledge and you gain prestige, and therefore respect. With that respect you wield the power in the village.

I love this game. Taking my class from theory to practice right in front of my eyes. Haha.

[Reimad]

For the short time our village managed to function, we had our LS who was the big boss and was responsible for all the inside stuff and general state of affairs. No making big decisions without telling him. Then there was the chieftain who's only concern was safety. Walls, militia, weapons, constantly reminding people not to leave their gates open

Nobody really made a fuss about who was Ls or chieftain. As long as they did their jobs properly it didn't really matter because whenever decisions had to be made they would be discussed in the village chat and everyone who had something to do with it would be asked for his opinion. And the regular villager's had just as much say as the LS..

Then the diplomats. These just chatted a lot with nearby villages and went on visits. It was 1, 2 villages per diplomat and this way we knew exactly what was happening everywhere. They weren't really chosen, just self appointed I think. We just knew who was friendly with which village so we'd ask them whenever we needed info or stuff.

Then the rest of the village. if someone needed something he'd just ask. There were specializations. Treeplanters, miners, farmers..
T'was democratic, every vote counted equal, at least to me. Everything was for mutual benefit anyway, we never did anything solely for ourselves.