HCF Prison Norms

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~HCF Imprisonment Norms: An Historical Account StraightFoolish Worker of the LSIF Proudhon Press 2013.5.3.1:19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ x \ __ \ | \__\

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(1) Introduction (2) Definitions (3) WorldPopo Violence Norms (4) Rational Response to WorldPopo Violence Norms (5) HCF Response was Rational (6) Conclusion: Rational Response involves Forgiveness

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1. Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The HCF war has left the server in ruins. IN those ruins, however, players have grown stronger. We are now seeing the rise of new cities, new forms of organization, and new styles of play that are stronger

and more well-thought-out than previously imagined. Players have survived the violence and thrived, and the experiment continues. Despite these triumphs and the new renaissance triggered by the (virtually) full release of the world-

edge vault, many victims (and the friends of victims) are wondering why this has all happened. Clearly a large part of the blame and causal efficacy lies at the feet of the HCF members who perpetrated violence upon Civcraft. There

is no doubt about this, and this is not meant to be a work of apology for that. The violence, theft, and damage that has been done to the server has been on many scales. This work is meant to address a single scale: the indefinite nature of the

inprisonments perpetrated by the HCF. In a GITMO-fashioned facility, they held combatant, political dissident, and resistance fighter alike with tight paranoia--letting any of them go might lead to them being permanently pearled

in the end. Given that they wanted to stay on the server, they felt they couldn't risk setting free their eventual captors. This leads us to a natural question, which this book is meant to address: "Why did the HCF garner such paranoia? Why did it

feel it necessary to permanently pearl Civcraftians, innocent or combatant. Why would they want to remove others from play, thus halting the experiment?" Clearly there are simple explanations here, such as "they were in it for the

lulz" or "they are psychopaths" or "they simply love ruining peoples' time". All of these things may be true, but there is another partial cause that this book is meant to directly address: Norms of Violence and Imprisonment established by AnCap

WorldPolice Members are partially responsible for HCF's harsh imprisonment policies. This is written in the hope that we learn as a community, and that those in the future fail to repeat the mistakes of our generation. --Foolish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2. Definitions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~By "WorldPolice" or "AnCaps" I simply mean a particular group of players that typically hangs out in the Mumble channel "Cool Kids Club" or "Bat Cave". This includes Matticus_Rex, Foofed, ServerError,

Exultant, and others. They are bound by a loose tie to "anarcho-capitalist" political ideology (thus the term "the AnCaps") but as NateMagic said it best, they are a group of "loud mouthed bounty hunters". Thus, I will refer to them as the "World

Police". They mainly earned this term historically by intervening in sovereign countries, often flouting local laws and conventions. By "HCF" I mean to include HCF and all splinter-factions thereof. Clearly there are many political

schisms and distinctions between the groups that invaded Civcraft from the HCF. I refer to the group as a whole because for the purposes of my analysis, they serve as a whole unit; this is because they served as a semi-unified military and defense

force, and thus often acted as a confederacy as a result.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3. WorldPopo Violence and Imprisonment Norms ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This chapter alone could constitute many books. History on this topic would absorb many volumes, and already there exists a wealth on Google documents and Reddit

sources documenting cases of injustice on the part of the WorldPopo power structure. This section will briefly describe the structure of the WorldPopo imposed force structure, and the norms of violence and imprisonment it established. These will

prove as instrumental in producing HCF's own indefinite imprisonment policy. ------ The WorldPolice sanctioned various players in its history with permanent (or indefinite) imprisonment. These players fall into a few broad categories:

(1) Players committing offenses so serious they "warranted permanent imprisonment". For instance, Josh, for his repeated and thorough destruction of cities, was pearled indefinitely. Other extreme griefers were treated in similar fashion, along with

large-scale thiefs. For examples, search the reddit for "pearling" threads. Examples abound. (2) Prisoners who owed a "doable" amount of damages, but who had no reasonable way to produce payment. Players in this class simply owed

too much; they couldn't feasible play Minecraft for dozens of hours a week just to release themselves from imaginary prison, and so they were effectively permanently imprisoned. (3) Presumed recidivists. Many

cases, the adjudicators simply judged that the criminal could not and would not reform. This subjective judgment was used as excuse to keep the person imprisoned, regardless of the nature or severity of the offense.

(4) Players who were totally unknown. Many players kept by the WorldPolice were kept without reason, as nobody holding the pearls could remember why they were held. Thus, they were held because "it would be too risky to release them". This GITMO-

style logic (keep them in case they retaliate or are somehow, perhaps, enemies), of course, is more likely than anything to produce enemies. Besides, it attempts to rights ones previous mistakes by sweeping the "problem" (people) under the rug.

Needless to say, permanent imprisonment became a norm on the server (except for the leftist sections of the server, who have never until recently even held a prison pearl). With the exception of organizations such as the Pumpkin Jacks, who allowed for

prisoners to work for their freedom, most pearlings ended up permanent. This established a norm; getting pearled became tantamount to dying, especially when sanctioned by the WorldPolice. No normal player or group at the time had the military resources

or time to challenge the WorldPolice's vault.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rational Response to WorldPopo Violence Norms ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~When considering how to approach an enemy, one should consider how that enemy might react. Often, examining rational response is a good first approximation.

While people fall far short of rationality, people who are capable of even a *modicum* of analysis and careful thought will settle on, more or less, rational solutions. Regardless, it's important to investigate the rational response to the threats of

violence that was presented by the WorldPolice during the HCF invasion. Despite the clear irrationality of certain members of the HCF, it seems clear that the group as a whole would be more likely to stumble upon a clear-headed and rational response.

Let me preface this analysis with a bit of history. As evidenced in the early youtube video by ApacheBlitz ("Slaying AnCaps"), HCF members were *discarding prison pearls*. Rather than keeping WorldPopo members for imprisonment, they were simply

interested in besting them in combat. Even when HCF members began to imprison players, they were released within a day or two. I can attest to this myself; I was released along with many other prisoners a day or two after the initial

invasion. I fell in battle during the initial battle of Augusta, but was subsequently released when the battle was over. Why were we released? The explanation given at the time, and the one that seems most reasonable, is that

death-ban norms on HCF are much different than the norm of violence and imprisonment crafted by the WorldPopo on Civcraft. Given that HCF death-bans are temporary, it made sense that HCF members would release their prisoners gradually.

What changed? HCF members were wise to the reddit. They saw that WorldPopo memembers habitually imprisoned people indefinitely. They saw that they were under threat of being imprisoned indefinitely. Given that this was a possibility (rather

than the norms they were used to on HCF), the game changed immediately. Now there was a non-zero probability that their players would be *taken out of the occassion*. Thus, if they continued to release their enemies (or potential enemies)

they simply created a possibility of being beaten forever. This explains the indefinite imprisonment and the growing paranoia that even the innocent members they held would become violent. Knowing that they had made mistakes, they began

to feel exposed by the possibities they knew were lurking in the shadows. They could release the WorldPopo or others, of course, but they *knew* they would be risking permanent imprisonment. And sure enough, since then, they have been hunted down for

precisely this purpose. Given repeated play and enough repetitions, dynamic systems end up in "absorbing states" or states where things cease to change. The HCF knew that continually freeing their competition meant risking getting

themselves permanently pearled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~6. Conclusion ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The conclusion I believe we can draw from this is that extreme threats serve no-one. Everyone has the time and inclination to play this game. People orchestrate and pull off operations from the End. They

stay active on the Mumble and on the Reddit. They find ways of playing on alts or VPNs. Regardless of whether these methods are right or legal (from the server's perspective) is not the point; the behavior exists. Given this, we should

all learn to live with each other. If permanent imprisonment were *never* on the table to begin with, we would not have seen this server's longest dark ages, where dozens of the most productive and bright citizens (not to mention the numberless droves of

the nameless, who clearly matter as well) were imprisoned for no reason at all. Rather than flinging blame around at each other, we have to learn to live in this post-war world together. Understanding the causes for various

behaviors is important, and I hope by doing so, we learn to avoid these unfortunate mistakes in the future. -StraightFoolish LSIF