SB 109-02: Don't Kill People Act (Passed)

[Joseph Cao]

SENATE BILL

To prohibit the GM from killing players

SECTION I. SHORT TITLE.

This bill shall be referred to as the Don't Kill People Act

SECTION II. PROVISIONS.

No officer of the game engine may write into canon the death of any player, registered or otherwise, without the expressly written, freely given, unrevoked public consent of the player in question within 72 hours of the story's writing.

SECTION III. INSURANCE.

For the purposes of any legislation which repeals or replaces all legislation to do with game moderation, the game engine, or any other such category, this act shall not be considered to fall within that category. Unless explicitly named or listed individually, this act shall be considered an exception to any blanket repeal or replacement of numerous federal statutes.

Sponsor: Sestak
Status: Final Vote

The gentleman from Montana is recognized.

[Joseph Cao]

Yeah, I think to Sestak's point the Census and the Constitution do diverge on the issue of a self-declared death without an accompanying deregistration. Probably best to just make sure the both of them line up without introducing that new wrinkle.

[Joseph Cao]

SENATE BILL

To prohibit the GM from killing players

SECTION I. SHORT TITLE.

This bill shall be referred to as the Don't Kill People Act

SECTION II. PROVISIONS.

No officer of the game engine may write into canon the death of any player, registered or otherwise, without the expressly written, freely given, unrevoked public consent of the player in question within 72 hours of the story's writing.

SECTION III. INSURANCE.

For the purposes of any legislation which repeals or replaces all legislation to do with game moderation, the game engine, or any other such category, this act shall not be considered to fall within that category. Unless explicitly named or listed individually, this act shall be considered an exception to any blanket repeal or replacement of numerous federal statutes.

[Joseph Cao]

Oh yeah, I forgot – 24 hours to object to the above amendment.

[Joseph Cao]

Amendment is adopted.

[Joseph Cao]

I would agree with Cao's amendment and share this concern:

If possible I’d like to hear other members’ thoughts before deciding friendly or not. Don’t care too much about voluntary death myself but it’s stuck around as a legal option for a long time and I assume there probably are some arguments for keeping them? Would like to hear.

If a player "voluntarily dies," wouldn't they be forbidden from coming back without the GM writing a story magically resurrecting them? I could see players using this as a way to deregister "for good" without the temptation of coming back but instead it creates a big issue. We've seen players like Laki/FDB/Ninja leave and rejoin countless amounts of times and I'd imagine most players who consent to the GM killing them off have a similar mindset and might regret their decision a little while later.

Death should probably stay as a condition to declare an office vacant, in case someone important legit dies in RL (assuming we had proof of that), as otherwise we would leave an office effectively vacant for the remainder of the term (or in the case of say, a SCOA judge, literally forever, barring impeachment). It's probably not necessary to add this to the Census Act as we already have auto deregistration after missing three elections.

Thats a rather unfortunate situation actually, because it would be difficult to prove or know if someone died IRL.

Inability to ascertain the player's whereabouts/physical wellbeing would count as incapacitation for most intents and purposes probably, same as all prolonged periods of inactivity. Of course the issue is with being sure.

In any case, 24 hours to object to the motion for a final vote.

Personally I'm reasonably OK with where we are right now – the main thing is eliminating the possibility of a GM killing players since by and large GMs don't need or care to write players out of the game anyway.

[Joseph Cao]

SENATE BILL

To prohibit the GM from killing players

SECTION I. SHORT TITLE.

This bill shall be referred to as the Don't Kill People Act

SECTION II. PROVISIONS.

No officer of the game engine may write into canon the death of any player, registered or otherwise.

SECTION III. INSURANCE.

For the purposes of any legislation which repeals or replaces all legislation to do with game moderation, the game engine, or any other such category, this act shall not be considered to fall within that category. Unless explicitly named or listed individually, this act shall be considered an exception to any blanket repeal or replacement of numerous federal statutes.

A final vote is now open on this bill for 96 hours. Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[Joseph Cao]

Aye.

[Joseph Cao]

Lincoln: Beesley – Aye
Northeast: AGA – Aye
Great Lakes: Cao – Aye

Frémont: Kuumo – Aye
Mountain West: wxtransit – Aye
Pacific: Western Democrat – Not voting

South: Mr. R – Aye
Upper South: Yankee – Aye
Deep South: Muad'dib – Aye

STV1: MB – Not voting
STV2: Weatherboy – Aye
STV3: Deadprez – Not voting
STV4: West_Midlander – Aye
STV5: Sestak – Aye
STV6: OSR – Aye
STV7: Blairite – Not voting
STV8: Adam – Aye
STV9: Ishan – Aye

By a vote of 14-0-0-4, this legislation is passed and sent to the President.

[Joseph Cao]

SENATE BILL

To prohibit the GM from killing players

SECTION I. SHORT TITLE.

This bill shall be referred to as the Don't Kill People Act

SECTION II. PROVISIONS.

No officer of the game engine may write into canon the death of any player, registered or otherwise.

SECTION III. INSURANCE.

For the purposes of any legislation which repeals or replaces all legislation to do with game moderation, the game engine, or any other such category, this act shall not be considered to fall within that category. Unless explicitly named or listed individually, this act shall be considered an exception to any blanket repeal or replacement of numerous federal statutes.

Passed 14-0-0-4 in the Atlasian Senate assembled,


Joseph Cao, president pro tempore