Suggestion:20071029 Journalist Skill

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	This suggestion has finished voting and has been moved to Peer Rejected.

20071029 Journalist Skill

Jon Pyre 14:40, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion type
A skill to use a new item with a new item to make a new item

Suggestion scope
Civilians

Suggestion description
It'd be nice to be able to advertise your group or report the news ("THE DEAD TAKE MARVEN MALL") with printed materials. I suggest a new Civilian skill, Journalist. This skill would allow people to use printers, which would findable in mall tech stores, schools, and libraries at 1% each and could be set up in buildings like generators or radios.

Printing would require finding a ream of paper, available at 4% in schools and libraries. Clicking this item in a powered building with a printer opens up a text box that lets you type a short message equal in length to a spoken message (figure you're only printing on a single page and using a large font so it catches the eye). Upon entering the message the Paper is replaced in your inventory by "Stack of newspapers". Clicking the stack of newspapers in any location uses up the item and distributes them there.

For 24 hours after distributing newspapers in a location people have a 25% chance of finding it upon an unsuccessful search. The paper would be read and automatically discarded upon finding like so:

You search and find a newspaper. It says "NEW ZOMBIE TERROR IN PIMBANK! A horde called The Vicious by cowering survivors has broken into several buildings with coordinated attacks! The area needs immediate reinforcements!" You toss the read paper aside.

There would be no limit to how many times newspapers could be dropped in an area, but the odds of finding one on a failed search remains 25%. The more papers there are the less any one has a chance of getting read since they all equally share that 1/4 chance of finding one.

This would allow people to distribute news that would be widely viewed, with strengths over speaking (which doesn't reach everyone and doesn't inform people that haven't arrived yet) or spraypainting, which is deletable and does not allow long messages.

And if you don't want newspapers you'd be able to choose to not find them in your settings. This would not replace the current newspaper item, just exist alongside it.

The "Journalist in Zombie Apocalypse" theme is growing in zombie fiction (see Dead Rising or World War Z). I think this would be a nice way of adding this to Urban Dead.

Voting Section

Voting Rules

Votes must be numbered, justified, signed, and timestamped. # justification ~~~~ Votes that do not conform to the above may be struck by any user.

The only valid votes are Keep, Kill, Spam or Dupe. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.

Keep Votes

1. Oh Funt, it takes a little bit of time to type these things up :p --Jon Pyre 14:41, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
2. Keep - If you vote kill, you hate kittens. Really though, i think this suggestion would create too much spam. If you end up submitting it again, cut everything out and just make it so news could be directly linked to the wiki's news (allowing people to write news, but it could be monitored prior to being "printed" onto a newspaper). Then again, thats probably a dupe too... so... yeah. --Kikashie ^ELT 19:22, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
3. Keep - I LOVE KITTENS! BoboTalkClown 19:55, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
4. Keep - Meh, why not? --Howard Bentley 22:35, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
5. Weak Keep/Change - Exactly because Malton is in a state of effectual anarchy, there would be MANY people proselytising their political and end-of-days propaganda. In fact there a lot of player groups doing exactly this, Urban Guerrillas, UISS, etc. etc. -- and this is all great and highly appropriate RP. And, anyone who thinks people would stop writing, reading, or would adandon politics and religion and propaganda and proselytising in the zombie apocalypse and frankly, I don't care what flak I get for saying this): you are an IDIOT. Get real. However... This needs to be changed: the printed materials are just regular newspapers and work as such. Mixed in with the newspapers we have now and with similar find rates... But then they would have to be put in every building? Which does make this kind of spammy, sorry, I half-agree with those comments. But not enough to shoot the idea down. --WanYao 23:00, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
6. Keep - If I have time to read a book, somebody has time to print it. -doc crook 00:08, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
7. Keep/Change - Make it so rather than a search you print out flyers, using these flyers whilst in a place where you can put graffitti andd holding "paste" you can put up a flyer with your message, it would appear under the graffitti as someone has put up a flyer here it says.....Thebattler35 08:34, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
8. Keep - Like kittens? I have one in my hand. Vote Keep or the kitten dies! lol --Nosimplehiway 16:09, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
9. Weak Keep/Change --Because it has potential, but might call for a lot of SPAM. What might make for a good idea would be to not distribute it amongst buildings, but possibly posting it in bulletin spaces or possibly "taping" it to buildings, which would call for 24 hours of things that resemble spray cans. The main idea is rather nice, though. --Erutan 00:39, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
10. keep It looks like with some fine tuning this could be a neat new idea, besides the current papers leav a bit to be desired--Loop Ho Tep 03:37, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
11. Keep - Only 'cause I used to be one. --_Ducis ^Dux_Sloth^Talk 22:27, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Kill Votes

1. Kill - I just don't like the idea through and through. As well, I think this is something that has been suggested in the past, though not exactly as you have made it here --Ryiis 15:21, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
2. Kill - It just seems a little bit useless, and the flavour not quite right.--Seventythree^Talk 15:57, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
3. Kill - Enables spam, not in character, Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia died with the apocalypse. Do you really think printing presses would still be open? --Pgunn 18:39, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
4. Kill- Way too much spam (this will turn into a new way to really annoy people, and can easily abuse the closest 50 people rule when talking), pointless, no way to ignore, this would be a way to recover dropped items at a 25% rate(or maybe not), implementation would be difficult(yes this is a bad "kill" reason, but still).-- BKM 19:11, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

   Kill - As everyone above who mentioned spamage potential.20:36, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Unsigned vote. --^T 13:05, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

5. Kill - We have plenty of ways to communicate as is. Adding another would just be pointless. --Sonofagun18 04:34, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
6. Kill - Quite out of character. --Zombieslay3r 13:05, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
7. Kill - We have speech, radio, tagging — do we need anything more? --Anotherpongo 16:12, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
8. Kill - I hate Fox News. Oh yeah, this idea sucks too. -J. A. 23:35, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
9. Kill - We have graffiti. RMinRED 17:18, 4 November 2007 (EST)
10. Kill - I like mine better. --Druuuuu 21:55, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Spam/Dupe Votes

1. Spam - We dont need new ways to get the good ol spam of STREETS IS WATCHIN'. Besides, its a fucking apocalypse, with all the murder, death, poverty and brain eating that would apply. Who the fuck would sit down and write an article, and then distribute it in a fucking war zone? Its completely and utterly out of character. If people want to roleplay it, fine, but an in game mechanism for everyone to paper everything is just insane. --The Grimch ^{U! E! WAT!} 14:48, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
   • Re Unlike STREETS this can be ignored if it gets to be a problem. Also, it requires expending one item for each location seeded so you couldn't prolifically blanket an entire suburb, like you can with a spray can or two. And why report in a war zone?"Journalism: A Dangerous Profession" If you want to see a quality example of Journalism in a zombie apocalypse I recommend World War Z. Very interestingly structured book, told entirely as vignettes gathered by a reporter during the waning days of an zombie outbreak. --Jon Pyre 15:25, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
2. Spam Dupe - I'm like 90% sure this is a dupe, except I remember something involving printing presses. Anyway, last thing survivors need are more ways to communicate, they already have speaking(unhindered), radios, and telephones. Right now newspapers are useful and interesting, they are a method for game cannon to reach players, making them into a player developed spam source is dumb. If people want to run newspapers or journals they can use radios, speech, or the wiki, like they always have in the past. And regarding your RE to Grim, it's a fools labor to rely on togglespam to try and get a suggestion through, if it needs a toggle the suggestion isn't worth suggesting in the first place.--Karek^maps?! 15:24, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Link has been provided.--Karek^maps?! 05:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

   Re Feeding Groans and Radio have the same toggle. And newspapers are rather limited. Once you read the what, three or four out there, you ignore them entirely and select autodiscard. This lets newspapers continue to play a role in the game. And while I'd agree that survivors have several ways of communicating I think this fills a role none of the other methods do, namely the same one that newspapers do in real life. It'd be pretty silly for the New York Times to stop publishing because people have vocal cords, phones, and radio broadcasts. Similarly it wouldn't replace those other media since newspapers can't do what they can do. This wouldn't replace the current papers either. While I think their usefulness is nil and their interest vanishes after you've read them once that's no reason to remove them from the game. And this wouldn't. Finally, yes, you could publish a paper on the wiki. But you could also do a lot of stuff in game on different websites. Why spraypaint? You can leave messages here! Why giving off feeding groans? Just blog about the safehouse you've entered? Why even play UD, just send an AIM message to someone saying "I shoot you for five damage but your flack jacket absorbs one point" --Jon Pyre 15:30, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

   Re Idiocy - Why is it you always feel the need to RE people and say nothing? Newspapers being changed would fill no niche, spray painting on billboards and buildings does much the same thing. As we have seen time and again if it can be spammed survivors will spam it. Don't change something that has a use to remove the use simply because you don't like it's current use.--Karek^maps?! 15:55, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

   Re Excessive Vitriol I respectfully disagree with you, oh angry one, that spraypainting is identical, seeing that it doesn't require searching. Spraypainting reaches travelers, since you see a new message each time you move. Newspapers would reach searchers, staying in one place and turning up several messages over the course of a day's AP. As for spam I'd rather get a message now and then from random survivors instead of an unpunctuated series of "You find X" "You find nothing". As for trends with the author re, well, don't make points I have arguments against and I won't re them. Seems fair enough. Jeez, get a koosh ball for stress. I'm not against the current newspapers, just think this would be a nice addition. --Jon Pyre 16:32, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

3. Spam FUNT IS VOTIN' (Two things we don't need in UD - one is more spam, and the other is another way for survivors to communicate. No point re-ing me. I've made up my mind.) --Funt Solo 16:23, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
4. Spam - no purpose except spamming --~~~~ [talk] 17:42, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
5. Spam - I'd like to see the guy typing the article while the buildings being attacked. Sockem 19:24, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
6. Spam - Yeah, I didn't really read this one. I really just want my sig here, thats all. Oh, above.--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:40, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
7. Spam - +1 -- dǝǝɥs oʇ ɯɐds: sʎɐʍ1ɐ! 22:46, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
8. Dupe - You elitist sig bastards! Oh, and it's a dupe of the Newspaper building. I need to dig the link up. Glenstone 22:49, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
9. Spam - So useless. So Spamogenic (Spamogenic: adj. Anything that generates Spam, or otherwise aids in the proliferation thereof). --Steakfish 00:10, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
10. Spam, as in what this would cause. ~A`Blue`Jelly^TME*V*I*L*_? 00:46, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
11. SPAMTASTIC! - As Funt Solo... --WOOT 01:15, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
12. Spam- Sooo spammy...--Darth Lumis^{T! A! E! FU! U} 02:42, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
13. Spam/Dupe – Here's the Newspaper Printing Buildings suggestion that Glenstone was talking about, and I can see some definite similarities. Plus, y'know, spam tastes good. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 04:44, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

    RE- But this is something you find, not what is always there. You install this like a generator.doc crook 12:28, 31 October 2007 (UTC) Non-author RE.--Karek^maps?! 13:45, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

14. I can see some idiots finding a newspaper that says, "YOU SUCK! I RULE!" --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 21:58, 11 November 2007 (UTC)