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The fact of the matter is that randomly following people in town isn't going to help you or your kids survive at all. As much fun as I know it is to get your epic screenshot of you being supreme emperor, there is in fact already one way to increase your genetic success through the use of this system, here it is:

FOLLOW YOUR PIE EATING, FIRE TENDING MOTHER FOR THE LOVE OF JASON

How Things Currently Are:

The fact of the matter is that the only real, game mechanic bound trust you can have in this game is through your family, as you both impact each-other's genetic score. Any other person gets no benefit from helping you, and experienced players know this. This is why they don't get involved in complicated hierarchies, in kings trying to tell people what to do. To be quite frank, they don't matter. Unless the to be king is willing to start a war over it (which would just end in his potential subjects dying) there is very little coercive power outside of murder that is available to get people to do what you want them to do. This is why you have to lead by example.

And as it just so happens, any good mother is already doing this. If you are feeding your child, telling them where berry bushes are, and demonstrating that you are generally competent while the child is helpless they will see you as a good investment into their genetic fitness and will help you survive.

How Things Should, and Could Be:

This is where the leadership system comes in.

By following your mother as quickly as you are able to, you obtain a few immediate advantages, and more arise out of this system the more people participate.

Firstly, you can now identify your mother much more quickly on a glance than you could previously. Her badge should go up a level if you are the first child to follow her, and this will make her much more easy to see in the crowd. Additionally, instead of having to waste time sending out an opening message of "Hey kids berries south, rabbits southwest, tools east, if we run out of lumber look north..." every single time a child is born, a mother can simply use the order system to automatically tell her children this on birth. Now at this point you're already at an advantage over the other berry munching simpletons, but as you start to have children and your mother has more children the benefits accelerate

If your sisters also follow your mother you can easily identify them as they will have the exact same badge you do. If you are a woman yourself and have children and they follow you, They then get the advantage of getting orders from a now more experienced grandmother. All of this directly benefits you as a player and helps your family to coordinate. But it doesn't even stop there.

If you live in a mixed city and everyone follows this system, reputations will begin to take shape. People will start to recognize that "That blue family over there" seems to be run well and anyone who isn't a griefer will recognize that they are beneficial to the survival of the town and will begin to trust them. People will either begin to create their own hierarchy in the same way, or jump ship and start following a member of that family that they trust to receive the same organizational benefits.

Out of absolutely nothing, a hierarchy is born and trust can be created, all from everyone performing one single task. In the real world, this is how societies began. Clans centered around a chief mother or father incorporated other families through war or marriage until something like a society was born. Eventually some upstart might decide that he should be chief instead, but he doesn't create the hierarchy out of nothing. It already has to be there through family. Family is the basis of society.

tldr:follow your mother because it makes it easier to coordinate and more good stuff will happen.