>> I am absolutely certain that the vast number number of players who interact with each other day to day do so in good faith.

In Prime, I feel compelled to tiptoe around conflictual roleplay because a good chunk of the time when I have gotten involved in something, I find out the hard way that the other player is either behaving in a way that is genuinely malicious (as opposed to merely roleplaying in an antagonistic way, such as by bringing in alts or raging in IMs) or due to their own past experiences has assumed the same of me, thereby putting them on the defensive OOCly and tainting the entire scenario. It's silly, I think, to pretend that a large chunk of the community -- not merely a tiny vocal minority -- has not become one that not only isn't really interested in whether their fellow players are enjoying themselves, but frequently has a vested interest in being actively vicious to other people, which manifests as everything from throwing ones' text-weight around in-game to engaging in vicious, evil out-of-character gossip and rumormongering. Smashers are merely one vehicle for this behavior, and from my perspective both the attitudes of "harden up you baby or I'll give you something to cry about" and "you're a snerty griefer for negatively impacting my character in any way" are reflections of the same problem.

This isn't even to say I'm innocent of the tedious and exhausting metagame that is the DragonRealms community, because it's incredibly easy to get swept up in sometimes, but I think the community as a whole would really benefit from taking the time to step back and make a genuine effort at engaging with other players and asking "how can we work together to make playing together enjoyable?" It's not always going to work -- bad eggs do exist -- but the first step has to happen somewhere.

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Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com

"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs

The problems of Prime are not ubiquitous, neither between instances (TF and Plat do not have these issues) nor between games. I've played PvP+ MUDs with gradual permadeath and the ability to steal items from peoples' corpses with far more respectful communities.

Mechanics are important because you build interactive systems around the lowest common denominator. They can do something to stymie the worst expressions of ugliness within a community, but the ugliness will still be there until you do something about its source. If you do not believe improvement is possible, I question why you are still here. There are other games after all.

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Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com

"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs

>>That's why these powers should be given to vetted members of the community, honestly, along with decoupling actual smashers or a thump function from OOC policy or RP enforcement. Most Mentors would be well enough suited for it, GHs, board mods, and perhaps community leaders or another selected group of people that can be trusted with the power to shut down people using the gweth to break policy and immersion.<<

Speaking only for myself...

I wouldn't want to be in that position.



Mazrian

> Necros are not invited, sorry Necros.

Fine! I'll hold my own lectures and classes on how to properly accessorize and dress up your zombies.

>

The Elpazi Assassin Zombie groans, "Braaaaiiiinnnnnnssss..."
>
put ears on my zombie
>

>You put a pair of fluffy pink bunny ears on a Elpazi Assassin Zombie.
>
A gnome pulls on an Elpazi Assassin Zombie's fluffy pink bunny ears.
A gnome says, "So, cute!"
>
A tear runs down an Elpazi Assassin Zombie's face.
>

>>As long there is one bad egg in the basket this will never work especially with the small tight knit "everyone knows your name" community we have now.

IMO, part of the problem Prime has is that it is not tight knit. Plat and TF are instances that I feel are good at policing themselves (for better or for worse), because they're a size that makes that manageable. For the times where I saw someone was unwanted in TF, they were made sure their ability to script was not possible. In Plat, it amounts to the silent treatment. Once again, this is how they seem to police themselves for better or for worse.

I feel that Prime is just too big (and/or policy-driven, despite the sorta-lax policy) for that to really be possible.

As an aside, the fact that "maybe we as players should be less jerk-like towards one another and make sure we're all actually enjoying the game" tends to get filtered through and translated into "maybe I am a big bubble blowing baby who can't handle things so let's remove all forms of conflict and eat butterscotch and cinnamon pie" is a telling sign of the issues that Prime faces. The outright apathy and/or derision toward the concept of playing the game in a manner that makes it enjoyable for everyone is baffling.

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

What exactly is meant by "badboy" in this context?

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Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com

"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs

Let me clarify: Are you talking about players or characters right now?

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Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com

"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs

>>Seems like a lot of the angst in this thread is because some people can't tell the difference between the two.

Which seems to be on par with the DR community.

My thoughts on it still:
Keep smashers, decrease the cooldown on making smashers, change crafted smashers to only reduce the charges on a gweth (not break them - or introduce a chance for break [~15%]), keep auction/perma gwethsmashers as they are, make it so the people smashed can still listen, send a message around to everyone when someone is smashed via gweth network, and keep this as something kept as moderated by the community with a little bit of economy.

If you feel like you're being harassed by someone (or someones) via gwethsmashing and haven't done anything to provoke it, warn harass them the times that they do it, then assist about it.

>>Or just get rid of gweths altogether; it serves no purpose other then be a conduit for troll farmers. If the intention of gweths is to breed conflict; it has more then served it's purpose (I'm saying that seriously btw, it could exist in order for "drama" to happen, in theory even conflict is part of RP.)

I find the requests for help, information about invasions and events, item selling and general friendly banter takes up way more of my gweth logs than the troll farming drama does.

I think 'serves no purpose' is a far cry from what I see day to day.

>>Seems like a lot of the angst in this thread is because some people can't tell the difference between the two.


>>My thoughts on it still:
>>Keep smashers, decrease the cooldown on making smashers, change crafted smashers to only reduce the charges on a gweth (not break them - or introduce a chance for break [~15%]), keep auction/perma gwethsmashers as they are, make it so the people smashed can still listen, send a message around to everyone when someone is smashed via gweth network, and keep this as something kept as moderated by the community with a little bit of economy.

>>If you feel like you're being harassed by someone (or someones) via gwethsmashing and haven't done anything to provoke it, warn harass them the times that they do it, then assist about it.



^best idea yet to keep all sides 'happy'.. (well for now till the wrong two people get smashed again then its the end of the world and those bullies are SO smashing innocent noobs and whatnot that is- and i think i saw one of them gwethsmash a puppy) --> and we haveto listen to this thread reborn and go on and on and on... and on and on and on and on.... and on...

>The fact this thread pops up

And you have absolutely nothing to do with that, I'm sure.

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I'm a badger, I be badgerin'

>>The fact this thread pops up again and again by SEVERAL players going on SEVERAL pages is indicative of a SERIOUS problem.

The problem you perceive and the problem that truly exists are two different things.

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Annwyl
Message Board Supervisor

If you've questions or comments, take it to e-mail by writing me at DR-Annwyl@play.net.