Another Open Letter

[Rebma]

There are many locations in the game, this is true. And given the size of the game, it should be easy for each character to have an island to themselves. That simply isn't how it works in practice, however. If one spawns 15 English characters, 8 of them are likely to wind up on the same island within a couple towns of one another. It is not generally trivial for them to simply move to a different island. It would be much easier to keep one's characters apart if they did not keep spawning next door to one another.

I once had a character traveling (2-3 days tops, and in that time spawned a character, and they ended upspawning in char 1's town.


Sidenote: They managed to live there for many years, up until I left the game actually. Just showing how bunk our spawn system is.

[iavatus]

So, one month and and a half now, this has been going on.

The only responses, have been to claim that we, the players, are operating on misinformation (such as rules we're not allowed to know, because evidently we'd abuse the hell out of them), that there's no double standards for friends of staff when this has clearly happened, and finally, and most damning of all...

Absolute, silence, from the fools that caused all of this.

So, thank you Echoman, for making some public comments. Even though you did veer into insulting and pettiness on very serious issues, it was more then else.

Thank you Greek, for well, some words.

Thank you, CDLS, for a thread that well, didn't really address the real issues, but at least clarified some very drastic pitfalls.

Some other staff have been kind, and spoken behind the scenes, and I would like to thank them as well.

The rest of the staff, I do hope you're ashamed of yourselves, as this is not acceptable in any arena of life, to pretend a very obvious problem is just going to fix itself, or isn't your problem, or whatever flimsy justification allows you to do nothing. I do wish you all the best, but everyone who has not taken a stand, is allowing this to be, and enabling of the bad behaviour that has happened, and responsible.

At this stage, I couldn't care if the players involved had cheerfully OOC coordinated and used flamethrowers to burn towns to the ground. The response has been so atrocious, that nothing could possibly justify it.

I'm on staff and I don't feel like there's anything I can do to change this situation. The problems with GAB are being discussed by GAB, so I cannot contribute there. What is it I'm able to help with as a staff member?

This, was posted by a senior staff. It was not responded to in any way shape or form, and is equally shabby behaviour.

e: To clarify, the only reason there's been this much response, is that a solid core of people have stayed on task, kicking this around loudly until notice was paid. Regardless of 'rules' that protect those who are breaking every other single one, and even the most basic guidelines of PR, people management, or even basic decency.

[Crownless]

I am seriously considering just unsubscribing.

[sherman]

it would be sad to see people quitting because of this, already we have lowering amount of people Changes take always time... nothing happens on a day and these games are always very sluggish when it comes to changes..

[EchoMan]

So, one month and and a half now, this has been going on.

The only responses, have been to claim that we, the players, are operating on misinformation (such as rules we're not allowed to know, because evidently we'd abuse the hell out of them), that there's no double standards for friends of staff when this has clearly happened, and finally, and most damning of all...

Absolute, silence, from the fools that caused all of this.

So, thank you Echoman, for making some public comments. Even though you did veer into insulting and pettiness on very serious issues, it was more then else.

Thank you Greek, for well, some words.

Thank you, CDLS, for a thread that well, didn't really address the real issues, but at least clarified some very drastic pitfalls.

Some other staff have been kind, and spoken behind the scenes, and I would like to thank them as well.

The rest of the staff, I do hope you're ashamed of yourselves, as this is not acceptable in any arena of life, to pretend a very obvious problem is just going to fix itself, or isn't your problem, or whatever flimsy justification allows you to do nothing. I do wish you all the best, but everyone who has not taken a stand, is allowing this to be, and enabling of the bad behaviour that has happened, and responsible.

At this stage, I couldn't care if the players involved had cheerfully OOC coordinated and used flamethrowers to burn towns to the ground. The response has been so atrocious, that nothing could possibly justify it.

I'm on staff and I don't feel like there's anything I can do to change this situation. The problems with GAB are being discussed by GAB, so I cannot contribute there. What is it I'm able to help with as a staff member?

This, was posted by a senior staff. It was not responded to in any way shape or form, and is equally shabby behaviour.

e: To clarify, the only reason there's been this much response, is that a solid core of people have stayed on task, kicking this around loudly until notice was paid. Regardless of 'rules' that protect those who are breaking every other single one, and even the most basic guidelines of PR, people management, or even basic decency.

There seems to be some misunderstandings here... Let me clarify some things for you:

• Every member of staff is not required to answer every question on the forums.
• Staff does not, and will never, discuss specifics on the forums. If some players need to receive information it will be done so in private, or by official statements to all players.
• The Players Department investigates all reports that are sent in, as long as they are possible to investigate.
• The Players Department will never disclose any information about their findings to the one(s) reporting.
• It is still not allowed to call staff or other members "fools" or otherwise insult them.
• It is not your place to decide upon staff communication guidelines.
• What is acceptable or not isn't your place to decide. Feel free to have an opinion but don't come here and dictate.
• You have not a single clue as to how staff works behind the scenes. To call staff activities for "flimsy" and "doing nothing" and so on, borders on insulting.
• Being one who loudly yells about rules and guidelines, please read them and adhere to them. That would be a good start for getting the discussion forward.

I hope I made myself clear? This topic as well as CDLS's topic will remain open only if the discussions are kept civil and follows the forum guidelines. <- period

[Crownless]

Allow me to cross the border then: I have asked for advice regarding game rules, followed the advice given, yet heard nothing after a month of waiting. If it is too much to ask for a clarification of a rule that I am expected to follow and will be punished for breaking then this has gone beyond ridiculous and I see no point in wasting further time here.

[sherman]

Allow me to cross the border then: I have asked for advice regarding game rules, followed the advice given, yet heard nothing after a month of waiting. If it is too much to ask for a clarification of a rule that I am expected to follow and will be punished for breaking then this has gone beyond ridiculous and I see no point in wasting further time here.

Well, no it's not. Rules should be clear so people can't break them on accident. So clarification is something you should get answer, yes

[iavatus]

All these points are very true, in some ways. We disagree on them, but people can do such things.

So, what would have fixed these problems?

A PR Department, one with a balanced viewpoint and calmness, and happy to talk and talk and talk. Cause hey, humans are social animals, we like talking right? And time's always on our side.

I hope there'd be a lot of people willing to do such an onerous task, for the betterment of the game.

[Alutka]

Oh, wow. I was going to write something like:

That reminds me of the stuff that was said in the Soviet Russia. 'Feel free to have your own opinions, as long as you keep them to yourself. Besides you are not allowed to:

• think badly about Stalin
• Poice in Soviet Russia is always right, and we never discuss the ways they cope with things
• We investigate all the complains as long as we want to
• We never give you any informations, we are the Soviet Russia police, we are always right, deal with that
• It's not allowed to insult us, you can only worship us
• And in general you better stfu or you would get in trouble.
• It's not your place to decide upon how Soviet Russia works, in the end we have democracy in here.

We will discuss only, if you follow the above guides. Saying a few warm words about Stalin wouldn't hurt though."

But then I thought better of it. In the end I do not want to force the poor Kendo to log on the forum for the third time this year, just to ban a few people, that... wouldn't be right, right? And yeah, at least Raynus had the decency to inform me it was Kendo that banned me without explanation.

[EchoMan]

Allow me to cross the border then: I have asked for advice regarding game rules, followed the advice given, yet heard nothing after a month of waiting. If it is too much to ask for a clarification of a rule that I am expected to follow and will be punished for breaking then this has gone beyond ridiculous and I see no point in wasting further time here.

I'm sending you a PM about this.

[EchoMan]

All these points are very true, in some ways. We disagree on them, but people can do such things.

So, what would have fixed these problems?

A PR Department, one with a balanced viewpoint and calmness, and happy to talk and talk and talk. Cause hey, humans are social animals, we like talking right? And time's always on our side.

I hope there'd be a lot of people willing to do such an onerous task, for the betterment of the game.

I would like to have more people discussing on the forums too, both staff and players. I know of some people who don't do it though. Especially in this topic where the bar is a little higher than normal, and discussion is heated. Some people don't indulge themselves in such discussione because they don't want the flames, insults and whatnot, so it is very important for the sake of the discussion to keep it civil and polite. Even if there is feelings and anger involved.

As for expanding the PR Departments responsibilities to cover forum (and other) communications better, I have raised that topic for discussion.

[EchoMan]

...
But then I thought better of it. In the end I do not want to force the poor Kendo to log on the forum for the third time this year, just to ban a few people, that... wouldn't be right, right? And yeah, at least Raynus had the decency to inform me it was Kendo that banned me without explanation.

May I use your message and create a wiki article as an example of how to fail at keeping a discussion civil and polite?

[*Wiro]

[Rebma]

:|

Pretty much my reaction.

[prometheus]

Oh cool! That'd be a really good thing for the game, to have a person who really wanted to make sure that everyone in the game was happy, and to bring new players in, all that sort of jazz. How would I sign up for it?