I - Introduction

Initially, I started writing this post just as a clarification on some topics that are of great importance. However, it turned into something more than that: it is me showing you what I believe in and why I believe in it. Furthermore, it is a re-affirmation and an explanation of the shard's first rule and an invitation to either follow it or leave.

II - Why do we play this game?

I think this is one of the central concerns we should focus on. It is paramount to understand why we play the game, so we can shape our characters in a such a way that we can successfully achieve the things we wish to experience and, thus, get more satisfaction from the time we spend here.

It is safe to say that we all play for different reasons, but we can probably narrow those down to half a dozen or so that share some common aspects and, in the end, unless you are in the wrong place, you probably play this game for some manner of meaningful experience.

"Like what?", you may ask.

Well, for example, many of us wish to experience otherworldly power, some, on the other hand, yearn to see the world through the eyes of a commoner, while others just want to experience universal themes, such as love, hatred, friendship, fear, and so on, regardless of anything else.

These are all wonderful things and, if we all play the game knowing why we play it, we have a better chance at achieving more than a few wasted hours of macroing: the game will actually acquire the potential of allowing us some personal growth.

This is what I believe in and the reason why I put myself through a world of trouble to keep this place running, because I honestly think that, on this game, we all have a chance to see life from a different perspective, to interact with people without the usual things that bind our actions, to learn to value or renounce ideas for what they are and not for everyone has told us until now. Furthermore, we get to be someone else, a different part of ourselves, and, while doing so, have a better understanding of who we are, what we want from human relationships and how we can improve our interaction with people.

III - How should we play this game?

I honestly do not have any final solution to this issue, as it is something much more complicated. However, while each individual case is an entire universe, with its own characteritics and traits that need to be taken into consideration, and are especially complex because they involve human beings, who are complex creatures, while all that is true, there are some fundamental things that should always be taken into account, and that will demand from you all.

The first thing is something so incredibly basic and, yet, completely overlooked by the majority of the playerbase. It is something pivotal to the way pen & paper RPGs work, but it seems to have gotten lost on the way when the concept was hauled to computers and consoles. It can be surmised in a very innocent question that people often ask RPers when they are trying to understand how the game works:

"So, how do you beat the other players and win this game?"

Anyone who plays p&p RPGs will chuckle at this question whenever it is asked and will reply with ease that an individual player never wins the game, that the game is about team work and everybody having fun. The group will venture from location to location, defeat monsters, save villages, etc. Sometimes there will be conflict inside the group, but that conflict is just used to add depth to the story, not to destroy it.

However, what we see on a daily basis is that most people are driven by a selfish desire to beat everyone else at all cost. It does not matter if there will be zero interaction with that person other than PvPing or dragging them around. Who cares if the other person will feel like shit and that everything they had been working on until that point will be ruined? Winning is all.

Or worse, I am sure some will lie to themselves about their true intentions and claim that they do what they do because they are hardcore RPers who seek to do what makes perfect sense in every situation, regardless of the consequences. If that really is the case, I commend you: I hope we all get to that level where we can have fun with each and every situation we find ourselves in. But most of the time this is just a horrible excuse to act like a douchebag towards other people, as we all find a plethora of ways to justify any course of action we really want to take.

I cannot begin to express how unbelievably childish and wrong that is. On a very basic level, if you piss people off with what you are doing, the first thing that will happen is that they will get angry at you. Then there will be flaming, angst and eventually they will quit. Once they quit, then you will not have anyone to interact with anymore and, unless what you seek to accomplish is rid the world of all its inhabitants, you will not be able to fulfill even your basic selfish desires, because there will be no one else to bully around.

On a more profound level, if you do not care about the people with whom you probably spend more time than even your parents or spouses, you have some serious issues and need to find yourself some treatment, read Plato, see a psychiatrist or any other thing to educate your spirit.

So, why do all these horrible problems happen and how can we avoid them?

As far as I can see, all this happens for a very simple reason: we cannot see who is on the other side, like it happens on a p&p game, so we get the impression that we are the only protagonist and that everyone else is as good as that NPC loser whom we will kill for some quick XP/CP.

That is not at all the case. We are all protagonists on this game and we all deserve respect. As far as player interactions go, you should envision this not as a movie where you will beat your antagonist and eliminate them, but more as a cartoon, like He-man, for instance.

What would happen on that cartoon if, on the first episode, He-man decided to just beat the crap out of Skeletor and throw him off a cliff into a pool of lava? Or worse, if Skeletor just cast some spell and threw a meteor in Eternia to wipe all good people from the face of the planet?

I think it is pretty obvious that there would not be a cartoon anymore. He-man is only He-man because there is a Skeletor. If you remove one, the other has no reason to exist.

The relationship between antagonists must be that of a symbiotic existance, in which no party is ever completely defeated. One might lose the battle, or even the war, but they will go on to fight another day, having incorporated the experiences, plots and elements that were introduced during that conflict into the very fabric of their beings.

This is where people lose their ways: they gather their friends and make a group so that they can bully the people the other groups that they might not like too much, or just not care about. That is the worst thing you can do. Your worst enemy in-game needs to be someone you admire in real-life, someone with whom you have no problem talking, so that you can even plan the conflict that will rise between you two, have epic battles, sometimes prevail, other times accept defeat, because it does not matter who wins, but that both parties get along and create an exceptional story with universal themes and that is meaningful both to those taking part in it, but also to those watching it unfold itself.

I cannot possibly stress how serious this all is. It is not, by any means, some bullshit declaration of supreme values just for the sake of it, so we can all pretend to be friends and then go back to bullying each other. This is a manifesto of a roleplaying principle. It is not something alien to this shard and it is the very first and most important rule we have: common courtesy. We are here to create a close-knit community of reasonable people, so that we can achieve the things we seek.

If people had paid more attention to that first rule, I would have not had to write all this. In fact, this is so important and so damned fundamental that I invite anyone, staff or player, who does not agree with what is said here to just leave.

Seriously.

If I cannot maintain a place where people are friendly and reasonable towards each other, I just do not see any point in going on with this. It is just so much hassle and hard work and what for? So that in the end of the day I log in to see what is going on and realise that people are just about to kill each other?

I was half-way done scripting some things, but I had to spend two hours writing this and another three dealing with angst. So if you have no honest intention to be reasonable and follow what is written here, just leave before I have to force you to.

If you have read this and think I did not write this aimed at you, please think again. This is an open letter to everyone in this community. We will either have a healthy environment or we will have no environment at all and I will go play Snes or something that actually feels nice.