EDIT - 1:
I felt I should clarify a bit. I don't think trash talk on the forums is toxic. It drums up some in game PvP and helps drive action a lot of the time. Hell I read the hell out of the troll and trash talk threads.
What I think is toxic is the us vs them mentality I see building. The PvMers that vilify all PKs as griefers who spend their day plotting how to ruin the PvMers playtime. The PKs who think they are superior to everyone who doesn't choose to PvP. This is what I believe creates a toxic community.
TLDR
So have been thinking about this for awhile and I think the real danger to this shard is the toxic attitudes of the vocal minority on these forums. What makes UO great is the freedom to do so many different things. In what other game can you be a thief, entrepreneur, murderer, factioner, PvMer, house designer, pirate, or some combination of all of the above. But, we can't on one hand celebrate this freedom and on the other hand spit on those that choose to play differently than we do. This will only drive new, existing, and potential players away.
For the Blues
PKs aren't psychopaths that were beaten as children. The vast majority of PKs that I know do other stuff in this game too. There should be penalties for being a PK but we shouldn't be asking for penalties that are so onerous that we lose these players. We need murderers to add danger/difficulty to dungeons, champ spawns, rdas, ..etc. Plus when you get griefed by another blue player you will want the freedom to kill them. Without murderers things get boring pretty quick and with crazy penalties you end up with more blue griefers and massive red zergs. Dying is a part of the game and you will have far more fun if you don't take every death personally.
For the Reds
People that don't enjoy the PvP aspects of this game are not inferior to you. Without those that like the other many things this game has to offer this server would have a tiny population and you would have to engage in areas of this game that you don't enjoy. Spit on these players enough and eventually they will leave. Then you have to gather your own resources, craft your own supplies, dungeons would be largely empty, and the server would feel dead. In short continue doing what you are doing but there is no reason to be a dick about it. If it is safe enough toss your victims a rez. Maybe leave a set of recall regs on the corpse. After all the quicker they can get back to farming the more money you will make from them in the future. A lot of reds already do this and I applaud them for it.
Conclusion
This server needs players that like to do all the different things this game has to offer. It is not what we choose to do in that game that makes anyone special or superior but how we choose to do it. Lets celebrate the freedom that UO has to offer.
P.S.
@Shane @Adam @eppy
We really, really, really need a few more forum moderators (at least for the selling forums) to keep things somewhat under control. Who knows how many players decided not to even bother with our server because of forum drama that got a little too toxic.
I felt I should clarify a bit. I don't think trash talk on the forums is toxic. It drums up some in game PvP and helps drive action a lot of the time. Hell I read the hell out of the troll and trash talk threads.
What I think is toxic is the us vs them mentality I see building. The PvMers that vilify all PKs as griefers who spend their day plotting how to ruin the PvMers playtime. The PKs who think they are superior to everyone who doesn't choose to PvP. This is what I believe creates a toxic community.
TLDR
So have been thinking about this for awhile and I think the real danger to this shard is the toxic attitudes of the vocal minority on these forums. What makes UO great is the freedom to do so many different things. In what other game can you be a thief, entrepreneur, murderer, factioner, PvMer, house designer, pirate, or some combination of all of the above. But, we can't on one hand celebrate this freedom and on the other hand spit on those that choose to play differently than we do. This will only drive new, existing, and potential players away.
For the Blues
PKs aren't psychopaths that were beaten as children. The vast majority of PKs that I know do other stuff in this game too. There should be penalties for being a PK but we shouldn't be asking for penalties that are so onerous that we lose these players. We need murderers to add danger/difficulty to dungeons, champ spawns, rdas, ..etc. Plus when you get griefed by another blue player you will want the freedom to kill them. Without murderers things get boring pretty quick and with crazy penalties you end up with more blue griefers and massive red zergs. Dying is a part of the game and you will have far more fun if you don't take every death personally.
For the Reds
People that don't enjoy the PvP aspects of this game are not inferior to you. Without those that like the other many things this game has to offer this server would have a tiny population and you would have to engage in areas of this game that you don't enjoy. Spit on these players enough and eventually they will leave. Then you have to gather your own resources, craft your own supplies, dungeons would be largely empty, and the server would feel dead. In short continue doing what you are doing but there is no reason to be a dick about it. If it is safe enough toss your victims a rez. Maybe leave a set of recall regs on the corpse. After all the quicker they can get back to farming the more money you will make from them in the future. A lot of reds already do this and I applaud them for it.
Conclusion
This server needs players that like to do all the different things this game has to offer. It is not what we choose to do in that game that makes anyone special or superior but how we choose to do it. Lets celebrate the freedom that UO has to offer.
P.S.
@Shane @Adam @eppy
We really, really, really need a few more forum moderators (at least for the selling forums) to keep things somewhat under control. Who knows how many players decided not to even bother with our server because of forum drama that got a little too toxic.
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