Best Of

I think the video game analysis is pretty helpful when it comes to looking at these events, though it's probably overall safer to look at long-running MMOs. I know Spirit's definitely had their hand forced on events before in antiquity, so it really doesn't surprise me that there's a chip on the shoulder about wanting an uncomplicated win. I think, though, if we look at Aet as a long-spanning story, it makes sense for events of some kind to have consequences way further on in another story entirely. Kinda like how sometimes you "win" a video game by beating it, but the villain or the villain's cousin or something shows up in the sequel. It doesn't feel like a "twist" to me or a "gotcha," but just another way of continuing an arc that people already understand the moving pieces for and are invested in. Like, if this event had ended with a twirling mustached Severn rising from the ground being like "ahah, you actually did MY plan all along," that would have been bad and obnoxious. But if punching the Earth Daddy so hard that he crashes into Azvosh for a timeout had some consequences for the Pillars that we had to deal with, I don't think that should diminish the win. I don't necessarily think that's what should happen, I'm just using it as an example. Spirit still trounced Shadow and effectively deleted a massive haven for undead research and development. They bonked Ivo so hard that he had to go in timeout. That's pretty awesome.

Again, I don't think that something with the pillars or whatnot needs or should or ought to happen at all. I just think there's a difference between some action having a counteraction at a later moment from a clearly broadcasted and understandable causality and, like, just pulling the rug out from under people and saying "actually you lose."

Edit: I used the word "think" six (seven now) times in this post. I counted. Real garbage stuff.

Spirit has a solid foundation that stands upon solidarity, unity, and teamwork which is -why- they are so successful. Sure,  they have Sunder that accounts for 99.9% of their ability to form large groups when it comes to PVP (not knocking it, yall are doing awesome and I miss fighting against y'all) but they are also (from the outside looking in) generally more accepting of people who want to just be like "Hey, I have a stick. I 4 can smack people too?"

I'm annoyed by this post and I should probably let it lie, but after your web rant last night, I can't. You have been Sunder's biggest detractor, to the point of having multiple people having to tell you to shut up and/or leave web. You have also been Spirit's biggest detractor, going on rambling conspiracy theory rants about their actions/behaviour whenever you get the chance in web, to the point of having multiple people tell you to shut up or leave web. Your web rant last night was a convoluted conspiracy theory about why Spirit gets away with certain PK actions and then pretending you were right in the face of multiple people laughing you down. And when someone finally had enough and lashed out, you refused to back down or remove yourself from web, instead antagonizing them for being fed up with your constant negative and toxic behaviour. You have a lot of nerve coming to the forums and pretending you're some bastion of reason when you're constantly like this.

Shadow has this mentality of putting on assless chaps and being like "Come get some" and then tearing each other down under the guise of "constructive criticism". This is further seen when people decide they want to demoralize and attack people for not participating, because they cant/won't code in some support thing, or because they don't like a specific group of people. This is toxic behavior on an internal level that bleeds to other facets of the game and players wanting to support.

But to then cap it off with an insinuation that Shadow is less accepting of people who "have a stick and just want to smack people"? And accusing Shadow of tearing people down under the guise of constructive criticism? When it's your negativity and bitterness that people constantly have to mitigate? No one gets "attacked" OOC for not participating. No one gets "attacked" for being unable to code something in. No one gets "attacked" OOC for not liking a specific group of people. You lack a lot of context or refuse to see the actual issues, but this isn't it, and I'm not going to let you project your own faults and behaviour onto an entire tether that absolutely does not behave that way.

Spinesreach?...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm not sure if this is threatening to break past the scope of the topic, because I really don't want this to become a "Spinesreach sucks, and they screwed everything up" conversation, because I truly don't believe that. Spines has some really dope RP going on, and it's not a mistake that they're (presently) the biggest city in the game.

BUT, this RP and identity has basically boxed Spinesreach into a corner where the only real conflict it can be invested in (as a body) are things that directly threaten Spinesreach itself. Which, in a sense, is true of all the cities, but the things that can threaten Spinesreach aren't really ideological. Someone has to show up at Spine's gate with and army and be like "We think you have too many rights!"

Spines became a de facto neutral city, or as close as we can get to having one. They don't really get along with Eno and Duiran because they do have existential threats going on in there regarding shadow, and they do let yucky vampires join up. But aside from that, they're kinda the forgotten city, with no real reason to get out of bed in the morning. Just as they don't really seem to have a reason to defend themselves, they don't seem to have a reason to go out and do something proactively (i stg italics better not linebreak me again or I'll rip my hair out).

I think in a game that has effectively two sides to it, and one of the sides is almost unanimously unified on all issues while the other has one city that is Mordor But With Snugglies and the other is America But We Say Comrade, this is going to create some serious challenges when it comes to designing apparently balanced conflicts, especially if they're mechanical and require physical bodies to fight things.

It doesn't seem like an unfixable problem to me, and I think it can be done without crunching the toes of any org's major RP. Just will take some creative thinking.

I still think tethers as a concept, of two fronts opposed to each other, needs looked at. It seems overly basic, for a game that has four different orgs with different identities. I'm not sure under which conditions one might say Only Spines and Duiran fight each other, or Spines and Eno fight against Bloodloch and Duiran, or any number of strange scenarios one might conceive of could be justified. But I think it warrants consideration. Mechanically, I do still think you shouldn't have Wardens joining Spinesreach and all that jazz, and that definitely should stay.