Best Of

Look I'm all for people venting and blowing off steam but I can't take these complaints on shouting and taunting seriously. If you do not like the taunting, just turn off the damn shouts. What would you even be missing? Let's be real here.

1. Only shouts from Admin, Celani, and Divine can bypass SHOUTSOFF.
   
2. SHOUTS are toggleable and are off by default from character generation. Which means that unless you're one of the original characters from 10+ years ago, everyone turned those shouts on willingly and can still turn them off.
   
3. Market tells exist for quick and easy global advertisements.
   
4. Public boards offer another method of global communication.
   
5. ISSUE exists for all forms of harassment that you want admin to come investigate and settle.
   
6. IGNORE exists for the sole purpose of giving yourself peace of mind when all other options have failed. Who cares what anyone else might think? USE. IT.
   

Players have every right to play antagonists or villains if they want to play that role. Those of you wanting to RP heroes are under no obligation to engage any of these antagonists. There is NO SHAME in just NOT ENGAGING. The game has dozens upon dozens of ways to disengage from conflict. Use. Them.

"B'aww! But my RP!" No. Your RP is what YOU choose to do for entertainment. If you're not entertained, even after taking a step back to cool off after tensions are high, why are you still doing it? It's you and your pride.

I also want to add something for folks, as I think a lot of people across IRE kind of ignore this fact: bad things are gonna happen to your character sometimes. You may view your character through the lens of a protagonist, or some great warrior, but there's always another character who may kill your own for valid in-game and roleplay based reasons and that may shatter the perception that you may have of your character. The sign of a good roleplayer is someone who rolls with the punches. Characters that are good at everything or view themselves in an unbeatable, infallible lens are boring. Characters with flaws, who show fear, who admit fault, get defeated, etc. make for far more compelling characters from a narrative standpoint, and afford you the opportunity to develop your character in new and interesting directions.

Basically: your character is gonna get killed sometimes. Don't let it get to you, and use it as an opportunity for future roleplay or to develop your character getting good at combat.

I'm not going to comment on the other... stuff. I do agree that we should remember we're all players, and even in triumph, you couldn't have gotten there without a willing opponent.

I don't want people to feel like the one-death rule has a corollary that everyone gets one free kill. I have, and will, punish for a single death. Use your common sense, and context matters. Harassment is a different beast from the single death rule.

Someone bothers you for days, is horrible and mean. Then they kill you once. The meanness continues even after Ignore. That's beyond just a single death. There's a whole lot more to that issue than just the one death! It wouldn't fall under that clause. @Czcibor actually has the right of it: the rule is there to prevent us from being swamped with silly issues, not to have a bunch of bad behavior coast under a bar.

Also, threatening with issues makes me mad. The Admin are not your hammer to wave. If something is issuable, ISSUE IT. It's what we're here for. If it's not, don't waste our time. When something crosses into issue territory, it's a game problem and needs to be dealt with. It's never a tool you have the option to use as a threat.