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@Satomi I agree with what you're saying here.

Part of my frustration with this situation is that it was resolved quickly and the magnificent fruit of this long term IC deception didn't get to be played out properly.

But what else are people supposed to do? Guards are incredibly tough these days, gold is abundant, how can you actually do something, anything, that has a consequence? To me, theft seems like the last thing that actually matters.

@Shachalai I didn’t know who you were but that certainly would not have changed my position on anything.  Who is giving an argument is not relevant.  

You cannot ransom an opinion from me with statements like “if you do, my respect for you is probably gone”.

Org theft may be frustrating but it is not against the rules. It is not inherently wrong to deceive players and characters while playing a deceptive player. From what I can tell this was ICly done. As for game health I think thats something yet to be seen. Game health isn’t so easily assessed.  Maybe this will hurt, maybe it will help. Either way I don’t fault the Fezzix or Atarah for what happened but I disagree with the way the admin handled it and I disagree that the initial act was unethical.

Shachalai said:

That isn't good enough, @Nahuaque. You cannot, in the face of the outrage and disappointment displayed here, argue with any kind of valid reasoning that this was ethical.

I can do that and have been doing that. You just haven’t provided an argument against it.

I don’t know you and don’t care if you are “disappointed” in me.

Shachalai said:

@Shachalai you telling me that does not make it so.  I am not telling you how to feel. Just that IC deception inherently involves OOC deception to prevent meta gaming and that it is not inherently wrong. Your feeling don’t determine whether something is ethical/unethical.

Whether you're evaluating ethics from a deontological or a consequential point of view, Atarah and Fezzix are clearly in the wrong as initiators of theft, and wronger still owing to the adverse consequences inflicted on the game as a result of their actions. I'm angry about that. Your attempt to muddy the waters and invalidate my emotional response to this is a way, however indirect, of telling me how to feel; not only is that dismissive and irritating, it makes you disingenuous.

I haven’t attempted to invalidate your emotions.  And, I acknowledge you have them.

At the same time, I don’t think that your emotions matter in this context nor do I think that makes me disingenuous. I have a disagreement with you about whether something is wrong. It’s a disagreement about a matter of fact and the fact that you feel hurt, while sad, doesn’t mean that what happened was wrong. 

Stealing -all the commodities- is a hydrogen bomb, if that is a normal nuke.

Actually no, it could be more appropriate to compare it to a sort of cancer because the plot was spread over a long enough time and it got through the diagnosis of the Enorian. It is not "Return comms or else!!!" situation which is a nuke.

@Shachalai you telling me that does not make it so.  I am not telling you how to feel. Just that IC deception inherently involves OOC deception to prevent meta gaming and that it is not inherently wrong. Your feeling don’t determine whether something is ethical/unethical.

EDIT: agree 100% with @Kalak’s statement above.

If you think the 100 day thing was designed to endure for 100 days and not simply to prompt some sort of action, or that these kinds of things happen without full administrative approval then I don't know what to tell you.

But that act itself colors the judgement of players ICly and looks very unprofessional for both Divine and Management. It is like a nuclear strike, if I must make a comparison. Not the end effect of an elaborate plan executed through sheer manipulation and effort. When people are forced to act on the gunpoint (or should I say on the hexpoint for being lore appropriate?) then something dies at the very core of a MUD game.

@Phoenecia manipulation of a character almost inherently involves manipulating a player. I don’t personally think there is anything bad or wrong with that.

I happen to agree with most of what @Kalak has been saying. The admin/divine are the real let down here. How is it appropriate to hex an entire guild so hard that for 100 RL days an Omni-trans character has to sit at adept in all skills?  How was this IC for those gods?

@Tiur I have to wonder if there is anything you are going to do to prevent abuse in this way in the future. I think this definitely calls for retraining or corrective action of the admin volunteers involved.