Arelith

Random overtired ramblings:

Walks softly, and carry a big gun:
Keep a cool head and a finger on the Screenshot button. When you find someone breaking the server rules or being poisonous just send the screenie to the DMs. There is no need to waste energy in silly arguments, the DMs have the authority to correct bad behavior.

As for DM events, etc. Perceived favoritsm:
These players in question may or may not get involved in DM events more than others I can't give a definite answer. But it is mostly about perception.
The players you hear getting involved in DM driven stories are the kind of players that can give the story real gravitas. You are more likely to hear of their involvement simply because they make sure everyone knows of it.

Driving a story onwards is a skill, and many veteran players have that skill by definition. I wouldn't instantly jump into suspecting metagamery when I see a same player's different characters gaining influence very fast. Chances are they are just so darn fun to rp with.

Also. When you approach an enemy character with an aim to give their story gravitas rather than to win or belittle them you are likely to notice a change in how they respond to you.

When you give another character gravitas in the interaction, they are likely to return it. RPing with a good nemesis is very rewarding. However to make someone your nemesis means you must be defeated by them in one way or another. And I'm not talking about PvP combat.

Something to consider:
Next time you are faced with an overpowering enemy. Surrender and see where it goes. Sometimes it ends up badly, but majority of the time I've found it to lead to great stories.

I'd consider myself a veteran player and I use a different login on every character to avoid OOC influence. For me Discord is mostly about talking nonsense and looking at cat pictures.

Kreydis wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:42 pm Everyone is losing trust in each other, and this is a very dangerous thing for a community that NEEDS IT for most stories to thrive.

The thing is, trust must be earned. You cannot say 'Trust us, or else' or you will lose what little trust you had. You cannot say 'Please, trust us, we're serious' and have no actual change effected, or people will roll their eyes and label you with duplicity. You need to express that wrong has been done and then actively make changes toward responsibility, accountability, and excellence before people will choose, of their own free will, to trust.

This goes toward players as well as DMs - hell, this goes for everyone, anywhere. If you want someone to trust you, you must show them that you can be trusted in a way that doesn't require them to trust you in the first place. You need to be held accountable in the most transparent manner possible. That transparency means that, even if someone doesn't trust you, you can act in a way where they don't have to trust you, but still shows that you are able to be trusted.

The only way to fix a lack of trust is to act in a way that doesn't require you to be trusted to be doing your job correctly. It is to be accountable for your actions through absolute transparency. It is to be responsible for your misdeeds and for what has happened in the past and truly willing to make change and actually put that change into effect. And, ultimately, it requires a commitment to excellence on behalf of the persons that are earning trust back, because it is through a lack of excellence that trust was lost in the first place.



As a side note - Xarge, it wasn't last night where I was faced with an overpowering enemy in an unfavorable situation. I was cut down while typing a response to, basically, 'do you have an excuse for yourself'? He took the time between replies as a 'no'. I was in the fuge one moment after having logged onto the server not five feet away from my killer. Trust needs to be earned.

The situation you describe has happened to everyone at one time or another. It doesn't make my words any less true.
I'll point you to the first part of my ramblings: "Keep a cool head. etc etc."

Vincent wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:23 pm Sounds no different to how Arelith's faring.

You're wrong.





Although this particular disconnect in opinion (and the totally absurd method by which answered it) is actually rather key to this whole discussion.

What is lacking both here and in the community which I left, is any means of maturely navigating difference. The "people of Arelith" have no real or particular defined traits, qualities, or shared beliefs. The thing which gives a community cohesion is acceptance of the fact that it will always be different to itself.

You and I may well never agree - And that's... Okay. We don't need to agree.

I tend to think it's best to utterly give up on the belief that any one of us has the answer. Perhaps if we can accept our own wrongness, or at very least the potential/likelihood that we are, then we might be able to find that compromise position a little more frequently - Or at least accept there are a great many visions at play here.

The problem here probably isn't with the rules (although sure, they could probably use clarifying - i mean, gathering together all the rulings, DM/admin statements and so on and re-writing a rules as a single document which reflects what the needs of contemporary Arelith would be a fine thing to do), it isn't a lack or too much transparency, it isn't in the systems or structures.

The problem, is that every time someone runs into something that doesn't match up with their idea of how things should be, their view of what precious-arelith should be gets shaken to the point where the only option is to fly into some absurd freakin' tizzy about it.

If, in those situations, people went "Hey, so what do you think this place should be, then?", and let the disagreement happen calmly, we might have a slightly better and more dignified method of handling ourselves, and fewer IG/discord/forum actions would be inspired by eye-popping foam-at-the-mouth rage.


But of course, I'm probably completely wrong.


(Edited for typos)

Vincent wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:23 pm Sounds no different to how Arelith's faring. I guess I can only advocate for the human condition to improve.

Trust me, it's nowhere near as bad.

Funnily enough I think the main problem in Aodh_Lazuli's referenced server was also a lack of respect and mutual contempt between staff and players. Oh, and people getting away with murder right under the admin's noses. Once people learn to just give up and stop caring/complaining about stuff like that, is when it gets really bad.

I think a good solution to all of this is for the staff to take all the rules that we currently have, and repost them to a forum thread where each staff member tells us what they think the rules mean, in as much clarity and specificity as they can muster. If we can see the old rules being reapplied to the current context, it might shed some light on where things have been going wrong. People break the Be Nice rule all the time because they don't understand why it matters at all, let alone why it matters on Arelith. They also don't believe that the staff themselves understand the rules, or why they matter.

AskRyze wrote:The thing is, trust must be earned. You cannot say 'Trust us, or else' or you will lose what little trust you had. You cannot say 'Please, trust us, we're serious' and have no actual change effected, or people will roll their eyes and label you with duplicity. You need to express that wrong has been done and then actively make changes toward responsibility, accountability, and excellence before people will choose, of their own free will, to trust.

You. I like you. Responsibility, accountability, and excellence might sound like three long words, but there's a lot of wisdom here. And I think what the server needs is a lot of wisdom and effective decisions being made more than anything else.

I've tried to host a discussion of that sort on the forums at least twice, and both times been met with people shooting down any civil discussion, until the DMs lock my post. The only rational option left to me is to post buenos dias beter until everyone understands.

Don't think I'll rise to just being authoritatively declared "wrong." Many of the issues you described I have seen a thousand times over in this community, so I have no idea how you can say that.

Whatever. Not my problem. I and over a dozen others aren't having any fun currently so we're just going to take a break. That's the healthy approach. I wish the best for Arelith and maybe one day people will just calm down and learn how to respect each other.

Mr_Rieper wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:40 pm You. I like you. Responsibility, accountability, and excellence might sound like three long words, but there's a lot of wisdom here. And I think what the server needs is a lot of wisdom and effective decisions being made more than anything else.

Hey YOU, I like you too.

Aodh Lazuli wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:38 pm The problem, is that every time someone runs into something that doesn't match up with their idea of how things should be, their view of what precious-arelith should be gets shaken to the point where the only option is to fly into some absurd freakin' tizzy about it.

I really want to agree that this is just some people having a bad day. But this is honestly the highest amount of tension I've felt on the server since starting. There is a problem, and no one really knows what it is, let alone what a decent compromise to a solution would be.

But maybe there isn't a problem, I don't believe it, but maybe someone does. That's really your point though. Perceptions, isn't it?

Vincent wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:47 pm Don't think I'll rise to just being authoritatively declared "wrong."

Can I asked if you stopped reading at the first sentence?


Edit:

Kreydis wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:48 pm But maybe there isn't a problem, I don't believe it, but maybe someone does. That's really your point though. Perceptions, isn't it?

I'm not really trying to say there isn't a problem. More that the problem is in a refusal to accept the multitude of voices that exist.

Disagreement is a highly productive force... provided that when these points of contest arise, the people involved don't completely *ehem* freak out.

Think I've found the "indiscernible problem." Learn some manners. I tried to read what you posted after but it's pretty incoherent. Too vague to get any idea of what you're actually on about. If you didn't want me to react to you stating "You're wrong," you shouldn't have typed it.

But this is trolling 101 and I'm far too old for it. Bye.

Vincent wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:00 pmThink I've found the "indiscernible problem." Learn some manners. I tried to read what you posted after but it's pretty incoherent.

That's fine, dude. Do enjoy your evening.

Some of these posts don't seem to follow the spirit of friendship.

Kreydis wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:48 pm Hey YOU, I like you too.

Yeeeee, sensible forum buddies.

Aodh_Lazuli wrote:Can I asked if you stopped reading at the first sentence?

Vincent wrote:Think I've found the "indiscernible problem." Learn some manners. I tried to read what you posted after but it's pretty incoherent.

Righto, in the interests of practicing what we preach and resolving this WITHOUT GETTING THE THREAD LOCKED, let's examine this while staying on topic.

If you're addressing one person and one person only in a thread, consider a private message. You two are repeatedly and willingly misunderstanding each other, plain and simple.

Vince's original post was about the over-inflated need for secrecy and sensitivity. Which I completely agree with. We aren't in some sort of war here, and I think the overall atmosphere and hush-hush nature actually encourages sneering at the lessers and the ones who ought-not-to-know. The more mystery we have, the more we theorise and jump to conclusions, especially without any clear evidence for anything to the contrary. Is it any wonder that there's a lack of trust if all we can do is speculate?

Joe's post was about a community that actually had a degree of transparency but no respect, and still had the ought-to-knows lording it over the ought-not-to-knows. I know which community he's referring to. It's really nothing like Arelith at the moment, but it could be, and I think that was his point. No bandaid is going to fix this overnight. It has everything to do with attitudes. The followup post was... Difficult to understand. No Vince, it was not a direct insult at you. When he says you're wrong, then everybody is wrong, then he's wrong as well - who is actually wrong?

I agree with both. I think most people do. Stop and use your sense people, don't degenerate a perfectly good thread into willingly misunderstanding other people. Come on.

This is turning out to be very ironic.

Hey I got an idea, lets not be jerks to one another. That might help. Lets stop judging each other and shouting that the other is just here to spoil our fun and lets recognize we're all people trying to have fun. We're all creative writers, we're all here writing a story. Why can't we collaborate on it instead of constantly telling one another how terrible they are?

I really don't like how PvP goes from an IC battle to a "who can win the ooc complaints" battle immediately afterwards.

Would it be possible to automate things like the 24 hour rule? I know once on Amia the DMs did a read out for people saying how many times they had killed in PvP and how many times they had been killed. I'm thinking, if you could somehow see each tick who you should be avoiding, a good number of complaints would disappear.

Or, what about changing the death system in PvP entirely? All deaths from PvP could result in some kind of enhanced subdual, where you can't move, but you still hear what is going on around you. Or all deaths in city areas, maybe. You could possibly rp your death throes. It would make a whole lot more sense that everyone dying every five minutes. If people wanted to bash you, they still could. This would prevent innocent bystander deaths, give people the chance to have more finely grained conflicts and make some pvps much more friendly oocly.

Hostiling people before pvp is another biggy - is there any way to make this go smoother? Is there a way the widget can check for interactive rp before it lets you hostile them? It wouldn't need to be very clever, it could even just check, has the targetted person taken any action or spoken at all? It wouldn't prevent all rule breaks, but it would filter out another few.

The more you can take out of players hands, the less they need to complain about. Think of all the time saved on investigating twinking by implementing the Anti-Twinking mechanism.

I'm just advocating as many hard-coded solutions as possible, because they are unarguably impartial and because really, its very rare to change a server culture simply by talking about it. In fact, a problem shared is now a problem that we've all got.

I think that it'd be easy for us to over complicate this and look at all these different sides, and there are a -ton- of issues I think small and large that could be adressed.

I think the most important thing we can do as a community and as indivisual people is focus on ourselves. (Sounds selfish!) But what I mean is we cannot control the actions of anyone else so our best bet is to focus on ourselves and try to be the best version of ourselves in the context of Arelith.

It's super easy to sit back and say "Well they did X,Y,Z" but that's irrelevant. All you can do is manage your own self, your own feelings and your own decisions. If something has gone wrong, report it, dialog about it etc. If I don't want to talk to the player about something that happened i'll talk to a DM. The DMs provide an excellent 3rd party view and often times have far more facts handy than I myself might have. It really helps put things into proper perspective as a player.

Other than that, I think everyone needs to accept that DM's are going to make bad decisions. Players are going to make bad decisions. People are going to sometimes be rude, and you'll probably end up at one point or another in a PVP situation you felt was un-fun and awful.

It's just going to happen. There's no paradise out there where everything is smooth sailing. All you can do is accept that, dialog, talk, and ultimately decide for yourself if issues are worth being upset about or holding ill feelings about. Ultimately, no one forces anyone to play on Arelith. You have to decide if a sour encounter (Or collection of them) is worth sacrificing your entire time on Arelith? Or if you're going to hold a grudge over someone forever because of something you thought they did, or maybe they did do it? Are you going to let that hang over your head forever?

The last thing I would suggest is holding onto the belief that the majority of the community are all good people trying to have fun, RP honestly, and enjoy their time here. If you believe that, and you really do believe it then you can hold onto this hope that whatever situation or player you're confronted with isn't 'out to get you' they, just like you, are just trying to have fun or be involved in a story.

That being said, I think there are some issues that continue to issues over and over and over. I think it's valuable to continue to dialog about what we see as issues but not become enemies of each other. I think there are some mechanical things, and other changes that could be made that would better facilitate healthy server climate but all of those things require a lot of dialog to identify -what- the community feels is an issue, and what a solution to that might be. And not to hate each other in the process of trying to dialog

I've had some issues with cliques and concerns of Out of Character harassment. Once, a player even made a sinfarian representation of my character for purposes I will not specify in detail. This was later sent to me through the grapevine of the internet by a concerned third party It's enough of a problem that I recently left all my public discord channels related to Arelith and made a greater effort to severely reduce my out of character presence.

There is a form of toxic competitiveness and what I have heard termed 'Vindictive protectiveness' that has been cycling around this community and it's not very fun to deal with. There is an odd belief I have seen written and vocalized that if someone's in character actions 'hurt' a players feelings, the hurt players are now justified to attack back in return and even escalate said scenario. This is frankly, disgusting behavior I've been subject to in past.

This harassment is enough of an issue I quit arelith once in the past and strongly considered doing this again recently. I've seen other people quit over it, and people I introduced to Arelith quit the server because of bad Out of Character behavior. When people respond to in character reactions with out of character vileness it is something that should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. There are players to this day I just blatantly avoid as a result, and have zero interest interacting with. This is not an unexpected result for a server with hundreds of players but ideally everyone should be trying to get along.

Thankfully, these situations have comprised a small enough part of the community that I believe will see it's time come to an end as a result of these new Dungeon Master policies. They seem like pretty stand-up people.

Sheesh. This thread has moved into interesting territories.

I need to do a bit of explaining before I can voice my concern for this server. About one specific incident.

My first ever big offense and what also led to me getting semi-permanently deleted from the server was an incident in which I've told someone to go kill themselves in a tell. Plain and simply put it was absolutely stupid. But my enraged mind got lured by the tell function to vent frustration after being killed by that person. Instant-death spell within an area- and servertransitional zone made me babyrage enough after a bad day I had.

Thankfully I was allowed back onto the server after a month and a half instead of waiting three months and hoping that my appeal would be accepted. I don't know what the DM teams' exact reason for that was. It might've been many factors like it being my first punishment, how I reported myself for it back then, how I agreed with getting banned for some time at any point during the talks and so on and so forth ...
... the important thing that came out as a result of that ban and being allowed back onto the server was the demand that I would at all times keep my tells disabled.

A reasonable demand many would say. And I thought so too. Only the recent few months have left me more and more worried and confused about that regulation.
Like conflicting DM statements. One DM saying that I am allowed to still send tells to people I'm friends with OOC and then another DM stating that I factually can not do rule waiving due to my tells being disabled ... which basically means that I am not supposed to have any IC actions related OOC talk with other players. Even on Discord.
Not being able to do any sort of OOC communication forbids me from doing a lot of things on the server.
The implications of this for me and anyone else who took the same deal are massive for playing on Arelith. Slave RP? Getting revived or reviving others? Any sort of rule waiving? Simply telling someone "hey nice RP"? Saying sorry after being in a situation where you had to killbash a lower level player due to IC actions?
None of that is possible anymore.

Now what's my point with this in relation to this thread?
It's that people mentioned the set of rules being reviewed for the broad public with any DM who feels like it giving their own opinion and the way the interpret the rules aswell.
I would go a step further and say that it would be absolutely helpfull to have a full list of punishments that can be brought upon our heads as players.
Hell, I would also love to be able to look into my own "criminal records". Yes, that would open up a new pot of issues by perhaps making people OOC go after the ones that reported them (which will often be blatantly obvious if everyone was able to see their own records of reports and "crimes" on Arelith).
In that case I guess they'd just make it worse for themselves since OOC harrassment is another break agains the "Be Nice" rule.

But whatever. Enough rambling.

TL;DR : I would agree to a public review of the rules, perhaps even with lists of punishments available on Arelith added to it.

EDIT : Realizing right now that I failed to mention one of my points. After mentioning what the "no tells" punishment forbids me and others from doing I intended to say that in the future this punishment and sort of "middleground-deal" should never be done again. Instead keep someone banned for a bit longer instead of crippling the RP experience of them (and others indirectly).

People are tired about filing reports on incidents and nothing changing, and say this is part of why they don't fully trust the DM team.

The DMs are tired of this too though.

This is why the ban policy was changed, so hopefully we can all see improvements moving forward.

People who are genuine repeat problems are going to get removed from the server with this policy change, and we as players know this to the be the case.
If we report someone and they don't get banned, then it's safe for us to assume the player was genuine and respectful when they spoke with the DMs about the incident they were reported over and that they have a chance of getting their act together and fitting in with the server and community.


There's all types of crap the DMs have to deal with that they don't vent to the community about, but you can be sure genuine players who accidentally break a rule or two aren't going to get banned.
The people who will get banned are the ones who talk back to the DMs when asked about an incident, who ignore the DMs messaging wanting to speak in an attempt to avoid them, or log out to escape it.

Even if you break a rule and get talked to by a DM, even if it's not your first time, if you're polite, respectful, listen to what they say, and try to improve yourself, you're not going to get permanently banned.

I'm speaking from experience there; This may be a while ago, but I suspect very little has changed since.
When I was new to the server(and RP) 7+ years ago, I broke literally every part of every rule aside from 'Listen to the DMs', but because I was polite, genuine and respectful when a DM pulled me away in the middle of my trolling to speak, I only ended up with a 2 week ban and a 'If you ever break a rule again you're going to get banned for longer'. I got my act together after that, and I'm still here enjoying the server today(and laughing at how stupid I was in the past +facepalming in shame any time someone says they remember my first character).

I have my own Discord server... and it's for non-NWN, raid/PvP games. Non-RP. And really, folks on there are friends I just chill within voice chat, telling jokes and stories not always family-friendly. So at some point, I can understand why certain circles here like their own private servers - to be with your friends. But here is the problem:

I recently got an invite to a new Discord server. I joined it. Saw what it was. Was a bit uneasy. Then I went through the member list and saw there was Arelith DMs on there. So stress levels averted.

The problem with private servers (and other Social platforms/app) that directly tie to Arelith, but have Zero oversight? It is easy for same-minded people to go, "I want to make a paladin but I need help leveling." And your friends make new toons to help for harmless fun... and transition to blurred lines issues.

Even without being malicious and truly meaning well, it's easy to metagame and not realize you're doing that by sharing FOIG info, or talking articulately about a really terrible experience you had the previous day IG by some PvP that went bad, or RP that went poorly against your favor. Friends are eager to jump in and help with something that clearly is rule-breaking, and you do not see where those lines are that you aren't supposed to cross.

DMs do not need to have ownership of your servers, but IMO, if your server is only your friends from Arelith, discussing Arelith things, there should be at least 1 DM on your server. Not to be there to threaten or intimidate, but maybe on occasion to say, "Hey guys, I like your intent, but please remember to never break character over Y situation, and FOIG."

I personally don't mind hangin' in other people's servers, but as far as Arelith goes, speaking from experience, the less interaction I have about stories even my friends here have, the better off I am. And if there is a DM that is there to say, "Guys, please be careful about revealing X. Or reacting to something Y way." Well... the happier I am in knowing there is a safety net.

Hin_Justice wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:31 am I have my own Discord server... and it's for non-NWN, raid/PvP games. Non-RP. And really, folks on there are friends I just chill within voice chat, telling jokes and stories not always family-friendly. So at some point, I can understand why certain circles here like their own private servers - to be with your friends. But here is the problem:

I recently got an invite to a new Discord server. I joined it. Saw what it was. Was a bit uneasy. Then I went through the member list and saw there was Arelith DMs on there. So stress levels averted.

The problem with private servers (and other Social platforms/app) that directly tie to Arelith, but have Zero oversight? It is easy for same-minded people to go, "I want to make a paladin but I need help leveling." And your friends make new toons to help for harmless fun... and transition to blurred lines issues.

Even without being malicious and truly meaning well, it's easy to metagame and not realize you're doing that by sharing FOIG info, or talking articulately about a really terrible experience you had the previous day IG by some PvP that went bad, or RP that went poorly against your favor. Friends are eager to jump in and help with something that clearly is rule-breaking, and you do not see where those lines are that you aren't supposed to cross.

DMs do not need to have ownership of your servers, but IMO, if your server is only your friends from Arelith, discussing Arelith things, there should be at least 1 DM on your server. Not to be there to threaten or intimidate, but maybe on occasion to say, "Hey guys, I like your intent, but please remember to never break character over Y situation, and FOIG."

I personally don't mind hangin' in other people's servers, but as far as Arelith goes, speaking from experience, the less interaction I have about stories even my friends here have, the better off I am. And if there is a DM that is there to say, "Guys, please be careful about revealing X. Or reacting to something Y way." Well... the happier I am in knowing there is a safety net.

I disagree. DMs are normal players, just like us. There's no reason that any player should have access to every private discord server. Let's not put any DM up on a pedestal here. The idea of players having their fingers in everything across the server because they are entitled to is something that should make people feel uncomfortable. And not wanting a DM in your discord server should not mean that you have something to hide.

Once again, they are ordinary players. Not surveillance equipment.

If there really is OOC collusion going on, people can see it. RP becomes contrived and awkward. Characters change their opinions of things or even their alignment overnight.

The real problem is the "If it wasn't reported, it didn't happen." mentality. Sometimes there are issues the entire playerbase is aware of, but nothing is done because it wasn't officially reported. I must admit, I understand the technicalities of why nothing is done without reports, but I do not think it benefits Arelith in the long run. The same lack of initiative causes people to call favouritism, and just generally makes everybody frustrated.

Mr_Rieper wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:48 am

Hin_Justice wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:31 am I have my own Discord server... and it's for non-NWN, raid/PvP games. Non-RP. And really, folks on there are friends I just chill within voice chat, telling jokes and stories not always family-friendly. So at some point, I can understand why certain circles here like their own private servers - to be with your friends. But here is the problem:

I recently got an invite to a new Discord server. I joined it. Saw what it was. Was a bit uneasy. Then I went through the member list and saw there was Arelith DMs on there. So stress levels averted.

The problem with private servers (and other Social platforms/app) that directly tie to Arelith, but have Zero oversight? It is easy for same-minded people to go, "I want to make a paladin but I need help leveling." And your friends make new toons to help for harmless fun... and transition to blurred lines issues.

Even without being malicious and truly meaning well, it's easy to metagame and not realize you're doing that by sharing FOIG info, or talking articulately about a really terrible experience you had the previous day IG by some PvP that went bad, or RP that went poorly against your favor. Friends are eager to jump in and help with something that clearly is rule-breaking, and you do not see where those lines are that you aren't supposed to cross.

DMs do not need to have ownership of your servers, but IMO, if your server is only your friends from Arelith, discussing Arelith things, there should be at least 1 DM on your server. Not to be there to threaten or intimidate, but maybe on occasion to say, "Hey guys, I like your intent, but please remember to never break character over Y situation, and FOIG."

I personally don't mind hangin' in other people's servers, but as far as Arelith goes, speaking from experience, the less interaction I have about stories even my friends here have, the better off I am. And if there is a DM that is there to say, "Guys, please be careful about revealing X. Or reacting to something Y way." Well... the happier I am in knowing there is a safety net.

I disagree. DMs are normal players, just like us. There's no reason that any player should have access to every private discord server. Let's not put any DM up on a pedestal here. The idea of players having their fingers in everything across the server because they are entitled to is something that should make people feel uncomfortable. And not wanting a DM in your discord server should not mean that you have something to hide.

Once again, they are ordinary players. Not surveillance equipment.

If there really is OOC collusion going on, people can see it. RP becomes contrived and awkward. Characters change their opinions of things or even their alignment overnight.

The real problem is the "If it wasn't reported, it didn't happen." mentality. Sometimes there are issues the entire playerbase is aware of, but nothing is done because it wasn't officially reported. I must admit, I understand the technicalities of why nothing is done without reports, but I do not think it benefits Arelith in the long run. The same lack of initiative causes people to call favouritism, and just generally makes everybody frustrated.

It's been reported. Nothing has happened.

Point is, you don't know nothing has happened. Those players could be running around with 4 lives on a MoD and 0 RPR for all you know. You just assume nothing has happened because the player wasn't perma banned and occasionally you see them on the player list.

*Edit* Also intent and motive serves a large part in deciding judgement I would assume. Some guy panicking in an interaction and attacking first in an engagement is definitely not comparable to someone freaking out and yelling at you OOCly, in my opinion.

Every problem I have ever had with reporting players could have been solved with a followup message of

"This player has been talked to"

"This player has been punished accordingly"

"This player has been corrected and apologized"



Vague statements like this would go way further than


"Hello i would like to report X for Y"

CRTL+C - CTRL+V "We will look into it"

------woooshing silence and tumbleweed--------