Is this a roleplay server anymore?

[TFinnegan]

(My apologies for this unbidden wall of text but if you bear with me, maybe it'll be worth your time.)

For years I've held to a belief in a simple truth:
If I hold a coin between two people, and one person claims it is heads, and the other person claims tails, neither is right nor wrong.
You must turn the coin, and realize that it is, in truth, both.

It's time to turn the coin.
Freelancer Discovery is a coin with more than two sides, and I fear many people can't or won't look past the side they've chosen, and see it for what it is.
- It's a space combat game -
- It's also a space trading game -
- It is simultaneously a strategy game of politics and competing nationalistic and corporate interests -

For some players, having firepower and using it is the entire point of their time here. Top of the line ships, guns, and armors are the reason for playing. Trading is only a means to this end, and a 'win' is a red message with your name at the end of it.

For others, a 'win' is calculated by getting past the 'combat crowd' and landing thier cargo, legal or illegal, at its destination. Combat is to be avoided, either because the player is not 'good at it' or because it simply holds no interest.

For others, roleplaying is the point - being 'in-character' like an actor - using the intricate political system as a stage upon which to free the imagination, break away from the life they know and step into another skin, if for a short time. Combat and/or trading may or may not fit into the character's personality, but they are secondary reasons to play.


Why am I tediously writing this at you?
As stated by others above, there must be a hundred of these threads, where it's a constant back and forth"no U!" between players who, for whatever reason, have chosen to play the game differently.
Having partaken in it myself in the past, I tire of the disdain held by RP purists for people who like to (or are good at) PvP.
And conversely, it irks me to no end to hear people who wish only to roleplay being told to "shut up and fight".

There HAS TO BE room here for all these types of players.
There's certainly better space combat games out there, heck there's even better RPG's and space-trading games.
There is not, however, a game that I am aware of that excels in ALL three aspects the way Discovery does.

The initial Microsoft Games designers, independent mod developers, and the community itself have labored HARD to balance all of these ways to play, and to make a home for all of us.
Here, the 'pew-pews' hang out with the 'cha-chings' and the 'yappity-yaps', side by side - and have for years.

A call to civility and dignity
Please, next time you log in, take a deep breath and remember that the side of Discovery that you see does not define the game, or this server.
Remember, you are logging in to a community that plays in many different ways - try to allow room for those who see the game through different filters than you do.
When there is no longer any choice available as to 'how' to play, Disco will indeed be dead.

Pointing fingers and ignoring individuality is easy.
Being inclusive, understanding, and compassionate is more difficult to be sure, but I promise it has never done anyone any discernable harm.
Oh, and some guy got nailed to a board a couple thousand years ago for suggesting that people consider each other as equally important, and equally welcome.
Lets try that, huh?

Thanks for your time
-Finn

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