Something Good to Say

[worldstrider]

Since I have been here I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. It started out bad when I first began and then got ugly. I was one of the "new wave" of people who had the temerity to try my own ideas at a point where the server population was changing and the long-term old players were watching their dominant influence began to shift some and really not liking what they were seeing.

The reaction was swift and brutal: insults, hate mail, kos's with no warning or reason, forum flames, in game flames, harrasment and threats--a couple of times even by an admin (who is long since gone). This was all within my first two weeks here and was done by the many factions leaders and long-established players. I was told, "You will ruin Junkers", "People like you are ruining the server", "We're going to make sure you don't last", "You'll never be part of the community"...ad naseum...you get the idea.

Basically, it was offensive that someone would come in with their own role play direction rather than follow someone else's that had already been established. In essence, "Your characters must be like ours--not different." I had no intention of breaking rules or the role play of others I simply wanted to play my own idea of a particular type of Junker and not someone else's. I had always been a Junker on any server I played and it just never struck me to play anything else.

So the battle ensued--the angry people with pitchforks did indeed stoke the fires and poke me and for awhile I thought most here were obsessive lunatics. After a bit, I started getting some quiet pms supporting me. Players who said they wanted to do things but never were allowed of felt they could and were rooting for me. At the same time, I began to find out a lot of the "older" players on here were quite young. So I stuck to my guns and gradually shoe-horned my way in.

In all this, I had so many problems with so many factions I began to make an effort to cross rp with them as little as possible (and I still do in some ways). I often found that "interacting" with a faction meant sending them an "advance script" which they would edit or else they would be quite angry and demand an argument. To me, that removed any spontanaity or mystery and really de-funned things. Not once in the time I have been here have I ever demanded someone explain their rp to me or said, Explain how you got that ship or why you can do that, etc., etc. if I came close to doing that, it would always be in-character with a way out for them if they didn't want to answer. Other than being consisitent and fair in my own RP I felt it was my responsibility to adapt to that of others in-game and in-character as much as was possible. Not everyone felt this way. I won't go over the various woes and problems but many a protest capaign was started that required ridiculous amounts of time addressing. I'm generally a good debater and am stubborn so I was able to bull through most of it but it wasn't how I wanted to be spending my 'fun time" (I have a wife and three kids and work at home).

In all this, one of the "big" factions I stayed away from touching the RP of was Zoners. They were big, had been here a long time and I just didn't want another large group whining or fighting everytime I breathed. I didn't asssume they were that way but I also didn't want to experiment to find out.

Well in another recent situation, I suddenly needed a capital ship (as a Junker) to replace the one I had previosuly been allowed. This was one of the big "no-no's" that's inflamed people since I arrived. "Junkers just don't use capital ship ever, no matter what their role play." "You will turn all junkers into cap harlots." The only group with a suitable ship that I could choose from in the new mod was the Zoners. "Oh no" I thought. I considered scrapping the RP that I have been trying to fully develop for a YEAR and decided, "What the heck--what's one more group peeved at me?"

I sent a PM to "Chairman Mal" as my char and with a little ooc background and didn't have an expectation either way. The next day I see the Zoner players are having issues and arguing with one another and that Mal was taking a break--my impeccable timing as usual. I figured at that point forget it.

Surprise...a couple of days later I got a pm saying go ahead but don't make any trouble;)

Now this was a very pleasant surprise and I thought, "Ok--well in word it's approved..now let's see what happens when I do the deed." So I got the ship and found that the Zoners all knew about it. No one asked me an out-of-character question or interogated me regarding my motives and no one demanded a full disclosure of every RP secret I had. They responded 100% entirely in character in the entire process and have continued to do so.

This has been--with no doubt or exception--the most solid and pleasant RP faction I have encountered in my entire time here and the experience has been nothing but good. Thisisn't the typical comment you hear from me regarding a faction and while my Rp is not heavily to be entwined in theirs and I haven't dealt with "all Zoners", the ones I have dealt with are most solid.

So kudos to the Zoners and more importantly as players--thanks for being so helpful and such good sports. On an unrelated note, also thanks for the trust woth the barge admins.

Tink

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