[Discuss] Is Fun Dead? End of RP

[James]

Ourania Papasozomenou wrote:
> I was reluctant in sending this to the Discussion list because of the 
> usual flamewar that such a letter will spark..as always. But I was 
> adviced to do so.
> If you don't want to talk seriously and in a fruitfull way about this 
> topic, then please don;t.
>
> So, here it goes.
>
> This game is supposed to be fun for everyone. And in the past all 
> those that spoil the fun of others were punished. But now I see is 5 
> realms, ruled by 5 permament players to attack a realm with much less 
> strength that one of the attacking realms alone. Where is the fun in this?
>
> You know, the problem (in the EC mainly.) in this is that there is a 
> strong alliance here that spoils the fun of everybody else. I am not 
> talking only about Kalmar (You can't imagine what crap I have heard 
> both IC and OOC) but also about LoF which for its own good should find 
> an available strong ally, otherwise it will be destroyed by the usual 
> suspects.
>
> And the same scenario is going to happen in Atamara as well. The 
> balance there is different, but we have the same pattern of a non-war, 
> but a determination to completely destroy a realm...5 vs 1.
>
> What I see, in the Continents, is five realms and few players having 
> taken the continents' diplomacy as their private monopoly, deciding 
> who will be destroyed and who will remain. And with no, or inadequate 
> RP. (I was a Ruler and I know. You can't imagine what replies the 
> rulers give. a plain "yes" or "no" ,"you will die" without a 
> justification, as a reply to a very solid, good RP letter)
>
> So, here is what I ask...
>
> Should be there something to prevent such monopolies from the game? 
> Things that spoil the fun of so many? I remember in the past there 
> were tricks to prevenmt realms from growing a lot and bonus in favour 
> of small realms (morale penalties for great distances, severe 
> penalties in the stats of huge realms, even forced separation). Now it 
> is completely the opposite!
>
> Maybe there should be a limit to the difference of the attackers and 
> the defenders strength or something to prevent such rediculous 
> incidents in the future. 300,000 CS against 10,000 is really not fun!
>
> And it's not fun at all to play in realms knowing that they will be 
> destroyed by 5 other realms that make up excuses or not bother to even 
> find an excuse to attack and destroy you. It was fun RP at first, but 
> then, everyone playing in these realms are out of RPing! And allow me 
> to speak also for Ubent which is a realm that survives only because 
> the other 5 don't care (yet) about it, having imposed upon it a limit 
> of 5K CS.
> And you might ask, why does Ubent don't resist? Because the players 
> know that if they grow bigger than 5k cs, they will be history in a 
> month.
>
> Some 1.5 year ago, when Eleador, Coimbra, Rancagua and Avamar fell 
> -soon to be followed by Oligarch-, there was a discussion in the 
> D-list and everyone said how crappy this is, and that small realms 
> should be kept alive, because if they were not, big realms would grow 
> bigger and destroy everyone they didn't like. Tom himself told that 
> "realms come and go". And I ask you. In the past 2 years, how many 
> realms have gone? And how many realms have arisen in the EC? Three. 
> Avamar Selective, Kalmar Islands and Light of Fountain. All three are 
> this close to being destroyed. The conclusions are yours to make....
>
> And that's not fun. Not fun at all. For about 200 players that do not 
> have characters in the 5 strong realms. And between you and me, RP is 
> dead in EC. and so is fun for the vast majority.
> And this is not just my opinion (and no, it's not because i'm in the 
> "losing" side. I know you can't win BM, which is why it's nice playing 
> in small realms.) It's also the opinion of players with characters in 
> the "opposite", strong side. And I have the names of them, if you are 
> interested.
>
> Thank you for your time,
> Rania


Do you know why this ends up in a flame war?  Someone who doesn't know 
what they're talking about brings it to the D-list.  Basically it boils 
down to your ruler sucking at diplomacy.  And no, I don't think a realm 
should be destroyed simply because of that.  However, if a realm is 
constantly known for back-stabbing, breaking alliances and treaties, 
being horrible diplomatically and general someone who people don't want 
to be friends with, tend to, amazingly enough, not have many friends.  
Now, I can't speak for EC because I would very much agree that that 
place sucks, but in Atamara I've seen the diplomacy for quite some 
time.  The realms who often get attacked like that do the things I just 
spoke of.  They break every treaty they make and they stab everyone in 
the back.  Have you tried elected a new ruler?  This is one of the 
instances where, in my experience, the same ruler is elected over and 
over again despite doing a horrible job and people continue to elect 
him.  People who speak out against him are chastised for being shit 
starters (and this is done to the player, not the character).  These 
alliances are very rarely OOC like everyone claims and very often have a 
firm basis IC.  Look at your own realm and see what the problem is.  Try 
and fix it.  If your ruler is shoddy try to elect another one see if he 
has the same effect.  Replace your whole government.  Generals, judges 
and bankers often talk to each other quite a bit too.

There are still codes in place that hurt morale once you get a certain 
size, it has stopped CE from being any bigger.  As it is the regions are 
usually in shoddy shape (which is probably why they're being attacked by 
monsters and undead).  That hasn't gone away.  It is still there.  In 
fact, CE's capital is so far away from the front lines usually that we 
get a hit to morale about 3 regions out of our realm.  So I don't see 
how it's completely the opposite.

Lastly, if you can't have fun then that's your problem, it's something 
you need to work on.  I can have just as much fun in a realm that's 
"losing" and being destroyed as I can doing the "destroying", in fact, I 
find the "destroying" rather boring and the "losing" much better.  But 
then again, when I'm in that situation I speak up.  I don't just sit 
there and let it fester then write a rant to the discussion list about 
how much the people attacking us suck and how there need to be OOC 
measures taking against them.  99% of the time it's something wrong with 
your realm, not theirs.  You know why those 5 rulers weren't replaced?  
They know their diplomacy.  They're good at it.