[Discuss] Is Fun Dead? End of RP

[Jan Trottel]

> 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

I couldn't agree more. I can see only some solution for this and to make the
game more fun for all. I never was a RPer but I have made some attempts. And
every time I find response was in small realms, which always roleplay,
simply because they have nothing better to do. They can't threat big realms
so they can only enjoy a light game like battlemaster owed to be.

This is what I think

First to post somewhere all the changes in the rules, like I propose in my
last post. This is more fair for all, big and small realms. Now any realm
can go anywhere it likes and this only makes total wars of many realms
against one realm possible

Second to enter a new feature that will bring much damage to the realms that
fight wars that are not wars but only massive and temporar unofficial
alliances to destroy a realm. An idea would be to have huge penalties to the
morale and loaylty of the involved realms, maybe because the population
feels that this wars are not wars but jokes that show weakness and not
strength. This is very true when more than two or three times the strength
of a realm attacks another, even if it is one or it is five. But when we
talk about 5 strong realms against a very weak then the penalties must be
really very important to make such things impossible. Because a realm can
have 100 players and still be a weak. This is very unfair and completely
destroys not a realm but the fun of the game. It is like say "Look, if you
want to play, you better join a very strong realm"

Thirdly, why don't we have someone to see the rulers diplomacy like in the
far east and see when an attack is true in terms of RP and when not.

Four, give some strength that it is not relevant to realms statistics. Give
more strength to priests or make regions of small realms almost impossible
to take over when they fight against many many times their combat strength
with more realms than 2-3 alone.

Five, change the neutral effect which is largely used to say, without any RP
as usual, "We are not at war, we are neutral, but we destroy you because we
smell easy prey"

Six, sent a punishement to those that they exploit the strength of their
realm to ally with others, even when the peasants doesn't like this
alliances or peace. I remember there was a time when peasants were saying
"Look we don't like this realm, we want to change the relations with them".
Now this plays no role at all. Any realm can fight with another for some
years and then one day, just say, "Look, we don't want to fight anymore
anyway we won't destroy our realms because this won't be fun. So why we
don't ally and destroy another realm that will be destroyed anyway? This
will be more fun for us and who gives a shit for the other players". Really
now, why the peasants don't play a more active role in this? Even rebel
against their realm if the council do what it like, without roleplay and
without care for what happened in the past?

The worst thing is that this tends to be rule. Some realms that will always
destroy anyother. The same players again and again using the power of their
realms to have fun and destroy completely what any other younger player try
to do.

As for the monsters I agree. Maybe this is why Eston , CE and Perdan have
monsters. Maybe not. I don't know but I wish this is a first attempt to make
the game fun again.
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