[Discuss] BM protest

[Tom Struik]

I have seen a BM protest action ingame because of multi cheaters.
I am forwarding this to the place were it belongs, here on the
discussionlist.

Out-of-Character from Amraedil (24 minutes ago)
Message sent to everyone in "Academy of Knowledge" (22 recipients)
Fellow Battlemaster Players,

We, as players, are on strike from Saturday 2 to Sunday 3 of June, through
pausing our characters in LoF, protesting against what the game we all love,
became.

During these days we will sacrifice whatever positions we hold and we will
leave LoF completely unprotected and disorganized. So don't be surprised if
you see strange things happening or peculiar people elected.

Our effort is the last resort to attract the attention of Tom to a series of
well-known and long-lasting problems that threats the game and have greatly
limited the fun of the game. This is NOT a protestation against Tom or BM.
On the contrary this is our effort to contribute to the game, to make
ourselves heard and attract his attention. Our scope is to highlight a
simple fact that most of you already know; there is something wrong with the
game we all love and care for. The only one that can fix it is Tom.

We don't want to add our names to the long list of all those that
permanently paused or deleted their accounts or they simply lost their
interest for the game. We want to bring back the fun to the game, we are
ready to sacrifice everything our characters have achieved up to know and
ask as players from Tom to take IMMEDIATE action.

We haven't chosen the discussion list to post our protest, to avoid the
usual comments on "wanting to win the game" and "wanting to gain IC
advantages for ooc reasons". We have chosen this way to show in practice
that the only thing we care is the good of the game.

If you share our opinion, you are free to join us pausing one of your
characters for a day, sacrificing few hours of his/her life and career,
maybe few bonds and even more desirable a position. This is the way to prove
that a position or even a realm doesn't count in front of the general good
of the game. You can also simply ignore us or even mock us if you believe
tat everything goes fine and nothing really radical needs to be done.

Tom, something must be done and you are the only one that you can make it.
And something must be done NOW before our beloved BM turn to another boring
online game.

Signature:

Few devoted players of Battlemaster

(Feel free to forward this message to as many players as you like,realmwide
or wherever, if you think that there will be people that will find this
effort worthwhile or even even if they like to support us)

Dimitris Zikos
Out-of-Character from Renee   (16 hours, 36 minutes ago)
Message sent to the Rulers of this world (19 recipients)
It's unfortunate they didn't make an specific demands. I know the feeling,
but I'm not sure Tom can fix it. This problems seems to be a shift in the
type of people who play BM.

(Or I'm just missing something huge.)
Nathan Krach
Out-of-Character from Trithereon   (11 hours, 56 minutes ago)
Message sent to the Rulers of this world (19 recipients)
We, as players, are on strike from Saturday 2 to Sunday 3 of June, through
pausing our characters in LoF, protesting against what the game we all love,
became.

Hmmm...interesting. I tend to agree with Nathan (Renee) that it would have
been
nice if they had been more specific about what their complaints are. I've
heard
so many people say so many things...it would be nice if they narrowed down
which
issues they're complaining about!

Oh, and its late and I don't want to search through the Wiki for the
answer -
whats "LoF"?

Technically speaking, in order for something to be a "strike" doesn't it
have to
be work you're not doing? I know, semantics... I think they're "boycotting"
BM.

Joseph Edward Uzel
Out-of-Character from Dimian   (7 hours, 56 minutes ago)
Message sent to the Rulers of this world (19 recipients)
"LoF" = Light of Fountain, a realm on the EC that is currently losing a war
against the realm from which they seceded just over a year ago.

It's rather pointless to have 4 nobles from your realm pause in protest if
you don't tell anyone what you're protesting against. This wasn't the whole
realm, or anything even close. The judge, a local lord, and maybe a couple
others.

Not that the whole thing isn't pointless. The game changes over time. This
isn't the same game they started playing 3 or 4 years ago. You either change
with the game, or you leave. You leave, or someone else joins, and the game
changes even more. The people who don't change and don't leave are the ones
that do all this grandstanding.
Robert Croson
Out-of-Character from Valhalla   (7 hours, 21 minutes ago)
Message sent to the Rulers of this world (19 recipients)
I know Dimitris quite well, he started playing a few years back (I was his
mentor) and to be honest the game has changed in leaps and bounds since
then, but thats what happens, things change. It is harder now than it was
back then, which I feel is a good thing.

Personally I dont see any point to what they are doing, Tom wont change the
game for tiny few.
Richard Garner
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Out-of-Character from Aldo   (2 hours, 33 minutes ago)
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Actually the 'strike' seems to have been advertiesed across all of EC and
apparently Beluaterra (not to mention who knows what other continents) The
number of strikers is also climbing rapidly.

I am curious exactly what they expect to accomplish, but maybe they're not
sure themselves. Rather they probably feel they are at least doing
/something/, even if it doesn't ammount to much.
Anthony Cerqueira
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Out-of-Character from Valhalla   (50 minutes ago)
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Players of Battlemaster,

I have recently been speaking to a friend of mine, Dimitris Zikos, one of
the leaders of the BM protest. His reasoning for the protest is the overall
unfairness of the game and lack of fun (for many different reasons).

I support one particular issue above all others that he brought up. Titans
and Cheaters.

Allow me to first explain what is meant by that.

We have all complained to the titans about certain things, some of which we
were just in doing and had every right to do, but for some reason our
complaints were threw to the side? Unfairly I might add. Yes, we've all been
there but the question is why?

I will now tell each of you the reason I am telling you this.

A few months ago the realm of Plergoth had an influx of about 30 characters
(I was there personally, as were many), most of which were all from the same
country (OOC) or their profiles were hidden and this obviously was an OOC
take over as the very players who joined (within the space of 2 weeks mind
you) took the realm by votes not long after (surprising how so many ''new''
people knew how the voting system worked fully within a week or so isnt
it?).

A loop hole? Yes. But it could have been stopped, this OOC cheating could
have been stopped by the titans and what did they do?.... Nothing.
Surprised? I was. Many complaints hit the ears of the titans regarding this
particular issue but nothing ever happened and that is the point Dimitris is
getting across.... the game is hardly as fun as it was back then because of
the basic lack of enthusiasm by the titans (protectors of the rules, hardly)
and the OOC cheaters.

Now I know what you are thinking, just because loads of people who joined
within the space of a few weeks are from the same country or have a hidden
profile doesnt mean that they are an OOC clan taking over.... usually I
would agree, but the sheer quantity of them and the influx within the 2 week
space (of which ive not seen in my 5 years of playing BM) obviously spoke
otherwise.

Now, I did consider pausing my characters as Dimitris is, but the OOC
cheaters are obviously still in Plergoth and they wont think twice about
taking advantage of OOC matters in order to gain IC, they have done it once,
they will do it again.

So what to do, what to do? This letter I will be sending to everyone in the
game (as far as my capabilities allow) and I hope that everyone who agree's
with me will send the same letter to the titans to show their distaste for
their actions to stop the OOC cheaters of Plergoth.

This letter has been sent to the titans of every island my character is on,
now if you agree with me and Dimitris (amongst all the others who will be
pausing) and you cant actually pause (or simply dont want to) then send this
message to the titans showing your support and even add a comment or two of
your own to show your own feelings and thoughts.

For long enough the OOC cheaters have ruined this game, show your support
and stop them! Send this letter to the titans, send it to everyone in your
realms. Help us stop OOC cheaters.

Thank you.
Richard Garner
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Out-of-Character from Valhalla   (30 minutes ago)
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Your complaint titled "You let this happen...." has been rejected. The
reason for this rejection is: If you have evidence that these players are
multicheaters, violate the social contract, or step on characters'
inalinable rights, please bring us the evidence. Otherwise there is nothing
we can do.

The problem being ladies and gentlemen, you cant prove anything. As obvious
as it is that they are OOC cheaters, you cant prove it.... the loop hole is
open for anyone and it WILL be taken advantage of again and again.
Richard Garner
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Out-of-Character from Aldo   (23 minutes ago)
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-ahem- Richard, if you're so certain give the titans some account numbers
and let them do their job. It's one thing to say there are cheaters it's
quite another to finger some people to be checked.
Anthony Cerqueira
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Out-of-Character from Valhalla   (21 minutes ago)
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I didnt mention names did I? I gave them account numbers a while ago, there
was no ''solid proof'', every influx character that joined was from the same
country or hidden profile (30 or so the number was, honestly, if that isnt
OOC cheats then I dont know what is!)

My point is that it is a loop hole and we cant do anything about it and the
titans wont do anything about it because there is no possible way to prove
it, as obvious as it may be.
Richard Garner
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Out-of-Character from Aldo   (14 minutes ago)
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Richard, you'll find that there are many things that are 'obvious' even when
they aren't actually true. I'm not saying one way or another if this case is
one of those, but I would advise you to remember that the world is bigger
then what any one person can see. (Unless you're an amazing spy master but
that's another point all together) Going on a crusade will not solve the
problem and I strongly encourage you to take a break for a bit before
approaching the issue again.
Anthony Cerqueira
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Out-of-Character from Valhalla   (8 minutes ago)
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I took a few months break from the issue actually, until I participated in
the BM-Wide protest. Ive sat back and watched as people cheated without
consiquence for long enough thank you and I dont care to see it much longer.

The fact of the matter is, 30 character arriving in ONE realm in TWO weeks
is blaightenly obvious, you cant deny it, they are obviously cheaters.

I will refer you to toms article....

'Are clans allowed in this game?
My position on clans is very simple. One, it is not illegal to have friends.
Two, having fun with friends should not diminish the fun of everyone else.
If you want to play with and/or against friends, whether you call it a clan
or not, that's fine with me. When whatever your group does wipes out the fun
for other players, you'll feel my wrath. This mostly means that it is not ok
to take over a realm for your clan. There are always other players around,
and I expect you to play nice with them. You can form a guild and use that
as your in-game clan representation, as long as other players can join as
well (imposing conditions is fine, imposing unrealistic and especially OOC
conditions like "must live in our street" is not). You get the idea: As long
as your clan does not exclude others from having fun, I'm ok with it.'

These people have violated the social contract simply by doing what they
did, spoiling the fun of the game is not forgivable and im sorry but I do
play the game for fun, I dont want to see it ruined by cheats who take
advantage of an OOC loop hold to gain IC.
Richard Garner
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