[Discuss] Auto-bans

[zmobiebob]

On 3/22/07, Tom <tom at lemuria.org> wrote:
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> Yes. It is intentional to make things more fluid. These things
> contributed to the strong feelings of nationalism within the game.



I think we need to be clear on why what you call nationalism isn't
appropriate for the game, that it must be eradicated?

I understand there is a problem with lock-step realm-loyalty at all costs,
contributing to power gaming and whatnot. But it's a real shame because one
of my characters, at any rate, has built his career on a "patriotic"
platform, without which he really doesn't have much purpose. I'm sure he's
not alone.

And having patriotism - or nationalism if you will - gives a great boost, a
meaning to a lot of interactions that would otherwise be uninteresting.
Think of the Scots against the English - sure there were the nobles
infighting, but there was a clear realm of Scotland and one of England, that
everyone could identify with, despite having oaths and allegience within.

But why fight wars for the realm if you share no identity, no commonality
with other members of the realm? In real life, people of, say, France did at
least have that connection - same language, same culture, same geographic
area. But we don't really have cultural identity to fill in that gap. We
don't really have a localized, small scale, agrarian society. If we did,
then eliminating patriotism from the game would make more sense to me,
because we could fill in the gap with something else. And rather than
incouraging BM to suddenly RP small scale societies with a handful of
players interacting meaningfully, I think you'll find that squeezing
nationalism will just mean the 'nation' sized groups will re-form anyway.

Just my 2 c.
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