In the spirit of the season, and reminiscent of 1914, I would like to request a cessation of active hostilities between the pirates and the anti-pirates through Christmas. I do not wish you to still your guns. I do not even wish you to still your tongues. All I ask is that the overt hostility be given over, at least for a little while.

The recent months have been worse than any I've seen for outright malice between factions. Not only are verbal barbs being thrown with increasing frequency and rancor, but fighting has devolved into the lowest common denominator. Running, swarming, ganking without merit, it is clear that neither side respects the other any more. I am not asking you to respect each other, because that would clearly be an exercise in futility. I simply ask that you respect yourselves and the community.

From an RP standpoint it makes sense that pirates and anti-pirates would be at each other's throats a fair amount. However, in the past that was always accomplished in good fun, everyone joining in to have a laugh about it. "Ha! You'll never catch me, snake!" "Die like the dog you are, filthy pirate!" Attacking the character in a manner suited to your own character, and without much mean-spiritedness. Now it's accusations of breaching the TOS, being griefers, generally implying that the other side is full of worthless lumps who would be doing the world a favour if they drowned themselves. This is unnecessary, and only serves to widen the rift between factions. The RP banter is fun and amusing and is generally enjoyed by all involved. The heated personal attacks and smear campaigns do nobody any good, not your side, not their side, and definitely not VO in general. I do not consider you a griefer unless everyone else must lose for you to win, but unfortunately that's been happening more and more.

I obviously have no standing to demand anything of anyone. I am not really part of either main faction, though I enjoy fighting both sides. I am, however, loyal to VO, and I know that many of you are, too. You are hurting the community with your harsh words, and you are hurting everyone's experience, including your own. We all used to be on the same side, the side of having fun. For a little while, at least, I'd like to see that happen again.

So please, stop the hatred, stop the running, stop the swarming. Kill each other as men and women, not as petulant children. I guarantee that everyone can have a good time even without the current diversion. And, after all, that's what a game is for.

Amen. Select members of CHRN, CLM, and THC know that I've been trying to make things a bit more civil behind the scenes for some time now. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as you suggest, diqrtvpe. After this, you'll likely see numerous posts containing personal attacks against me, maybe a few insults about my mother, and various suggestions that I'm trying to ruin the game for good fun-loving pirates. I hope I'm wrong, but we'll see. It's okay. I find it all quite entertaining.

*Applause*

Were it so easy...

edit: Starting off by inciting another flamewar in a thread meant to promote peace is not a good way of trying to make things more civil.

It is so easy. Nobody is being forced to make personal attacks. I'm not trying to force anyone to do anything, either. I'm just hoping that we can try something else for awhile.

And no, Strat, it's not okay. The vast majority of posts lately have been extremely mean-spirited, and anti-community. Against vets and newbs alike. And as amusing as it can be, it's also disheartening, and not conducive to making people want to stay. PVP and the community is what this game relies on, for better or worse. Both seem to be deteriorating, to the point where I've considered giving it up and moving on multiple times in the past months. Some might say that if I can't stand the abuse I shouldn't be playing an online game. Well, the abuse isn't against me, at least not directly. And why anyone would play a game in which they are constantly abused, I don't know. Games are supposed to be fun. It's possible for everyone to have fun, even when killing each other. It's much less possible for everyone to have fun when in a race to the bottom.

EDIT: I agree with Shar. Strat, could you edit your post so it's not quite so inciteful? Give your opponents a chance to be civil before you presuppose their guilt. They are capable of it.

the trollrats rip on everyone nonstop and everyone else normaly ignores it. as soon as some traders or vprs stand up for themselves and reply its not ok. sounds like a double standard. i havent even heard anyone say anything to bad or offensive exept for the same rats who are always trolling.

This is me not ignoring it, rok. This is me saying it doesn't matter who is trolling or making personal attacks, it is all damaging to the community. The pirates are often louder, but they are not alone. People have been crossing lines on all sides of this divide, and I think it's time to take a step back and try to recapture some calm and civility.

and who is this whistler guy? impdavid lecter and peytros say stuff everyday that is awful and it usualy gets ignored. anyone else like a trader says something liek they say all the time and it gets locked deleted or edited. why do they get special treatment?

Generally the pirates are the ones trolling the boards* (see below), or saying things in a less than civil way. That is true, but we try to ignore it to keep the conversations on-topic and moving forward. When others are drawn down to that level, it's usually a sign that the thread is going to devolve into mindless name-calling imminently, which is why it gets locked in the matter you observe (this is just my interpretation, Whistler can correct it if he wishes).

However, this thread is not about how awful the pirates are and how they should be punished, nor about how awful the anti-pirates are and how they should be punished. This thread is about how lots of people have been awful, and it's time to start being less awful. This is the season of forgiveness. I hope we can at least try to forgive and move on, and not sin again (as it were).

EDIT: To clarify, the pirates are not the ones trolling the boards. There are some trolls who happen to be pirates. There are some trolls who happen not to be pirates. There are some pirates who happen to stray into trollish territory, and there are some non-pirates who stray the same way.

I agree with Shar. Strat, could you edit your post so it's not quite so inciteful? Give your opponents a chance to be civil before you presuppose their guilt. They are capable of it.

I apologize. I didn't mean to sound "inciteful", but I won't edit it. That's exactly what I was trying to do (give them a chance). I didn't personally attack anyone. I predicted what people might say and all they have to do is prove me wrong by not verbally attacking me or anyone else. That would be great and would be a first step, don't you think? I didn't insult or verbally attack anyone specifically. I didn't even try to imply that I was speaking about someone in particular. I'm not sure what you want from me here. Me "predicting" possible negative actions was meant to deter people from performing those actions, just like your entire thread here is meant to deter everyone from engaging in "overt hostility".

If we stop fighting whats the point of the game existing....

CrazySpence, I think what diqrtvpe is trying to say is that there is a difference between fun fighting and angry personal attacks. Intense PvP combat and good-natured RP banter is great, but that's not the kind of fighting he's talking about. He's just trying to keep the game fun for everyone, and although I'm not sure if a thread like this is the best way to do it, I agree with the goal.

"If we stop fighting whats the point of the game existing...."

to join TGFT?

<ducks>

As Strat said, I'm not trying to stop the fighting. That would be stupid and counter-productive. I love fighting, the bigger the battle the better, in my opinion. But I don't love the baggage that's sprung up around fighting these days. You can't have a furball without everyone running and swarming and calling each other nasty names. I don't find it fun at all to play either for or against a side that is only trying to make the other side lose, rather than trying to win and have fun. I also don't find it that much fun to be completely and utterly outnumbered, but I would happily fight in even the most lopsided of contests if it was a friendly match, rather than a vindictive pileup. Unfortunately, those seem to be few and far between these days.

THC: we pwn in calm and civility

: )

THC: we pwn in calm and civility

And all the while maintaining a sense of humour and poking fun at other people taking themselves too seriously. Keep it up, BT!

Funny how it is always ok for me to be called a "newb killing loser who needs to get a life /ignore him immeditatly hes the biggest griefer in the game and needs to be banned" I have been trying to be much more civil since i have came back and I think a few of my long time enemies can comment on that.

Denji i think the main problem is there is really nothing to do in game, cliques have formed over having to do the same repitive stuff over and over again. I think the closer we get to version 2.0 the more the player base will grow and the interaction between those who dislike eachother will become much less

I agree to a point, pey, and also that you've been much more civil since your first appearance. What I'm suggesting is that, since we are all thrown together in this current situation, let's try to return to a prior era of civility between us all, at least for this season. If we all give to our enemies the respect we don't think they deserve, we might all start having a bit more fun.

You have seemed to be fairly civil the last few times I've seen you in-game, pey. Cheers. I agree that we need more RP content in-game to keep us distracted. In the mean time, I hope we can try to keep things friendly and keep the conflict RP-only.

Funny how it is always ok for me to be called a "newb killing loser who needs to get a life /ignore him immeditatly hes the biggest griefer in the game and needs to be banned" I have been trying to be much more civil since i have came back and I think a few of my long time enemies can comment on that.

I don't mean for this to begin a flame war, but rather to explain my "hey newbs: /ignore peytros" comments in-game. The reason I suggest newbs ignore you, peytros, is that while your comments may be more civil than they used to be, they are still vulgar and full of profanity (not to mention less than kind words towards women). Such talk can seriously turn off newbies, and they need to know that they don't need to hear such comments if they don't want to. My actions are towards the end of keeping new players so that our playerbase may grow; that is all.

Also, I'm cool with the truce.

It is incendiary to advocate that a specific someone's thoughts are not worth hearing and detrimental to the community as a whole. You don't have to give names when you make newbs aware of /ignore. "If someone is obnoxious to you then /ignore them" is enough, I think.

[edited for clarity]