[Soul_Hacker]

Sharing my viewpoint on the messy subject of antagonism and conflict is something I've done a few times before, and I suppose now that I'm on the 'good' side of the law, I'm going to share it again. First and foremost though, the way some (not all!) people are genuinely attacking Polk for this is downright horrendous. If you have problems with the guide, that's fine! There's no need to attack the person who's making it, calling their characters shallow, their writing subpar- it's unnecessary, hurtful, and doesn't fuel any real discussion on the topic at hand. If you've a problem with the way someone acts or the way their characters are made, I'm sure most would greatly appreciate being talked to in private on the matter, rather than being 'called out' on a forum post they put together in an attempt to help people.

While I understand there was some 'antagonistic' wording to the post that has since been removed, such as the comments regarding lesbians; and the very touchy subject of mental illness, honing in on these points is to ignore the rest of the (very big) post. Again, not saying everyone's done this, some people have posted their responses to the post in full, and laid them out well. Wish there was more of that, and less of. . .everything else.

Ganking is a contentious topic in the community, that much is more than clear. People dislike feeling as if they're forced into a situation beyond their control; and due to the relationship they feel with their character, the humiliation of being defeated can sting. While it is a 'good way' for your antag to grow in notoriety, it's a fact you'll just have to face that some people won't be happy with you for pursuing this route- but, on the other hand, if you're simply trying to grow in notoriety by- say, attacking NPCs, killing NPCs, killing characters off people wished to not play anymore in private- people will often deride you all the same.

With the game and community the way it is, there's no real definitive way out of this catch-22. You attack active players, and many will consider your assaults frivolous, unwarranted, bullying- etc. You attack inactive players or NPCs, and people will deride your efforts for attention, and oft. ignore it is happening altogether. While assault isn't the only way to cause conflict- it's certainly the one the game's systems support the most. You cannot truly 'vandalize' places to any real IC affect without help from a GM/Eventmin, you cannot 'steal' from another player without their consent (or a fight!), and trying to be an antagonist simply by the way your character speaks or acts is a lovely way to get labeled as part of the 'peanut gallery', and, again, ignored.

Eventmins and GMs would seem to be the common solution then, be it seeking permission from them to party with yourself and rile up trouble, or be it making an event, or chain of events- in which your antagonism flourishes, the center of attention. Sadly, this leaves many people out of the loop as well- those in unconventional timezones, those unable to attend, those who aren't prepared to combat event mobs. RP then, maybe. An RP antagonist (sadly) also seems equally difficult to pull off- if you're setting up strict one on one RP's with people, then the folks outside this sphere can often feel helpless, seeing their friends assailed by an invisible threat they can seemingly do nothing about, unless they schedule with you, and play by your rules- it leaves the 'heroes' feeling useless, and the 'villains' untouchable, yet also not a true threat.

I suppose this has been a lot of rambling to simply say that- if there is a good 'solution' to antagonism in SL2, I haven't quite seen it. Every avenue comes with tradeoffs, every risk the antagonists take will be punished to a severe degree, and if they don't take risks- the protaganists will feel as if they can't do anything at all about the situation at hand. It's come to a peak in Korvara, due to the 'always-IC' nature, and the promise of a world changed by player action. Without antagonists, the game will die out- but, despite that, the game isn't too friendly towards them.

I do hope that people who have played this game for longer than me are able to come up with a solution for the matter nonetheless, as I've greatly enjoyed my time in Korvara, despite the many hiccups along the way, and would hate to see it die out, or regress to stagnation.