[caliaca]

Hi.

I don't usually post on stuff like this. I don't really have the same overarching unhappiness with the game that a lot of people do, so I haven't really thought about posting. I never want to like... be that annoying person who's like 'Oh, I'M having fun! WHY AREN'T YOU HAVING FUN?' cause I find that really lame and sort of demeaning of other people's viewpoints and thoughts. So I still probably won't type a lot where but there was like, one or two things I wanted to address as someone who is really relevant to this post, and frankly most types of these posts lately - as much as I'd prefer it not be.

A comment on the war pause-

We did not delay the war because of a disagreement between the two sides on how to conduct war. We delayed the war because people on both sides were getting heavily harassed which lead to severe mental strain on the ones who were trying to make it work the hardest. I'm not really going to say names here, but let's be real, everyone knows the big one at this point. We also stopped the war because GMs and the staff team as a whole had not for a moment helped us out with the planning, we hadn't gotten anything regarding war rules or how to conduct things, and it was essentially trying to figure everything out from scratch. The real reason that the war got delayed was because I had a mental breakdown in a semi-public channel that GMs were watching and finally intervened after it got *really* bad.

The war pause served to replace the most unreasonable actor and while we still didn't exactly have a lot of staff help, working with reasonable people made it much easier to actually get things done. The leaders who were involved still weren't getting much assistance from the harassment standpoint, and it took until new GMs were declared and the rules were updated for that to change (albeit partially due to public outcry. I thank everyone who came to have my back then).

Since then, things *have* changed. GMs are much more active in curtailing these things and it's been a great, great boon to those of us who were in the firing line the most. While we had to go through hell to actually get the change, I'm nonetheless happy that we finally have it. I think it's the first big step to making sure that everything works out in the long run.




I'll reply to something on Fern's post as well. I fully agree the leader lottery was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened, or if it did, it should have been vetted so that it didn't seat so many problematic people into positions of power that still have reverberations on the game state to this day. Leader vetting is a thing that needs to occur, and while it may feel like shit for someone to get denied from a position if they've been previously and recently banned or warned for extremely problematic behaviour... well, they shouldn't have it. Straight up. Leaders have a large amount of ic and ooc power and are generally going to be who gets ragged on and harassed first, if someone is given a spot with those things as red flags, it'll often reverberate through the entire country and cause cultural issues from the top down. Rarely, a country deals with it IC in a quick manner, such as with Lexaly, but other times the position is allowed to be kept for much too long - not to the fault of players, but because they shouldn't have been allowed it in the first place.




Even as a nation leader, I certainly agree with there not really being spots on the map to build things up for new stuff. Most of the map is claimed at this point, and while I don't think personal houses are the answer, I think something could be done about it. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure **what**. Outskirt new maps? Island maps? Danger areas where nations wouldn't want to extend but other groups might?

I'm not sure. I don't know.



I'll also apologize once more for my role in the Valaya thing. I thought others had already communicated and I was pretty much still a dumb new player at that point. The Guardian thing to to a much lesser extent, I'm not real sure that one was my fault but I do wish you'd had the investigation more and I'll warp stuff in the future to give that better. I think both roads could have communicated a bit better there, but that's sort of besides the point I guess.





I guess I'll also comment on the war thing as a whole. I do think it went well after all the hardship to get there. I think if things in the future can be more like that and less like Fairview, we're going to be looking good and smiling. It wasn't perfect and there's a lot we learned from it, stuff that I'll likely try and compile together for the future, but I do think it went well and provided many people with many good stories. It also bummed some people the hell out, but I'm not really sure how to fix that either outside of a mind set shift.

Too often, I think people view losing in this game as actually losing. But it's not. Losing is generally just the ability to get a new set of possibilities and RP opportunities. Losing isn't the end, it's the beginning of something new. I think I could wax poetically about that for hours, but I'm unsure that it would actually be useful. And I know this may seem just like a load of shit coming from the side that won, but I will truly and honestly say ninety percent of my best opporunities and memories from roleplay have happened after I lost instead of the other way around and I hope that feeling can maybe perpetuate. I don't know.



My current state?

I'm enjoying myself a lot. I think things have gotten better. I hope they continue to. We aren't there yet, but I think we can be.

Quick edit here, but Robin, I vibe with your post real hard even if I didn't play G6. There's been some bad times, real bad times, but holy hell if there hasn't been some incredible experiences here.