[Poruku]

I'll try to make this brief, as I could make a whole essay about this stuff, but I'd like to discuss something near and dear to my heart, which is the sometimes controversial concept of "antags" in this game. Over the years playing SL2, I've enjoyed my fair share of fun playing villainous characters, troublemakers, scumbags, deranged killers, misled criminals, and all things in between.

However, recently, I've started to notice that it's not really that welcome. A lot of people have voiced their discontent about what we call "gank antags", which are just villain of the week bad guys that go around and do pvp. I like pvp, I like being a bandit/bad guy. I think it adds spice and danger to an otherwise boring world. I thought for a long time this was mostly harmless fun. Though I guess, especially recently, it really hasn't been that well received.

Well, there's two types of "antag" you can play, in really broad terms. Simple, and elaborate. Simple antags are essentially just bad guys that go around, usually without a clear plan, usually attacking people. Sometimes scheduling scenes to attack people. That's what I do usually with sawrock. Then there is the elaborate antags. Basically, creating a complex plan, and organizing sessions, intrigue, and a whole ploy for an event-like story using an antag.

Simple antags are quite hit or miss, and their low effort nature means that sometimes they fall flat. You can play a basic bandit guy, and whether or not that's interesting entirely depends on the people you interact with. They might find you boring, annoying, and/or not want to interact with you even if they are the ones trying to stop you. So you have to tiptoe around the enjoyment of others, making sure you're communicating profusely, offering alternatives, making sure they are having fun, making sure they want this to happen at all. And if they don't wish to be attacked, you are better off leaving them alone. Though sometimes that's not possible due to how the game has to flow.
In addition, your actions, even when your targets are consenting and relatively happy, might have repercussions. Especially in korvara, everything is connected. Hurting one person will affect their loved ones. It'll affect the law enforcement. It may even affect a nation. That's why the ripples of a simple gank can reach far and wide. It can be fun and create stories, or it can give people headaches. And sadly, it's difficult to plan for that.

All in all, a "simple" antag isn't so simple. It's a constant balancing act. It's a whole piece of work!

Now, elaborate antags are cool. I always come back to the example of the "necromancer" from duyuei, which was essentially an event. But unless you run those things exactly like an event, you're going to have problems. I could elaborate for a while but most things from above apply here. It's difficult to make things happen, especially if you want to do something significant. The short of it is, complex antags take a lot of effort, a lot of planning, a lot of time. It often takes luck as well, because a single mistake can cost you everything. In the end, when your machinations come to fruition, there's a very low chance that things will go well, let alone be appreciated. And herein lies the crux of it all. Being an antagonist, especially a more elaborate one, is always a bit of a gamble because you're rarely sure whether your efforts will be worthwhile. In fact, your efforts might cause pain for others. That realisation is something that really hampered my motivation to play antagonists.

To summarize, whether you're playing a simple antagonist or a complex, planned out antagonist, you're going to run into complications. You're going to need extensive communication, compromising on the fly, planning things, and generally putting much effort into playing something that you aren't sure will have a positive effect, both on others and yourself. It gets tiring after a while, and slowly I'm realizing that even the times where I had a lot of fun, some people didn't like things that I did. The worst part is, most of the time, they simply kept quiet about it. How many times did I do something I liked and people didn't have fun? How many of my fond memories are actually of good times?...

Why am I even playing antagonists?

In fact, this extends not just to antagonists, but to conflict in general. Anything that might have a negative impact on one party runs into these same issues. Some say that people don't like losing, and I think that's a part of it, but it's also more complex than that. SL2 is a game where people want to write their own story, not be at the mercy of transpiring events. So... Why would you try to even enter conflict? Sure it might alleviate boredom, but it often causes a lot of issues... Time and time again, I've been left wondering, is it even worth it?

So I guess that's where I am. I'm curious to hear if some have their own part of the story to share, but I think I'm done trying for now. I wanna specify this post isn't targeted at anyone, not even slightly. Please understand that my intention is simply to share my opinion on something that I deeply care about when it comes to this game I love. I'm sorry to make such a negative post, but I feel like I really needed to talk about this, because it's something that is talked about fairly often in various chats, and I both wanted to share my feelings, and want to hear people's true opinion in a more concise format.

Thank you guys