Shattered Kingdoms

79% request change. Let's get some clear less-restrictive rules/criteria out there. And let's make them well known. The fact that rule 1 is up for interpretation is what has lead us to this entire mess. Not to mention, some punishments should not have been given out, based upon our new requested stance. (No I can't site sources. But I think some could have been avoided.)

I suspect that some of "what has lead us to this entire mess" is the feeding frenzy that happens when one person does something questionable (often intentionally), gets caught or punished or warned, then spends a week complaining about it OOC through various media and to whatever audience will listen. If they have a friend or two who sympathize or just want to back up their buddy, and they echo the same grievances, and suddenly you've got a long, multi-branched game of telephone going on, and people get upset about what they perceive to be a huge, ground-breaking change in policy; even though it might be just one tiny change, just a handful of actions taken, but a huge whirlwind in the media/blog-o-sphere where people get their information. One person getting a character deleted for breaking rules is pretty cut & dry; but the STORY of their deletion, repeated over and over, flavored with conspiracy theory and innuendo, can take on a life of its own. This happens sometimes, particularly when emotions run hot. I can't help but wonder if we've really entered "this entire mess" or if it's not just as much perceived (mis-perceived) as it is real.

While I do agree somewhat with your line of thinking Dabi. Of late (the last year) we have had a significant change in the number of punishments. Since Thuban took the helm of RM the number of posts in the punishment thread are greater than the number of afterlife posts. So there was a significant shift in dynamic there somewhere to cause this. Im not saying that this is a metric that has any significant weight to if it is a right shift or a wrong shift. It is something that is significant.

I do agree that those who get punished tend to like to play the victim regardless of the reason more often than not they do not get called out on it. I think this breeds in the Imm staff that they should not care what "Those people say" mind set. The shift I have perceived is a shift from every one is innocent until proven guilty to everyone is guilty unless proven innocent. I remember getting friendly taps on the shoulder by Imms for doing stuff I shouldnt have when I was a new player from not writing a description to using a bug I thought was feature. This encouraged me to talk with Imms regarding building faults not try to secret away from them. I would like to go back to the times when guilt was not assumed and mandatory sentences where not enforced or if they are they should be a lot softer than they are now.

I feel as though the lack of Playerbase is something that everyone has taken note of.
There have been quite a few good players, in the past six months, that have been banned. Not only is it discouraging to see players get banned, but their knowledge is also lost.
Syn and Grep come to mind first and foremost.
When Syn was playing Dakkin, he taught a lot of younger players quite a bit about the game. Mind you, he was on thin ice, and I don't quite remember why he was banned, but I feel as though he was a great influence to the game. I feel like he was banned for griefing because when he got into the PK scene, he rolled the mud. I was on both the ally side and enemy side of Dakken. But he gave story to the game and I feel like many were encouraged to log in and see what he and the splitbane would do next.

I can't remember what Grep was banned for, but he was also very wise and knew the games mechanics. He was willing to help others learn the game and all that.

When these two got banned, the game took a big hit. Without the influential characters, the game grows stale.
I would like to see a maximum punishment of one year be implemented. That's not to say that they couldn't be hit with a one year shortly after returning, but I think in a game where their influence is needed to keep people interested, people should have the chance to come back and prove themselves multiple times.

The increase of bans since Thuban being RM has undoubtedly affected many people's interest in the game and could be directly correlated with our lack in player count.
If he is to continue to be the RM, I think his policy and proceedure should be altered.
This level of policing is unhealthy for the game.
Nothing against Thuban personally. He's doing the job he was hired to do. I would just like to see his procedures changed. He is judge jury and executioner and is running without checks and balances being in place.
Btw, punishment repeal process appears to be an absolute joke.

Also, let's not use such renown players.
This new player that got banned for playing on a proxy. Why couldn't it have been "hey, proxies are illegal. Please log out and don't play with a proxy again. If you do, your character will be deleted." Then if he logs in again, ban him. But this swift swing of this axe, we lost a new player.

The only siteban in the last 6 months was opey, I think, looking at the punishment thread. I think Syn/Grep were nearly if not over a year ago, and cubanoh was somewhere in the middle. Maybe you mean the increase in character deletions as punishment?

I've thought in many instances lately the severity of punishments could be lessened, but that might merit another thread if it's to be discussed.

There have been 3. Whether or not the strictness and severity of rules/punishments has affected the desire of people wanting to play remains unknown and perhaps better left to another thread/poll.

Let me refresh you on that:



I don't think there's any coming back from that. Dulrik has his limits on what he'll tolerate, and I'm pretty sure that went well past them.



Overall activity saw a major spike after Syn was banned, then dipped to a low a few months after. It reached its highest point in years well after grep was banned. There are still multiple people who play who are more skilled and knowledgeable than either of those two ever were.



I think a few people got used to cheating and didn't want to play anymore when they couldn't keep cheating. The amount of indignation I've been met with from people I've had to enforce rules on speaks to that. In some cases, it almost seems like people feel like they are entitled to cheat and shouldn't be met with any repercussions, maybe because there have been times in SK's history when nobody had the time or desire to actively enforce the rules.

In one of the recent events, where I took someone aside to discuss their options after they were observed enchanting equipment with their sorcerer for their newbie alt, all I got was an eye roll and a quit, leaving me with no option but to deliver the harshest punishment (both characters were deleted). That is incredibly obvious multi-playing and an epic-dumb way to get your GM sorcerer deleted, so there's really no need to get all butt-hurt. You are in no way entitled to do that, and the rules make that abundantly clear. In another case, where I warned a player about using proxies, he said he would stop using them then never showed back up. Neither did his "dorm mate" who was also using proxies who was always conveniently able to login whenever he got killed and needed a resurrection. That was shortly after the proxy restriction was updated.

pretty sure that if given the choice, most players would not have wanted this player voted off of the island or even punished. part of the reason he had to enchant for his own character is cuz there r so few players around and repeated requests over the years to have enchanting available via NPCs has been ignored.

deleting his characters only contributes to the downward spiral and while it is certainly justifiable under the current rulez, u can't claim it helped the game cuz it did just the opposite. at some point, u guys need to adjust the mechanics on sk (like enchanting/consecrating) to deal with the reality of the single digit who lists.

What kind of new player logs in from China and Iran one day and Kentucky and Russia the next day, gets all the relevant leveling gear for his character, makes it to veteran, and gets inducted into a tribunal in 8 hours? Don't be so naive. People use proxies to try to circumvent bans or punishment, not because they're clueless newbies. Real newbies are pretty easy to spot. In the case of an actual newbie inadvertently using proxies (which has never actually happened, despite laughably fake QQ accounts popping up in the wake of some of these instances), we would certainly be able to tell the difference.

Some people do have legitimate reasons to use proxies or remote servers, and, to date, everyone who has asked to use one and supplied a valid reason has been granted that request.