First off, I'll update the first post to include IRC info and basic info about our fortresses. Is Duradbesmar still active? I won't post explicit directions to either place on here, but I'll give a general idea of where they are if that's acceptable to everyone.
Secondly, Holy Armok, what on earth is going on with everyone? How is a fun little game degenerating into drama and fighting among our own beloved dwarves? I am not living in either fortress right now as I'm working on my mapping project (and trying to find a place for my maze still), but I would like to offer up my opinion on the matters which have recently been going down. Take it or leave it, I want no part in arguments, but this is just what I see as a sort of outside observer. There are just a few ways I see all this conflict being resolved.
The first way is that everyone has their own idea of how the game should be played, what the fortress should look like, who should be allowed in, etc. Everyone is certain that their vision is the RIGHT vision for this game, and stubbornly refuses to cooperate or compromise, instead constantly pointing fingers and casting blame and defending their own actions through whatever means necessary. Before long, everyone is sick of it and angry at each other and everyone quits, and the veterans of Hazordhu are left wondering what ever happened to those crazy dwarves.
The second way is that one person becomes the leader and everyone peaceably agrees to do whatever that person says. The fortress runs like clockwork and pretty soon everyone is bored by the lack of conflict and variation (and in many cases, by working according to someone else's vision rather than their own) and most people quit. Someday the orcs finally bash down our gate, ready to exterminate us once and for all, and find our pristine fortress organized and empty, Mayan-style.
In both of these cases, our part of the history of Hazordhu will be a minor footnote. A big group of short, crazy human descendants went to live in the caves for a while, then made like cuttlefish and ate each other alive. I'd really hate for that to be our legacy.
But these are not the only options here. Please allow me to make a few points, which I consider very important for the enjoyability of this game.
First off, it's a game. A GAME. We're a group of friends playing a game, not a military order trying to establish a government and a new society. If this game is causing real-life stress at this level, then maybe take a break for a day or two, play some DF, remind yourself that it's a game and it doesn't really matter, it's only supposed to be fun.
We're dwarves. That means we live together in communal fashion until the nobles show up and ruin everything, precipitating the downfall of the fortress. We've all played through this a thousand times, right? Living communally means sometimes things get confused. Sometimes there are miscommunications. Sometimes Urist thinks we should tunnel north, but Oddom thinks we should tunnel east, and one of them accidentally releases a megabeast into the fortress that goes apeshit and kills everyone. What do we do when there's a disaster like that? We reclaim! Or, if we'd rather not deal with reclaiming, we strike out for a new site to build our fortress. And we keep right on going until we run that one into the ground, too.
Has anyone ever seen a succession fortress go through more than two or three players without becoming a disorganized mess? Of course not. That's because everyone has different ideas about how the fortress should look and run. The only time a fortress can stay organized is when only one person is in charge - which works fine in DF, because you're the only player, but we're all used to being the only player and we're all used to being in charge. People are guaranteed to be unhappy if they don't get to make decisions about what the fortress looks like and what the rules are. Maybe we need to establish several smaller outposts rather than one or two big ones, so that there aren't so many people with different ideas trying to run the same fortress? If there are fewer people in one place, everyone has more chance to give their input and affect the grand design of things. This is just a suggestion - I'm sure there are other solutions as well, if people focus on finding solutions rather than casting blame and defending their actions against said blame-casting.
Finally, and I think this may be
the most important point of all, this is a role-playing game. RP does not mean calling everyone "thou" or typing with a Scottish accent. It means you're playing a CHARACTER. Your character is NOT you. If something happens to your character, the last thing you should be doing is taking it personally. Instead you should imagine how your character would react and then do it.
If your character is you, something needs to change. Kill them off and start a new one. Give them a new name and a new personality. Come up with one or two quirks, a bit of interesting background, something. Anything. But do NOT make your character YOU. That is precisely how all this anger and hurt feelings comes about. This is a role-playing game, a chance to be someone other than who you are and interact with other characters in an interesting game world. If you're getting frustrated and upset, if you're taking things personally, then you definitely need to take a step back and remind yourself that it's just a game, and that little mash of pixels is not you. Find a way to make it fun, or you're missing the whole point.
All this means that things are going to go wrong. Deal with it in the game, in character. React to the character how your character really would. The worst possible thing to do is take the conflict out of the game and start arguing in real life. And that brings me to another important point:
This board is OOC. The EULA explicitly states that we are NOT to talk about IC issues OOC. I think F0lak has been very lenient with us, allowing us to organize ourselves outside of the game so that we can all play together. But if people keep bringing their in-game conflicts to IRC or to this thread, Toady isn't the only one who's going to get annoyed. We are not allowed to give any details about our characters outside of the game's RP. That means we shouldn't be making all our plans on the boards or in IRC. We should definitely not be posting details like "Character X let in a human so everyone should be angry at him" or "I only brought in the human because there were extenuating circumstances" or anything like that. These are details only our characters know, and if you weren't there when it happened, your character shouldn't know about it unless someone tells you in game. I know a certain amount of general organizational knowledge needs to be shared so that we can all be more or less on the same page about the big picture in the fortress, and maybe F0lak can post here and let us know how much is acceptable to him. But as much as I'm proud of the maps I've made so far, I'm not posting them on here because I assume it would be a violation of RP. Your characters have no way of knowing where each land mass is, and until my character meets yours and has the chance to give or trade you the map in-game, I'll just have to keep it to myself for now unless F0lak says otherwise.
This can be so much fun for all of us. But I really believe everyone needs to stop taking everything in the game so seriously and start having fun. If you're getting stressed, go build a fortress in DF and have it ripped apart by HFS to remind yourself why a stable, peaceful fortress is so very boring.
Sit in the lotus position, back straight, close your eyes, and repeat to yourself these two mantras until you're ready to enjoy yourself again:
It's Only A Game
and
Losing Is Fun
So that's my two monies' worth. I hope everyone can calm down and enjoy themselves. I never imagined that inviting you all into this game would cause so much conflict in our beloved community. Let's all be friends and be happy and have some fun.
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Topic: Hazordhu II (Read 48392 times)