EDIT: The post below will seem angry. It is, and I still kinda am. It also reeks of a pity party. Sorry for that. I was a) drinking at the time and b) had gotten a good fill of crap on IRC and in-game, and felt like ranting. I've gotten tired of reading things from people on this forum that I know, and they know, to be patently false. I'm not going to call them out, because that devolves into nonsense, but I am going to fume about it. Without further ado...
Here's the problem I have (and to which Fingolfin alluded): a few of you have wandered onto IRC or into the forums and intentionally said the exact opposite of what you've been doing, or intended to do, IC. You also happen to be in positions of authority in the ongoing war. Then you've gone fishing for information about Thalmarkin's IC intentions via OOC means (some of you directly to me). You're playing an OOC game, all the while protesting that you would never do such a thing. Or you used information shared in good humor, OOC, in an IC fashion. The rest of you saw convenience and hopped on board. You think people don't share council deliberations IC? They do. Lord God, how they do. And if it bothers you that they do, you should ask yourselves why. When realms whipsaw between alliances weekly, or come to the party with fully-formed grievances, players notice. Their characters notice. You aren't playing with automatons. You're playing with other people. And people tend to take offense to having their intelligence insulted.
Coming onto the forums and professing otherwise does a disservice to what these forums are supposed to be: a way to dissociate ourselves from our characters. It's pathetic, and if that's how you've come to where you are in the game, I'm sad for you. It takes a day, and maybe two letters, to learn this stuff IC. It takes another day or two to justify the actions IC. But that would require effort, and we've long since dispensed with that in favor of notching up petty victories, haven't we? So do the people on the other end of these forum handles a favor and dispense with the fiction.
All of the above is what I meant by "players of integrity." Because I pity where things have gone, and see no way of reversing the trend. And it's why I'm a hair's breadth from walking away. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a mathematically impossible war to win against children who continue to act as though they're the underdogs, and probably will until the war's won. 100k (and that's conservative) v. 35k isn't evenly matched. If you're too incompetent to make that work, then maybe you should invest a little more time in learning the game and a little less in juvenile politics.
