Messages

1

BM General Discussion / Re: Heraldry Charges

« on: May 30, 2017, 02:15:24 PM »

It's very gratifying to see the Heraldry!

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BM General Discussion / Re: in game misogyny?

« on: May 29, 2014, 12:34:28 PM »

Here's the problem with playing a misogynist character: Women already have to deal with a disgusting amount of misogyny on the Internet, especially women gamers. They don't need yet another place online that reminds them of that. No matter how much backstory you layer on, from the outside your character is indistinguishable from any number of misogynist trolls out there who aren't pretending. And I'll bet any amount of money that a new female player doesn't go seek out your backstory to determine if your misogyny is IC, not when it's so much easier to just quit.

I usually agree with the people saying "let the players work it out IC" but please be practical here. It's not a good look for you. It's not a good look for BattleMaster. The things your character says are identical to the abuse directed at women every day in public forums. IC or not, it's just unpleasant to read. Nobody wants to go back to the drawing board but this is not a hill worth dying on.

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Dwilight / Re: The Terran-Kabrinskian Conflict

« on: April 26, 2012, 05:42:40 PM »

Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

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Atamara / Re: Atamara: We're not afraid to Gang up on you!

« on: April 17, 2012, 10:34:04 PM »

I am pretty new here...but does no one make fabricated land claims? or fabricate insults or something (intrigue) related to start wars?

Sure, I've done both. But you have to repeat the fabrication over and over to generate a Reality Distortion Field large enough to attract a following. Most people aren't up for that much work.

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Development / Re: Anti-Clan Policy Discussion

« on: April 07, 2012, 09:01:45 PM »

Yeah, we should add something to the effect of "a larger group of players" to the definition of a clan. I don't think anyone is worried about 3 or so people.

That depends. Three people with two characters apiece could easily control the government, dukedoms, and armies of a small or even medium-sized realm.

People who play in a group become a problem when they actively exclude others from that group. If you can't get a leadership position in your realm because you don't belong to the OOC cabal that runs everything, that's bad. But I'm not sure how exactly you'd distinguish that from the IC cabals that naturally form as people play together for years.

I'm not a fan of cliques and clans. But I would rather not see witch hunts against OOC clans, especially since accusations of clanning are so easy to abuse.

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BM General Discussion / Re: If this is a joke...

« on: April 01, 2012, 01:41:50 PM »

It's only one day.

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Atamara / Re: The Current War

« on: March 02, 2012, 04:29:33 PM »

Hey, that's my wife's unit. She didn't tell me she got a piece of Kostaja!

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Atamara / Re: The Current War

« on: March 01, 2012, 06:37:37 PM »

Bartho was the one who, incidentally, arranged the war with Caergoth OOC.  That was confirmed after the CE war started and discussions were had on what prompted the Caergoth/Carelia war in the first place.  What makes that particularly asinine is that there were plenty of good IC reasons for it...They just chose not to use them.

Caergoth pushed long and hard the IC reasons for war with Carelia. The only thing I arranged OOC was an understanding that neither side wanted another 5-on-1 dogpile like what MI had just suffered. TMP was still active and we knew that CE would be looking for another low-risk war they could parachute into (and whaddya know, we were right!).

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BM General Discussion / Re: Rant of the day

« on: February 02, 2012, 03:16:23 PM »

This reminds me of those statuses teenage girls post on Facebook with some cryptic message about trust and betrayal that masquerades as a general comment about life but is very obviously directed at one specific person.

So, I'll bite. Who and what the !@#$ are you talking about.

Easy there, killer. At the moment I'm annoyed by the folks who are dancing on Caergoth's grave and yes, they do know that. But it's interesting that people from CE or Arcaea feel the need to get defensive about it. Obviously I'm not the first person to rant about this kind of thing.

I submit that gloating and rationalizations are all a part of the game as well, as long as it is kept strictly IC.

I don't always buy that. BattleMaster is a game first and foremost and we already accept that this puts limits on IC actions. Treating other player characters like army recruits is not acceptable. IC expressions of misogyny or racism aren't acceptable. Those limits have pretty wide agreement.

Before anyone freaks out, no, I'm not saying that gloating is the same thing. But gloating is poor sportsmanship whether it's done IC or OOC. It's not a lightning-bolt offense, but there is a line that people can and do cross where it's no longer enough to brush it off by saying, "It's all IC so you can't blame the player." IC doesn't stand for "Immune from Criticism".

Speaking of Arcaea, I'm actually kind of impressed by how quickly they're putting the brakes on the war with Arcachon just because one character fell on his sword. It's more grace than I was expecting from a realm with so much obvious antipathy toward it's enemy. Now that might change if Arcaea tries to make Arcachon sign a really humiliating treaty. There's not much point to peace if it's a peace that would make WWI Germany shake their heads and say, "Wow, and I thought WE got a raw deal."

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BM General Discussion / Re: Rant of the day

« on: January 31, 2012, 05:19:17 AM »

Maybe. It feels like a thin IC proxy for OOC gloating. Coupled with a hefty dose of self-delusion from the people who can't admit that they simply like winning.

It's okay to like winning. I don't like losing but I'm a big boy and I'll get over it. I'm not your damn therapist or your priest and I'm not going to give you absolution for it. Just take the win and get out of my face.

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BM General Discussion / Rant of the day

« on: January 31, 2012, 04:39:38 AM »

I don't mind so much being stabbed in the back. I don't love it, but it's part of the game.

I don't mind going public with a... "creative" history of events. Again, part of the game.

What gets up my nose is being told in personal, direct messages why it's somehow my fault that I'm being stabbed, or that the stabbing is for my own good. As if the explanation is so very eloquent that I'm going to be magically convinced of this either IC or OOC.

Come on, dude. Do whatever you think you have to do or what you think you can get away with. But don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining.

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Atamara / Re: The Current War

« on: January 22, 2012, 03:17:17 PM »

Thus is the problem with the northern alliance. It's a bunch of realms who don't traditionally get along, but are now allies of convenience.

Only without the part where they actually work together for any appreciable length of time. That being the definition of "ally", and all.

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Magistrates Case Archive / Re: Inalienable Rights Violation

« on: January 19, 2012, 05:27:38 PM »

This case also hinges on the definition of punishment. A fine or ban is a hardship on a specific character that prevents him from doing things in the game. A war puts no special hardship on any one character. It's hard to argue how war is even a punishment considering it's the whole point of the game.

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BM General Discussion / Re: So TMP is gone. Are you enjoying all the new wars?

« on: January 09, 2012, 10:36:36 PM »

But the ways of earning fame are not devised to encourage war, are they?

Easy enough to make up new ones.

Also, when giving bonuses to one realm, you're basically still punishing the realm not going to war.

TMP punished realms by increasing unrest and making players put in more busywork on realm control. Simply letting moribund realms stay moribund wouldn't feel like the same level of "punishment".

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BM General Discussion / Re: So TMP is gone. Are you enjoying all the new wars?

« on: January 09, 2012, 09:55:56 PM »

we already have achievement points. They are: Gold, Prestige, Honor, Fame, Titles/Positions. Although not necessarily in that order.

They aren't mutually exclusive. Lots of games have traditional scoring systems and also achievements.

Fame is our real achievement system. If we displayed Fame more prominently and listed the individual accomplishments that led to each point, we'd see more people chasing their cheevos.