(Note: This thread is NOT, no matter what some of you might think, an excuse to lambast certain people. I know some of you are gonna take offense cuz it’s what you do, but please don’t. I’m trying to be as fair and balanced as I can, if you’ll excuse the term.)
(Also note: Some of this stuff goes back a few months; if you haven’t been here all that long, you might wanna skip through, or not, and get a little history lesson).
It’s no big secret that a lot of things have been coming to a head lately. People’s tempers have been flared up to Sinistralian proportions…it’s somewhat hard to pinpoint when this trend began, although I’d place it around when the Orak Tumour thing began. Steve himself commented that the incident preety much shattered his trust in humanity (or at least RPGCanity) and left him a bitter individual. I myself found much to reflect on with much disdain; the actions of multiple staffers, some of whom I had known for some time and had thought better of, the alleged actions of Orak himself; his mental condition, and in turn, my own, and perhaps the thematic implications of us as a community and as a race. You can take from it what you will (although much of it also happened on the staff board, so not all of you saw the full story). But afterwards everyone’s personae just startedto head south.
The Manus thing, another string of incidents that one can’t look fondly upon. Initially when he joined, he kinda annoyed me, but I dismissed him as just another ToB-lodestoned newbie that, like some others, would pass. Unfortunately, I underestimated his potential to godmode, and never considered the effect it would have on others. Personally I found him slightly less irritating than the rest of the regulars did; he was ignorant and angst-ridden like nobody’s business, sure, but people weren’t always helping so much as they were harming the situation. As a result a lot of people got in trouble for inciting flame wars and pushing Manus over the limit a few times; perhaps a lot of things could have been prevented if he was contained and disciplined sooner, or perhaps his failure to learn from his mistakes made it inevitable.
Probably the thing around this time that impacted me the most was the Cala incident. I don’t really know why, but I’ve kinda sensed a kindred spirit in her. She’s not like most of the other girls at RPGC; she’s brash, unafraid to speak her opinion, doesn’t sugar-coat said opinions…she possesses some traits that we applaud when it suits us and condemn when we want to save face (more on that later). Perhaps that caused people to try and look for stuff wrong with her, to try to tarnish a person they couldn’t understand or didn’t like cuz they felt worse than her in their own eyes? And again, I see a couple people (whose names I won’t mention for decency’s sake) who I knew preety well and trusted break that trust right in front of my own eyes, seemingly without remorse, as they just tear apart the character of a person I had come to trust, then defend their seemingly inexonerable actions.
It also started a somewhat sad trend of people defending their actions by claiming they’re just “telling it like it is” or something equivalent. Now I admit that I rarely sugar coat things, but it’s usually in a fair and unprejudiced context; like, I’m not going to go easy on a newbie because it happens to be a girl, like some other people here might. Lately, though, it seems to be that a lot of people are just pulling it out as an excuse to tell someone an idiot because, in their eyes, they are. There is something to be said for brutal honesty, true, but there’s also something to be said for knowing how harsh one can and should be in any given situation, and really I don’t know if a lot of us here (perhaps myself included) have actually decuded that skill for themselves.
Which brings me to the Seph252/Uriel thing. I know, I know. He acts like an idiot. He’s overly grating. And I know you’re sick of me nagging you guys to lay the fuck off him. But the antagonism that I’ve seen lain against him (and I’ve been here since he’s joined, so I know what I’m talking about) isn’t entirely justified. It’s one thing to tell him off for impersonating Kagon in the chatroom, but a lot of you have nothing better to do than to lambast him for his…avatar?! It may not be artistic perfection, hell it may not be oekakki-worthy but it’s a fricking AVATAR. What I guess I’m trying to say is, some of you guys tried too hard to bring him down, looked for excuses to hate him more than you had to, and instead should have been trying to befriend him and improve his character, perhaps as well as your own, and maybe things woulda fallen into place. Yeah, it sounds corny and outlandish, but you might have been surprised. Besides, it worked for me. He’s threatened my life in the past, and I did so in kind. Now, look at me, I’m defending him. Me, no less. Draw your own conclusions, but try not to prejudge.
So why am I making a big deal out of all of this? Well, I’ve been here quite a while. RPGC was like the clique I never had. A lot of you guys have been more of a real friend than I’ve ever known irl. Mentally speaking, I have a personal stake in all of this. Seeing RPGC go down the tubes right in front of my eyes is something I can’t allow to happen, and I morally can’t allow it to happen, even if it means making a lot of big stinks over little stuffs and making enemies in the process. I couldn’t forgive myself if I did. So, to any ops I’ve pissed off because I’ve harragued over some injustice I chose to get Nazified over, I hope you didn’t take it personally. But again, RPGC is important to me, and I don’t simply let important things fall into disrepair.
So, to recap. We, as a people, I think we’ve allowed ourselves to let several episodes ruin our faith in each other, or at least our attitudes in general. I also think that some of the staff issues have gotten a bit…inmaturerer…if that’s even a word…and talking with Maz, I agree with him: Some things could use a change. But that’s a topic perhaps for another time. I just needed to get this all out. I’m sorry if I left important parts out or if I rambled on and made no sense. I haven’t gotten much sleep, I typed what came to mind, and I kinda had an agenda.
Good night, and may the gods have mercy upon you all.
