OOC: Mercs/Sentinels and the effect on Neutrals

[Vixentrox]

*mistake...edited out*

[Nealandbob]

Originally posted by Fixerben


Do you think I would leave my people defenseless? What kind of fool do you think I am? There are also plans to immediately replace the Sentinel guards.

Thank you, Ben You, Nel, Vix, and others like you have always understood my point of view, and for that I am immensely thankful. I am especially pleased to hear of the planned *replacement* of the Sentinels, and not just *removal*........as I in no way wish to infringe on the Clan's basic and unalienable right to defend their capital from their TRUE enemy, Omni. What I actually had envisioned was a change in Sentinel leadership(and thus direction) to Neutral-friendly ones; but this appears as if it will achieve the desired end result as well.

Again, as I've said before......I was at the meeting and lent my personal support to the Contract(even if my Guild didn't officially support it, I did). I will not hide and claim otherwise while Elite Operations bears the full brunt of the Clan's ire. I deeply regretted making my Clan friends targets in Newland City, and I in no way bear animosity to the Clans as a whole.

My sole and fervent purpose was to stop the abhorrent, unjust murdering of Neutrals in Tir by the Sentinels. Your efforts towards this end were valiant, and again I express my most profound gratitude. But the majority of the Clans remained indifferent at best........and horrifically gleeful at worst. This was simply a "wakeup call" in my eyes. A very harsh one, yes; but it never would have been necessary had the Clans as a whole heeded your peaceful cries. People should really learn to listen to you

The end result will be WELL worth it. With Tir reopened to Neutrals again, there will be renewed opportunities to renew or build friendships, team, interact, laugh, love, TRUST. And that's something I doubt *anyone* can put a price on.

And make no mistake.....this is not a one-way street. I have been promised that if this were to happen, that the Contract would be either fulfilled or terminated. It is this promise that I hold high, as a foretelling testament to the rebuilding of relations between Neutrals and the Clans. And I will personally ensure that this promise is kept, once Tir is opened to us again.

But I am not the hero, if any is to be found here. The heroes here are Benjacrat, Nelida, and Vixentrox for the Clans(and others like them); for selflessly defying the mainstream in their tireless efforts past, present, and (I hope ) future.

And contrary to what appears to be popular opinion, the other heroes here are the men and women of Elite Operations. They had the fortitude to stand up and make a difference, knowing full well the danger and hate they were exposing themselves to. Now THAT is a true hero, my friends. How ironic, that the people many Clans hate atm could be deserving of your thanks shortly. I know they have mine.

((OOC: when Tir is opened again, the first round at the Happy Rebel is on me. And when Newland is opened again, the first round at Neuter's is on me ))

edit: this was a reply to another thread that was deleted(?!?!?!?) as I was typing......this was the best place I could find to put it LOL

[Duzytato]

Originally posted by Savoy

The crux of the matter is the setting of the game give precious little reason for either side to hate each other. You have to really struggle to keep caring about the war;

Sounds like a good reason to keep the Sentinels & Mercs..
At least that brings out some anger, hatred and frustration..

[Duzytato]

Originally posted by Vixentrox

OOC
It's kind of a...unspoken no-no amongst guild leaders. A freindly invite is one thing...but making a concerted effort to to recruit will just bring ill will.

"ill will" is not allowed in this game?? I wouldn't hold it against someone in RL for anything they do in game. Friendly invites are good, I don't expect people to recruit to the point of harassment.
But a little friendly "recruiting war" would add some ****e to this game.

(All of my comments in this thread have been OOC, btw)

-Tifanyx

[____________Marlamin]

Trust me the day you remove Mr Silverstone will be the day The Clans will cease to exist.

[Vixentrox]

Originally posted by Tifanyx


"ill will" is not allowed in this game?? I wouldn't hold it against someone in RL for anything they do in game. Friendly invites are good, I don't expect people to recruit to the point of harassment.
But a little friendly "recruiting war" would add some ****e to this game.

(All of my comments in this thread have been OOC, btw)

-Tifanyx

OOC

Activily recruiting out of other people's guilds brings OOC ill will. It's a fine line to walk.

[Ayken Barlau]

ooc:

One large difference strikes me between the Sentinel guards and the hired Thugs.

No one in the Clans hired the Sentinels or asked them to take over Tir and kill all neutrals. Whereas there are neutrals who did indeed not only ask for but pay for the slaughter of Clan folk in Newland.

I'm all for getting rid of the Sentinels if it is at all possible. It seems to me that the Clans are saddled with this significant faction penalty: association with psychotic NPC's.

The neutrals are now saddled with the penalty: association with psychotic PC's.

If neutral players are now being held accountable for the actions of neutral players, then that's as it should be eh?

Bad enough that clan players are being held accountable for the actions of NPC's like Silverstone and his thugs. At least THERE we didn't ask for it or pay for it or arrange it, it was inflicted on us by the developers of the game.

[Jynne]

Originally posted by Tifanyx


"ill will" is not allowed in this game?? I wouldn't hold it against someone in RL for anything they do in game. Friendly invites are good, I don't expect people to recruit to the point of harassment.
But a little friendly "recruiting war" would add some ****e to this game.

(All of my comments in this thread have been OOC, btw)

-Tifanyx

Actively recruiting from the ranks of other organizations is a no-no. There's two reasons for this. One is that it's simply a matter of respect between leaders. It's disrespectful to try and get someone else's members to leave them. The other reason is that if everyone did it, few organizations would be able to retain members and remain stable over time, and those orgs that could, would then end up with most of the best people, in the long run.

In other words, leaders starting recruiting wars essentially are shooting themselves in the foot, because what goes around comes around.

[Slicse]

neutrals shouldn't be held responsible for other neutrals, because there is no unity among them. not a faction.

clanners shouldn't be held responsible for sentinel actions, because sentinels are murdering dictators who took over tir without clan approval, and without any way whatsoever for clans to retaliate to keep it from happening.

[Duzytato]

Originally posted by Vixentrox

OOC
Activily recruiting out of other people's guilds brings OOC ill will. It's a fine line to walk.

If that happens, then its time for people to step back and realize that "ITS JUST A GAME".

But I do understand your position and now I realize that is why you've only contacted me once..

[___________Lady Kali]

ooc-

Bob is a sweetie, he makes us blush. *hugs to bob*

I only know of ONE neutral who chose a side over all this drama, and she joined a Clan viewed as an enemy in the eyes of EO. So that's quite a statement, but that's her choice. No one I know of has had their resolve swayed besides that one person.

Overall I think neutrals are the most headstrong group of players around! Heheheh! If anything I see all this recent conflict strengthening the resolve of neutrals to remain as such.

[didymus]

OOC : Hey.

The whole Sentinels / hired thugs situation is a mess. Clanners have tried doing something with the Sentinels .. But it hasn't worked. I'm hoping it will in the future ..

The thugs make you neuts kind of omni aligned wether you like it or not. I can see how that must be pestering to some of you as well.

Replacing the sentinels sounds like it might be a good idea. Heck, if you've seen the official list of political alternative groups and so on, you'll know there are many others to take that seat. What FunCom have failed in, though, is making these alternative choices appearant to the players. There's the sentinels .. And then there's that guy from the Eco Warriors at the Rising Sun.

Funcom should establish some proper background for all these political figures, organisations and alliances in-game, or noone will ever know they're even *supposed to* be there. At the moment, they don't have any kind of impact on anything.

Personally, in broad, vague terms, I'd like some more political figures, NPCs, headquarters .. etc.

FC run Story goddamnit ..

[________________Necc]

Originally posted by Vixentrox


OOC

Activily recruiting out of other people's guilds brings OOC ill will. It's a fine line to walk.

It's good that guild leaders have those unwritten rules. However, in the ends it's ultimately up to the player.

We're not cattle.

[______________Nelida]

((OOC: Actually I think you are partly right...but then partly wrong. There needs to be game mechanic 'motivation' to want to fight. I"ve always said that the side exp bonus wasn't a good enough reason. There should also be some balancing 'motivation' to want peace...such as supply shortages that are directly related to the amount of faction fighiting that occurs in say the previous week.

The problem I find is similar to that of Tifanyx; I'm barely motivated to 'fight' for peace in the same way others are barely motivated to fight.

Conflict and struggle can still come out of an effort to end a war. Would I be happy if the war was 'over' tomorrow and everyone went about living in a perfect little 'Sim' world? Heavens no! But serious conflict and strife need not come from something as shallow and glaringly obvious as a war where the game mechanics 'force' Omni and Clan to be at each others throats without good motivation.

To Neal; thanks for you sweet words Nealy hun. *hugs* However I do need to point out that no more Clanners have been moved into action by the NLC thugs than were previously. It would be VERY nice from an RP perspective if that were the case but I'm afraid the vast majority are simply not intereted in that little plot line and never really cared about Tir and NLC. I suppose it's all fine and well to claim IC that Clanners were spurred into action but it wasn't really the case from a player perspective.))

Originally posted by Tifanyx


Bio, I find that amusing as well, but as Jynne said, when have the players really cared?

I started playing AO because I was intrigued by the "conflict". I started as a neutral with the intent of joining a side, once I was recruited to one side. No one recruited me, except a neutral org called the NLF. It seems to me that if youre clan you are recruited by clan, Omni by Omni & Neut by Neut. No one is actively trying to recruit people from opposite sides. Why not? This is freaking war! Everyone is too nice, they have trouble seperating their character from themselves. Omni should hate clan, clan should hate Omni and both should treat neutrals as a recruiting pool. But that doen't happen. If I wanted to play a game where we all got along and the game was just a glorified chat room with stuff to do, I'd play the Sims.