(Let me state for the record I am 37, married for ten years and have a young child who is present, and can hear while I play)
Since one of my factions, DeathFist, was specifically mentioned and has been used as an example, I will just chime in quickly to set the record straight in the case of our example, and how it pertains to this, thoroughly explained, and the solutions we have offered over time and our current opinion and endorsement, with conditional support, of the new policy, should it be effectively administered as I have no doubt it will:
Deathfist had initially expected a fun war, maybe over a weekend or two, since I had made it clear to the other leader our original intention was to seek an alliance with them eventually due to our close ties to Pariahfolk from which we claim our origins and from where we diverged into our own roleplay environment (established prior to the official server rp rules to which we do not adhere, call it light rp if you will but it is ours based on our rp history here and our internal rp culture).
We won outright against the instigating and attacking raiders at our base for three days straight and claimed the victory = end of it in our eyes and we offered a simple neutrality and that be the end of it, we never asked for a surrender, we do not seek to dominate others, in no way did we feel beaten in the slightest.
DeathFist was informed it could only end if we surrender since they declared war, totally ignoring the option of them giving up or the possibility of us winning under any circumstance other then attacking them at their base until they surrendered. We eventually sought to end it with an honor duel overseen by a mod. When this occurred the 1v1 fight was interrupted by two others joining in the ring it making it a 3v1, basically three mcmmo front page players against one guy with barely 400 unarmed. To be totally clear it was arranged in an area of wilderness and the closest spot happened to be within our one chunk walled in area of a building, it was fair and in wilderness and was for the intent to end the war, never just to defend our citadel as we had already concluded. Due to the skill of our champion we won this totally unfair and dishonorable duel and again expected the end of it at that point so we could continue with the halted building we were working on. This chance to just end it on a positive, everyone go home now, note, was lost and I still do not understand why at that point something wasn't enforced. The option to have a duel to settle disputes is one that can be made fun and enjoyable for both parties and results in a result that can be lived with, like betting on a fight, perhaps have a mod hold the stake of each side in such a case prior to it so both sides enter the ring with equal knowledge that should they win the result will be upheld and the winnings given promptly.
This was my official declaration at the time this occurred, "1. You or your faction mates/allies have disturbed our rp and playtime for ten days straight, we called this in our favor on day three and also won the duel so all you are capable of is harassment after the fact and not having the courtesy to acknowledge our very fair terms to just drop it and neutral."
How this was not allowed to stand at the end of it was a mistake in my opinion, at this point a mod could easily have said fine, if you will just leave it here neutral we can all move on.
The next thing we found was when we were informed we would be raided every day, sometimes for up to four or more hours, until we agreed to their demands, this was just an outright declaration of intent to harass and was totally unacceptable to us, but we have endured it and we get a ton of free loot and god gear off of them as has always been the case. Our issues fighting in lag (we don't) and not fighting when game mechanics are exploited for advantage and interfere with our suspension of disbelief (example: moving through solid stone blocks) have been clearly expressed on several occasions. Fight fair or don't. The invitation to attack them at their base has never been of interest to us and most especially due to the knowledge of a strategic devise intended for the lowering of fps called a "lag machine" with the sole intent of increasing their odds in combat and quite possibly covering the usage of modified clients regardless of video evidence creating an unfair situation we will not put ourselves into.
The next development was when we established a village for new players on the server and new members. Our new, low mcmmo stat, members were being targeted in their homes and while building their first buildings on massivecraft, this was totally cowardly but justified as part of war so we should suck it up, this was after close to three months of this "war". This eventually let up to a point where one of our mob spawners had the interior trap mechanism destroyed and a structure built in the middle of our new player village with the express intent to troll and harass, the immediate effect being that several of our new members were not able to spend an evening playing, only at other alternative locations, rather than in their own new base. This was determined to be breaking some rules and as such resulted in an enforced 75 day truce (mind you after I requested NO bans be administerd as was offered as it was due for the offenses incurred). This was an acceptable end for us, we had shown mercy and restraint with our punishment options, as offered, and we were looking forward to improving our relations so that at the end the end of 75 days we hoped to be friends or at least remain neutral. This was quickly overturned and we were returned to the regular daily and random attacks and disruption of our playtime. This again ould have been the end of it but it was thrust back upon us, mind you, all of this against our will or intentions.
We are now into almost four months of this, we are inundated whenever we build outside, and in general in any other massivecraft environment, be it in game general or local chat with trashtalk, on the teamspeak server with sexually suggestive avatars, trying to get into our private chat rooms and also in responses to most of our members forum posts, just wait, I'm sure they will be here too although it is not my intent to inflame or troll with this, simply set the record straight and offer solutions to similar situations. My statements here only stand as a history of what has happened, mistakes made when it could have been resolved and the solutions that will prevent others having similar negative experiences due to certain individuals and their agendas. Our sole intent is the improvement of the server for future players, to be totally clear with this.
This, after us being attacked for near four months, has likely been a large influence on the recent and welcome changes, as it has been a knock on influence on our build style as well (where the citadel is I started with a nice cottage and farm, the citadel is a result of five months of constantly being raided). We still offer total and unconditional neutrality in this and will let it drop, if they will. We do not care to play with them anymore.This is my official and final position.
We have moved on and have greatly increased our presence on the server, we have formed our own government and consortium of factions. We have made the effort to realize a great deal of positive out of this situation in terms of loads of gear from them, allies who despise their actions and a community of factions who choose to play a better way and conduct their "war" in a fun way. Heck, our goal when we do choose to raid or attack a faction is to leave and have them think we are the coolest faction they have been raid by, and in many cases it leads to great friendships, as playing together should. However, this has not been playing together nice, it has been bullying and harassment from the start, poorly justified and exploiting the emotions of our younger players. The situation is little more than an irritation as I have previously stated. I hope the reluctance of the mods to rectify the situation has been resolved, as I infer from this new policy, and we can all get on with what we enjoy so much about playing on massivecraft and we can all move on.
"The faction getting raided must make there own solution to the problem, whether it be fighting back, or getting other factions to force the raiding faction to stop."
In response to this I can say that in game my faction, DeathFist did do this. We joined an alliance (Auxillian Alliance), and additionally formed our own consortium of factions including DeathFist, Citadel, Consortium, DeathLands, Latrommi, Kindred, Yergav, Defiance, Vyyrak, Aincrad, Alfakyn and Einherjar. This had no effect on the situation as nothing short of moderation of the situation would resolve it.
If our tribulations result in new and improved means of dealing with conflict then it is all worth it. Our hope is that these new changes work out, and if they require tweaking that the mods will respect the player base for all of their feedback and continue to make the hard calls needed to maintain and continuously improve this awesome server community I really do enjoy at the end of the day to be a part of.
SiB
