Meta-gaming and the Dark Knight

[Tarquinus]

I've been following the actions of Eon and the complaints of many about them. I have to say that I personally find it all rather amusing, but I offer some remarks about the situation in hopes that we as a community can get something to happen in the realm of MD.

[quote name='Blood Prince']It seems Eon is becoming a problem. I'm not talking about skill damage (even-though its a part of it) but rather other bitchy things Eon has started doing. He has too much power to be contained by most of the MP5's kings/queen's are helpless because any action against him would obviously reverted by Mur. May be because Eon brings a lot of cash to the game which it needs. So it's time to fix Eon if the community think it is a problem.[/quote]
I have no wish to single Blood Prince out here; this is just the most convenient quote that came to mind. I have to note that Mur strongly denies Eon's monetary contributions as a factor in Eon's status and abilities, and that I find that denial plausible.

That said, I'm a little tired of/disappointed in seeing the community want to handle in-game situations through out-of-game discussions. That's called meta-gaming, and in my experience that's usually a negative word. Eon is to me a dark knight, perhaps one of the greatest villains MD has ever seen; he's not a problem, but a gift. I've only seen some tentative attempts at players coordinating to fight back against Eon, but I do think such attempts are the way the thing should go. As far as I know, Eon isn't harassing people out-of-game and he isn't breaking any rules. He seems invulnerable, but I argue that this appearance is encouraged by general perceptions that are not exactly in synch with reality. Got a problem with Eon? Don't like what he does? Well, are you gonna cry about it and wait for your white knight to save you, or will you step up to offer some heroics yourself? Mur is not wrong to point out that there are numerous in-game ways to deal with problematic characters, and that they have not been used to anything like their potential, or as nearly as I can tell, at all. What are we waiting for?

After all, this is a fantasy role-playing game. Play it. Please. Because stuff like this - conflict - is interesting.

[Amoran Kalamanira Kol]

Here, here! Since this has been said, I have a few ideas on how we can actually retaliate against Eon by using the tools that are currently given, and it involves working in a group (Holy crap! A group? How long has it been since we've seen that?). Since I don't want to talk about these sorts of solutions on the forum, anyone who is interested is welcome to find me in game.

The needles do work, the land cleansers work, and there are protectors and people in the game who possess spells and such that can help with this sort of thing. Let's make it interesting, shall we?

Edited November 16, 2011 by Amoran Kalamanira Kol

[Chengmingz]

Because he's the hero we deserve, but not the one we needs right now. So, we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian. A watchful "protector". A Dark Knight.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Chengmingz

[Phantom Orchid]

Thank you for writing that Tarq.

I have seen this happen over and over again, and am definitely guilty of falling into this trap myself, where in-game conflicts are leaked out into out-of-realm (ie forum, YIM) issues. As you have alluded to from time and time again - conflict is necessary for growing, making mistakes, learning, collaborating with friends and conspiring against foes.

But when we do not allow our characters to play out potentially awesome roleplay/combat potentials, and instead choose to cast them aside in favor of handling them from an outside perspective (out of character), we forfeit the uniqueness of our characters which many of us have worked so hard to build and whose identities were not created for or intended to involve anything 'outside the box.'

When we moan (to use the word of the week) about in-game things on the forums, we rob our characters identity from having to deal with these things and things become static (aka dead). We rob ourselves of balance. We rob ourselves of imagination.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Phantom Orchid

[Blood Prince]

[quote][color=#0000FF][i]"It seems Eon is becoming a problem. I'm not talking about skill damage (even-though its a part of it) but rather other bitchy things Eon has started doing. He has too much power to be contained by most of the MP5's kings/queen's are helpless because any action against him would obviously reverted by Mur. May be because Eon brings a lot of cash to the game which it needs. So it's time to fix Eon if the community think it is a problem."[/i][/color][/quote]

First of all I do not have a problem with Eon personally or with its skill damage. Then why am I doing this? People will know in time if I ever manage to get to the place I want. Why I want to write the above quote was from the Yrth's resignation letter its pretty clear that he as a king was tied down in doing certain things or refrained from doing certain things because an overrule from any party will harm his dignity as a King and an individual in game.

[i]I agree I would have not written the 2nd last line when thinking about it adds a bad flavor. Also I was in a hurry to write did not think much at that time. So I apologize to Mur in this regard.[/i]

Now about meta-gaming. I too think events which happen in-game should stay in-game. But with the large time difference we people operate sometimes you need a thing like this. Also as my last line suggests I ask people to get together not rant about Eon or asking any other person in game to help me. I say Eon is over powered so be it but as Mur has pointed out there are enough and more tools in MD to deal with this but what we are lacking is the unity to achive a single task.

Initially when needles came in I thought the community would make a effort to use it properly and use it towards their own betterment not necessarily Eon but Leixer, Yoshi or any other. But now the needle has become a flashy item in someones inventory for a week an another and so on and people use it for nothing. All I urge is to people to get together and do things.

I pointed the DOJO as an example because it was also like this. Nobody could fight at MDP without getting yelled at if you do not ask. Majority of the MD community was not even interested to say its an issue. Now we at least have threads about Eon how many did we have about the dojo before incident. Then Dojo did something most people know and then the community got together and worked against it and the dojo was no more.

So according to that it seems MD needs a trigger event so everbody can rally around. Once the mob happens it becomes unstoppable and a very destructive force about thousand times Eon aka tarq's dark knight.

I just read this thread so now I know whom to speak to regarding actions we can plan Amoran count me in.

My request is get together in game and lets start bashing and get the balance in MD once more.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Blood Prince