Yo HT, as the "leader" of this game and community, most of the blame lies on yourself for allowing such behaviour to manifest itself. You can have others moderate the arena or forums in your place, but *you* made this game, and thus people will generally respect your self over anyone else.
I have pointed out this general degredation of behaviour before to you, but I was banned for doing so, and you might claim it was the manner in which I did it, but given a choice over pointing out the obvious here, or via PM. It seemed best not to possibly diminish the standing of your techniques in public, but you leave those of us who wish for the better little choice other to let it rot or say it in the open, thus.
Let me point out how this came about, I know you got your own ideas; but these might be worthy observations:
- By allowing Control freaks and agenda pushers to control the main chat channel, by being able to report stuff *they* think is bad, you have allowed those who take life and this game too seriously to assert their collective control over the mainstream air of communication. Thus driving out those who genuinely have fun cussing at eachother and the general competetiveness, respect and banter that comes with it. Such banter and lack-of-seriousness is what makes a game genuinely lighthearted and *fun* and attracts the sort of people the game needs. Im talking about the people who really make a game, the core, the heart, that the rest of the archetypes around here *originate* from, not these branding control-freak sorts are those who have been playing too long or too hard for their own good and lack the perspective to see any other needs then their own. They have their place in the community too, but the balance has shifted in their favour because of this.
- By losing focus of your vision and giving in to whims of *new* planes via voting, even if its a symbolic gesture of sorts; you are overstreching your resources and ability to keep things consistant. By adding new planes you secure the fact that in the future they will need a model upgrade or some other upgrade, and by adding multitudes of types of a plane you require even greater work to make sure they are accurate, thus leaving the planeset with some that look like they are from 2003, and others from 20010. This makes people lose a sense that the game is evolving and thus starts a downward spiral of measured-up expectations vs actual game direction.
I could go on, but I think you get the gist.
Peace out.
