Howard, if you can get Seamus to stay, I'll keep playing with you, for the sake of being a decent person. There are good elements to this game, I could see enjoying it going forward, just seems unlikely.
Mort, when you say that "when two parties think they are right - it devolves into a shouting match that ends up no where," are you trying to say that people can't ever have discussions about things that lead to changed viewpoints? I don't think that's what you mean, but it sounds like what you're saying. Maybe you're saying that most of the time when people argue they don't get anything done?
At any rate, I'll pretty much never feel like shouting at you, or almost anyone. I like to think I've changed my viewpoints from time to time as a result of arguments, and I know for a fact that I've changed other people's minds in a variety of situations, including over the internet.
Why not respond to your earlier points about setting an example, what's the harm? I don't have a paper that I'm avoiding writing by doing this instead anymore, and I'm also getting sleepy, so my argument won't be as well developed or supported as my previous one was.
You said that your views on the matter were that you could let us diplomacy our way out of it, but that would set a bad example. The bad example, to be specific, is that we can attack people and murder NPCs then roll high and convince them it's a terrible mistake.
I don't think that's a particularly strong argument.
The first reason for me thinking that is that us convincing them it was a terrible mistake is essentially a good thing. It was a terrible mistake, and we ought to be friends with the acid pit guy.
The second reason is more general: I don't understand why it would be important for you to signal to us players that it's not okay to murder NPCs. We already know when it is and is not acceptable to murder NPCs, and we can control our characters in a reasonable way so as to avoid committing a long series of intolerable atrocities to the NPCs.
Edit: oh Mort, you don't need to be sorry. Don't beat yourself up too much, just try to learn something. I should probably go to sleep, huh? Maybe just a little while longer...
