Goblin Squad Member
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Let me start by saying nobody asked me for this. I was not contacted by any board administrators, and nobody else recommended I do this. Sometimes I'm too prideful to admit when I'm wrong but I had to step back and look at my behavior objectively tonight.
I am a frequent poster on these boards and I am a leader of a group dedicated to make this community the most fun, welcoming, and engaging place possible. I should be the last person to get aggressive and make inflamatory remarks. No. I will not be stepping down, and I will not be leaving this community. But I do feel I need to address my wrongs, and make a commitment to avoid repeating them. Nobody is perfect, but if my actions do not fit the ideals I am trying to represent. They are of a stubborn prideful jerk, not a leader, and certainly not someone who brings people together.
I have been following this project since last March. I've seen a lot of amazing things take place. I've made a lot of suggestions and comments on how to improve this game, and I've seen a lot of the ideas I've talked about end up in blog posts or dev statements on how this game is going to work. I talked about limited ability bars and the virtues of a Guild Wars style combat system and that's what we are now being promised. I made a topic raising concerns about Capstones, the devs read it, took ideas from the resulting discussion, and made changes to the game. I pointed out to the devs that people who fail to pay loan contracts shouldn't be penalized unless the lender wants them to be. They changed the system.
Being active in this game's community has been an amazing experience. Each member of this community can see the best of their ideas and suggestions actually make an impact on this game's design philosophy. Given this communities limited size, someone who a passion for coming up with ideas to improve games can really feel like they are helping build this game alongside GoblinWorks.
This can inflame passions. It SHOULD inflame passions within people who love gaming and have create ideas. But letting those passions boil over to the point that you are openly hostile to those who don't share your ideas is not acceptable. This isn't Andius Online. It's Pathfinder Online. It's for all of us. And I need to accept that people don't have to agree with me on what will make this game better. That this community is growing and I need to make sure others are able to voice their opinions rather than trying to shut them up if they disagree with me.
To Mbando, Gruffling, and everyone else I snapped at during the Capstone debate: I would like to apologize. I should have spent less time fuming about how you "just don't understand" and more time trying to understand your positions, and articulating mine more clearly.
To PVE community: We are really not so different as you might think. I started out gaming as a PVEer, and though I like to forget it, I once shared your aversions to Open World PVP. I've spent a lot of time in the PVP community since then, and I can tell you on the rare instance that PVP revolves more around player interaction, and less around random ganking, it is one of the most fun experiences online gaming has to offer. My passion for this kind of system does not excuse me to belittle you for not enjoying it. Your concerns are valid, but I think if you stick around and delve into this game's ideas and it's community you will understand why I think this game will be different. I understand some of you are still not willing to place 100$ on the bet that you won't get burned this time. I would encourage you to come back and try this game when it reaches open release. You may change your mind. And I know I certainly will give you a warmer welcome next time.
To Forencith: Me and you don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. But I believe each of us want's what we feel is best for the community. I've seen a lot of valuable input come from you. Your ideas for making fancy hairstyles and tattoos based on character interaction was ingenious. I can't promise to agree with you on everything but I will at least show you the respect you and your ideas deserve.
To Ryan: I know I've caused you a bit of headache and made a few semi-hostile comments (My comments on rings of flying come to mind.) I'm sure you know I appreciate what PFO represents, and I want to see this project succeed almost as badly as you do. Mainly I would like to apologize for my comments toward your community and prospective PFO players. It was very graceful of you to not call me out, but I know very well who's name was floating in your head when you wrote "@All." I will try my best not to let it happen again.
To everyone else I've shown hostility: I'm quite sure I missed a few of you. I am sorry for any hurt of frustration I may have caused. I hope we can move past this, and focus on the fresh ideas from many sources required to make this game better.
Sorry to those I have offended. I pledge that from now on I will do my best to stop, cool off, and take time to articulate my thoughts and give meaningful responses to all of your posts. I'm only human, but I promise I will try. Rather than making this topic be about me, perhaps we could use this to make a similar promise to each other as a community.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well, I don't think these forums have the same reputation as "Forumfall" yet :P
True, but Forumfall and much of the Darkfall community are BEYOND disrespectful. I've seen them verbally tear members of the community apart like animals. And the moderators generally do nothing about it as long as they stick away from a few key buzz words.
If I had done anything worthy of comment on Forumfall I WOULD have stepped down. I really hope to see this community set the bar a lot higher than that, though I don't mean to imply you're suggesting otherwise.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Eh, I don't think I've seen the debates and hostility that you are depicting, or maybe I didn't put the same tone behind your words. There is an issue with the written word, without prompting the emotion behind them is lost and left to the interpretation of the reader, and their emotions, at the time. If you feel the need to apologize, then I'm guessing you felt your words were with bad intent and not what you wanted.
Passion is a good thing, it creates wonderful things, sometimes it leads to conflict and sometimes it can destroy the goal instead of completing it.
Putting it all out there, I apologize as I feel like I've been trolling the boards lately. As any of my friends will tell you, I'm obsessed. I have intentionally taken the opposite side to see and understand what the community is expecting this game to be.
It sounds to me like there has been some great Crowdforging. It isn't the CrowdAssemblyLine. I think the term crowdforging is appropriate, if not dead on. This game will be forged in the fires of the community with Goblinworks as the master smith to shape it into a fine master worked product for us all. If there wasn't at least 1 or 2 spats, I don't think that people were being 100% honest with their input and passion for the game. I honestly think that Ryan's comment, @All, really was @All. Those posting then and people posting in the future. Perhaps our master smith saw the kiln getting too hot, and that was part of the work to correct it. In the end, the fires of well meant, and from this point forward hopefully, mature and level-headed debate will shape this game.
As I state in a lot of my posts, this is generalization, this is not aimed at anyone and certainly not at Andius. Ignoring the fact that there is negative in the world only helps it to rise. Addressing it in ourselves and one another is the only means to keep it at bay. I think this is a great thread and a perfect way to cool the flames of the kiln for a time. I expect we will get to a point where the kiln gets hot once more.
Thank you for being able to open up in this way to the community and apologize honestly. It's not an easy thing to do.
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Goblin Squad Member
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While I appreciate the gesture...and accept the apology if it makes you feel better. In my case it is entirely unnecessary. Usually, we are offering opinions for GW to use in making their own decisions about game design. As such, I am glad there is a plurality of opinions and more importantly, whatever arguments/justifications we can each make for our respective positions.
And...I have found that I do not know what it is, by my particular style of forum writing tends to "inflame passions"...or just piss people off. At this point I just accept it as an inevitable response to my posts and try to step away when it occurs. I actually blame myself...how can so many who I have upset...and who are otherwise friends be wrong.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm used to your style Andius, so I could see that some people who have not had that benefit might have taken your words literally instead of contextually, but that's because many people are at different speeds with respect to Pathfinder Online. As GW's pointed out in the tech demo ks, "It's impossible" reaction is right at the starting line. :)
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No blood, no foul. I enjoy a spirited debate, if nothing else it forces me to dig my heels in deeper. Sorry if I ever irritated the heck out of you either, I think the reality is we're more like each other than either of us would want to admit in public. But I'd totally still buy you a beer*1a.
*: Assuming you are of legal age to purchase/consume alcohol in your area.
1: And that consumption of alcohol isn't against any sort of religious or personal decision.
a: And that you don't only drink the super expensive trendy micro-brew crap.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Andius,
As Nihimon and Forencith point out, I think all of us that have been here for a long time have lost it once or twice, myself included.
For what it's worth, I think right now it has been especially difficult to keep cool, considering all the new personalities and not knowing how people typically 'are'. Also, answering the same concerns over and over can be vexing ;)
Nonetheless, I feel we've done a pretty decent job, and I hope a lot of the new personalities take note of the effort, and stick around to add their ideas to the mix in the future :)
Thanks for the post. I hope all the new faces see it an take it as an apology from us all, as a lot of what you say applies to us all.
As one of the new kids, I'm sure I've driven some of you mad with concerns that have probably been hashed over already in the past year (and will be again between now and early enrollment). Please bear with me - there's A LOT of stuff to read, but doing all that reading BEFORE jumping into conversations would mean missing out on current discussion.
At any rate, I've often been told I have a somewhat didactic writing (and speaking) style in debates. Please don't misinterpret it as hostile.