Well, I was thinking of a Gameplay thread from what I thought was a few months ago (but turns out it was from 2006!..!! Jeez how time flies. Ever since I turned 30, my memory has been shot with regard to relative time periods. Jeez.) Anyway, this thread:


Aarn says the following, and the other IMMs (Kasty, Nep) essentially sign on:

Aarn Quote:
"I think we as a staff tend to be too lenient on goodies killing goodies if it fits within their cabal dogma. Battle, Tribunal and Outlander are particularly susceptible to this. If you're a goodie Outlander that makes a living out of slaughtering paladins, you should expect to be turned neutral pretty quickly - because you've chosen to disregard alignment for a different moral compass. I would put forth that you need to find an alternative method of dealing with good-aligned cabal enemies that doesn't involving killing them. That's why you're good, not neutral. Then in cabal raid situations and the like when you're forced in to fighting them, is the time to roleplay all that remorse.

Just look at it this way: If you're planning on fighting people of your own alignment regularly, even if you plan on roleplaying remorse, you should just be neutral instead."
End Aarn Quote.

This thread stuck with me because from my perspective, the only characters that consistently play Good Aligns in this manner are Fortress-types (In the Fortress, you even have RP psychos that are less likely to attack a neutral than ragers/tribs/outlanders are to attack a good). The vast majority of good align Ragers/Tribs/Outlanders happily attack opposing good align cabal members without any real remorse.

And then I started thinking about good-aligned mobs. Why is it that elves in Darsylon will murder WANTED Good Aligns travelling through Darsylon? Why is it that good aligned guards in Voralian will murder WANTED Good Aligns travelling through Voralian? Does this make ANY sense in light of Baer/Nep/Kasty/Aarn's opinion? Shouldn't Baer be turning all these Darsylon guards neutral?

There seems to be a basic and unreconciable disconnect between what the IMMs say about RPing a "good align" and how the IMMs actually go about enforcing restrictions on "good align vs. good align" attacks and how the game treats "good align vs. good align" attacks. I understand there is a gray area here, but the lack of consistent enforcement and game mechanics (e.g., Darsylon guards) end up making the Good-to-Neutral alignment changes seem terribly arbitrary.

(Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with Batman's change from neutral to evil which seems well deserved.)