Board Thread:QQ Threads/@comment-24108228-20151101002053

I don't like people who do something stupid to anger someone stronger than them, end up paying the price, and then immediately retreat to chat to try and recruit the entire server against this person. And by that I mean I really don't like them.

It's just such an irritating and cheap way to get back at their assailant. Typically, the mithrilite has the moral high-ground, or at least some decent justification for their actions, but in the battlefield of chat, your hard work getting weaponry to kill those who oppose you won't help here. Instead, these kinds of fights are determined solely by who can make the most heartbreaking and convincing story about how evil the other guy is. Since the mithrilite hasn't stopped everything else they're doing to do this chat-war, this means that they have the disadvantage of not being able to focus solely on the chat window, and instead they will spend half their time working on making items, food, and gathering ore. This crucial difference makes the angry newbie far more powerful than the mithrilite. And this means they will be able to convince someone that the mithrilite is evil. And that gets the ball rolling.

With someone on the newbie's side, this makes their case even more convincing. There's one mithrilite, claiming that the newbie was trying to steal his metal while crafting, but 5 other people saying that the newbie was nowhere near the mithrilite's forge. Which of these claims seems the most credible? Well, obviously the one with 5x more people supporting it. That means you take the newbie's side, and now it's 6x.

And there is almost no stopping something like this. You can't just hop over and righteously shoot them in the head a few times, they'll just accuse you of being unreasonable and barbaric. It's another anecdote for the pile, more reason for people to outcast you and join the newbie. You can't simply say "Look, you were walking directly towards my forge which was in the middle of nowhere on mainland. There's clearly no other reason why you were headed towards it.", that'll get refuted as a lie, and who's to disagree with the 6 other people who are all arguing for the poor defenceless player who was minding their own business when he suddenly found himself with 3 bolts in his skull. There's no proof ether way, and a heck of a lot more people support one guy than the other. Even if you find a friend in this madness, they'll quickly become alienated. The object of this is to get the most people to support you, when they have a 4 player head-start they're bound to win. The friend will soon give up, and either retreat to a quiet corner, or leave the server. And the alienation doesn't only apply to friends. You'll soon find yourself depressed, knowing that the entire server hates you, you'll never be able to find a tribe, and if anyone ever gathers suitable weaponry then they'll be certain to shoot you on sight. Intentionally making yourself an outcast is rather fun, but if someone else does it for you then it's worse. You didn't play to kill everyone, you wanted to be friends with the server, and you can't even say "Ok, screw it. If these guys want a tyrant, a tyrant is what they'll get.", as you didn't make two full sets of mithril/bluesteel hybrid battle-gear, you gathered enough weapons to keep you safe and some tools, which is hardly going to support a server-wide rampage.

And this entire thing sprouted because a new-spawn got angry at you.

I'm not saying that this is unavoidable. Often, it's quite simple to stop it. You can omit to respond, and hope that the newbie gives up before someone starts to believe him. Or you could gather a group of people who like and trust you, and have them support you. You could even make an alternate account if you're incapable of gathering real people to help your cause, and then it looks like two people are on your side whilst the newbie is alone in his complaining. Unfortunately, this isn't always obvious to a new mithrilite, who's played for a while but only recently been able to acquire enough power to have this problem. And it's terribly off-putting. Seeing that your hard work meant nothing is a horrible feeling, and knowing that your efforts put towards gaining strength to help others is invalidated since nobody wants you anywhere near them is depressing.

This is why I'd like to encourage you to take the side of the mithrilite when you see this kind of thing. Stopping it before people start to believe it is the best way to get rid of these kinds of problems. It's easy to see, if the person is defending their actions then they're clearly not intentionally being a tyrant, and while it's often easier to take the side of the victim, taking the side of the mithrilite is almost always the morally correct choice, and it can also get you some friends high up in the metal hierarchy.

And this is the first QQ thread in over a year. I'm not sure that this board gets enough usage to justify it's existence. 