I thought long and hard about what to say on this one, so here goes.
.. With the big hoo-ha we just had on the soapbox about admins not doing their jobs, it seems that now people are whining about the opposite: theyre doing them TOO well. Well folks, we kinda need to make up our minds about what we want. Personally, I could care less what the admin staff took into issue with esuna and sonic. Thats their business and I'm not an admin, so its none of mine. Im not gonna whine about it, nor am I gonna throw my support behind it. If they had their reasons, they had their reasons, let it go at that.
.. However, the issue I want to address is the "adult" portion of what goes on in the server. You know, seeing as the issue seemingly revolves around swearing and flaming, I think we oughtta get down to it. Ladies and gentlemen, i pose to you the question of reasonable maturity. How old is the average age of the regs and admins on the server? Sure we have some people in the 14-16 age range, but we also have people in the 30-40 age range to balance it out. Lets reach a reasonable compromise here folks. Being a high school teacher, I can tell you that I have to moderate language in the classroom. But by the same token, I also have an understanding that there is no such thing as a 14 year old who has never heard people swearing and doesnt know what the words mean. We have a swear filter on the server, plain as day. All people see are asterisks if someone swears in chat. If they swear on the mic, well, we cant stop that, but why bring it to issue? Is anyone really THAT offended when someone says the "s word" or the "f word"? As esuna said, I have heard several people with reserved slots mic chatting it up using more derogatory words for lengthy periods of time and it goes untouched. Not saying that we have to be iron-fisted about it, but lets think like rational human beings for a moment. We're not running a day care. It's an online gaming server that runs a game where tensions get heated, people get pissed off, and you know what, being that most of us are mature enough to handle it, people are gonna swear some. Let it go. If it gets out of hand, give the person a slap on the wrist. Dont put them out for ostracism at the hands of the entire community.
Thats just wrong.
.. As far as flaming goes, there are times when it's justified. Example: a shotgun rush is coming to a hive. The gorge spits it and yells out that the rush is coming. 2 skulks come, while the other four busily chomp on an RT and ignore the fact that the hive is dying. Another example: Rines are trying to take a hive out, and one of the goobers stands there wasting precious shotgun ammo on a movement chamber instead of assisting the team. Now im not pushing for it to go into the realm of kicking a dead horse, but if someone slings out a pithy remark at such idiocy, who cares? Sure its easy to say that it breaks the rules and should be punished if you're watching it non-biased from spectator, but if you're on the team thats effected, it makes you MAD! Let people blow off some steam by occasionally ragging on people for being dumb. As far as the regs go, we casually flame each other all the time and none of us cares, because we know that it's all in jest and the next round it wont matter. If some nsplayer comes in and does it and gets miffed because he was being stupid and got an earful and leaves, does it really bother anyone? Along with good behavior and fair gameplay, we also like to keep a reasonable amount of things like skill and teamwork involved. People who dont stick to these as well have no more room in the community than people who would make asses of themselves on a regular basis. But once again, if it gets out of hand, then is when it becomes an issue for resolution at the hands of the admin staff. But dont make it a big deal. Nobody likes to be put out.
.. Bottom line is folks, that due to the content that we deal with on a constant daily basis in and around the community, for the sake of argument, whether youre 14 or 35, we're all adults here. We're all old enough to know how to be reasonable and responsible about our actions. We're not children that need mommies and daddies washing our mouths out with soap, we're not fanatical clean-language freaks who gasp every time someone says a naughty word. None of us is so sensitive that we're going to go cry in the corner over a petty insult. Let's just wake up and bring this to a level where we dont feel like kids, but we can still act like adults.
.. Also, as a side note, (no offense intended) i'd like to see the admins stop sitting in spectator. This makes me angry very frequently. The reason behind it is twofold. firstly, i see a lot of admins that come on and sit in spec on a full server. Understandable that you're trying to get an overview of whats going on, but dont just sit there. If you were alerted to solve a problem on the server, either spec/solve/leave or spec/solve/join up. Secondly, admins that sit in spec, generally do so for several maps or rounds, and do so at times where an extra player on a shorthanded team makes the difference between a decent game and a slaughter. So for the sake of obeying the rules, dont spec on a full server and dont spec when theres a team in need of help. As i said, if a problem has to be solved, solve and move on to the next thing. Like i said before, I dont intend offense toward anyone, but if a slotter or a reg was doing that and an admin saw it, they'd get angry.
.. In close, lets work on things like raising the maturity bar and seeing if people can handle it, accountability, double standards, and doing the right thing. Not just the admin staff, but all of us as a whole. We have the ability to not be retards, so let's exercise it.
/end rant.
*edited for ABS' reading pleasure.*
