First, let me preface this thread with the following: I have all the respect in the world for what Blue has done for Uthgard and how successful he has made his classic freeshard. I am in debt to what he has done because he has given me an almost exact replica of the game I knew and loved so long ago. I want to thank all the Game Masters and Developers for their time spent diligently trying to make this server better. You are appreciated by many players in ways you cannot comprehend.

But as a player, with an inherent drive to display compassion and respect towards my realm mates and enemies alike, I am at a crossroads on Uthgard. After the events that transpired tonight, I am being force-fed a playstyle that goes against the very way I bred my stealther. The very reputation I have built from the ground up is in jeopardy of being ruined and if I wish to continue playing on Uthgard, I must conform or be banned. Last I checked, I am in control of what my character does. If I choose not to attack someone for WHATEVER reason, that is my prerogative. The fact that you, Uthgard staff, are choosing to go down this path is extremely disheartening to myself, and anyone else who plays the game just like myself - Honorably.

Let me explain what happened tonight.

I log Milakunis in at AMG and immediately see Synders, a frostalf healer running towards the silo with a reaver assaulting him the whole way. I recognized Synders as a healer and thus know he is incapable of winning that fight. I ran down the hill and stealthed close to them. Synders was at 30% health and quickly dropping, while the reaver was full health and beating the healer with ease. In my mind right now I am deciding what I should do with this current situation presented in front of me. I have been added on before by this reaver so I quickly make the decision that I want him dead. One perf chain later, he is dead on the floor and Synders is hobbling away with 20% health, probably expecting me to kill him. I /waved to Synders and made the decision to SPARE his life. I do this for two reasons. 1) It allows him to realize "hey this stealther is a respectable player and decided to save my life, even though I am the enemy. Maybe next time I see him having a 1v1 with someone I won't heal his opponent or mez/stun him etc. I'll return the favor he gave me." This provides potential security for myself later on at a cost of 100 rps and a cheap feeling knowing I just killed that poor healer when he had absolutely no chance. 2) It shows I am a kind-hearted player that is able to exert compassion for my enemies when I feel respect towards them is warranted. I wanted to show this healer respect - plain and simple. The reasons shouldn't be needed but I provided them regardless. I felt I saved his life and didn't want to be an ass and kill him. What's so wrong with how I want to play my stealther? I am on the class of a million decisions. How I want to play is entirely up to me - or so I thought. If I was feeling differently another day and the same scenario presented itself I might have acted "correctly" and killed the healer as well, but that should be MY choice. NOT the GM's who are camped at AMG ready to blow their whistle and play the police.

Screenshot of the time spent in jail and the conversation with Eleras and Synders: http://imageshack.us/f/89/uthgardjail.png/

I want to make something clear. I was warned for what I did and given the knowledge that any further infraction of this kind will lead to a ban. I was not "cross realming", as GM Eleras so eloquently accused me of moments later while we were both whisked away to Jail. I was not secretly working as a team with this healer to take out an albion player by choice, it's just how the chips landed. I don't think I should be forced to kill a player when I DO NOT WANT TO DO SO FOR WHATEVER REASON. That is MY choice. NOT YOURS TO MAKE. I don't know if you played live, GM Eleras, but I did, and this was completely tolerable in the eyes of Mythic. Crossrealming (if you want to call what I did crossrealming) was completely allowed. Hibgard anyone? Risking getting banned for an interaction with an enemy player when there are no clear cut rules implemented is ABSURD. Is Uthgard really turning into a dictatorship?

Let this be a wake up call to everyone playing Uthgard right now that so happens to play similarly to myself - you are being watched and if you don't attack every red name you see without thought simply because you are a midgardian and they are a hibernian, you will be warned/banned until you change.

I want to give my pre-apologies to the following PEOPLE, yes, PEOPLE. I have learned to know and respect in my 2 months here on Uth. They make up only a small portion of the players that I have found respectful. I am sorry if I can not remember everyone. I'm quite ticked off atm and for good reason. I am forced to kill you despite your current engagement. You will see Milakunis as a mindless stealther only in it for the rps, no longer in it for the fair fights and the earned respect of my realm enemies. As you can clearly see in the screenshot, I am being watched, and I am at risk of a ban if I am caught "cooperating" again. That means no more watching 1v1 fights with my good respected enemies. I am being forced to attack you or get labeled a cross realmer. I am NOT a cross realmer in the sense they are labeling me as, and I wish to stay on Uthgard for a lack of anything better currently out there even if it isn't how I would like to play. To the following enemies, I am sorry for the new Milakunis you are going to see.

Arlen
Siminor
Runental
Madinaa
Fjott
Nuitari
Sigon
Zorbic
Muni
Divinarchangel

/salute you guys, and what will follow is nothing personal... Also to my realm mates, nothing personal if your 1v1 gets added on. I will cringe while doing it until I either learn to like playing like a GM's pawn, or I quit altogether due to not having ANY fun whatsoever on my stealther. Will most likely be the latter.

Best regards,
Milakunis.

For me daoc is a sandbox game. I choose what i do myself. I will rather get banned then give up that freedom of choice in a computer game.

Crossrealming over irc or other forms of communications outside of the game is one thing. Deciding to not kill a defenseless healer in a random encounter and use some ingame emoticons is totally different and innocent. Seems like the gamemaster lack some common sense.

@Milakunis

I would always do the same - it has something to do with respect.
People play this game to have fun. There's more than just RPs!
I think in this situation the GM overreacted.

I would have done the same,its rly no challenge to kill a healer with 30 % you did the right and saved the fun for the healer.But also Eleras is right , if you 2 kill together an alb it's cooperating if you dont kill each other after.

@milakunis even though I haven't had the opportunity to fight you yet I also have noticed you've never added me which i appreciate. I recently had a similar scenario occur near AMG and in all honesty i don't understand what it is with the GMs lately trying to force feed one particular playstyle on everyone.

1) As a stealther attacking everyone in sight is absolutely retarded for tactical reasons (ganks, other stealthers, etc)
2) Attacking everyone in sight particularly during LOW POPULATION hours is also retarded because lets say there are 10 albs, 6 hibs and 3 mids out. So the 10 albs kill the 3 mids a few times over and those guys quickly realize THEY HAVE ZERO CHANCE OF EVEN KILLING ONE GUY so they log. The hibs also realize they cant win 6v10 so they log. And guess what, NOW EVERYONE is either logged or looking at the scenery but no actual rvr is taking place because only one group was winning simply because they had more people on at that point in time.
3) Players like myself, Milakunis, Zacknafein, Arlen, (new thane named Frog), Ronia, Fjott, Thyrin and actually a lot of other players like being solo and HONORABLE players meaning you fight someone and give them a chance to win. If you lose you lose and if you win you win but you don't just wipe the floor with a guy whose already at 20% because one guy who has GM under his name has decreed that's the ONLY acceptable playstyle on this server.

Seriously where in the hell did this suddenly come from? Live was never like this. If i wanted to spare someone I could spare someone without having to worry about a ban. Similarly there are times I roam on my inf and leave R4s alone because I know i will crush them so what's the point? That isn't fun for me. Likewise there are times high RRs have left me alone because they know they will crush me and that isn't any fun for them. What you GMs seem incapable of grasping is that for some members of the community it's not "ZOMG I GOTZ TEW KOLLECT ALL THE RPS POSSIBLE SO IF ITZ RED ITS DEDZ ZOMG" there are actually those of us whose enjoyment comes from winning/losing FAIR fights. Not crushing everyone in sight who already had no chance to win from the outset.

@Milakunis again, keep playing how you play. If the GM wants to play thought police then let them kill the server off by banning all the respectable players until all you have left is a bunch of BR clones.

Lifioch wrote:I would have done the same,its rly no challenge to kill a healer with 30 % you did the right and saved the fun for the healer.But also Eleras is right , if you 2 kill together an alb it's cooperating if you dont kill each other after.

I disagree. My playstyle is where I like to get a good fight regardless of whether I win or lose. Likewise an inf/ns/sb with 30% is still probably going to wipe the floor with a healer who has 100% and all their RAs so that isn't even a challenge. I would have done the same thing in Mila's shoes and i think its ridiculous that a GM call's that "cooperating". It's not cooperating, it's just a playstyle. I've seen Milakunis kill a mid player before, he just chose not to on THAT occasion. Ive spared hibs on occasion, I've spared mids on occasion and likewise I've been spared on occasion. This entire debacle sounds to me more like a powertrip by a 12 year old behind a computer who is lord of this one small piece of cyberspace and most likely nothing else rather then a mature adult moderating a virtual sandbox world where other people are allowed to play how they want.

I think what the GM is reacting to is the solo healer at the Milegates - its not like he is there to kill anyone so he is being a rezbot in the GMs eyes. Also, i think the fact that most of the staff is non-native English language makes it difficult to communicate exactly what they responding too. I see alot of posts regarding how they over-react to *respecting* fights in RvR. While i can't speak for them on what their intentions were, I can see where a rezbot implies dueling and allowing him to live to ressurect other mids would be against the spirit of the game. I don't think the GMs are as draconian about play style as the screen-shot suggests, I think they get a glimpse of the situation -without the context that this particular reaver is ok to add on his fights- and see how this is an indicator of abuse.

I want to address one thing I didn't initially address in the first post.

GREY AREA's.

What would happen if, lets see, I didn't attack the healer right away with an intent to 'play with my food' so-to-speak. Let's say I was going to intentionally make him think I was going to spare him only to kill him 5 seconds later when he thinks he made a new friend. As far as i'm aware this isn't illegal, correct? You're not "crossrealming" as you're going to attempt to kill him in a bit when you deem it's time. BUT DURING THE 5 SECOND PERIOD a nearby hunter who watched it all happen shoots you trying to save his healer friend. Boom crit shot for half your life. What do you do now? You most certainly don't bother killing the healer anymore, and you're too far to chase down the hunter. Even if you were close, attacking him would be futile as you'd run the risk of the healer keeping him alive while you slowly get 2v1'd. So you get crit shot for half your life, you RUN AWAY right? run away and stealth. Let's say this happened tonight instead of me just letting the healer free. Would I be jailed for this? Who decides what is crossrealming and what isnt? Do you generalize the whole genre or do you judge each individual episode on a case-by-case basis? Hm? Do you guys have an answer for that? GREY AREA's.

NOW I want to share a bit of information with you guys that I neglected to do in my initial post because I felt it wasn't needed for me to prove my point. My point was I should make my own decisions. I made that point nicely I believe. This above example of a 'grey area' is exactly what happened tonight and it's an example of why you cannot police this. I don't care if you're watching the milegates with a closer eye lately. You simply can't do what you're doing, GM Eleras. I will provide a screenshot of me perfing the alleged reaver and shortly after I /waved to Synders (seconds) I was crit shot by a hunter. Who are you, GM Eleras, to be the judge, jury, and the executioner in this situation? What gives you the right? did you see the hunter shoot me with your magic 8 ball of amg 360 view? No, you apparently didn't. Because that would be a VERY valid reason why I didn't engage the healer. BUT LIKE I SAID, I am just using this as an example of a GREY AREA. I am fully guilty for not attacking that healer because I would have done the same regardless of the crit shot from Xuro. Not 1 minute after this shot from the Hunter was I ported to jail. Thank you, GM Eleras.

http://imageshack.us/f/163/uthgardeleras.png/

the WORST!!! part of the screenshot is:

you are forcing me how to play?

Eleras: Yes

sorry this is fail³

And that's exactly why this whole episode is stupid. The other day I was at AMG with my mouse in one hand and keyboard in the other when all of a sudden i see a warden, bm, and druid and FOUR RANGERS attack a cleric and a reaver. Now I decide since one of the ranger spotted me that I might as well get in on this because I'm probably toast anyway. When all of a sudden...... TWO SBS AND A HUNTER jump in on MY SIDE. They could have wiped the floor with me but they didnt. Instead the 4 of us killed the 4 rangers while the Reaver/cleric took out the other three. We then ran our separate ways even though an FGA ran down a couple of the SBs during the escape. However, those SBs could have EASILY killed me before that but didn't. They let me go.

10 minutes later I ran into those same SBs and we started killing each other. Now, some GMs might have called the previous fight "cooperating" and perhaps in some way it was. But it's not indicative of crossrealming or permanent realm cooperation but of a choice made at ONE POINT IN TIME during ONE FIGHT. If you want to try and police this be my guest but you will end up banning people who in all seriousness don't deserve and turn the server into an even worse giant zergfest then it already is.

On a side note, in light of recent events (IE Xrealming to ninja Legion loot and then bragging about it AND getting the loot switched to be able to use it with no punishment) versus this just shows you that there is no equal enforcement on uthgard and that you can pretty much just expect that your everyday behavior (minus insulting other players) could be ignored by one GM and banned by another so it's just luck of the draw.

As for me I'll keep playing how I play and if a GM doesn't like it that's great. This isn't the only game on the internet.

Maybe GMs just have something against primarily US players since this is mostly an issue late at night when there are only 6-12 people total in emain and theyre almost all US. This doesn't happen during primetime because it's simply too zergy.

Sad to me that power hungry GM´s start to intervene to much. This is just silly and beyond anything daoc is suppose to be. Players form the server and choose how to play, not some GM that have to compensate for something. If this was live servers the GM doing this would be kicked by Mythic insta.

Is this meaning that i have to kill all the greys i run past in DF now, bcs if im not im xrealming?

/respect @Milakunis

Mauriac wrote:Maybe GMs just have something against primarily US players since this is mostly an issue late at night when there are only 6-12 people total in emain and theyre almost all US. This doesn't happen during primetime because it's simply too zergy.

sorry but rubbish.

Mauriac wrote:Maybe GMs just have something against primarily US players since this is mostly an issue late at night when there are only 6-12 people total in emain and theyre almost all US. This doesn't happen during primetime because it's simply too zergy.

I think it's more coincidence because lot more solo, duo and smallman action happens at NA primetime than does during euro primetime.