Introduction
The server staff have held an emergency meeting last night, discussing raiding and warfare in general. Lately, issues and complaints have been piling up against the general atmosphere of the server when it comes to raiding and warring between factions. Back when we introduced the standard for Harassment and war tribute regulations, we felt the system was wholesome and covered all aspects. As time has passed by however, we have come to understand one big flaw that we did not foresee. There was a clause in the rule that allowed staff members to intervene in wars and force a peace if the situation turned sour. In practice none of the staff members wanted to take responsibility for this action, as one such decision would cause a lot of negative backlash from at least one faction involving the conflict. This in turn has caused the whole server atmosphere to slowly slide down and degrade to the point where wars are causing players personal grief, be it that they cannot play the game properly anymore or they find personal distress out of the game as a consequence of the wars and raids. This was never intended as we see wars as a necessity, but only good if both sides can enjoy the conflict.

Our solution
In our meeting, we decided that if none of us individually wanted to take the responsibility for making this decision, then we should all support the measure that was going to be introduced. After discussing for about half an hour on how to deal with different scenarios, all staff members agreed on changing the server’s policy with regards to warfare and raiding. We wish to steer raiding and warfare in a more mellow direction. This means staff members are extending their rights to forcibly end wars between factions, or lay sanctions on factions which are labeled as “having a negative influence on the atmosphere of the server”.

More Explained:

• Staff members may in the future forcibly end a war between factions if there is enough evidence to believe that either side cannot come to a reasonable conclusion and it affects the gameplay of the members too much, or the situation has a negative effect on the server. This may mean a simple two sided no-conditional end, or a truce from one side.

• Staff members may in the future lay sanctions on factions which are considered to have a negative influence on the server’s atmosphere, either through powerplaying, raiding without end, exhibiting a negative attitude in raids and wars etc. What this means is that staff members can (but are not limited to) denying a faction the right to declare war on another faction, denying a faction the right to raid other factions, or war reparations.

• Staff members will more strictly moderate trash talking and boasting. Wars and raids are only half the source. We will be dealing more strict punishments to flame wars in general and local chat channels, the forum, and other actions performed by any faction to put down a losing side in a war.

• Staff members will also encourage factions to be more reasonable. Wars are intended to cause slight discomfort. Not cause an entire faction to stop working on a daily basis. We will also be keeping an eye out for unreasonable faction owners who refuse peace for no reason at all.

• Sanctions or Staff intervention will in most situations work both ways. In order for a conflict to escalate or prolong its duration, actions are required from both sides. A badly running war is never the fault of solely one faction and we will try to work with both sides to improve their attitude.

Peaceful versus Hostile
Cayorion was also present during the meeting, and concluded a potential tech solution to this situation. As such, it was decided that the policy set above is a temporary policy, based on the fact that Cayorion will provide a tech solution to automate the system through factions in the future. This will entail a system of factions being able to tag themselves as “likes war” and “does not like war” which will allow some form of bracket matchmaking so that everyone can have the gameplay they want, and not force their powergaming, or lack of PVP interest on others. In short, it might lead to certain factions getting the peaceful flag enabled. Until this system can be introduced however, the staff will be taking decisions with regards to keeping the war culture friendly and enjoyable for everyone.

Some additional Points:

• Staff will be on the lookout for people who try to cheat the system by switching factions when one is forcibly truced.

• Staff will be on the lookout for factions that cry wolf as soon as they get attacked once. The majority of us play the game as well, so we have a rough understanding when raids turn sour and when people simply need to “suck it up”.

• If a decision is made to sanction a faction(s), they will always be a large staff decision. These are never made by a single individual and will always be discussed by the staff as a whole, or whatever staff is available at the time.

Obviously this system will not please everyone involved, but we hope you understand our intention with this policy change and we hope you can look forward to our future coding solution to make this system more automatic. We are trying to make sure our server identity as a friendly medieval roleplay server is not trampled under the great amount of freedom in PVP we give our players.