Treshure

Lmfao, my bad. I’m trying to reference “SMART Goals”. You can search it up to see what I mean.

Reading the posts on this thread have definitely opened my eyes to a much larger problem looming behind retention. The issue now is crunching down a seemingly impossible problem ("completely revamp LotC!") into actionable goals that can actually happen. I don't have the hubris to come out with an immediate action plan. But the cogs have started turning -- as a collective player base even, from the looks of this thread.

Every action made by any player, staff or otherwise, was done with the intent that it would truly benefit the server. It wouldn’t have been done otherwise. I’m gaining some very useful information from the feedback on this post. I think it’s more prudent to learn from you guys and problem solve this rather than jump into pointing fingers. This will not be the only post or action to address retention.

It's getting real late where I'm at, so I'm going to have to suffice for a shorter response than I'd prefer. I like where your head is at. In many ways, you're dead right. The crazy, wild, unexpected adventures you get thrown into are often the ones that'll keep you there the most. The issue is the execution. In a perfect world, we could test radical solutions to see their immediate effect. But the die is cast. We can't immediately restructure the way the roads or the nations are laid out right at the launch of a new map. Much harder would be to fix the behavior of players (how can we facilitate good ol' interesting RP?). My goal for player retention is to measure each step along the way carefully with the actions that we have control over. Like you said, it's a lot better to put hard numbers on the table rather than blind speculation. If we implement a major change (such as portals leading directly to hubs) and it negatively impacts player retention, then we would know within thirty to sixty days, and we're back to the drawing board. We try the smaller fixes and build on that. The tough pill that we have to swallow is that it isn't a straight-away radical solution. The alternative isn't deleting the server. The changes that we make have to be measurable, and they're going to take time. But I think we'll get there.

†† Big thanks to DelfShadowLeader, Devvy, HeeroZero, & Llir for helping on this little project. Player retention has always been a concern of mine. Hundreds of players apply to our server every month, and well over a hundred are accepted out of that bunch. Anyone who pays half a mind to the frequency of applications that we receive will sooner or later ask the critical question, “Where are all these players going?”. “Player retention” has been on the minds of many players over the years, but we’ve had no idea on where to start. You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s what this post is for. I don’t believe a player retention rate has ever been recorded, so this is as good of a starting point that we can muster. How did you collect this data? I feel weird about collecting user data, so I want to be as transparent as possible throughout this process. The data was gathered through using /seen on a month’s worth of applicants in the months of December 2020 & January 2020. Most of the information gathered on this report is already publicly available. You can navigate to our Apply section on the website and scroll down to the Accepted category. This spans back a few years. I also used a recently implemented tool provided by the Tech Team that’ll drastically improve activity tracking in the next few months. It tracks things like server peaks and the ratio of active to inactive players on the server. The only additional thing it did for the report was discerning weird cases of activity, such as a player playing only a few hours in a month, but having recently logged in for the past few days (would you call them inactive?). Finally, I used Devvy’s help as a Moderator to validate the last logged in dates for players that haven’t logged in for over a month. This does what /seen cannot. If you want to double check our data, I’ve created player-copies of the December and January Google spreadsheets here and here, respectively. I removed the usernames for the sake of not blowing up peoples’ playtimes. Results Let’s break this down. We recorded 165 new players that applied from Dec 5, 2020 - Jan 5, 2020. Our criteria for “Active” stood at 3 hours of playtime per week, or 12 hours per month. “Weak Activity” stood for fringe cases of new players logging infrequently yet recently at around 4 hours a month, or 1 hour per week. The rest of the applicants were utterly inactive. Thus, our true retention rate stands at 20%. It’s pleasantly surprising that many of the “Active” players are very active. There doesn’t seem to be a strong middle ground between these two polar opposites. Meanwhile, 80% of new players have been practically lost. Mind you, these are players that have already undergone the process of applying to the server, reading lore, finding skins, creating characters, and even rewriting their application. 80% of new players have already taken the effort to join our community, and yet slipped through our fingers. This is not good. Let’s take a further look into the last login times for the 69.7% "Inactive" portion of the report. A staggering 35% of new players quit on their first day. A new player’s chance of quitting the first week is a combined 60%. While these numbers are grim, there is a reason for hope that I will explain later. After compiling this data, we wanted to take a look back in January of 2020 to see how our applicants fared over a longer period of time - the retention rate of a month compared to a year. Big thanks to DelfShadowLeader for collecting January’s data. The January 2020 report worsens the implications of December. Only 4 players are still active from January’s accepted pool which consisted of 148 players. While the “Inactive” group last logged in (on average) 2-3 weeks ago, 94% of these players have not logged in for the entire month of January 2021. This is really, really bad. If we extrapolate this data across the entire year of 2020, it might be reasonable to assume that we would have gained a very rough ballpark of 48 permanent, active players. The rest of our daily player count would be a mix of veterans, regulars, and a forever impermanent swarm of new players destined to quit. This is a vicious, unsustainable cycle. But it’s also our greatest key to building the playerbase. Implications I don’t want to pollute this thread with my own theories about how to fix this. We want to bring the numbers so that this conversation can be opened up to you. That being said, there are a few immediately obvious things that you can infer from these retention rates. First, this is indicative of both the Staff (specifically the CT) and player leaders. 35% of new players quitting on the first day falls directly on the staff that are designated to guide new players. 54.8% of these players quitting afterwards in the next few weeks are a sign that they weren’t integrated into a community quickly or well enough by the playerbase. But most importantly, Second, this is none of our fault. Look at that data again. 165 new players were accepted in a month. That’s almost six new players a day - players that aren’t announced that they’ve joined the server (thus the playerbase doesn’t know), and are entirely dependent on CT to be around; they won’t always be around, because this is a game that’s supposed to be fun instead of a chore. Take it from a former noob wrangler: settling in a new player is ridiculously difficult. You don’t drop them off at an inactive city and say, “Kumbaya!”. That’s a surefire way to have them quit. They need to be guided, taught, and placed in an engaging atmosphere as quickly as possible. And maybe, just maybe, our current way of making this happen is not working. No army of CT guides will have the availability nor time to properly incorporate every new player of every day. Neither do player leaders have the proper tools to get new players into their circles as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort. I'm a big fan of solutions aimed towards automation, such as expediting new players automatically to the settlements with the highest current player count. Once you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue against these kinds of solutions. That is for another thread, though. Conclusion There is absolutely no reason that we can’t dramatically improve our player count through addressing the challenges here. In fact, I’d bargain that this is our most pressing issue on the Road to 500. We can’t go anywhere when we are continuously losing 80% of our future nation leaders, storytellers, artists, and coders. It’s also one of the most addressable. Systemic changes made to the new player experience have immediate effects on our Retention Rate -- one that is now objectively measurable. This is a conversation that I am going to bring to the Community Team. In the meanwhile, I want to hear your thoughts about this.

♪♫♬♫♪ A public letter is posted to Theris Elibar'acal. "Theris, I have long been reluctant to play in these political games. It is a field of snakes, where good intention is smothered with propaganda and deceit. I have always withdrawn -- but your stupid bravery has forced my hand. Your plight for power ends on this day. Do not forget that I was there this last Elven eve, where you appeared to the shock of our citizenry, only to usher away in hushed secrecy with the Sohaer. I now know what was plotted. In one fell swoop, you have been risen to a position of antiquity, and have used it to assume that you are the leader of my sacred family, Elibar’acal. You are neither of these things. You have not been seen within the cihi, nor have your likes been seen amongst any of the Elibar’acal Talonnii, for which there are few. We have yet to vote for our leadership -- you would know this if you were present with your own blood. Do not presume to use the title of Medi’ir to seize my family by storm and use it to advance your political gambits. True progress happens in actions -- not empty words, such as “purging impurity” and “restoring culture”. You mean nothing. If this is the will of the Sohaer, then they mean little as well. All I see is the language of despots who use our culture to grip the population and purge dissent. I will convene with the Elibar’acal Talonnii and cast the intention of becoming Laurir. You will submit to my authority, and this ordeal will end. If you refuse, I will strip you of your Elibar’acal title and erase your name from the annals of our history. I have intervened, Theris Elibar’acal. Pray I do not involve myself in your vapid affairs much more. Irulan Elibar'acal"

@thesmellypocket A public response is penned to Father Pius after observations made in such an Orenian public journal. "Father Pius, You submit to your nation’s journal on religious authority. But for how long has this authority been vested? How many years has it taken to accumulate your insights? Perhaps you look to the youth in your parish gatherings, tap your greying hairs, and cite wisdom gathered over a long and well-lived lifespan. I will provide you perspective. I was born in the land of Asulon. I had become an elven adult when I watched bannermen of the White Rose and Orenian Empire sack Old Malinor. I heard the hushed rumors about what happened once Godfrey’s men breached the walls; of the elven civilians they immediately slaughtered, or the elven women that were dragged to the fate of a concubine, or worse. I now sit hundreds of years later by candlelight, likely penning the great descendent of one of these marauders, reading self-righteous drivel by the likes of “Supreme Good”, “Transcendence”, and “Higher Reality”. This again illustrates the inseparable veil between the likes of Elves and Man. Allow me to lend insight. There is no such thing as Supreme Good. Much as there is no such thing as the Orenian Empire. In what way can we say that the Orenian Empire exists? Is it the citizens? The Kingdom of Oren (in its past states) could declare itself as the Orenian Empire; every man, woman, and child of the Kingdom would instantaneously become an Imperial, despite having no participation in their lives beforehand. And by that same logic, if every citizen of the Orenian Empire were to drop dead, the Orenian Empire would still exist. It clearly does not reside in your citizenry. Does it then reside in your holdings? If every Imperial holding was to be taken by storm tonight, then the Orenian Empire would summon an army to retake them tomorrow. Is it the locale? Providence is not the Orenian Empire. It can move its location by Imperial decree to any held city overnight. There are many Imperial swords, shields, and armaments bearing Imperial insignias, but these are obviously not the Orenian Empire itself. You now see that the Orenian Empire is a myth the human race has created for themselves - much as Haelun’or is a fiction of the mali’thilln, and Urguan an idea made by the dwarves. I will illuminate your inferior mind, since you have chosen to cross the veil into a dialogue you are not recognized nor respected within. The centuries that separate us clarify many key differences. One is the ability to discern the irrationalities of our minds. You attempt to pry apart our wholly unique idea of purity before debasing it to something as irrefutable as divine transcendence. Neither exist. Both are fictions we tell one another to create networks of cooperation. These are the foundation of bands, tribes, kingdoms, and empires. The human race, however, is forever cursed to believe that they are true. You must. Your lives are pitifully short. Much of it has been bound in serfdom and the brutal, life-long sentences of laboring for subsistence. Your societies build fictions of superstition to ward away that which you do not know, which is much. You build value around gold, land, fame, and women (and punish for the lust of such) because there is such little time to acquire any of it. The Orenian Empire must be the bulwark because you are weak. Your transcendent god must be immaterial because you are ephemeral. The eerie reality is that we live in a world that does not care whether we live or die. There is no divine light to guide. Iblees’ temptations don’t actually lurk behind "sins" such as promiscuity or murder. And when we live in observation, we cannot know when reality itself came into being, or why. Our realm is one of many that are known. These realms contain hosts of separate gods, clawing over one another to fill our souls and use them as conduits for their celestial wars of power - they love us not. You and I are but droplets in a stream of souls without end, ceaselessly heading towards the blackness of death. This is your “inconvenient truth”, priest. Cling to your beliefs, and I will cling to mine. From one citizen to another, Irulan Elibar'acal"

Irulan Elibar'acal

♪♫♬♫♪ A letter of challenge is publicly posted throughout Haelun'or. To Daerine Elibar'acal, I hear the whispers of your treachery. I am told that you are bound by marriage to a worshipper of Xan; that you praise this deity’s tenants and mix with the mindless swine who bow to gods. I would readily condemn any thilln who lose their sanity to such things. And yet, the own Matriarch of the Elibar’acal Talonnii? I know you have read my words, mali’ata, so heed them once more! The past defines your family, and you cannot hope to escape it. I challenge your status as Matriarch, I challenge your worthiness of my ancestors’ blood. I challenge your purity. Meet me in debate, and let your words do what your actions have so clearly failed to demonstrate. May all mali’thilln witness and deem a champion of this contest. I await your response, Irulan Elibar’acal

(Photo is in 4k. Open in another tab & zoom!) I've been making assets for an ST video that should release soon. Figured I'd release this map as a standalone!

♪♫♬♫♪ The following document is submitted to the Eternal Library for public viewing. Do you, reader, seek to understand the ancient history of the Elibar’acal lineage? Perhaps you hope to peer into the antiquity of the first Silver Elves. This missive will touch on both. It is evident to me that we as a culture have drifted radically from our tradition whilst resting on those very same laurels to justify ourselves to friend or foe. Speaking of the Maer’sae Hiylun’ehya is nothing without knowing the foundation that has defined it. The Elibar’acal chronicles offer a glimpse into this past. You will undoubtedly find utility in this period piece, whether you are of my blood or not. But for those Elibar’acal who dare to read onward, The past defines your family, and you cannot hope to escape it. Signed, Irulan Elibar’acal “I am content to let you burn, elf. Your peoples’ knowledge means more to me than your obeisance ever shall.” Azdromoth chides Aiera Sullas during an Inferi assault upon Haelun’or, 1791 The Elibar’acal Talonnii were present with the ancient lineages whence the archetypal Haelun’or rose in Asulon. The intrigue of our family is commonly thought to have begun with Athri Elibar’acal’s purveying of Fi’hiiran’tanya. Many see this as the beginning of the Golden Owl’s exploits. However, this ‘anti-magic’ was instead the result of an accumulating divergent thought. The Elibar’acal of yore never aligned synchronously to the popular thought of Haelun’or. These progenitors took the dictates of Silver Law to its absolute extremes; they sought in study or debate to explore the concept of purity to its farthest reaching logical conclusion. Mali’aheral debate has always been encouraged within the confines of correct thought within silver society. The Elibar’acal Talonnii rarely fit inside. As such, they were an insular group, seeking long excursions beyond the silver walls to practice their methodology and escape the rigours of confinement. They were silver through and through - but some thought is better practiced outside the scrying eye of society. The Elibar’acal family returned with strange things to say and even stranger words. Their sentiment against voidal magic had always been an unconscious tremor in Haelun’or society. Now, formal methodology began to surface amongst the relatively few Talonnii members, and even rumors of dark secrets began to pair alongside these new findings. It would not be until much later that the thilln discovered what I had all those years ago. One may think of some visceral, illogical fear of magic whenever the word “Elibar’acal” comes to mind. Yet, in these olden days, it was only voidal magic that grew a contentious rift between my kin and the rest of our society. There was no single mali’thill in Lin’everal who approved of the worship or use of deitical magic. These beliefs were not based in superstition. Instead, they were founded on tentative self-preservation that marred much of Haelun’or past. The worship of spirits or gods was as forbidden as any other violation of silver law. They understood that if this law was broken, everything they sought to preserve would be vulnerable to loss. There is nothing rational about self-preservation. No empirical perspective can dole out why one group should survive and the other should perish. This reason left with Malin. This world is only just a still frame where many actors pass through - some pass briefly, and some linger for a great time. Some stay forever. We can rationalize why our practices ensure the best life lived, but there is no reason left for why the Mali’aheral must carry the existential elven burden. We preserve our kind because our being cannot help but demand it. We love the Mali'aheral because we are compelled to. This is the only emotional reasoning that I will allow to this philosophy. The mali'aheral build monolithic walls, reject outsiders, and scrutinize any change to protect our own. We foster mali'aheral children with an intensity that lasts far past adolescence; we treasure our own kind with the dearest diligence. Aenguls, daemons, or anything between do not care for the afforementioned values. And yet, modern Mali'aheral will welcome these gilded deities into their hearts and bind their eldritch creeds across silver scrolls and dwellings. They surrender their life and ties their souls to this outside, wayward cause, and proclaim that they have retained their free agency. They have not. There is no act of greater pride and arrogance than to surrender your life to something incomprehensibly more cunning and powerful than you. Nothing is more impure than rendering your immortal life in another being’s cause. The deities of this world are as old as time itself. However, they are not immune to its nature. They, like all other living things, are bound to a purpose. A foolish descendant believes that their own aspirations can align to a deity’s vision. It is never so. These mali become pawns in their ethereal schemes. Time will elevate them with a greater strata of power in this celestial domain, only to fade further and further from their normal recognition. Time only renders these lost souls as twisted caricatures of the spirit that inhabits them. When Malin abandoned our race, many mali were quick to turn to a vestige of authority. Malin had failed to instill the self-reliance needed to sustain the elves across an immortal lifespan. Our ancient Mali’aheral recognized this plight. Silver law is a codex made by the Mali’aheral, taught by the Mali’aheral, and only applicable to our likeness. The fair elves of silver chose themselves. All else, barred by city walls and strict law, may as well not have existed. Observe the permanent state of adolescence that the mali’ame dream within, or the black and twisted violence that cursed the mali’ker, and tell me that they have found a better way. The silver elves of Haelun’or have held the Maer’sae Hiylun’ehya since time immemorial. How much longer will you watch your kindred shout these words in our streets, only later to turn and bow beneath the altar of dragons and wicked patrons? “Ever sift sand through a screen? We Elibar’acal sift mali’aheral to find the Thilln.” Athri Elibar’acal remarks to Salazar, his young nephew, whilst surveying the lake of Lin’everal. There was a dangerous contradiction growing in the subconscious of the ancient Mali’aheral citadel of Lin’everal. The defiant pride of our ancestors enabled them to throw off the shackles of religion and embrace the infinite capabilities of an immortal society. It was this same hubris that persuaded an entire culture into thinking that this void could be replaced by the conjurings of their own mind. The early masters of Fi’hiiran’tanya came to a shocking discovery when the art was first practiced. They discovered that Fi’hiiran’seth, the voidal counterpart of ‘anti-magic’, and Fi’hiiran’acalae, the aenguldaemonic counterpart of ‘anti-magic’, were virtually identical in study and practice. They found nothing different when a pillar of light was snuffed out by their twin mists, voidal or religious in origin. This led to one conclusion: their origins were the same. The Elibar’acal were horrified to realize that the magical armageddon routinely wrought upon the Descendants was drawn from the same source that their fellow mali’aheral used to conjure mere fireballs and wards. My kind freed themselves from the dictates of gods, only to instead tap into the terrifyingly deep and black well of their power. As a result, we have been consistently destined to unveil the dread that lies between the far veil of our realms. Voidal monsters that emerge from the chasmous deeps, or tears of our reality’s fabric into depths not understood; these are the result of that which we do not know, and still deign to reach. This is the contention that my Elibar’acal kin made in those early days. If it is prideful to assume that one will never be the pawn in a deity’s machinations, the logical conclusion extends to the personless monolith of the Void. If you are too weak to discern your will and being from that of a greater power, how can you hope to understand the greatest of it all? What have we abandoned in the process? Many Mali’aheral aspire to master the void from an early age. It has been the zenith of academic rigour for as long as mali’aheral have kept standards. But as soon as an elf begins to learn of the void, they have effectively removed themselves from the study of their own world. Everything evolves through the lens of voidal conjuration. This elf deserts their native realm for something they know not. The result is always the same. A master mage is rarely content with the fruits of their labor. Decades, even centuries of toil manifest into a brief spectacle of brilliance, before the fragility of their frame wracks their constitution and rends them exhausted. This master mage will always search for the greatest state of knowledge and the latest discovery of power that they can claim for themselves. It will never suffice. In the end, they are more often than not left all the same: tired, hungering, and empty. “Go and call to your broken gods. You will find no response.” Valmuel Elibar’acal taunts a wood elf after severing her connection to the Aspects. The art of Fi’hiiran’tanya was cultivated then as a mockery to this long held standard. Athri Elibar’acal and his kin reached into the same realm of magic as his adversaries and conjured the antithesis to centuries of study and discipline. He not only sought to debase the mages’ ideas through debate, but through literal practice. What these magi have failed to see is the reality they had been inhabiting the entire time. There lies, in this present moment, a profound depth of knowledge and acuity left to master in the waking world. The sheer amount of objects, flora, and fauna overwhelm any single man, elf, or library. Much more are the social fundamentals that tie society together. Further yet is the mastery of the self, the complete control of the senses, and the sharpness to tell friend from foe. These abilities are not a given to the mali’aheral. We are fortunate to live long enough to master these mysteries of the world. Far too quickly do we instead turn to this void’s gratification and find cheap tricks at the end of a long road. Perhaps you have gleaned some value from these words. I know they undoubtedly affront your sense of truth and fiction. This is expected. Sit and still your mind. Evade the temptation of things beyond your knowledge, and instead attune yourself to the reality that is. This is the meaning of the Elibar’acal owl. We have valued vision as the primary virtue of our family before anything else. But this ability is not natural. Just as the moon cycles the luminosity of the stars, my kin may never have had the conditions align to experience this mastery of prescient vision. We have much to discover as a family, and as a people. Time will reveal all. The document is numbered, as though there were more of this likeness to be written.

(( !!! ))

All problems fall to the wayside when you treat the person in front of you with kindness and respect. There are other situations in roleplay (such as extreme conflict) where it can render other players uncomfortable, too. In either case, you should be accommodating out of character and ensure that the roleplay is staying in character. Stop the roleplay if the other person is genuinely bothered out of character. Full stop, it isn’t worth it. Lots of players don’t do this. I don’t buy the “realism” argument when these same people can be seen shouting the same slurs out of character in private Discords to anyone that’ll give them the time of day. I can accept racial tension in a fantasy setting. Root out everyone else who hides behind characters to play out racist fantasies. Edit: Matt makes great points above me. Roleplay is great when it is contained to roleplay. However, it feel it’s everyone’s duty to make sure those two worlds are separate.

Welcome back!

Irulan Elibar’acal pens a letter to the Soothsayer. ”These omens harken more to religious fantasia over anything that the thilln have culminated over centuries of reason and analysis. If you are so bold to lull mali’aheral into the thought practice of Druidic seers and orcish brutes, perhaps you will field me in a contest of values. I deign to meet you over tea in Haelun’or so that I may lay these ideas to rest. I eagerly await your response, Irulan Elibar’acal”

♪♫♬♫♪ The sky was a blood color. It had only gotten that way once the bright warmth of summer had come and passed. Now, the sky drifted it’s sanguine color towards the horizon and it’s sinking, hollow Autumn sun. A hooded figure stood alone in those vast sanded wastes, observing the celestial host as the passing of yet another season. It had become his only way of knowing time’s passage. Many suns set like that in three hundred years. His journey had brought him back from black, blasted wastes, and places unknown before even that. Onward he tread. In truth, the figure didn’t know where he had come from. Such things drift into irrelevance as years turn to centuries. But not all who wander are lost. No world can be so fruitless for long. The hooded figure emerged from these far lands and encountered society, civilization, and the triumph of Man. But it was not his home. He went forth into the eternal glades of lesser elves. Their wooded air was warm, sweet, and filled with beautiful songs, empty though they were. This sweet respite tempted the figure, and yet alas, it was not his home. The sun began to rise on the third day when he had found what he was looking for. Silver reflections shone on top of a suncrest hill. Brilliant radiance bore into the sky. Polished marble draped across this city’s great foundations. Spires reached towards the sky, and a great iron gate guarded the secrets of paradise to all but few. An ivory statue held post at this city’s entrance, with one arm outstretched and the other clasped and bound to an emerald staff. The first and progenitor, the sacred, the witch. The figure unbound the leather strands holding his hood together. Tufts of blonde hair fell outwards. Vivid, green eyes shone beneath. A letter, gripped in his palm, was wrapped with the seal of a most ancient house. “Home.” “To the mali’thilln of Haelun’or, Too long and vast have my journeys been. Now they must end. I come to you as an elf from our antique ages. I have not been inside the walls of elcihi since Anthos, in the time of Lin’everal. I write this letter with embarrassment and shame, however nomadic my kin are known to be. The duties of a thilln are to his own kind. I will accept your scrutiny at the gates. I will undergo a purity trial to attest the soundness of my mind. I will do whatever is necessary to resume serving the Maer’sae Hiylun’ehya, but first I must ask one question. Is my family still alive? Truly, Irulan Elibar’acal”

bored orenian teenagers will grow frustrated with the ever increasing bureaucracy of the state and formality of their peers, thus inventing microprocessors, thus inventing minecraft roleplay to reenact the conquests of prophet godfrey

that’s a thread killer, devvy. you’re an agent of chaos

you know what to do Alternative: Folk: Older stuff:

when 60fps hypes you, and you try 4x antialiasing, and you fly too close to the sun

Easy! Optifine & BSL Shaders. And arctic air to cool your GPU. 😞

My personal take is that banditry is an education problem. If you’re going to be a wizard, a warrior, or a scholar, you’re typically entering a support structure. There are established players in your niche that can show you the ropes and tell you what not to do. If a particular someone is acting out, fingers can almost always be pointed back to the person who failed to train them right. The PvP element of banditry removes that social privilege. Settlement dwellers don’t incorporate bandits in the social fabric of their roleplaying community; frequently, bandits are seen as the complete antithesis. Settlement dwellers give no room for forgiveness and almost always assume the ulterior motive that the bandit just wants to PvP and take their items. And if enough people assume that, why should this bandit care about roleplay quality? Why should they really cooperate with these hostile, selfish roleplayers? Banditry is an essential part of roleplay. Life isn’t safe – it was more so perilous in ancient times. Banditry encourages settlements to group their brains together and plan better cities, foster militaries, and create social cohesion. This healthy result is going to keep coming about in a toxic process until bandits are seen as part of the roleplay community. The solution? We need to talk about it more. We need forum guides that train fledgling bandits. We need nation leaders to teach cooperation to their playerbase, and we need bandit leaders to discipline their fledglings and give a standard to all bandits out there.