If it's not fun, why bother?
A rather short, simple, but wise speech from Reggie Fils Aime, the ex-President of Nintendo America.
Lord of The Craft is a server I have dedicated thousands of hours to, an over a decade playing. Yes, for better or for worse. Despite what you might be thinking, given the title, I am not going to give a negative overview of any group, or the server as a whole, but rather just talk about something that's been racking inside my brain for a bit now. Yes, the server has some issues, but I'd rather give a positive suggestion which might be worth mulling over.
If a game is not fun, if a group is not fun, then why are we spending our free time playing it or playing with them? It's beyond simple, but if you've spent long enough of LoTC you know people can forget the most basic point of this server -- to have fun. To enjoy yourself. If it's not fun, why bother? But even more: If you're not making fun, why bother?
Halo 3 had a behind-the-scenes documentary where several developers were interviewed. The main weapons designer said, "The most basic design of a gun in a videogame is something that is fun to shoot, and fun to be shot at.". It's easy to grasp that a gun in a game is supposed to be fun to shoot, I mean, if it's not fun, why bother? But it's the second point that is critical, possible moreso than the first. If a gun is not fun to be shot at with, then it is boring, or worse, unfun. If the enemies you fight are unfun, then, well, if it's not fun...
So, for LoTC, you as a player are a bit like a 'gun' in a shooter game. You should play, and you should have fun shooting, but the people on the other end should be having fun getting shot at. How often do we really think of this? How often do we look at out character, our group, our nation, and instead of thinking "that is cool!" we think about how fun it is for others to interact with us?
Some people will never be happy losing. They're wet blankets, and mary-sues who cannot fathom the idea of ever losing anything. Even a little. But I've been here long enough to see some horrid villainy RP as well. Raiders, dark mages, militant groups - they all sometimes forget the second half of our 'gun' design. It may be fun to curbstomp a bunch of newbies and slice-of-life RPers, but is it fun for them? It certainly can be, but I think most reading this post will agree that sometimes it isn't, it feels like you are essentially being bullied for the entertainment of someone else, while you get to enjoy 15 minutes of being humiliated.
So, as an idea, go into your next batch of villainy RP, whichever side you're on, and try to make it your goal to make the other person enjoy losing. Be a 'gun' that is fun to shoot, and fun to be shot at with. Because if it isn't fun, why bother?