[Odeseus]

Phrag, your intentions are well placed, but your logic is faulty. I think mainly because you simply care too much and have too high of standards for yourself. As Pico mention, step back from the game or else you're going to have a major meltdown sooner rather than later.

For one, you seem to be somewhat intelligent. So you must know that anonymity that the internet creates makes it MUCH MUCH MUCH more likely for a normally well-adjusted person to act like a total dick. I tend to view my character as a version of myself, and try to act like I would in RL (aka normal, repsectful, etc.). But you must know that this view is a minority in the world of video games. Many people here (and elsewhere) have no emotional connection to their characters. They buy and sell them, or use them as an outlet for things they wouldn't do in RL (ie, being mean).

Also, you have got to understand that not everyone follows your understanding of what is right. There is not, nor will there ever be, a complete and total consensus about what is right and wrong. Even if it is because some people will always be deranged enough to bend or break the rules of what is accepted and what isn't. And much of what you have a problem with is simply your opinion. And you cannot force your opinions on the rest of the people. You can try, but on the internet it simply won't work. You have to be smart enough to realize this.

Now for your actual post.

1. I've played EQ before--classic--a lot. Druid by the name of Demoree on Innoruuk had most of my time--ended up I think just inside of level 52 before I quit right after PoP was released. I'm new to the server, not the game.

How does this matter at all? Almost everyone here has played EQ in the past in some aspect. I personally played for 10 years. But let's be honest, how does this matter in the least? You know how to play the game.....so what?

but I can still appeal to common sense

Common sense is not common. You should know this by now. Don't rely on it because people will let you down.

I'm sure that everybody here who cares about the server's sustainability already knows all this and has spent enough time thinking about it for it to have already sunk in--but if you claim to care about the server and still treat people badly, maybe it hasn't

You put too much faith in people. The VAST majority of the population doesn't think about the relationship between the sustainability of the server and their actions. We are playing to have fun playing a game that we enjoy. That is about as far as it goes, to be honest. We simply do not make that connection that you want to make. Instead, most players have to goals: 1) have fun 2) get gear. That's as complex as it gets.

If one of them leaves because you were a dick to him, you have 699. If twenty of them leave because you and four friends made the game unenjoyable for them, you have 680. If a few small guilds leave because they're overwhelmed and denied access to content because your guild has a policy of being inconsiderate, you have 600 (I'm not alleging any of this; it's hypothetical). Do you see where I'm going here?

Slippery slope. What is the connection between acting like a dick and people quitting? Honestly, there is no stats or information to back this up. It is all your opinion yet again. The only way to get this stat is to have a survey about former p99 players to find out why they left. And it is my opinion that the difficulty of leveling and/or getting money/gear, and lack of content at 50 if you don't feel like poopsocking would be MUCH MUCH MUCH higher than "people were mean to me."

if the only people left to play it with are pricks who would jack a camp I've held for 12 hours if I die and it takes me 60 seconds to get back to it?

No where in your original telling of the story did you mention about where the chanter was bound. I try to bind near where I'm camping so I can go back to it if I die. Most people will let you go back to a camp, but there are many factors that go into this that you willfully ignore. Such as: desirability of the camp, difficulty of the camp, location of the camp, etc. Each of these changes for each camp. Such as camps in the Paw that I like to frequent. Often I can go back if I have to gate and/or die, simply because not many people are in the zone to notice I'm gone, nor are the camps super desirable. AC is about THE most desirable camp, it is easy to get to (at least in SRo), it is VERY easy (just boring) among other things. You simply can't demand everyone be super nice for these kind of camps, because it won't happen.

What happened between the members of VD and Rilen was wrong. That's the long and short of it. It was legal (legal, at least if the camp meets the definition of a camp under the server rules, and since I haven't seen any staff interpretation on the definition or application to this particular area of the game world, I'm not prepared to take a position on that), but what happened was fundamentally unjust. That means something to me.

It was wrong IN YOUR OPINION. How many times do I have to repeat that? Just because you see something is wrong, doesn't mean that it is. You are not the ultimate arbiter of what is wrong and what is right. Some people that democracy is evil as hell. Most Americans would think just the opposite. Some people like to eat rats, squirrels and bugs. I think that is disgusting but who the hell am I to make some grand judgment?

I have read everything that you have posted, and have responded to the best of my ability. Your move.