I've been reading the PVP thread and i've decided to post this because I have the impression what I was about write could be used as an analogy to better understand how Amia works in regards to it's sociological and psychological tendancies.

I wish to emphasise it's my theory based on my experience, analysis, and OOC expertise so in no way I wish to vouch it's the absolute truth.

Furthermore, my goal is to encourage people to think and perhaps see things in a deeper perspective, see what's under the tip of the iceberg.

Finally, I certainly wish to offend no one with what I am about to write. I will accept any constructive criticism. French is my first language so pardon my limited vocabulary and literary skills.

Amia- The Teddy Bear Vibe

In modern psychology, one school of thought is that of the Reality Therapy. The bases are that everyone acts to better suit their needs, the intentions are always good, it's rather the means to reach what each person wants that are at fault and don't always work out.

Reality Therapy , of course, is much more than that, but i'd like to direct attention to a diagram in link with that approach.

The Courage-Consideration Axis




COURAGE

C THE TURTLE THE SHARK
O
N
S
I
D
E THE FOX
R
A
T
I
O
N THE TEDDY BEAR THE DOLPHIN



To explain what that all means, there are two factors involved in resolving a conflict. Courage and Consideration.

The Turtle remains hidden in his or her shell, prefering to avoid conflict, not wishing to offfend anyone, and not possessing the courage to resolve
a confict anyhow.

The Shark does have courage, voices loud and clear when he or so disagrees, but without much consideration for others which often results in harming
the relationships.

The Fox is somewhat in between, always compromising....it's not all bad, it's just that both parties are always left with half of what they want. Nobody's ever truely satisfied.

The Teddy Bear has alot of consideration and tender loving care for others, though he doesn't always have the courage to voice out loud and clear when "enough is enough". Think tender loving parent with next to no discipline towards her children.

The Dolphin is the ideal goal to pursue, has the courage to voice out his or her opinion, the will to resolve conflict, courageously, though has in mind the consideration of others in a way that preserves the relationship.


ANALOGY:

Some more Hardcore RP servers use the SHARK approach. Which is, This is what we decide, if you're not happy with it, just leave. The good side is they voice out the rules clearly , LOUD and clear. They have the courage to control the server when enough is enough. Though, on a less positive note, they're are more-or-less interested in what the players have to say because they already have their idea on what's going to be decided. They punish offenders harshly, and the IG mechanics reflect upon what they want as an RP server. Expect level losses upon death and 15 xp a kill with monsters that can petrify you at every turn. ( virtually)

Amia, in my opinion. Is more of the TEDDY BEAR approach. The positive side is DM's are very, friendly. They go out of their way to create quests for players, they're open to discussion, they take player input and are considerate of the players who play on the server. That shouldn't change IMO, I prefer that than "being yelled at and punished" at first offense because, say, I broke a minor rule I wasn't even aware about.
Though, is this going to far? Reading the extremely long rule about PVP led me to think to myself: It's as if AMIA didn't want to lose player -LOVE-, it's as if, in many situations they asked player input, and if the players disagreed, they wouldn't take action. I know AMIA is a player based server, but still....DM's are supposed to be there to draw the line and are in the postion of authority here.

For me it's like a parent asking her five year old child what they want to eat every single day. This encourages the child to become picky, gives WAY too much power to a five year old , power which he doesn't have the experience to use with maturity. So it ends out being "Cookies and chocolate milk" every day, or else the child screams, shouts, bites....refuses to eat.

It's an -example-! I'm not calling players five year olds mind you, it's just used as a metaphor!

IMO, DM's don't have any problems with the "nice and respectful part", but c'mon, YOU'RE THE BOSSES! Shove us around from time for our own good. We're not in charge here. But please continue doing so with care and consideration.

We're spoiled brats, really. And many of us don't even have the consideration to thank you for that.

But I will, thanks for -caring- and being so considerate of us.

Afraid the player base will go down? So...? Can't please everyone.

A mother who doesn't have the courage to discipline her children , well, that makes unhappy children anyhow.

Children, and grown ups too need boundaries, rules, and need to be stopped when they cross the line.

I'm not saying AMIA has NO boundaries....i'm just saying perhaps AMIA caters to player's needs to much.

Psycho

I don't get your point. Are you saying the players are too soft, or that the DMs are too soft? What's this have to do with the PvP rules exactly? You keep shifting your train of thought here.

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Perhaps you should express yourself in a less avant-garde fashion next time, if you want to encourage people to think on the subject, rather than puzzle over the eccentricities of your labyrinthine mind.

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feel the blood gushing from your anusfeel the blood gushing from your anus

From the few points I pulled from this, I have to say that I disagree. First of all there is an entire -26 page thread- that proves this little statement wrong. Many people who are active on the server/in events/in factions or otherwise show a lot of gratitude to the DM team. That being said, I know that on occasion I have been kept in line both IC and OOC by several DMs through various means when things get out of hand for some reason.

Most importantly, I realize it's a 'metaphor' in your post, but I feel it needs to be addressed. I don't know of any five-year-olds on the server. In fact, the majority of us are functioning adults, many of which have been RPing for years. So, it's not the job of the DM team to slap ice cream cones out of our hands (some do it anyways just for the fun of it <_<), or babysit our every encounter to keep us on a tight leash. We should be able to work things out and play responsibly. It doesn't always happen that way, but that's the fault of the individuals in the playerbase not the DMs.

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I completely disagree. We seem to have very different ideas about the role of the DMs. Amia's general openness and lack of arbitrary, DM-taste drive control is not due to a lack of courage but a conscious ideology. Though the executive bosses, the DMs are chosen from the playerbase and represent our interests. For practical reasons there's no direct democracy here, and there shouldn't be. But the day DMs forget their ultimate responsibility to the sever and playerbase and begin to enact a unilateral vision would be the day they lose their legitimacy. That doesn't mean they can't make hard decisions contrary to popular opinion, but it does mean that we're in every way their equals. We're not their "guests" here playing on "their server" (as you hear all too often on some other servers) and as such it's only appropriate that they listen to player feedback.

Why is this in Improving Amia, anyway?

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I disagree with you here, but I find your opinion interesting.

Especially when you say that "we're in every way their equals". We are, humanly....but in regards to the Amian server, they're Dungeon Masters.

Their job is to assist, create RP, make sure the rules are respected, they have the final word on everything that happens on Amia, or at least should.

I'm in no way implying I encourage arbitrary ruling, Supremacy, strictness to the point individual players are disrespected in the process.

But I also, for one, don't want to feel my "friend" watches over me as I watch over him or her.

As another risqué metaphor, I dare say it's like a sixteen year old teenage girl talking about her mother saying how she's "her best friend ever".
I can tell you by experience as I work with troubled teens "cool moms", well....they mostly lack discipline and their teenagers basically boss them around.

Mothers aren't best friends, mothers are mothers.

DM's are Dungeon Masters, they're not players. They are higher in the hierarchical ladder than us which is perfectly fine and as it should be.

They can be understanding, have good listening skills, be kind....but they aren't on the same level we are and I like feeling like THEY'RE in control, not us.
It's perfectly fine for us to -influence- them, for them to ask how we see things. But THEY'RE the bosses here.


I might be the only person who thinks that way, but so be it.

*shrugs*

Sure, DMs can take charge and make whatever changes need to be made without your puny consent. Like the way I just moved this thread out of IA and into a forum where more players will descend upon it like Paula Deen on fried green tomatoes.

...Are the tomatoes fried in butter? I don't see Paula Deen going for it otherwise.

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I'm done. Goodbye.

So delicious, in'nit?

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feel the blood gushing from your anusfeel the blood gushing from your anus

Very well, Yossarin.

After what I wrote, your reaction doesn't surprise me.

I do somehow feel as if I opened "Pandora's Box" or something.

I don't see anything wrong in stirring things up and creating respectful debate, even if most seem to disagree with me.

Oh well.

I didn't want to offend anyone though.

Edit: In case anything is misinterpreted, I'd give DM's here an easy 8.5 to 9 out of ten. They're fantastic.
I just wanted to put things into perspective, and yes, I still believe we're spoiled on Amia.

Let's take a moment.

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Imyrr - "I need your heartbeat to haunt me, your cold lips to breathe, a promise; that tomorrow I'll wake up somewhere new."

Can I take it with you, baby?

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

y u no continue 'Deen references?

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feel the blood gushing from your anusfeel the blood gushing from your anus

Allow me to remind you:

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Not good enough for a 10??? The DMs are gonna kill all your characters with goldy wrath if you are not pious! Kneel before your gods!

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While I can definitely see the point you're trying to get across here, I still think you went a tad bit too far with your analogy of "Amia DM Team equals parents that spoil their kids". This server is anything but ruleless. The DM Team just banned wing-obscuring cloaks from Dragon Disciples, a few weeks ago. Does that sound teddybeary to you?

Just because Amia isn't a so-called Hardcore RP server where, like you said, you have to face off against multiple petrification gaze enemies which net you a whopping 15 experience points per kill, or have to write a ten-page essay just to earn a +2 Longsword, doesn't mean it's spoiling us rotten. It just focuses on entertaining gameplay instead of punishing hunt/RP grindfests.

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Inactive as of November 28, 2013

Hey! Who let in grown-ups?

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"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupry

I am a Teddy Bear. No doubt.

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I wish to apologize publically.

I went too far with my analogies.

By far, this is the server where I've had the best experiences with the DM team and the players.

And, as an afterthought, with the risqué post I posted, it would probably have granted me a temporary forum ban on other servers where DM's are perhaps less considerate of the players opinions. Which makes me lucky DM's aren't Sharks here. ( I hope I used that last metaphor right )

If I could change what I wrote in a perhaps less condescending way, i'd simply suggest that DM's keep doing the great work they've been doing which we all appreciate and thank them while giving them a friendly nudge to tell them that they're the bosses and I trust their judgment if they need to take decisions everyone doesn't agree with.

Thanks DM whose name I unfortunately don't remember that assisted me twice for that abandoned summon request for the Rakshasa I wanted for another character. He went out of his way to provide RP for me.

Thanks for that other DM that gave Kushi a lesson she won't forget in Cordor. You know who you are. It was intense and I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for Huggles who provided RP for Kushi and Corinn with that possessed book ... twice... I wuv you. Honestly, your friendly and often cute public shouts offering assistance to anyone make me smile every time. Kudos for your generosity.

For all those DM's who do DM events which are always pretty fantastic.

For PaladinofSune who created my awesome custom feat.

For Ex-DM Tormak if I remember right who took care of one of one of my rebuilds.

And for all the others, I'm sure i'll remember more and more examples after I write this post, but for the moment those are ones that come to my mind.

Oh! For acknowledging good RP with DC's, be it for me or all the others. That's a really cool feature that only exists on Amia and I get excited every time I hear that wonderful little "chime" sound!

I'm somewhat of a jerk sometimes OOC, please forgive me.

If you want to lock the topic as I think there's much MORE than the DM team does right than does wrong, I rather they stay exactly the way they are than become too harsh, come to think of it.

I'm a little ashamed right now.

I feel as if I practically bit the hands that feed me.

I don't think your analogies are offensive. I just think they're inaccurate. No need to apologize for that.

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And hey! DM's are players too! and they are also here to have fun!

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I am not weird, I am limited edition

Yeah, don't worry. We're not offended in the least. Its certainly not the first time this has been expressed to us either. And I'll be damned the moment I stop accepting criticism.

I think its a little difficult for me, personally, to be a 'shark'. My enjoyment comes from your enjoyment, so I'd rather be more flexible to see that player interests are being met.

I prefer this to being a shark.

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