keruz wrote: ↑Wed 24 Mar 2021 2:25 PM
Interesting is his point and a classic example of political existence in the question of "Anarchists" VS "Legalists". The difference is that if you have a group of 8 players and put rules like: "Do not attack players alone or small groups smaller than 4". And if your group comes across an Anarchist duo, they don't want to follow rules or conduct, they will mezz your group, root, while the others will kill everyone 1 to 1, then you risk your group causing / disban or of them start to become anarchists, attacking anyone who appears. It is interesting how the policy impacts and works under the same regime as the pirate era, where even anarchists had to follow rules and regiments, otherwise, in time it would be the end of that universe and the DAOC is the same, the tendency is for it to exist a fall of new players and the old ones are getting tired / dying and the server dies.
Rules, conduct, healthy policies are necessary to maintain a universe in harmony between people, otherwise, there will only be a small group left that will soon destroy itself and we have the end.
These types of interactions between players in RvR are inherently anarchical regardless of what people are deciding to do. They cannot ever be truly legalist as there is not and cannot be a governing body dictating rules and controlling players' autonomy when it comes to the behaviors relevant to this conversation. Much like in the concept of a "pirate utopia" any rules of conduct must be horizontally integrated and accepted by all for them to stick. As we can see through posts here even though players are choosing to break the "rules" set forth by their group leaders there is little recourse as the top-down line of control coupled with harsh punishment one would expect from a legalist environment simply doesn't exist.
We have an environment in RvR where there is no possible framework to exert real control over the behaviors being discussed, and unlike in the real-world concept of the "pirate utopia" there isn't a meaningful fear of death, bodily pain, or ostracism coming from breaking the rules.
As a result one of two things is going to happen. The first possibility is that game's population dwindles down to the point where there are still soloers and FGs, but the community is tight knit enough where a horizontally integrated code of ethics could actually become relevant. The early stages of a limited anarchist utopia would begin to take shape.
Or the
far more likely option
Soloers are going to continue to be zerged down until the final soloer types /release for the final time and uninstalls; echoing the actions of so many that came before.
There is no question that braindead groups who in some way justify killing soloers/duos/small mans over and over again because they cannot compete with equal numbers are contributing to a slow decline in over all population. The natural state of anarchy we find in the frontiers needs to eventually have self-imposed order, a pirate's code, or else the population will eventually disperse and we will be left with a skeleton crew that will look hauntingly familiar.