Hurray! Another long OP post!
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:40 am
Atysians, I call on all Atysians to rise up and break the Hegemony that has dominated our world for to long. What, another Kami vs. Kara rant? No, I mean the Hegemony of the same guilds holding the high level OPs month after month. The factional (kami v. kara) nature of the existing alliances makes us slaves to the hegemons. To even get a taste of the "rewards" of a high level OP, one must join the hegemons, ally with them, or otherwise go begging for a scrap. Trade of course is possible, but the hegemons can obviously dictate the terms.
This is my suggestion then. Let us (all Atysians) take the OPs from the hegemons and hand them over to someone else. It doesn't really matter who or what faction. If the factions feel the OP must remain in faction hands, so be it. Let us ask the new owners to treat the OP like a community OP (or share in whatever way they want). Regardless of whether they treat it like a community OP or hoard the rewards, after one month, we (the homins of Atys) take it over again and hand it over to someone else.
Who gets to take over? It doesn't matter how the choice is made, lottery, vote, duels, contests, alphabetical, whatever. They'll only hold it a month and as long it doesn't go to the same guilds over and over, any breaking of the hegemony is good thing.
As for the hegemons, I call on them to participate willingly. Show your true heroism and leadership by being able to walk away from your OP with dignity and grace (assuming the community can defeat your best defensive effort). A truly noble and heroic guild would not need to cling to an OP month after month.
Let me add this, since it needs to be said upfront. As far as I know, ALL of the holders of the of the high level guilds ARE generous with the OP products and DO SHARE with people including Freely giving cats to Complete Strangers (I can atest personally to this). I have received free cats and mats from many of the guilds (Karavan AND Kami) holding the high level OPs. I am NOT accusing any guild of being selfish in any way. I Bow to each of them for their generosity and their political and military ability to retain their OPs for so long.
Nevertheless, I believe that 1) hegemony on Atys is a negative overall, 2) the factional nature of the existing power structure is detrimental to the community overall, 3) some shakeup of the status quo would be a fun and interesting development. The Kami and Karavan will in the end need to unite to defeat the kitin. We should not let factional differences make homins eternal enemies of homins.
Disclosure: As I post this, I am a member of the Kami alliance. I post this without consulting them and whether I am cast out of the Kami alliance for my heretical position is up to them. Let me add that the Kami alliance is a friendly and honorable group which I encourage any devout Kami to join.
(Hegemony (Wikipedia definition): the dominance of one group over other groups, with or without the threat of force, to the extent that, for instance, the dominant party can dictate the terms of trade to its advantage; more broadly, cultural perspectives become skewed to favor the dominant group. Hegemony controls the ways that ideas become "naturalized" in a process that informs notions of common sense.)
Lastly, I didn't post this in the sticky OP thread because that thread seems to be dealing with ways to change/improve the mechanics of the world/game. I say we need to deal with the world/game as it is.
This is my suggestion then. Let us (all Atysians) take the OPs from the hegemons and hand them over to someone else. It doesn't really matter who or what faction. If the factions feel the OP must remain in faction hands, so be it. Let us ask the new owners to treat the OP like a community OP (or share in whatever way they want). Regardless of whether they treat it like a community OP or hoard the rewards, after one month, we (the homins of Atys) take it over again and hand it over to someone else.
Who gets to take over? It doesn't matter how the choice is made, lottery, vote, duels, contests, alphabetical, whatever. They'll only hold it a month and as long it doesn't go to the same guilds over and over, any breaking of the hegemony is good thing.
As for the hegemons, I call on them to participate willingly. Show your true heroism and leadership by being able to walk away from your OP with dignity and grace (assuming the community can defeat your best defensive effort). A truly noble and heroic guild would not need to cling to an OP month after month.
Let me add this, since it needs to be said upfront. As far as I know, ALL of the holders of the of the high level guilds ARE generous with the OP products and DO SHARE with people including Freely giving cats to Complete Strangers (I can atest personally to this). I have received free cats and mats from many of the guilds (Karavan AND Kami) holding the high level OPs. I am NOT accusing any guild of being selfish in any way. I Bow to each of them for their generosity and their political and military ability to retain their OPs for so long.
Nevertheless, I believe that 1) hegemony on Atys is a negative overall, 2) the factional nature of the existing power structure is detrimental to the community overall, 3) some shakeup of the status quo would be a fun and interesting development. The Kami and Karavan will in the end need to unite to defeat the kitin. We should not let factional differences make homins eternal enemies of homins.
Disclosure: As I post this, I am a member of the Kami alliance. I post this without consulting them and whether I am cast out of the Kami alliance for my heretical position is up to them. Let me add that the Kami alliance is a friendly and honorable group which I encourage any devout Kami to join.
(Hegemony (Wikipedia definition): the dominance of one group over other groups, with or without the threat of force, to the extent that, for instance, the dominant party can dictate the terms of trade to its advantage; more broadly, cultural perspectives become skewed to favor the dominant group. Hegemony controls the ways that ideas become "naturalized" in a process that informs notions of common sense.)
Lastly, I didn't post this in the sticky OP thread because that thread seems to be dealing with ways to change/improve the mechanics of the world/game. I say we need to deal with the world/game as it is.