Criticism & Suggestion.

Criticism & Suggestion.
If I posted this thread in the wrong forum, I would appreciate it if you could please move it away as I felt like this is the most appropriate place for me to post my thread, thank you.

Let me state that I appreciate our GMs, this is not their job, making sure that our community is staying clean from RWT, toxicity, and anything that can hinder our gameplay, from making sure that big boss runs like PB go smoothly to taking care of small issues.

I know from first-hand experience, that moderating a community and pushing decisions can be rough sometimes, especially when you have a personal connection to some of the players, I can empathize with all of the above, but, with that being said, while it's not their job, it is a responsibility that each of them willingly took over and some of the decision and way of approaching situations do need to be looked over.





A few days ago, there was a big RWT ban wave that went over multiple timezones, usually, people who played the game for a while can spot some of the IGNs that got banned, "Oh I know this person" or "Damn I ran X with this character the other day" are common phrases that you hear, in other cases, you see smegas cheer for such ban waves, justifying and pushing validity, but, at what cost?

I always try putting myself in other people's shoes when I see an issue, and by that try to understand to the best of my abilities the situation, having your name advertised to the public, labeling you as a RWT or pushing any other offense is a valid punishment in my eyes - As long as it's true. But, what if it's not?
In exchange for such service from our GMs, people's names are being dragged through the mud, players who spent years investing themselves into the game, doing things legitimately, from minor offenses to bigger ones.
In short - damaging players' reputation, aka defamation, and most importantly, thinning our already small community of dedicated player base down.


To be fully transparent, one of the people who got banned is a close friend of mine which is the reason I'm typing this post, in my personal opinion, and based on knowing the dude for over a year and a half by now, I see him as innocent, he legitimately the last person I'd ever see RWT as he grinds the game day in and day out to achieve his goals, but you see, this is my biased opinion speaking here, which I'm 100% aware of, but at the same time, being a close friend with him also allowed me to glanced at the process behind the scene, what happens when someone who (to my personal opinion) is innocent has to go through.

What a banned player has to do? what a banned player can he do? and the answer - A player needs to appeal in the forums while answering convicting questions, he is not presented with evidence, he is not presented with a 'fair trail', no matter how much good faith you have in these discussions, there is one person with all the information, while the banned player is trying to keep up with questions to satisfied the GMs conviction, being presented with nothing but a wall of questions, His 'trial' is a onesided, one that has no jury or judge in it, just a conviction based on very blurry and broad questions.

After my friend got banned, I asked a GM about his ban, and in response, I was told:
"Theres evidence cuz why else would he have been banned"

This makes me wonder what kind of evidence can incriminate you enough to be publically defamed by a small group of people that has power over the game, what does it take to genuinely press the 'ban' button? because, from what I can tell so far, as long as you got the thinnest of them connections, even if it means a little bit of brain exercises to connect you to a MAYBE you were given an item or sold an item or got rich too quickly, you are on the chopping board, having no regard towards your character as a person, how long you have been playing, having no reflection towards your past action. This is a big concern to me as it shows me lazy moderation, the moment you don't judge a case by itself, but rather look at a group of people altogether, can create a collective punishment attitude that won't show forgiveness or empathy towards people who get caught in the crossing fire. It's taking action before taking a second to think about the consequences of your actions that can create confusion.

Not too long ago, a GM banned a 30 man PB squad which created a big topic of discussion, to me, the thing that I have always missed from this ban process is transparency (besides the specific case I just pointed out, in which ML GMs were transparent), accountability over our GMs decisions.

If we advocate for fairness and strive for fairness, let's all be fair to one another.
Thank you for reading.