
Originally Posted by
TimeTrx
Notice: This is an Opinion Article and may not accurately depict the site in your views. That being said this is still a serious discussion and should be treated as one. Remember this is my view on the situation taken from my personal viewing of forum, game and messages.
Analysis of the site and the direction it is heading.
There is an old saying, look before you leap, in short it means know what your doing before you go off and do it. At times the site seems to follow the saying, but most of the time it doesn't and takes its own path. In particular the site follows a sort of twisted path bending back and forth between the two classes on the site in a vicious cycle. I am of course referring to the (elite) staff class and the (have-not or poor) members class. Both seem to be at fault but none of these classes wish to end the cycle and the result not only hurts the site but the whole community itself. I will start with problems with the lower class.
Essentially the lower class or regular members of the site are all the members not included in staff (assuming no immediate class). These members from the biggest group by far but hold little to no power. There only power lies in the mass majority of the combined group, as without them the site and game would surely die. As without them there would insufficient members to keep the game going. However through the time spent on this site have become corrupt and jealous of the elite class. Thus they use there mass and knowledge of this fact to cause as much grief to the elite class as possible, because they think the staff is weak. As there is no rule of law, they see the elite staff as lazy weak leaders. Everything from breaking the rules in game to making the community look bad by breaking rules on the forums and making the staff clean up there mess. There are even clans in-game which only purpose is to piss off the players and make it hard on the elite class, until they are caught and the cycle continues only this time with an group of accounts that change in a cycle, once the regular is unbanned the alt becomes banned and so on and so forth. These specifically look for dissent of the elite class to add to there membership, as I have been given an invitation into these groups, and although I declined I was really tempted. What is increasingly becoming obvious however is how much the staff class relies on the work of regular members to stay afloat. To test this, I game-threw about a dozen games (making it obvious like calling out fellow mafia members), all without staff present in games of course, to test how many times I would be reported to the staff. Although the results are not yet in, I have not been even put on the watch-list, nor do I think I will ever be without the proof. Hence the staff needs the regular members on its side, however they have only pushed themselves farther and farther in the last year and a half. So the members could stop the cycle by stop trolling and being productive members that improve the community instead of pissing off the staff, will this happen, no.
The elite staff is where all decision save for a few small decisions are made. There biggest problem is has been the lower regular member class and how to deal with them. To them most if not all the lower class is scum and thus have distanced themselves from them. Most members that become staff are trusted members of the site that have earned the trust of the elite staff class. Once they see how the lower class act often cut off most contact with them and keep to inside channels of communication (staff section and staff skype channel), they of course remain very active but only with themselves and begin to believe they are better. This is the downfall that keeps the cycle going and although the staff has more structure and resources to stop the cycle, it allows it to continue though inaction. Instead of stepping in and enforcing the rule of law, the staff except for the most serious of cases (e.g. hacking the site) turns a blind eye or gives a slap on the wrist punishments (e.g. suspected hacking of the site gives you 2 days ban). The rules on the site are so generally defined that most staff break there own rules, again only the most serious are enforced. The system itself is rather arbitrary and not just. You also need to start more community events like there used to be. The staff refuses to be apart of the greater community because of the problems and rather then stepping up to the bat and fixing the problems. It sits back and allows it to continue and breeds the feeling of the elite among the lower class. Which itself keeps the circle going, for example the Crleon Clan uses it status to piss up every non-elite member of the game and turning popular opinion against staff, as a lot of staff are apart of this clan members believe themselves are above others. I had to get into a fake fight with an admin and post about it for them to start 'noticing' me. Basically it is staff who can change the direction everything is going a lot easier than the lower class members. It also needs the lower class to continue which is odd as it abuses its status and like a tower will collapse if the bottom falls out from it.
Essentially the cycle of hate between these groups only farther divides them. I'm not saying either one is right, essentially both classes are wrong. The lower class needs to stop trolling, pissing staff off and start making this a better community. Staff needs to step up to the plate and enforce rules, get more involved with the community and needs to stop thinking itself as a society that is better the average member. If something doesn't from either side this is what will happen, you will slowly lose the lower class and like a tower the elite upper class will fall hard and fast before you know it. I'm not saying this will happen in a week or a month or even a year, but it will catch up to you eventually unless something changes.
P.S. Please keep me posted if I get any gamethrow reports against me, I want to see how the majority will currently help staff, if they do. Again this is my opinion and my views from my experience and you may see things differently.