--- A lot of us back in the day used to log in for 10-15 minutes of PK between classes or after we did our BS work in a computer class in highschool.

That's what has changed. Obviously CF exists in a different climate than before, and kids find more engaging games, but even still there are obviously high schoolers burning summer on CF. The thing that changed is a contingent of Immortals and players who felt the game *could* be played in some shallow manner. That is, "PKers" and "griefers" were somehow not participating in the same sense of "RPers" and "more complete" players.

I think the very distinction is not helpful; we all have played CF for thousands of hours because we enjoy it. There are no PKers and there are no RPers. We enjoy it because it is immersive and because we are immersed with other humans. We could probably all have this from some graphical equivalent, but those games cannot be quite so compelling as our imaginations and text. Different aspects of the game seem to appeal to different players -- they think that is what they're in it for -- but how do you know? We must accept that the allure of CF is complex, layered and intertwined. Why the fuck did I enjoy green on black text so much?

I think I mostly enjoyed PKing in any fashion, especially clever ones... but the RP ecosystem, the cabals, are what created an ebb and flow to motivate and add gravity to the PK. We "PKers" have always been active in RP in that sense, and in the sense that your PKing must align with your race/align/etc.

Someday somebody decided that wasn't enough. I think his name was Valguarnambla. Anyway, if you log on for 15 minutes, try to PK in the acceptable parameters of the RP guidelines and your characters cabal, and log off, this is wrong? Who cares. Did you enjoy yourself? Did the players you fought enjoy themselves? Did you contribute to the RP ecosystem by PKing within your character's enemies only? The 'bloody' timer for quit/guild entry enforce logoff to be somewhat distant from pk. You cannot log on, try to blackjack someone with your thief, and flee/logoff before they can bash. You can log off as soon as you're not bloody. That's fine!

In other words, CF got more serious. That's all Trewyn was saying to start my rant.

The culture of CF is as important as the code of CF; the culture has changed. It's about fun. It's about friends. It's about immersion. We can set forth some simple rules instead of these complex suggestions that would have difficult to predict side effects. For instance, some possible guidelines for players seeking to improve CF:

1. Don't ruin your own fun or other people's.
2. Don't play alone.
3. Don't break the immersion (e.g. with artificial "sportsmanship*")

k, thx, bye.



(* secondary rant: not looting dire enemies is like communing heal on them during your next fight. Regearing didn't used to be hard; basics are 80 and a full set of uniques gets you to 100. I imagine it's still not hard. When you act like we all just finished a great ping-pong match, it ruins the immersion. When you bitch about getting [full]looted, it ruins the immersion. It's terrible RP. The worst. It's going OOC, way OOC. There seems to be a current cultural problem in CF and its more anti-RP than anti-PK. It's only a game to you. To your character, it's a life.)