Gwev had many good experiences, and as a character he would do almost anything for a friend. I think many would attest to that, Kelteon being an easy example. But despite more than a decade at cf I am still amazed at the ability of players to lie, or, if we are to be extraordinarily charitable, to be so spectacularly mistaken as to amount to the same thing. And then to try and spread the lies both ic and ooc. What was particularly impressive was the scope of the lies, and how most of you are not willing to take a mere second's thought, which was all that was necessary identify them as lies. But no, you didn't, and so now we must go through them.
One: Full looting/sacrificing. I hereby offer all of you who lied and said this was done to step up like men, admit you lied and apologize. Doing so now will show some integrity and will have value. I make this offer because I have a good portion of Gwev's life and pk's logged and in a few weeks, after my current case settles down a bit, I will go through them and post the logs. But you don't need to see the logs, you know the truth because you were there, and so you can admit you lied (or, in the charitable mode, were remarkably mistaken). If you wait until the logs are posted to apologize though, such apology will have little if any value, as you only do it because you've been shown out to the world and been left without option. Anyone can do that.
At the same time I also offer any and all of you a challenge, to post any logs of Gwevfeldr actually full looting and sacrificing equ so that you were left with nothing. Anyone. Even Harol or Sanato (who deserved it, but even they were never full looted and sac'd, despite Kanye's tantrums on the forum). Of course no such logs will be posted (look for excuses like "I don't log" or "I lost that one" or "I was told that by X and he never lies!" or some such), and if anyone actually took a moment to think about it, you'd realize that it would have all but impossible for Gwev to actually full loot and sac anyone, even if such were desired. He was an elf, and a mage. Three big restrictions here. Most of the people he fought and killed used at least some, often very many items of iron. Couldn't take or sac even if desired. He had a very low weight max, and so couldn't take or get even close to all of someone's set, even if desired. And he carried lots of rods and periapts and various other things, so his inventory was near full. Couldn't get many things from the corpse even if he wanted. The two or three times there actually was an intent to do so, he couldn't. So, again, I await these logs from all of you who joined the Kanye bandwagon of lying and whining about full looting and sacrificing.*
Two: There were posts to the effect that Gwev always fled at 50%, or wouldn't stick around in a fight. Well, again, that's obviously a lie, and particularly amusing since of course nobody but me or a snooping imm would know my hp count at any given moment. And despite your ability to see "gushing" or the edges that help define that a bit better, nobody other than the player really knows what your status is. And a few other things to consider before making these obvious untrue assertions - he's a mage. If he's not ready to fight, why would he stay there and just die? Are you complaining that you couldn't kill him? That's your fault, not mine. Also, even if he looks plenty healthy to you, all of his spells and protections might be falling at the hour. That's the curse of the mage. And so fleeing to either re-prepare or simply to fight another day is the right thing to do. So again, go ahead and apologize now, or just look all the more foolish when I post logs later. And you know from my history here that eventually I do post the char logs I say I will. So don't think it's just bravado. As an aside, if Gwev really did flee or never stick around beyond a round or two, how did he get his pks? They weren't all two rounders.
Three: He was not argumentative on his own initiative. He rarely if ever started any arguments. Rather, people decided they wanted to butt into his business ic and ooc (see comment to Philis below, others still active are high on the list as well) and so he was forced to defend himself. He was a dwarf, and was very much as the helpfiles described in his loyalty and protectiveness of his people - that's the source of the few times he would actually speak out and call foul. Killing Dern was a good example of that. Hell, I saw a maran paladin - a maran paladin! - kill Brulgar for the fordurn. Gwev was never quiet about making sure dwarves weren't killed, particularly for something so base as to get equ. But here, like in many other areas, some players prefer to avoid the roleplay consequences of their race/class/cabal choices, and instead powergame, and rationalize their way to getting the equ they want, roleplay be damned.
The irony here came when those same people would then level charges and accusations at Gwev for being too bloodthirsty or hunting or killing "neutral" pcs, like nexus or outlander. I both chuckled and sighed at those times. One rule for npcs when you want their gear, but another for pc's, so you can be high and mighty on the cabal channel. The truth of course is that Gwev was neither bloodthirsty nor overly hunting neutrals. Look at the pbf. Something like what, 4 or 5 neutral kills out of 40+? Where I also found irony was in the difference between players' common griping and complaining on forums - that the fort and the outlanders or nexuns are too close, they are one big happy family, they hunt together, etc., - and their actual response when someone in fact properly roleplays the differences and animosities between these organizations. Unsurprisingly, players choose to reject the conflicts so they can have their gangs, their pk and explore help, etc. Nobody wants to risk their gear when they can gain safety by being friends with those that should at least be shunned, if not an active enemy. Again, ignoring the roleplay consequences of their race/class/cabal in order to make their lives more convenient. It's absurd to think that someone who just murdered your closest friends and family, who tried to murder you, would then be your guest for tea and scones a day later. People just aren't like that, and we all know it. Just because you aren't going to actively hunt them doesn't mean it's ok to treat them like fine upstanding people, and group and travel and laugh and play with them. You must have standards and these people just tried (or worse succeeded in) killing your cabalmates, your family, (maybe you) and you should not be grouping with them ten minutes later when you need to go raid the empire and all the goods have left and all the evils logged on and now the nexuns want to be your friend. You say no. Yes it makes it harder for you. But that's what they call roleplay. This goes double for a dwarf, and as the game says dwarves don't forget.
Four: Darascus - I am near certain I know who you are and you are undeniably skilled and knowledgeable about the game. And I think a good leader for the cabal. But. You were mistaken about many things. From your post on the bf you were hearing plenty of the lies about Gwev, so perhaps that's why you acted as you did, but even so there were some things that were just your own. The easiest and I think earliest, or one of the earliest, examples is when at one point you said I hadn't told you something, and I said I did. We argued quite a while about it and you said you were sleeping when I said it and so couldn't hear it, but, in fact, you were awake, and were casting shields on yourself. I have it logged and will post it later. I knew that then and told you so, but you wouldn't hear of it and just acted like an ass. It happened again at the end when you again said I hadn't told you something, but at least that time you listened and then agreed that in fact I had. Things like that happened a lot and as frustrated as you say you were, I was more so, because I knew I'd done what I'd said. As for the not answering questions directly, that's actually more a problem with your questions, as you had a bad habit of asking questions with implied assumptions, making any answer a wrong or untrue answer. I'm sure some of them were me reading into them but many were just not something Gwev could answer the way you thought you wanted. I can go back and give you examples if you want. But it's disappointing to me that you then decided to be deliberately annoying and mean about it. Which is exactly the type of behavior your claim is bad in the next paragraph in your post to me, about full looting - someone else does it, so you do it? Pot, kettle, glass houses, stones, etc.
I recognize that most of you spouting the silliness are just bandwagoning off Kanye's idiocy (which is even more frightening, Kanye influencing others), but even so it's sad to see. I remain hopeful that you will admit you in fact never did actually see Gwev do the things you are claiming. And when I get around to posting the logs we will all have a fine laugh about it. Until then, try to remember that unless you actually see it, you don't know jack shit about it.
Oh, this one is for Twist, if you read these boards. (I can't post on officials because valg remains the pathetic internet tough guy he so vehemently crusades against and doesn't like when his lies are aired.) For the love of god man, when you have a long talk with a follower, give some xp. It doesn't matter how much - 1xp, 10xp, just so that the person sees the echo. It's not about a sense of entitlement (otherwise I'd say give 1k or some other actually useful number) but rather that you the staff have set up the system now to be this way, and so when you have a long, ic talk with your god, if you don't see anything at all afterward, or ever for that matter, you are concerned that something went wrong. That it went poorly. The xpadd system is there so you can show the player that it went well. How well can be shown by the amount of xp, or in whatever other way you want. But do something. Anything. And, if it in fact did go poorly, then by all means take away some xp, or do something to let them know that. Just give the player some feedback after the interaction one way or the other. That's the point. And, of course, I'm curious what you thought. Did you think him a follower? On the path to tattoo or anything like that? After the talk Gwev made it a point almost every log in to get some powerful things to give the couriers to weaken the veil. Which brings me to a second suggestion: let a courier or something like a courier be somewhere other than inside the nexus cabal. You shouldn't have to go in there or even that near them to affect the veil. All (or at least virtually all, I suppose you could have a magic hating mage, whatever) mages would want to weaken the veil and strengthen magic, so perhaps have something somewhere other than the nexus cabal. And, to be fair, perhaps something other than Tahren somewhere other than near the village, for the reverse affect.
I think that's mostly it. I'll leave the Harol/Kanye chronicles to the logs when I get around to them, but do feel free to post what you got Kanye, I would be absolutely delighted to see them from your perspective. I'm betting you won't, but I'd be ecstatic to lose that bet.
*Note to Philisrhynga: I had a decent amount of respect for you as a villager (I've played a few), particularly compared to some of your comrades (Harol and Mulmeru were pathetic, Mulmeru actually jumped into a fight and said he had to protect Harol, in a one on one fight. I wanted to cry for shame for the village. I'll post that one later too.) and you have people posting that you're a nice guy. So imagine my disappointment when you post as you did on your battlefield thread, when you of all people should know better. I had killed you what, three, four times recently? And never full looted or sac'd you, and indeed the last two times took absolutely nothing from your corpse. Zero. Not a single item. I watched you return to your corpse and take it all. So, when later you come and started fighting me while I'm destroying Harol's things (which you prevented me from finishing obviously) you should have said to yourself "Hey, I've fought this guy plenty, I've died to him a bunch and he's never sac'd my things, hell he's left me everything the last couple times, so maybe there's something going on here that I don't know about, maybe there are circumstances to the situation with him and Harol that I don't know about and shouldn't make judgments." Instead you saw something and made a knee-jerk reaction, despite your actual knowledge, and then decided to post about it on the battlefield. That was a dickish thing to do. Bad form, sir. Bad, bad form.
