An Important Reminder (Please Read)

I would like ALL members of Knight Realms to please read this below. Please read it carefully, and please allow what is being said to sink in a bit. Doing so will be doing a great service for the community.

I am very proud of this community and the people in it. There are a great deal of simply wonderful people and kindhearted souls; they are practically uncountable, there are so many! The community is however a social organization, and in all social organizations you come across some undesirable attitudes and negative situations. The numbers of both are exasperated by the size of the social organization. If we had twice the number of people at each game, you would likely meet twice the number of great and wonderful new friends, and likely bump into twice the number of undesirable attitudes and negative situations. This is simply the law of statistics, it’s a fact of life.

For me it is a constant struggle to weed out the negative, It is not an easy task because very little in this world is cut and dry, or black and white. The world we live in is far more complex than some realize. Sometimes the negative comes from the same “wonderful, kindhearted people” who might have the occasional moment of weakness. Weeding the negative is a hard job. It is not simple or easy.

The first line of defense in this battle against the negative is for everyone to be reminded of how they can be positive instead of negatve, in hopes that people become self aware of it. Please read all of the below and apply it not only to others, but more importantly to yourself.

- The people who work for this game in any capacity, whether it is as an officer or as a marshal, or even as a temporary volunteer; they are doing so for your benefit. They might be getting some SP or build or some other form of compensation, but it truly is miniscule for the actual work done. They are doing it because they want to do it and because they want you all to experience the benefits of their hard work. A feeling of accomplishment for something they love is the primary reward they get for doing this work. Do not be the person to take that away from them. You cause them to question their service and cause the organization as a whole to suffer.

- Strive to focus on everyone having fun, even and especially your in-game enemies. It is important to make sure your in-game enemies and characters that your character has conflict with are having fun as well. It goes a long way to say, “hey I just had this big in-game fight with you, but I want you to know it’s completely in-game and oog I think you’re an awesome role-player/person!” Making a statement like that, or positive real life communicating with your in-game adversaries can go a very long way to dispel a possible misconception of oog negative feelings, which can become a very real thing otherwise. It may be a game, but feelings translate as intense at times and so a little oog clarification can be important and greatly appreciated.

- When it doubt, apologize. It will never hurt you to give an apology, regardless of whether your perception of a situation believes it necessary. “I apologize” or “I am sorry” said with sincerity are potentially the most powerful things that can be said to help diffuse an otherwise volatile situation. At best if you did something to warrant giving an apology, giving one sincerely will help repair damage that you yourself have caused. At worst, if you see the situation from a completely different angle, giving an apology anyway will make for positive feelings to spread around, instead of allowing negative feelings to grow and fester, and the issue could be brought up to me in private afterwards to review.

- We all understand that in-game some character have agendas against each other. What you might not realize is just how plainly I see it when you have an agenda with someone out of game as it is almost always terribly apparent to me by your pattern of behavior. I will say it again for emphasis, it is terribly apparent to me and also it makes you look petty and unable to play nice with everyone, even if that isn't actually the case. I see this a bit more often than I would like. I see this sometimes in people I barely know, and sometimes in my best of friends. Sometimes you have an agenda against someone and you don't even realize it. To be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem, DO THIS: Take a person that you do not care for, or someone that you think might not care for you, and do something really nice for them at an event or even between events. Consider doing something nice twice or more times for that same person, and then hopefully you will start to take this negative pattern and turn it around for yourself and everyone around you. Make this a regular thing that you do, and not only will you become a greater part of the solution, you will become a better person, and that is invaluable.

I would like to leave this on the above note, because I feel it might be the most poignant.

Please re-read the above many times and really think about how you can help be part of the solution. Thank you.