[MakeshiftWalrus]

In light of recent events and posts made on the forum, I thought it reasonable to write up my own post on something we only crossed over, but never went into proper depth with. We're all people of different cloth, with different wants and visions of how the game should function. And while some might group together in light of their desires, even then, each individual has their own sense of what exactly they want out of their experience. This is why I invite you all to expand our collective knowledge of each other openly, instead of sitting in our own circles and slinging mud back and forth.

No opinion is wrong here, but please keep everything positive and understanding, even if your beliefs contradict another's. Remember, it's better not to comment on a post at all than to be a jerk about it.

The controversial question of 'Why we play?' is one I thought long and hard about given the recent attention Trex's own thread got. Why do I play? Is it my obligations as a guard? The many hours I spent grinding on my characters to get the most optimal setup out of them? The many relations my characters have with other people? It was hard, at first, to discern between the reasons I laid before me. On one hand, I hated leaving all that effort behind I'd done on my characters, but I realized I didn't care much after the Reckoning hit. Obligations with my characters came next-- I hated to abandon them, or end them, where I could, but here too I found myself unable to say it was the reason why I stuck around.

I enjoyed the PvP-aspects of the game. The thrill of turning a match around, but I began to see it grow stale with meta-builds and super efficient setups with few weaknesses. Builds made to win, are infinitely less fun to play against, or as, for me. Now, I very rarely PvP at all, despite my past success.

So I pondered long and hard, until I reached the conclusion that it wasn't the game itself that I stuck around for. It was two specific things that kept me coming back to this game, despite the times I tried to pry myself away. And they're likely the two reasons I shall continue to stray back into these layers of the sky.

The first, was the people. And as contradicting as it sounds when I say that I love the people of SL2, but hate the community, that's what it is. Collectively, Sl2 is a giant piece of gobshite, divided into different groups and sects. At its worst, each group tries to back stab each other at opportune moments, throwing fits and hisses at others for not following their way, but at its highest, the people here can be amazing, justifying the cliques people cling to with excellent RP and opportunities for growth. It was here I gained some of my best friends today. And those are friends I would see to the end, outside of the game. The individual person can. And certainly do, mean a lot to me.

The second, however, was the potential SL2 had, as a community, as a game and as a platform for RP and growth. I still see such potential, despite how the community in my own opinion, has grown lazy. Many expect to be fed events. And while many others embrace the idea of creating narratives, it often results in others getting annoyed. Being someone whom previously story boarded and hosted events within the community and aspires to do so again, it makes me disappointed to see bench sitting so large an issue. Something that initially made me pick up the creation of my own narratives for others.

These two points became the primary source of why I kept with this community and continues, today, to be my anchor. It isn't the game, but the people and what I personally make of my own experiences with the tools I'm given. We, as a community, should strive to do the same, but try to get better at understanding each other and what we want from the same game.

Because as I said previously, we've all got our own ways we'd like to see the game run. Be it casual RP, hardcore RP, PvP-centric or some other crazy wicked idea. So let's talk. Let's find out why we, the community, play the game.