[MakeshiftWalrus]

The reason that guards have to deal with the goonies of the week is because...well, if anyone else deals with them they get arrested as well. Unless said goon is badly affecting a character or a group of people they are close there is no reason to do any kind of pursuit, rare are the cases of people taking the risk and it mostly is related with "Oh well, the guy will be arrested for 3-4 days [1 ooc day] for attempting murder [Since major crimes is 1 day, but severe 28 days for some reason] and he'll just torment us over and over unless we do something about it."

People complain about stagnancy and not having much to do, while the guards, by what you said, are too overworked and have to deal with everything. See the issue here?

The lawless times of a couple of years ago are a good example of why we should never return to that era of life. There were no guards to deal with anything, outside of GM-intervention. It was particularly bad, because unlike now, we didn't have the same slot-in stats, but rather something most aptly described as Fire Emblem growths for each stat. The strong ruled, and that's unhealthy for the game.

People are allowed to, within reason, defend themselves. But when the issue re-emerges every few days when they get released, I agree it becomes an issue in the long run. I do not, however, think this balance should be shifted any. It makes no sense for vigilantism to be rampant within a powerful nation like the Empire, and I'm sure many of the veteran players can back me up when I say it was equally much an issue as attempted murder was, a couple of years ago.

We've brought up the idea of a guard system reform to better fit the current times, but it's been very, very slow in the process, unfortunately, and it isn't so easy to implement as it should be. I'm hoping it'll eventually be updated, made more fair, but also more punishing, with other punishments than a temporary RP-ban.