I see the issue of herds coming up again and again. Please know that this entry is not in reference to any particular player, and please read the whole post if you plan on commenting. I don't want to hurt people..

Copied and edited from a forum post:

I'm going to repeat myself on this subject, and after this, I will say no more. I do not mean this in a mean way. This is my just being frank.

Herds would be better suited to a game with a much larger map area and in an environment that encourages making groups that could be antagonistic toward one another, but this is not the case in this game.

Back in September/October of 2007, we had people starting herds. There were even threads with herd member sign-ups. This caused in-group/out-group animosity and drama. People wanted to be the boss, and people even went so far as to claim a part of the Forest for their herd and get in a tizzy when others would hang out in "their spots". The Forest was loud with bellowing and fighting at that time.

Michael and Auriea never, to my understanding, wanted to implement herds. All of the players are meant to be on equal ground and as part as one big community. Even the fawns, being new to the game, are treated with respect. The only players in this game who have any real authority are Michael and Auriea, the Twin Gods.

No matter what the environment, whenver you split people into easily identified groups, antagonism, competition, stereotyping, and other problems occur. I don't want any of this to come to the Forest.

For a scientific investigation of this, check out this page about the famous Robber's Cave experiment by Muzafer Sherif.

Really, I am not being mean. I just want to keep these problems from coming to the Forest.