Maybe this violence only happens in certain times? because honestly I'm not seeing that much of it when I get on, no more than 'usual', and I've already kind of learned what groups of deer to avoid. There's always plenty of deer who seem welcoming in the forest if you just go up and have fun -shrug- If not, you go somewhere else. Not everyone wants to play all the time, IC or OOC.

Also(editfailure) a lot of people like dark things now-a-days. D8

Sad thing is: I'm basically the one who grew up on "Aliens", "Predator", and every horror movie you could find. Even I have a cannibal demon deer, but I'm actually SICK of it now. 8<

Seriously, anti-violence or OOC day, anyone? Plz?

And exactly! We've lost the haven! Now it's violent RP without HP bars and ATK stats.

Hehe, yes.

ooooh. 8D Do tell?

Heck, even kick in the "random" or silly deer if yua don't want to go OOC. The silly ones practacally are OOC anyway with how the forest is these days. I mean really... *points at her own Zerg-Doe* I don't think it's even possable to make a plot for her. XD

Well, I do still have my good characters active and all. In fact I had been here for almost a year before I pulled out my first evil deer... and that was because at the time I thought he'd be too much for the site and I might have to get rid of him. Turns out even my evil deer are too moderate to fit the trend. |D

But then again I often go OOC while playing them so I won't upset new players. <_<
They're very cencored so as to avoid drama.

I MEAN REALLY. XD I've had Spill play with Darcy and fawns right after indirectly torturing someone who would play along... by having him go OOC. It's NOT that HARD. XD And technically, Spill was the one who 'killed' Wesker a while back. XD

I think the major reason why people create evil characters is because the thrill of a good story has to have some action. Some action means something that will disturb one's happy life and we call that the peripety of a story. In every single book you will have that kind of presence. That evil presence that is going to allow the whole story to build up.
Human nature has that tendency of taking pleasure with one's suffering. I know it may sound wrong but whether you accept it or not, it is a fact.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have so much stories that finish with ''and they lived happyly ever after''. Why? Because that end doesn't matter anymore. They're happy, period. Nothing to worry about it because the 'hero' of that story is not in danger anymore. And the reader may just imagine it as he wishes. But what he read is the most important part.

I know this might sound out of subject - but I think it's the spirit of it. Happy and frolicking fellows do look amazingly pure, but pretty 'empty' too...
Besides, I do believe no one is perfect. Some just feel they have to hyperbolize it a bit more.

I agree.

I've had problems in forest with having to tip-toe around certain groups.
I fully admit I've been playing 'out of character' with Seshi for some time when faced with aggression because I don't want to encourage it.

If I were in character he would fight the deer back and continue to do it after they have run.
I will not allow him to do so because I don't want to give the user the warm fuzzies of having their evil deer get attention and make myself also appear as an annoying harasser.

Everything I do in forest with my friends is done with full conversations. If my deer is fighting another deer it's because I and that user chose to do it or they're *playing*. We know they're playing because I asked their player to spar/flower fight/what have you.


I do not lower horns/try to fight strangers or to merely show aggression unprovoked. To actually reach for those buttons I have to be constantly pushed through continued harassment.

Half the time I'm just frustrated and trying to say "NO! I won't RP with you. Shoo!" with repeated head shaking 'no', dancing, and laying down.


I mean even the evil character I've been known to play for Pictodeer, Basil, has a trigger to stop him. If hes being unnecessarily stupid to you then lead him to flowers and he will put them in his antlers and become passive. No more mister mean deer. He won't fight, he won't be angry, and it's all in character.

I know some evil deer stop if they're devout pelted also or if they drink water.
But there are so many that just do not stop. period. No matter what you do because the player choose to allow their deer to be relentless because it is entertaining for them to bully others in the forest or what have you. I'm fine with evil characters in role-play and story, but sometimes you have to sit yourself down and say "Am I being unnecessarily rude in forest in order to preserve my deer's personality for the sake of my story writing?"

You can have a character who is a bloodthirsty killer in story/RP without that necessarily equaling bad forest behavior. Look at Bylah. He eats people and destroys everything. Yet, in forest he doesn't run about trying to destroy everyone's deer. He sits, and if you bug him he tells you to go away or leaves. Won't chase, won't harrass.

Yes, exactly.
It's a severe pain when players basically make their deer the 'invulnerable bad guy' type and attack at random... especially attacking fawns who likely are new players.

Incidentally I also dislike when there's a character fight that's already preorganised and OKed between two players (like me and Scythe having Dark and Wesker fight) and others need to run in and attack whichever deer seems to be winning.

heck, last time I had my own deer fight, which was like... months ago... He wound up moving from fighting Wesker as usual to being basically mobbed and chased across the forest and into the lake. :/
Even when I changed pelt, started acting 'injured', and repeatedly trying to leave and express 'no'!. That was kind of 'it' for me.

Hmm. You know I remember when I first came here, I loved seeing all the "Thanks for playing with me." or "Thanks for helping me get my set back!" sort of blogs/screenshots. I think I'll keep an eye out from now on when I'm playing Queze, make an effort to so something special for extra nice deer.

My deer isn't evil... But he has more recognision than I like.
If I knew how exactly he got that, I'd offer a slight bit of advice.

I do know that when I joined he was a happy hyper playful deer, but he wasn't "flat" at that stage, just young and in development.
How he became to be who he is now all happened because of forest events. And all too often I try to adapt him to make others happy...

Such true words, Seed.

Violence is needed in real life. This is a game- no, it's not even a game, it's art. I feel like sinking a little lower in my chair every day when I see this happening with what was supposed to be a beautiful thing.

*shrugs*

I don't see it. The little bits of violence I see are mild and part of plot. It's the artwork that gets a bit gorey. But that's artwork.

Maybe it's cause I'm not with all the hip kids on their rp threads or I'm not on the right msn lists or chat rooms. But I don't see much at all.

Charlie is my upper/downer plot-deer. Zelig is my cuddle-wuggims/happy fun time plot deet. Coraa is my Real Doe.

So... try that? Just have a secret(ish) deer that has an upbeat attitude, backstory, etc, and if bad things happen let them deal with it in a positive way. "Oh, snap, I got attacked by so and so, but it's alright because the gods have granted me a new hoof made from stone, which is kinda cool." Or, I dunno, something less mary sueish than that, of course, it's 2am here and I can't think of a good response to getting one's leg chewed off.

But you get my idea. Having a balanced set of characters that are both uppers, downers, and neutral, lets you have more freedom to play how you feel that day.

Come on. A battlefield?
That's exaggerating.

You know what just occured to me as a key difference between now and just a little less than 2 years ago, when I joined up?
It's not violence, per se. Because I remember some violence going on. And I remember drama, too. The difference was... it wasn't reliable. Now, it is. It's reliable, and because of its reliability, it's more boring than fun. Back then, this stuff would happen -- but you wouldn't expect it. It would be a surprise, not a "oh, is it Sunday already? Well, be back in a few days, where presumably events X, W, and Z will have happened. Ho, hum. Dramaz." And the worst bit? Events X,Y, and Z happen. Inevitably and dull-ly. Now the only thing surprising or interesting about most drama is how often it happens -- that's it. The creative value there is somewhat drained due to overuse for me, which I think may be the best argument against it I can think of. We're kind of trying too hard to be dramatic.

It was actually what I liked best about Virgil's Rut, which I really did enjoy: it was kind of novel, and in that way it was very interesting. I would love to try making other pre-planned "game-like" story events like that.

...I don't visit nostalgia like this often, but I'm just making me up some observations.

I've been wondering, if I should host another rut next fall...

Some players did brilliantly playing with it and following the rules, and some even got creative with it.

But there is also the fact it encourages sparring, which all too often comes across as "violent" these days...
And last time, I had to, and from time to time, still endure a lot of poop about it...

VCG-
There is a difference between a planned out sparring match and someone running around willy nilly spamming agry emotes at everyone they see.

I have no problems if two or more players maturely decide to hold a sparring match or a whole event centered around sparring. It can be fun. I know it can because I have done it multiple times with my TEF friends.

The problem is when no ground rules are set and some player runs about trying to attack every male in the forest because they're 'In the rut' and give no prior notice to explain their behavior. Then they come to the community site, see that people aren't happy with their behavior, and throw a giant fit because they're getting frowned at for their behavior.

I don't think someone should have to make a blog going: "Alright heres wahts going down!! I'm gonna enter the forest then deer A is going to run up and fight and then deer b is going to run away crying and blahblahblah".

But everyone should at least give a heads up of 'Hey, my friends and I are acting out a story we wrote/ role-playing. Feel free to watch. There might be some violence though, so please don't interfere, it's part of the story! "

or

"Hey my friends and I are holding the world championships of flower sparring. It's all in good fun so don't butt in please"

Dicketry is my new favorite word.
xD

Maybe instead of an actual rut, it should just be about the sparring. I saw that most of the participants were in it for that, and not for creating fawns. I miss sparring for fun. When my first character (Scape) proved he didn't like fighting unless it was necessary, I gave my second character (Magnet) the trait of liking sparring.
EDIT: And this is why Pega shouldn't get distracted reading other posts before hitting the "post comment" button. |D

The problem, as it's been pointed out, is that there's really no way of knowing if two characters are just sparring or if they're fighting. There are a lot of people who don't use the comm page - and those that do don't check it 24/7, so it's hard to know whether or not someone is sparring, or doing an RP scene, or what have you.

It's sort of like people getting upset at someone who 'threatens' a new deer. It's hard to know who's new and who's not, and keeping up with pictos is rather difficult. I'd kill for the map function to be fixed, I really would - if it were, people could check who's where and maybe arrange a spot SPECIFICALLY for these spars/RP fight scenes.

Urgh, I just noticed a new point.

The violent art:
I can't look at the pictures pages anymore without seeing something bloody or decaying! Violence violence and more violence, or characters that are naturally bloody all over or something.

Just a few months ago I personally was more or less smacked with a 'don't put up violent arts because there are younger players' rule. I actually had to take down a (in my opinion especially compaired to what I see now) very mild picture that, yes, involved blood, but the 'violence' was mostly implied. And it was only between my own characters; not making fight doodles with others.

I feel almost like it's hypocritical that I had to take it down then post it as a link with a warning for blood, when now I can't look at the 'recent posts' page and click an interesting looking thread and not see something bloody. >: