Hi Pax,
Talking about this in an adult manner is refreshing!
Hi.

I agree. There's a lot of talk today about how video games improve motor and cognitive abilities. Lately game designers are exploring the *moral* side as well (Fable, and, to a startling and disturbing degree, BioShock). It's my belief UO has been doing that for a long time.
The only issue that I have with your point of view is that, when they gave the players the option to abstain from PvP entirely by creating Trammel, the design which was based around a Feluccan ruleset should have received altering because its no longer the same system, wouldn't it not?
You seem to misunderstand, the Feluccan ruleset (the old pre-Tram ruleset) wasn't changed, it was isolated. It had changes made to certain aspects of it as the game progressed, to reflect changes made to the game as a whole as new expasions added content, but essentially it has remained the same.
Yes, the playstyle has changed over the years, but that's not due to a change in the core rules governing playstyle in Fel, it has to do with game philosophy changing from primarily skill-based to more item-dependent... and that's true game-wide.
There's another important difference: Pre-Tram many players became Reds as much in self-defense as for any other reason, there was safety in numbers. When there was nowhere to get away from nonconsensual PvP, your gameplay options were severely limited. For instance, because I couldn't PvP, I never saw the inside of a dungeon pre-Tram, they were all overrun with PKs. PKs were *everywhere*, and they made life miserable, which actually caused *more* players to become PKs... (the old "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy).
However, when Tram was created, offering somewhere to escape from the PK-dominated Hell the game had become, the type of players who stayed in Fel were mainly die-hard PvPers, whose goals were different from those of the run-on-the-mill old-style Griefer PKs. Those who choose Fel now are, for the most part, *true* PvPers. Where the majority of the old-style PKs could best be compared with muggers and ghetto gang-bangers, the new-style PKs more closely mirror Chess or Football players.
There are many instances in this games history where the Developers have changed a system and forgotten to update other systems in the process (most recently, on Siege ROT was never updated to reflect powerscrolls and the increase in skill caps... this how many years after they were introduced?)
So to say that everything is functioning as it should be intended... is not entirely credible.
Who has *ever* said that?! LOL
The red/blue and murder system... as well as Ultima Online with no trammel ruleset was designed to flow around the virtues... where they were expressed in a players behavior (total freedom.) This allowed people to pick and choose who they would be through the virtues they expressed in their in-game actions (compassion, honesty, sacrifice, valor, honor, humility, spirituality and justice) were represented in this system, in this way.
Trammel doesn't exactly allow for that, anymore.
No, the Virtues didn't play a part pre-Tram, the actual Virtue System wasn't introduced until AoS... I think, not sure there. I quit a few weeks before Tram came in... (all the way up to the launch of Tram, the Origin reps were insisting on these boards Tram was just going to be areas for more housing, but under the same nonconsensual PvP ruleset I'd grown to hate). I didn't start playing again until the launch of AoS, so I missed about two years in between.
It is my contention that the original system, is no longer valid with Trammel. And lets face it... this is a videogame. People who enjoy and play a PvP playstyle, deserve to experience all of the expansions, dungeons, events and content in this videogame that they paid for. - There also seems to be many many more who agree with this assertion.
Excluding people from the content in this videogame for PvPing, in a ruleset people can now choose not to ever go to... is wrong and it's wrong all because the system being put upon them is no longer valid.
Being a PvPer isn't what prevents access to the Tram ruleset areas of the game, choosing to become a Red is what prevents that. Reds *become* red by attacking and *killing* Blues. There are PvPers who aren't Red.
Remember, the same thing you are saying could have been said to all of those who were asking to have a place like Trammel created (they didn't have to leave the guardzones) but, thats just not right. People of all playstyles should be allowed to enjoy the content in this videogame.
*tips hat*
I don't remember anyone asking for a place like Trammel to be created. Some were asking for separate servers with a PvP Switch option. Trammel was the twisted brainchild of the Garriots and/or the dev-team they had at the time.
If Fel PvPers want to enjoy all the aspects of the game, they should refrain from attacking and killing Blues. But I know from some of my Red friends how hard that can be. Many have counts from killing Notos, Blues who manipulate the rules in such a way as to grief other players, causing the other player to attack them first. Still, we always have a choice, and self-control carries rewards.
Be well - Pax
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