...is to make the forums a more welcoming place. This is a very low bar, considering the amazing amount of non-game related hostility that is found on the forums.

Currently, there are people on the forums who are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic. For an online game whose appeal should not be restricted by national borders, this is the kind of thing that has the potential to stifle any potential growth if not be the kiss of death, as anyone who visits these forums is unlikely to stick around. The environment is not at all welcoming (it is in fact repulsive) and there are clear patterns of harassment that have been established by certain posters.

Given that the forums are, and always have been, the center of the community this is something that will preempt any possible recovery due to things like adverting or a more welcoming in-game environment (which is something I'd argue is not warranted and misjudges the appeal of the game, but that's a digression).

As such, I'd strongly recommend the addition of an anti-harassment rule, a re-write of the racism rule to cover other groups such as women (as just one possible example) and that these rules be moderated more aggressively than is currently done.

bonus

Iccyh look a little closer to home. The vomit you speak on these boards is clearly an attempt to validate yourself, where perhaps you weren't able too earlier in life? You want to make a change? Clean up your own attitude first, before casting suggestions for others.

you stuck around.

Hold that thought, kettle, I've got pot on line one...

Oh, he says just to tell you you're black.

whoa, whoa.. i think they prefer african american

*dances around naked in a bhurka*

http://www.bing.com/...FD04&selectedIndex=30

I liked when we had Avatars :)

So never harass anyone on the forums except alliances we have issues with, like Titans. They should be driven off this server, because fluff those guys.

Is that a good summation?

For the record, I agree with you about civility on the forum. This is exactly why I am so critical of you, because you are undermining our shared position.

I think the first step to saving the game would be to stop farming untags, in all servers.

I tried to play tourny a couple years ago and i got farmed like crazy.

i know people say there are no clans in tourny and Primary, but when I tried to play those servers, it sure seemed like people were working together.

I don't play those servers anymore due to this.

Now, I believe this is important because Tourny is what first attracted me to this game, way back in 2001. I then got recruited through an ingame message by Beltz and i joined ImagNum on the Alliance server.

juice:
I suppose those things could be hard coded into the game, so that countries could only be attacked a certain numbers of times by specific players in a specific time period, or that players could only be hit with a certain number of normal attacks per day, but what you'd end up with is a situation where those players would be hit up to the limit daily, so it would be a change in degree and that's about it.

Besides, the character of the game, regardless of the server it is played on, is aggressively competitive and combative. That's a large part of the appeal for the people who stick around: the chance to compete and fight. I'd say the first thing to understand about EE and it's appeal is that it isn't for everyone; the game caters to a specific niche who are looking for a competitive strategy game.

However, all of the things you've talked about would still have no effect on the huge issues we've got on the forums, which need to be handled separately and which I honestly think preempt any discussion about game changes.

Viceroy:
If you think I'm talking about civility, you're mistaken. Hostility is what makes the game go round on alliance, as what we do is hate our enemies and love our friends. There's a lot of importance in having villains who antagonize others into action and further competitiveness, on all kinds of different scales.

What I am talking about is the denigration of large groups of society that some forum users think is somehow acceptable and appropriate, and harassment. When I talk about Titans, I don't go tracking down every single post timmie makes telling him he's a horrible person who has failed in life, for example. What I instead do is confine my criticism to actual things he's said which are relevant to whatever the topic of the thread is. I don't want to drive people off or harassment, I want to push them into action and I'd view what I do as a net positive (or I'd honestly not be doing it). Others on the forums here actively work to silence others and reduce activity, so that their view becomes the only one that is spoken.

I need to be very clear about this:
This is not at all about civility.

braden:
I'm not a new player and I honestly have no idea how much longer earth is going to hold my interest. I'm here 'cause I remember what the game used to be more than because I really enjoy what it is now.

Cool story. Are you a tweeker?

Halirious!

I hate to quote myself, but

"the butthurt, it falls from the sky like rain"







(ok, actually I LOVE to quote myself, I have an erection for myself right now)

Alliance Talk = AT = Anger Therapy.

you have stumbled into the wrong forum space. i believe you are looking for Utopia. those forums are no longer associated with Earth.

May you have a Swirvey Day! :-)

noob.

I fully agree with this. I would never actively try recruiting anyone to such a game where the official forums are so negative.

Negativity due to alliance arguements are one thing and even that could be toned down. But it is way beyond that. There are individual wars and posts that should not ever be allowed to stay on these forums. Threads that should be closed once they start turning into pissing matches, etc.

There are few other things that I think detract and make new players not stick around, but this is one thing that should be fixed and should be done first before one can seriously start to talk about making some other changes. Forum Mod's need to actually mod these forums. I realize they are volunteers and not paid, but that is the case in most forums.

to be fair to the forum mods, deletion/closing of a thread just causes people to open new threads discussing why the first one was closed + continuing the fighting.

i just delete spammers I see at this point

belated happy birthday ruthie!

Good point as I have seen that happen in other forums. However this should not stop the Mods from actually attempting to mod the forums. Give out temp bans to keep them from posting after they have been warned, etc. Racial comments should be edited out and never allowed, and send out strong message that continuing personal attacks/exchanges back n forth in threads that have gone way off topic should not be tolerated either.

nonsense, then some posters wouldn't be able to post about their dislike/hatred for the fags, the negroes, or the libtards!!!

vic, koh, usmcsewell, heston would then have to go elsewhere to post their vitriol :(

PLEASE SOMEONE THINK OF THE ASSBACKWARDS CONSERVATIVES OF EE:AT!

Where would you go to post your vitriol? Look at this idiot calling the pot black. I'm fairly certain that you have posted far worse than most in this game. Go back and read all your crap and I'm sure you would ban yourself.

Fox news bush bigot change ect. You leave the negros out of it you mother fluffin racist! 😉

Here is what needs to be implemented in order to make the boards better:

Make it against the rules to:
- Insulting other people or their views
- Intentionally derailing a thread with off-topic or negative comments
- Being a jerk, repeatedly

sounds like something either a poor immigrant or unwed pregant mother would say. you should learn to read the bible and become a real citizen of this country. THEN others might listen to what you have to say. hah, what a dumb libtard

Which country?

You just need more candarian demons.

i'll answer for him- murca?

the only country blessed by our lord almighty, america. you would've known this if you weren't some high school GED dropout. smdh. atheists in this country need to find jesus and stop being leeches on society. im tired of having my tax dollars go to you buying malt liqour on your EBT card. i dont work hard just so you don't have to.

Sorry between myself and some posters (retired) who I will not mention here, we have all of you beat by a long shot.
:P

iccyh your tears make you sparkle like an angel. It is truly quite pretty. Please continue.

Nowww i get what I came here for.... my bonus points biiatch

fyi... the amount of people who actually post on the forums is probably such a small percentage of the game community as a whole that it's likely not even warranted to talk about the forum atmoshpere's effect on the overall attractiveness to the game. The AT forum is a place to troll, post fluff, and make funny war decs. Other than things like, "hey can BlahBlahBlah tags FA please contact me," there is not a whole lot of substance or much importance regarding actual gameplay here.

You sir, are the biggest fu cking hypocrite I have ever seen in a public forum, with that being said...

,,!,, (-_-) ,,!,,

Civility (or hostility) isn't something that should be modded for. People get angry with each other, often for good reason, and that's not only part of the game but that's a never-ending problem for the mods to try to intervene to "fix". Topicality is something I would encourage the mods to consider moderating, but it honestly isn't a pressing issue.

Far and away, the most pressing issues are racism (other forms of discrimination are also issues, but racism is definitely the worst) and harassment.

These need moderating desperately if the forums are to be anything other than a cesspool, and if new players are going to feel like this is a place they want to be. No one wants to deal with either of these things. There needs to be real deterrents put in place to stop this behaviour, starting with warnings and ending with permanent bans from not only the forums but also the game.

Edit: I love how many of the worst offenders here try to paint my response to their racism or the few threads about Titans I've participated in (where I was hostile, but very topical and kept my comments strictly to what was on the thread) as part of the problem, and refuse to engage with what I'm actually posted while throwing fluff at me.

sounds like something a homo would say

Grow up.

Wow, I have a fanboy impersonator LOL

Or maybe it's actually you incognito pretending to have an imposer so you can say some childish stuff! See how I spun that 360!

I don't care about image, I'll call it what I feel without making a new handle, bro, you should know that by now :-)

im amazed you were able to figure that out, fluff-for-brains!

I'll just have Martian see who you are! It only costs me $20.

[quote poster=KºHeartsGPA; 33957; 616177]

im amazed you were able to figure that out, fluff-for-brains! [/quote]

If you want to be me, do it right, capitalize, nOOb.

That's expensive, fu cling aliens...

just as soon as you learn how to quote correctly, you fluffing cracker

KoH isnt white you rasist bastard!

DStone: AT was never the greatest place in the world by any stretch, and it always had it's share of issues, but there was a point in the past where it used to be a hell of a lot more interesting, active, and inviting than it is now. There were always trolls, but they were of a different quality than now, and the mods actually tried to deal with them. You don't have to try to educate me about AT; I've been here before.

I hated the old forum moderators for a lot of their game-related decisions, but there's a lot on the forums here that simply wouldn't have lasted back in Mickster's day and the forums were a better place for it.

Mickster was such a prick!

I don't know if he was a prick, but he was certainly a coward when it came to game issues.

You still don't understand, we are trying to educate you about YOU, you're a hypocrite.

How about you shut your pie hole. Nobody has posted any racist fluff. Stop making what kind of hole you shove your little pee pee in an issue. If your gay, nobody gives two fluffs and you are not granted special treatment or a free pass on fluff talking. Grow the fluff up .