Petition

[Tearen Wover]

I recently ran an event called the 'Battle of Death Mountain' wherein the goal was to banish the NPC Prime known as Volvagia. To get to this event, I spent a year performing IC tasks necessary to canonically be able to vanquish the dragon, the majority of which involved constructing a weapon called the Gigaton Hammer, an improved version of the Megaton Hammer, which is stated to be Volvagia's weakness.

As the start of the event approached, I managed to secure the interest of a dozen other writers who were willing to commit their valuable time to participating in this event.

The plan was thus:

Split into three teams, one attacking Volvagia directly, one keeping her brood away from the previous team, and a third team to set up a trap to deliver a final, fatal blow to Volvagia.

In order to add an element of intrigue and to provide fail conditions to these events, I created a separate thread for each team and constructed unofficial rules for how those threads would operate.

The event proceeded as planned, and at the end, it was decided that the first team did not succeed in their direct assault. This was acceptable, as I was under the impression that the other two teams would be able to give a last effort to achieve victory.

I was told, however, that once the first team was defeated, that Volvagia was "no longer in play", and that she was now "on a rampage." 

This is upsetting for multiple reasons.

From an IC standpoint, I see no scenario unfolding that would result in the remaining Primes and Volvagia NOT fighting. If Volvagia is on a rampage of vengeance, she would search out the Primes who killed her brood. Even if she decided to target the Goron Village directly, the remaining Primes would follow her there and renew their efforts to slay her.

From an OOC standpoint, I feel this is grossly unfair, since it ultimately means that the considerable effort of twelve people goes to complete waste, without so much as a fair chance to actually finish the fight.

Again, I can accept losing, but not being given the option to see this through to its absolute end is, in my opinion, extremely rude and inconsiderate of player morale. 

As a result, I have deep concerns that the Omniverse is not as free and maleable as it purports itself to be. To deny players the chance to have a lasting effect on the IC environment, without the even the simple courtesy of an explanation, is counterintuitive to positive player morale. I, personally, am seriously reconsidering my continued participation on this site in light of these rulings, especially considering all of the unwritten rules and parameters I had to stumble through even to have a chance at this event.

As such, I request that the site Admins reconsider their choice and allow the remaining Primes on Death Mountain to finish their fight with Volvagia properly, for good or ill.

I would appreciate the advocacy of anyone who agrees, and invite you to post your agreement below.

[Daniel]

"we're not contractually obligated to explain and justify every decision we make."

If there's a ruling made that you don't get, that's fine, but don't go being a drama queen about it and demanding that it be changed or explained.

[Trixie]

I see nothing wrong with letting them take the remainder of their swings out on Volvagia.

[Trixie]

"we're not contractually obligated to explain and justify every decision we make."

If there's a ruling made that you don't get, that's fine, but don't go being a drama queen about it and demanding that it be changed or explained.

There was no drama in Neal's post. He's simply requesting an explanation as to why his time and effort is being stonewalled. It's completely reasonable.

[Red-Hood]

I agree as well. Having this abrubtly end makes no sense. If you want that to happen, fine. Than bring back those that died. Because then there is absoultly NO point in them dying if we are not allowed to seek revenge.

IC beta has no idea what had transpired. So with that we would still try and plant the bombs and continue our mission. Again which makes no sense if you aren't giving us the chance to fight.


Nealapph put so much time and effort into this, give us one last fight. Even if we all die as primes at least the ending will make more sense than us just being like " oh? We lost? Darn" *wonders off*. No the remaining people that would agree to continue fighting would do just that!

Please grant us one last shot.

[Sans]

I feel that, on sheer principle of this being probably one of the first player-initiated events on this site that has the potential to affect the whole Omniverse on a site-wide scale, that this should have a million upvotes.

As such, I place myself as a supporter of this petition. I'll explain myself as to why I want this to happen more if people want me too, as I feel it will probably be needed.

[Okor]

Might as well see this through to the end.

[Jams Bolero]

I agree with this notion. The amount of effort these people put into breaking an impossible task into manageable chunks is something that would make Kelsier from Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" proud, so at the very least, I say give them a chance.

[The Humble Sage]

I agree with Jams that this was an impossible task, and I don't think anyone is really expecting the primes to be successful in Killing Volvagia at this point.

However, I do think it is fair to the people involved that they should get to try everything they can against the dragon, even if they have to kind of fight their way back out of Death mountain to try and stop Volvagia.

Basically, making their job crazy hard or even nigh-impossible is fine, they just don't want to be given an invisible wall, and I can sympathize with that.

[Apollo]

Gonna quickly drop by and say I agree with the majority, here. Honestly, there was a lot of really awesome effort here. Doesn't make sense to toss it all out.

[Marisa Kirisame]

Well I think this has to be upvoted because the admins have to tell why because it could give more info to why she can't die or why she is on an rampage

[Omni]

Dragon gets attacked. Dragon isn't going to just sit there and take hits until it dies. This isn't a videogame. Dragon is a character. Dragon is sufficiently pissed off that it's going to go kill a bunch of gorons in revenge.

Not sure where most of this conversation has taken place thus far, but this isn't 'punishment' or trying to take away the chance to respond, it's just doing what Volvagia would do. Right now that's getting out of the danger zone and going to kill a bunch of gorons. We made this decision based on "What Would Volvagia Do

It's a failure IC in that the gorons are going to suffer some serious losses. But that's going to lead to some very interesting plots. You guys can follow the dragon but it has a head start, and the point is that it's not going to sit there and play things your way.

On an aside, I really wish you wouldn't approach this always as some kind of 'members vs staff' thing, Nealapph. It's kind of upsetting to constantly see every attempt to do right by this site met with attacks on us and openly treating us in the chatbox like we're trying to screw you over. I haven't even responded to this before, I try to just ignore it. But it's gotten to the point where you're making us feel really shitty for doing our jobs, and I'd like to ask you formally to stop that, please.

[Tearen Wover]

Yes, and Primes want to kill the dragon and would follow Volvagia TO Goron Village because:

a) They want it dead.

b) Nealaphh would want to protect the Gorons

c) Thirty Gorons from said village accompanied the Primes and would also want to go back to the village to protect it.

Unless Volvagia flies far, far away in the immediate future, I can guarantee that at, the very least, Nealaphh is going to keep going after it.

[Tearen Wover]

Also, if Volvagia is indeed hell bent on killing some Gorons, I am quite sure Darunia would also be getting involved at that point.

[Omni]

"It's a failure IC in that the gorons are going to suffer some serious losses. But that's going to lead to some very interesting plots. You guys can follow the dragon but it has a head start, and the point is that it's not going to sit there and play things your way."

[Thor]

I think the big problem here is that it's unclear what the remaining primes can and cannot do in regards to volvagia. If Volvagia is a lot faster than any of the primes it makes sense that volvagia would beat them to the village. however, many of the primes have ranged attacks and debuffs and have been slaughtering volvagia's brood. I think most of us are wondering why, if volvagia is going on a rampage, why the remaining primes aren't the first targets (even if that means they can only flee or die).

I think it would feel a lot more epic and less like we have it a invisible wall if the remaining primes have a choice to continue the fight (Even just in story, not as an actual competition) even if the end result has to be that they either perish or flee.

[Tearen Wover]

"not going to sit there and play things your way" is fine, totally understandable, and I welcome the adversity. My problem is the blanket statement that Volvagia is now totally untouchable, which was not something I was even told directly, despite being the person in charge of this event. This chafes me, because one of the aspects of the Omniverse I take most seriously is the idea that nothing happens in a vacuum, so it strikes me as odd that Volvagia can attack the Goron Village with impunity despite there being several Primes in the immediate vicinity more than willing to, at the very very least, drive it away.

A head start? Yes, sensible. I have no doubt that many Gorons would already be dead by the time the remaining Primes got to the village. Again, I must stress that Darunia stayed behind to specifically defend the village if things went awry, as well as the fact that, seeing as almost all of Volvagia's brood in the area has been killed, there would not be much at all to impede the Primes from returning in at least a somewhat timely manner.

I can admit that I've had an attitude both in light of this ruling and in the initial set up for this event, and I apologize for that. I would, however, like to note that I tried to give the staff a great deal of patience, specifically a month's worth, to even respond to the very basic necessities I was asking for this event, on top of the fact that I had been detailing the plan for the event for over a year. Eventually, my frustration prevailed and I became abrasive, which is not okay, but it wasn't until I started making an indignant fuss that anyone started responding to my inquiries at all.

I get this upset because I am not the only one affected here. I will apologize for my behavior, but not my concerns.

[Omni]

"My problem is the blanket statement that Volvagia is now totally untouchable, which was not something I was even told directly"

I'm telling you you can follow him to the village.

[Tearen Wover]

That is contrary to what I had been informed of previously, so it seems I misinterpreted the intent of that statement.

Thank you for clarifying.