Hello brothers and sisters, I hope you are enjoying the beginning of summertime. For some it means finals, others summer break and vacations, and for the rest of us who aren’t in school and have to work, we have the weekends at the (insert local relaxing place). For me here in the blazing Egyptian sun that means anywhere with air conditioning or the Mediterranean sea.

Well, the reason for writing this afternoon is partially all the fun drama surrounding the last few months but mostly because I’m a father and I see people hurting and that’s something I can help with, I hope.

Now I don’t believe that I’m some super smart perfect person or that I’m better than anyone. I know that I’m not, but I have lived for a while and picked up a few pieces of wisdom from others here and there and learned quite a few things the hard way. If you would let me bend your ear for a minute I would like to share one of those nuggets with you.

This past week we have seen a war waged between 13 colonies and USE and a call to arms against the CoV. There has been lots of colorful banter, taking of heads, anger, hurt feelings, and fun (according to whether you were the victim or victor). I have a feeling that’s how summers are on the server since more people are on and looking for a bit of adventure. The reality though is that these episodes of he/she did this and those guys are evil kill them all, have been going on for years. All you need to do is scroll through the forums.

It’s nothing new and most likely will never change. After all we are all just broken humans with messy emotions at all different ages and all different stages of maturity, in life. We’re all from different cultures and backgrounds with our own personal experiences and baggage. That’s what gives this place so much life, right. But on the downside when you get such a diverse group of people together in a community there will always be some sort of discontent. It’s been that way since the beginning of time.

Knowing and understanding where others are coming from, you know seeing things from their perspective is the starting point for real communication and communication is one of the keys for coexistence. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone or even like them as a person but trying to see things from someone else’s perspective helps us take the initial “you did (blank) to me for no reason” hurt and defensive emotional response and gives us time to pause, reflect,  think and calm down. Then we are able to approach the situation with the understanding that there is a real flesh and blood person on the other end of the chat/keyboard and possibly even have empathy towards them knowing they are acting out of a place of brokenness and emotion just as we are.

We can’t stop our emotions from happening but we can over time learn to process them better and have healthier relationships as a result. We also can’t control others actions or reactions to something no matter how calm and reasonable we try to be. We can however choose to control our actions (what we do after the emotion) and respond instead of reacting to things with unfiltered emotional vomit or emotionally charged actions. It’s our choice to have good character or bad character. I just want to insert here that I still fail at this more often than I would like to admit and I’ve been a counselor for 15 years now.  It’s hard to get all the salt from the 25 years before that out of my system 🙂

OK, OK,  I can hear you thinking “Blu, what the hell does this have to do with Piratecraft. If I wanted to hear someone preach at me I would go to church. This is just a freaking game.”

• Of course this is just a game and we always have to remember that. This isn’t real life. Real life happens out there beyond the keyboard but that’s just it. What happens in real life comes with us into our virtual life. You got in a fight with your girlfriend/boyfriend so you log on and go on a ‘seek and destroy’ mission or someone raids you and takes all you good stuff so you explode on the chat with venom because you got bullied at school earlier that day. Or maybe you’ve had a good day and you are the recipient of someone’s bad day antics. Instead of reacting, take a breath and respond and remember it’s a game and they are real people with real problems just like you.
• Well, I am a pastor, so yeah, there’s that. Might explain why I always have such long posts. Hahaha,
• It all has to do with Piratecraft because we are Piratecraft. Everyone that logs onto the server becomes a small part of this severs history and in some way shapes it, changes it, some good some bad,  if only just a bit. As an old ex-outlaw turned pastor and trauma counselor, this is one of the ways I’m able to contribute and do my little bit of shaping the history of the server.

So, Can you have good character in a PVP pirate server setting? “Why certainly” (to be read in the voice of curly from the 3 stooges)

I don’t really know who belongs to what crew but I’m sure I’ve been killed by folks from quite a few different crews.  That being said there are a few people that have shown good character after siege or just sneak attack killing me and those that didn’t.

It really makes me angry being blindsided while working. I like the idea of both sides facing each other in a showdown but I understand why you would use the technique and might use it myself if I decide to go raiding. The point is I understand the non PVP builder’s point of view all too well but also like that we can fight if we want.

Here are some examples extracted from my life here on Piratecraft that I would consider good character from folks with a PVP perspective.

Dagersh has snuck up on me at my base and killed me while I was working on different builds and killed me but he is always polite and gives me back most of my items. Like tools, building materials, weapons, some bits of armor etc…  Daniel_McLachlen has also caught me working several times and killed me but also has returned some items, and once even dove down next to an active water temple to retrieve and return my enchanted tools I lost in the exchange.  Others like Icebear, Pheonix, Stienoid, have been gracious victors after battle and not greifed my place or taken everything they could or just repeatedly killed me even though I was defenseless.

I’m not saying to have character in battle means returning items. No, not at all Ibepo_ snuck up on me while I was working on our crews blaze farm he won the siege and got all my pimp armor and weapons and kept them. Hell I would have too. I was super pissed at first since I was so caught off guard by the time I figured out it was a person and not a rouge blaze I had taken to many hits to survive and he was too fast for me. I knew it would be a while to make a new god set but I was thankful when I came back to the farm saw that he didn’t destroy it. He could have torn it all to hell as it had a lot of soft blocks in the build. That showed a bit of good character.
I didn’t like any of these situations and someday I might release the beast and exact my revenge but I can respect a person with good character even when the situation might have made me angry.

Unfortunately I have seen many PVP/raiding situations bring out the worst in folks on both the victor and victim sides. Excessive greifing, tping back to repeatedly kill, consecutively raiding the same person just to be a d**k basically when the fight is done and you just keep on with malicious intent in game or in chat you are showing bad character and will not gain anyone’s respect. Usually you will receive just the opposite.

In a PVP/war atmosphere good character is defined not by whether you killed or raided someone it is being kind and gracious in victory even if the person is your mortal enemy. The same applies to the one who is defeated. You must find resolve to be gracious and kind in defeat even when the victor is not. Give the victor their spoils they won.  You would expect your spoils had you won. Then work to improve you defenses.

Raising 2 wonderful and rambunctious kids has taught me a lot about character, humility, the power of words, the power of forgiveness, the power of listening and trying to understand their point of view, and reminded me to live well, live fully in the moment and not let the negative crap stay long enough in my head and heart to hurt those I love.

Just something to think about as you decide what kind of man/women you want to be in this life.

Live well, love well, play well, and be sure to take a few heads while you’re at it.

MrBluBeardedYeti