It was always the same old same old, as I've been saying. 

Argh, so that is what happened?

Tbh I prefer working again with SpikeS than the backstabbing BS right now. At least SpikeS made it known he didn't like you; this regime pretends they like you. Boy do we need another revolution.

Yeah, you "must of" missed that, you big dummy. Open the schools. Whistler, talk to me. Let's kill these guys. 

There are a lot a whiney people around here and I don't like any of you. That being said, this is nothing like the old regime. You may have noticed in the last week or so that...wait for it...FAMILIES ARE FIGHTING AGAINST EACH OTHER RATHER THAN LEADERS SIMPLY KILLING OFF THEIR MEMBERS.

I'm going to die, you're going to die, we're all going to die. If you were looking for a game where you never die, you made an error in judgment. It's not when or whether we die, it's how we die that matters. Getting killed off on every account simply because you're not trusted, often for baseless reasons, and being excluded from family interaction because the only real "family" is the collective group of Crew Leaders drives people away. We have seen it happen and it shouldn't take a fucking rocket scientist to figure out that's what would be the end result under those conditions.  The excitement of wars and fighting alongside your families, even when getting killed in the process, is fun and exciting. People like it. They feel like they have a fighting chance, or at least a chance to strengthen a character and have a chance to use that character in service to their family - like the whole dynamic is supposed to be.

Of course, people have short memories and forget how shitty things could be or have been. So we get shit like this thread.

Superb observations, Dick.

During this recent conflict, I made the decision to include people from within the crew and the broader family. I pulled them into an IRC room, lounge room, whatever, and they contributed. I took a risk and trusted them and they took a risk and trusted me not to throw them out as bait. Some of them gave pro wacks, some of them shot people. Some had more experience than others and got it right away. Some needed talking through every step of the process. It was great. Didn't know them for 15 years beforehand, didn't ask for their account history, didn't have a Discord call going on; I just asked them if they would help and they did because that's what they thought they should do. Several of those people thanked me for what should be commonplace because they had never even experienced that part of the game before. What an absolute tragedy never having access to the most exciting aspect of it. Having played for as long as I have, to still be able to provide opportunities like the above are so satisfying to me and I never regret it, even where there are consequences.

And now, onto those consequences. Two people joined our crew under false pretences and they used the same opportunity provided by the above to work for their OOC friend instead of their crew. Rather than performing the task they were given, they set me/us up to allow the family attacking us to get shots/kills off, which they would ordinarily not have access to. Interlude could have died and Eala did die. I accept the responsibility for that and although some might view this as embarrassing to me personally, I share it because it speaks to the mentality that is so common around here. No separation between character and player. OOC friendships before anything else. Earners from Detroit betray their crew for one from LA they were in open conflict with. Does that seem familiar? It does to me, because it is exactly what drove the old regime. 

"How does two guys pulling the wool over your eyes lead to systematic purging, DTSi?" Because by rights, I should be more cautious next time. I should not take the chance to include people who I don't have a 100% track record with built up over years and years of experiences. I should not take chances. I can never be sure that those people I don't know are trying to fuck me. If I include them, they will. If I don't include them, they will probably think I don't trust them. Now I need to get rid of them either way because they'll turn on me. What a slippery slope this mentality is where we choose to believe that people are not working for their crew. How quickly it descends into a repetitive cycle of senseless murder for self-preservation.

Now, I don't expect the guys who did this to reflect on what they've done nor did they probably think of anything aside from getting the upper hand for their friend. They may not care of the broader implications of this type of behaviour and think this is just some little bitch virtue signalling nonsense from me. That's fine, I'm ok with it. But it is behaviours like this that ultimately line the road to the shitfest we collectively endured where the whims of a handful of dickheads shut down the game. Next time I could not include family members because they might be incapable of playing for their crew like these two were, and that would deny more people the experience of the game - the best part of it in my opinion - and maybe they don't stick around. Maybe if we tried playing for our crews it would cause more people to stay or to play for longer, which would make it better for everyone.

Anyway, some food for thought. Don't feel the need to defend yourselves, maybe just join the crew your mate is in if your friendship is so fragile it would crumble if you went against them rather than ours, so I can keep trying to play the fun way.