Mercs and Mercs

[Oberyn]

 Lately there has been some drama in the forums and within the clan concerning Merc relations with Admins and the community in the general. I just want to make this post to clarify some things.

From the very start of the clan we have been perceived somewhat as e-peen addicts, ragers, trolls and flamers, not entirely unfairly. There is a very good reason for this.
It's always been Merc policy that we are a group of individuals brought together for one purpose: to sell our services to the highest bidder and amass wealth in Strat. We have no rules concerning conduct, whether ingame or in forums. We're not gonna tell our members they can't say or do anything. We also won't try and help people out from whatever holes they dig for themselves. This type of policy automatically orients itself towards drama, but without the outlet of Strategus it's been spilling over into cRPG and the forums.

So here is the clarification part: Just because some of our members are assholes, and I readily agree that there are some ( just like any other clan tbh), it does not reflect any type of general opinion among the Mercs. There are many, many Mercs who never troll, never flame, never had any problems with admins and get along with more or less everyone. I'd put myself in this category, although I do occasionally rage ingame, it is usually tongue in cheek. Here is a list of all our members as posted in our thread:

Oberyn
Olwen
Noctivagant
pTx (                 
Replica
Tempest                                                       
Jacko                             
Yaron                             
cmpxchg8b                                         
Burrick                         
M_Pully                       
Mustikki                                                                             
Varyag                                                                                             
Shpongled                                 
Assas_Janis_Corp
Vicious666                                                 
Mokk   
Gresin                   
Vargas
Phazh   
Akincibegi 
Mtemtko                                                         
Siiem   
Storm
Jambi
Bjord
Xant
Lizard_man
Blueberry Muffin
\/\/ar
KoldBorn
Tuonela
DaveUKR   

If you pay attention you'd notice a lot of our members are admins, in proportion perhaps the most out of any clan. We also have a lot of trolls and flamers, also in proportion perhaps the most out of any clan. Then there's the people who don't show up on people's trolling radars at all and have no ingame authority, just play and enjoy the game. There is a wide variety of personalities.
Nuffen, I can understand why you would think badly of Mercs as a whole, because 4 of our members tried to get your admin powers removed. Same goes for a lot of other admins. There is a minority of people in the clan who are convinced that certain admins have an unreasonable hatred of Mercs, and tbh it's starting to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'd just like for your efforts to be focused on individuals, and not try to bring the entire clan into it everytime some troll insults you. Not every Merc voted against Nuffen, by far. We do not have a general opinion, we are not a monolithic entity.

[Olwen]

i'm part of those assholes keep the hate for me

[Bjord]

Arguably I'm one of the more disliked Mercs(and with good reason, I don't deny it), but lately I've tried to tone it down. I hope at least some people see this.

I just wish my actions aren't reflected on Merc as a whole, since our clan isn't like others. We don't have someone nursing every member, telling them to behave etc.

And because we don't have any behaviour-specific rules, I implore you all to try to refrain from generalizing. You can call me an idiot all you want, or a rager. Just keep my clan out of it and we're all hunky-dory.

Anyway, good post Oberyn. Had to be made sooner or later.

[Teeth]

All mercs are assholes!!!!!!!!!!!!11

 

[Electro]

but this stands for almost every clan if say fallen or DRZ had clan members that do stuff that people dont like then they will be judged by those players actions

like when i was in 22nd i made them look bad without noticing but now i can see that i did and i regret that  but what im trying to say is that you cant stop people from thinking what they want to .

[Magikarp]

I think generally your clan is suffering from major arrogant elitist behaviour. At least that's what I've noticed since your clan was created.

[[ptx]]

Electro, the difference between Mercs and clans like Templars or Turks or such is that we really won't pitch in to defend each other, when one of us is in trouble. But then, we don't get punished or expelled from the clan, even if some of us are in disagreement with everyone else or so. We are more a collective of individuals, rather than a clan in the classic sense. And we are VERY diverse. Any generalisation directed towards us is pretty much false.

[nuffen]

Hi
As Im the only non-merc in this post mentioned, I think I should answer.
When Olwen nominated me (because I was hunting mercs,he said), I checked the banlist. As the banlist gets capped off to not make the loading times too bad (its very bad, takes about 5-10 minutes to load), it only goes back to january. I could find 4 mercs (included one without merc-tag) that Ive banned. As some of the mercs have (not all, just some) accused me of a witch-hunt against mercs, I just wanna show the numbers. I have on some evenings banned more than 4 players (mostly leechers), so 4 mercs is a pretty low number.
Why do I show this number? Because I want to make it clear, Im not going after mercs.

I dont think you can find any posts or irc-quotes of me accusing the merc-clan as a whole to be against me (or other admins), but that a group inside the mercs is. I know several mercs I got the deepest respect for and Im not trying to generalise you as a whole. But, and theres a but here. You are like the only clan who _dont_ care about your reputation. That does reflect badly on you.
I was accused of threating mercs different than non-mercs not long ago, as I would give mercs 3 day bans and non-mercs 1 day bans. This is not true. 90% of my bans are 3 day bans, and only on special incidents I give more or less (especially if people show regret or understanding of the ban, I reduce the time, if they insult me or shows they dont accept the rules, I extend it).

To be clear, when I admin, I ignore nicks. If I find someone whos doing something so bad they need a ban, I first ban, THEN check their history (still ignoring their history) to decide if they are repeaters who need some extra cooldown. Some mercs, I wont mention names, are repeaters, and they get extra time. I dont think this have applied to mercs yet tho.

There are some admin-to-admin stuff here too, as mercs have a lot of admins. I wont comment these incidents.

[Benhelm]

Yet you can't really think, that when you put a clan tag in front of your name, your actions won't be linked to the clan. If you are just loosely tied individuals, why even bother with a clan or a clan tag? You could just hang out in TS and be BFFs.
You can still be hired for fights, no difference whatsoever.
Correct me, if I am wrong: A clan tag will relate you to your clan and an action taken with that clan tag will be linked to the clan. One post in the forum will never change the way of things are handled in general.
I just wonder, if you are asking for a special treatment for the merc-clan to not be treated as a clan unless it pleases you?

Just my 2c!

[Mtemtko]

Just one question, have you ever heard of a mini-game called "strategus" ?

[Nihtgenga]

Electro, the difference between Mercs and clans like Templars or Turks or such is that we really won't pitch in to defend each other, when one of us is in trouble.

Not true... in all the last threads in the ban section where a member of mercs was requested to get banned (newest example olwen)
a couple of your members tried to help with some nice written posts obviously absolutely one sided.

But I agree with oberyn in general.
there is just one thing which bothers me like hell. If one of you gets accidently shot in meele most of you start raging but I have seen so many of your range units who teamkill (it just happens, I know), than say sry but often add stuff like "dont walk in front of me, not my fault though" etc
in other words, whenever many of you guys do a mistake, its actually the mistake of the other guy and not yours. But if the same happens to you, you rage. : )

edit: strategus wise clans hiring the mercs might have to exclude some merc members from the contracts as they behave wrong

[Mtemtko]

Well yes about the contracts, but did y'know mercs had like 30% of the whole caladria pre-masspatch? Is that a hint good enough for you?

[BlackMilk]

i love the mercs they do not afraid of anything

[BD_Guard_Bane]

Well yes about the contracts, but did y'know mercs had like 30% of the whole caladria pre-masspatch? Is that a hint good enough for you?

Yeah true, the Mercs were fantastic estate agents.

[Nihtgenga]

Well yes about the contracts, but did y'know mercs had like 30% of the whole caladria pre-masspatch? Is that a hint good enough for you?

as between your last post and my post is no other, I guess this refers to me.

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HÄ?