Hey I haven't played in probably over a year. Came back a few days ago because I love the game and wanted to see what was up.
Nice to see your still alive mac.
Honestly I think one of the main things was the continual banning of players by Min. I found it almost laughable that there were very recent posts from 2010 with Min doing the same thing that he always does. Banning players and setting rules..... I really don't know what it is but I think that he must get some power trip from the whole thing which is ridiculous. I guess its fortunate that he takes the time to moderate and host a server, but actually I don't know whether ends up being good or bad for Bolo.
Couple of things, I stopped 'banning' people back in 2003 when LRL took control of the irc server. I left at that point. Its been a whole lot longer than 1 year for you mac. Sure, you may have jumped on an played a couple of games a year ago, but you certainly don't know whats going on. The people who are currently being 'banned' are people who play on my server, the one I pay for. If you have a problem with how I administrate my personal resources, well, to put it quite plainly ... go fuck yourself ... Back when you were around and I was banning players, people were nice to each other. I made mistakes back then (its been 9 years mac, just in case you didn't notice the clock ticking) but I don't regret making sure people were nice to each other. The way people in this community treat each other these days makes me want to puke. I don't get any power trip from banning people from an internet game to even suggest I do is as you said, ridiculous. I've never had a power trip from doing that.
I was hosting my server for awhile, and back during spring break I decided to play a game of bolo, which I hadn't done in a long long time. It was a 3x4 game, I was on the 3 side. I sat there waiting for the go like always. The -entire enemy team- all 4 of them jumped go ...... and farmed before go. You know why they did? because they thought they could get away with it. I was furious. 4 players out of 7 in a game jumping go. This -ruined the game for me- it made it not fun, I did not enjoy it. Since then, I've been enforcing the basic rules that have been in place for years. And guess what, its rare to see people jumping go, were as before, -every single game- had a go jumper in it because they thought it was ok!!!! This is passworded games, this is non-passworded games, this is any game they played in. I've had alot of people thank me for making the game more enjoyable for them again.
Its clear that some players will ruin games because they want to or don't know the rules. But why don't you just put a password on the strict tournament games and leave the open games open. If someone who knows the password ruins games, thats a different story. You can change the password or deal with it personally.
First reason we don't put a password on the strict games is this. We ran that way for years, and it slowly killed the game off. new players couldn't play, and thus they didn't play. The games are not passworded by default to prevent this from occurring again. More people are playing this game, people are playing and sticking around again. (it also allows people to play without having to come on IRC, which is a huge perk, IRC doesn't really provide a good environment)
Second reason, if people join a strict game, they can follow the rules. Simple as that. If they want to fuck around, that's what the open game is for. The people who like to ruin games, tend to know the password. And if we change it they just get the new one, passworded games are ineffective in dealing with the players that like to screw up games.
Anyway, I remember in the good days of Winbolo there wasn't that much banning until Min came along. People had a good bolo spirit, and remembered that it is all a game, and you can take some time to teach new players the game....
Rose colored goggles buddy, you keep looking at the past through them, making out like I'm the 'worst thing that has ever happened to bolo' as you told someone in game a couple days ago. Sorry to say, but your wrong, when I became an op, I continued with the status quo. I recall multiple times while I was a newbie people being banned, this was a regular occurrence. You just don't know, or you don't care to remember. People were banned for colors, they were banned because the channel was supposed to be 'g rated' and they were swearing up a storm. I didn't make those rules, I just enforced them once I was made an operator. because that's what I thought elvis wanted. Hate me for it if you like, but it makes very little difference. There was a few instances back then that I definitely should have dealt with differently. But back then we also had a much nicer crowd in general. People were nicer to each other. That is no longer the case here. But then people don't really get 'banned' from the irc channel, only the game bots. And they only get banned for the stated rules, go jumping etc. I haven't yet banned someone just because they pissed me off. Which I admit I did back in the good ol' days. People change, its been 10 years since i was first made a channel operator.
So, I think at this point, you've got a few choices. Stick around, play some bolo, teach some of these newbs how to actually play. Since noone else has bothered. Or, continue to dwell on the past and think about how back then I was a big asshole. Either way is fine with me, I'll be here next time you come back, and probably the time after that also, etc. We both want the same thing, we always have, for people to play bolo, and have fun. That's what this is all about anyways.
Min
