English

Thanks everybody for the comments. I'm especially surprised that there were more Rangers commenting than anybody else, followed by Matis, with no Zorai at all (but probably they're extinct by now, with a few living in exile in other countries).

By writing "That the Rangers feel pretty comfortable, though, should be obvious," I didn't mean they're happy the Matis got beaten up (the surviving Zorai still await the actual experience), but that they went in and out of the affair mainly unharmed, although the "antagonising and locking out (of) the Rangers" Daomei refers to was nothing but a reaction to the way things were handled. It had and has consequences on the player level, but obviously none at all as far as the proceedings of events are concerned.

I have high respect for the effort to get the Matis players sort of on board, and the support of Erminantius' project mentioned by Zorroargh is the main example, but there can be no doubt the reaction came far too late. It's a bit like watching the passengers of the "Titanic" floating in the ice-cold sea for too long, and trying to save lifes after the exposure to the cold was so long that you can't be certain how many will survive. Some of those who do will be scarred for life, and some of the distrust expressed for the Rangers is nothing but a logical follow-up to this.

Osquallo said that the neccessity to enforce the termites on Matis and Zorai is because of the installation of a Ranger transport system. In fact, the way the termite problem was handled for quite a long time would, under normal circumstances, make the Noble and Circle players oppose any such a system. In consequence, we can already expect that a decision will be made for it, no matter what the Noble players think. They can either gnash their teeth and say "no" and then will be ordered by the Karan to follow his orders, or like a hypnotised bunny yield up to their fates and rubber-stamp it. They have to pay the bill with their pride, and the players have to pay with their illusion that they can move or change things on Atys. Bittty is quite right in saying that the Rangers "are supposed to be cunning and sensitive to the needs of the Nations". Some of the Ranger aspirants are, but higher powers beat the decisions through with a heavy, blunt club.

I'm sad that Zorro feels the description of my feelings, and the analysing of my reasons, to be subversive and harmful; I play Ryzom for eight years or so, and never had reason to express any sort of frustration with the game like I do now. Frustration with some players, of course, but I can deal with that. I like to believe, probably erraneously, that I always supported Ryzom as well as I could, in good times as well as in bad times, both as a player and as an IG character. To be perceived as destructive now makes me even more sad.