More Atma in DR. Empath ranting. :P

(Split off from the last post, thought it was too long. :P)

So I'm messing around in DR again. Just got Atma her circle, heh. Trained some mental stats and some stamina. It's actually helping a bit. Hopefully she'll learn faster now because circle 14 is where things will start getting a lil' more interesting again (finally).

She was messing with some people in game, too. Ran into some folks talking about burning Crossing and the rulers of Kermoria (well specifically Baron Gyfford and Prince Vorclaf) being weak. Atma just asked a few questions (irreverently) about why they wanted so much to seek power, and why they thought war was such an awesome way to do so. The people there probably thought she was just a heckler -- okay, I admit it, she probably was -- but they RPed through it, which was nice to see.

Then there was some gweth drama, as usual. Sigh. Some empath chick left her things on the ground and got them stolen, and another guy went and 'defended' her by trying to kill the person that stole 'em, I think. And there was all sorts of other details involved that I couldn't have known about, but I have two thoughts out of the whole fiasco:

1) Justice: I feel embarrassed for people in DR who toot their own horn about doing 'the right thing' and being on the side of 'justice'. Yeah, you did a good deed... does everyone have to hear about it? Especially people who may disagree that what you did was 'good'?

I don't really like the people who claim to RP "evil" as an excuse to be a snert, but they're entitled to their opinions as much as the "good" folk. Bottom line is: don't spew your opinions publically unless you're willing and able to deal with the potential reactions to it. Including being talked back at, having your gweth smashed or even someone tracking and killing you ('cause some people are just that snerty, heh).

2) Empaths: There was one who got angry because she disliked people assuming empaths to be weak and unable to defend themselves. While I do know and agree that empaths can learn great defenses (with their spells + training shield/evasion + non-lethal brawling moves), there are some people that became empaths exclusively to heal.

Having played an empath as my primary character for a couple years, I find it frustrating that it's almost become a requirement for empaths to learn combat skills because of the attitude that empaths should take care of themselves. I DON'T think that anyone, empath or not, should be exempt from punishment (whether through official means or at the hands of others) for doing a bad deed (stealing, badmouthing, etc.) BUT I also think that an empath who chooses not to train combat skills shouldn't be judged badly for it. :P ESPECIALLY if they're not the type to behave offensively, then hide behind the "don't hurt me, I'm an empath who can't fight!" excuse.

I think that the empaths who expect to get special consideration for being "defenseless" are just as much to blame for the current view of their guild as are those who go around doing "health walks" and "hunting" (aka getting critters to kill each other with the manipulate skill, which also trains empathy) instead of healing. Honestly, if THIS is the way the empath guild is going to progress, Simu should stop representing it as a guild of healers, because so many of the empaths -- especially the highly skilled ones -- DON'T bother spending their time healing.

Ahh, but that's enough of me griping about the empath guild, which has been reduced to something totally unfun for me to play. =_=

I wanted to play some Sims 2 and I probably will now!