In Response to Certain Matters

[Captain Del]

Ahoy pirates,

I come to speak to all of you today under a circumstance of a few unfortunate events. Recently our guild has gone under attack by a few certain pirates beyond what we had originally expected of them; as such, I feel that I need to clarify on a few things.

The story begins on Sunday when a pirate and his friend approach two of our Officers with the prospect of joining. However, we reach a discrepancy when it is revealed that the pirate who wants to join is friends with a pirate who repeatedly griefed one of our members in the past. Our guild has a very strict policy against griefing, to the point where evening associating with a griefer may get somebody thrown out of the guild. As such, we deny the pirate access to the guild, but this is when it becomes heated.

As we begin to leave, the pirate states how he knows me from the forums, and how he knows how I supposedly "hate jumpers." Anybody who has ever PvP'd me knows that I actually jump myself, and I have publicly defended jumping in the past on the forums, so I bring up the fact that he is incorrect, on top of how I do not take prejudice against other pirates. We eventually get in to a heated argument, and his friend challenges me to a match, which I accept. Unfortunately I was unclear as to who I was facing and under what circumstances, and ended up losing the match by a kill - but, I still accepted the fact I was bested and wasn't going to make a fuss out of it. We both gave each other a usual "good game," and I am about to bid farewell with the pirate when he demands to join the guild because he defeated me in PvP.

However, my Officers and I attempt to explain to him that our guild is not based on the strength of pirates, but how mature and respectable they are. Our guild holds standards that we like to uphold, which is why we tend not to guild pirates that act immaturely, start fights, and so forth. However, the pirate interpreted our membership requirements as our guild being arrogant, and he and his friends began to mock how we spoke, what we were saying, what our guild is about, and even down to how we type. Eventually my Officers and I pull out of there, because we had it up to our foreheads with them.

Later that day I am twiddling my thumbs as I go about typing up a few new threads for my guild's four-year anniversary project when I one of the officers who was present at the incident (and coincidentally was the same one who was griefed by one of those pirates last summer) comes up to me and tells me the entire group of pirates was standing around her while she was AFK. I make a dash over there to find out what was going on, but it turns out the pirates were simply there because their friend was AFK as well; so, a fault on my part.

Last night while I was sleeping, however, things got out of control.

One of my Officers (who was present at the incident as well) is AFK on his ship when he comes back to notice that a war ship sitting next to him is firing at him, much like how a new pirate in the Caribbean would unknowingly fire at other pirate ships - considering the ship, however, this was not the case. The Officer ports, and then only a few seconds after the other ship ports, and lo and behold, it was the same pirates who we had the incident with. This time, however, they were much, much worse.

They begin using very derogatory statements in a way that would prevent the chat filter from stopping them, and began calling out some of our members, including myself (I was in bed at the time.) He tells my Officer how our guild "shouldn't mess with" them, and bluntly said they were going to grief us. They then went on to begin calling me a so-called "failure to society" and a hypocrite for calling them griefers in the past, and demand that they speak with me at once. It was at this point my other Officers come to the other Officer's aid.

At this point they go straight to insulting the guild and it's members, using deviations of curses so they won't get banned, calling us noobs, and so forth. They also began using derogatory statements against our members concerning race and physical appearance. They even got to the point where they began to describe and mock our own members.

By now one of my Officers has managed to contact me by messaging me, but being it so late for me I was still unable to get online. I passed it along to the Officer to tell the pirates that if they wanted to attack my guild, they could speak to me face to face, at which point they refuse as they "don't contact people outside of the game."

Eventually my Officers teleported away from the subjects, and they filed very descriptive reports to Disney - but, I cannot get over the fact that these pirates were so violent and persistent in coming after my guild. So, I bring my appeal to all of you pirates.

My guild is filled with dozens upon dozens of honorable, respectable pirates, who never miss a chance to go out of their way to help others. They have always shown an admirable commitment not only to our own guild, but to the community of POTCO as a whole. My guild has always been extremely tight-knit, and we all in a sense have become one another's family; and now, a great pain is what I feel after seeing what these pirates are trying to do.

I would like to ask all pirates that you please remember that my guild is not what these pirates may say that we are. If you see them mocking, speaking badly, or spreading rumors about our guild (you will know who they are if you see them) please do me a personal favor by reporting these pirates, and then contacting me on this matter. I want to make sure that these pirates get what they deserve.

If you would like further information on what happened, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for all of your support, pirates.

~ Delmaria Darkskull
Partners N Crime Guildmaster

[WeirdBeard]

How do they keep finding our officers?

I was there that first time... I myself was very confused what was going on. I didn't know why he would want to join our guild if he said we were "noobs"

I hope we can avoid this problem as long as we can.

[Pirate Guy]

Wow, that is just sad. This is a game game, no need to use rude statements or words. I'm glad that we handled it that way though.

[Littlebell]

sorry to hear that; i hope Disney does something about them.

i've only had good experiences with you and members of your guild, Del.

[akamystic]

Completely unacceptable behavior. Sorry you guys had to go through that.

[Chalupa]

I read that whole thing and it is just the saddest and most pathetic thing I have ever read. If I ever see these foul pirates, I will definitely bring it to your attention and/or the attention of officers.

[Captain Whale]

I think your reputation and that of your guild speaks for itself Captain Delmaria. Those who know and respect you and yours won't pay any heed to this. This kind of sad behavior comes and goes in all of online gaming.

You have my support of course, let me know if I can be of assistance.

Cheers - Captain Whale

[Crestshot]

Thank you for the support everyone. I'm more worried about our guildmates who may not know how to handle these guys if they are ever approached by them. We have quite a few not on POF or other sites that don't exactly know the situation. Our member today handled it well, but you can never be certain... My mind would rest easier if I knew they were banned.

[Pirate Guy]

Aye Crest, I'm thinking about sending Disney an E-Mail ( I took a screenshot of the chat ) to show them what these people are saying.

[Tobias Daggercrash]

Half of the time when i am online, Many members of PnC are online aswell. But some times only i am online. I say these people you talk about, are right newbies. What levels were they? I myself believe that our guild, being one of the most known and most respected, get this behavior. And i am pretty sure we are not alone, Shadow Sorcerers will have these things sometimes aswell. I am very proud to say that i am in PnC, but it doesn't help in test where i am not in PnC xD. I am more interested to know what servers did this happen. Either Abassa/Andaba or the server where we usually are.
- Daggercrash.

[Miss Graywolf]

UGH!
I really really really hate people who act so childish like that
good thing I wasn't there, I would have gotten banned myself for language
I just can't hold myself around people like them

[Dark_Pixie]

I can't believe someone would continuously bash our guild like this. Fair enough that they would be upset about not being able to join, but being so childish as to grief us all, after the matter should be closed? It's sickening. I'm very glad you didn't let them into the guild, because they are clearly cut from the same cloth as the griefer that used to be in the guild.

I think you made the right choices with dealing with them, and hopefully they won't bother us again. The thought of such griefers in the game really angers me, and I'll be doing what I can to help stop them. I just hope I won't come across them, because I would most likely send them to where they belong, at the cost of my account...

Is there a server pattern for these griefers?

[Kat Five Knives]

I would come up with a procedure and have all members follow it ( just keep reminding them in guild chat)

A suggestion might be the following:

1. Do not respond to rude comments or remarks
2. If you speak at all, keep it positive
3. If it continues, take a screen shot, and THEN ignore or report
4. TP away.

They will eventually tire and stop. I hope Disney helps ya out too.

[CaptainMonkeys]

Originally Posted by Kat Five Knives

I would come up with a procedure and have all members follow it ( just keep reminding them in guild chat)

A suggestion might be the following:

1. Do not respond to rude comments or remarks
2. If you speak at all, keep it positive
3. If it continues, take a screen shot, and THEN ignore or report
4. TP away.

They will eventually tire and stop. I hope Disney helps ya out too.

That's exactly what we do. Our members know that seeming to respond angrily to the one being rude is just fuel, and encourages them to keep going.

Either way, this is probably the worst case of griefing I've seen in my time of POTCO.

[Crestshot]

Originally Posted by Kat Five Knives

I would come up with a procedure and have all members follow it ( just keep reminding them in guild chat)

A suggestion might be the following:

1. Do not respond to rude comments or remarks
2. If you speak at all, keep it positive
3. If it continues, take a screen shot, and THEN ignore or report
4. TP away.

They will eventually tire and stop. I hope Disney helps ya out too.

Got a response from Disney that said they'll take care of it. It was a little more personalized than most Misbehaving Persons reports, so I was satisfied.

I'll try to pass this on to the guild, Kat. Thanks for the advice! I'll admit that I responded to the griefers (Bad habit I Should learn to break, honestly), but I never try to insult them, just in case the mods do look over the reports. It's usually just responses to get them to say more bad stuff that will get them more likely to get banned. A lot of that happened with the incident the other day, and one of our Officers got screenshots that were subsequently sent to Disney. A few of our members, when we were discussing it in guild chat, said that we should just PVP them, win and be on our way, but that's never seemed like an ideal situation for me; If they win, they'll brag and grief some more, and if they lose, their pride will be hurt and they'll grief some more. It's lose lose.

Besides, it was rather amusing to hear my life story of being left on the side of the road as a baby.