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This one isn't so much of an update really but more of a reflection on the past 2 years ish.
Going back even further. 2 years ago my family acquired a new home.
But lets say it wasn't really a ready to move in home....
The first 6 months were spent acquiring building permits, gutting the place and arranging for builders to come in.
(When I say gutting I'm talking everything a couple of the interior walls remain and the exterior wall all plumbing, wiring, ceilings, even the roof came off.)
While this was keeping me busy it wasn't causing me to be so busy that I was losing much time with Feral Heart stuff.
Next, the builders came in. This is where I ceased to be able to work to my own time scale. Certain things had to be done at certain times.
So other work could be completed and I had to find time to do this outside of my job and my other volunteering commitments which consume a few nights of my week.
Basically if it had wires there's a pretty good chance I put it in from the electrics, lighting, network data points, the alarm system, for some reason I ended up wiring in the boiler too?
(Thought that was the plumbers job.. Where's Mario when you need him?)
I'm also a bit of a pyromaniac. I have both a fire pit and a log burning stove so took it upon myself to split and chop all the old timber that came out rather than letting it be ditched.
At one point there has a huge pile of scrap wood in the probably about 4m wide 4m deep and 3m high.
During this 12 month period, I was struggling to keep up with whatever was going on with Feral Heart and the staff.
I dumped Skype off my phone, which was the main method for communication.
Why? Because I was getting home incredibly tired, and the late night calls (all the staff at the time were American) kept waking me up while I was trying to sleep.
I didn't cut all communication ties though. My phone number has resided in the staff room for-pretty-much-ever, even if only on very, very rare occasion the staff have used it.
I also use Telegram (Russian free speech version of whatsapp). Sura had me added on there and was dropping me messages as and when I was needed.
The last 6 months on the back of that was/has been spent moving and settling in. We didn't use a removals service which in hindsight was a massive mistake.
I don't think I have ever moved so much stuff in my life. This continued the tired and need to sleep issue.
On top of that, during the build, we foil insulated the entire house. The upshot of this was upon moving in I discovered that mobile reception was patchy at best.
Basically, if you wanted to call me I need to go outside. You might say "What about the internet?"
I now have probably one of the most unique connections going. I'm bonding (legally I might add) a number of connections from around the neighbourhood.
I actually have a mast of antennas picking up signals from all over the place. While this is great and technically free in the long term (I did have to buy a shed load of equipment to do it).
The upshot of it is that it isn't very good for calls. The call jumps between connections of different latencies, which it seems no calling software is prepared for and you end up with a really choppy call(something else I need to work on).
I very recently installed a mobile booster on the roof so the issues I was having until now have been pretty much solved.
So if you have sat and read though all of this, you're probably thinking this is some huge ass excuse. Honestly this is kinda how life works.
In my position there's really no excuse I can make for disappearing for the best part of 2 years... But at the same time I don't have anyone else I can pass the job to.
Other staff would probably have left. But if I leave who else has the understanding of the server?
So that's the initial issue. Though it doesn't explain what actually went wrong.
Before my activity took a tumble I started a the next patch with the staff. As you all should know we called out for map makers among other things.
LaughingWolf and Lady_Alizarin were selected to produce maps.
They were provided a framework to work within but generally what you will see from these maps is there own work with little bits of staff input here and there.
I certainly saw almost all of Laughing's map go up and was able to make sure Lady's was on the right track before my activity dropped.
So X months down the line, after Christmas really, this patch was pretty much ready.
Sura contacted me so, now this is where I'm a little hazy.. I know from the conversation that I have been back and read in telegram.
Sura did tell me that the patch was ready! I did also mention in the same conversation that I had the flu. So I probably forgot.....
Again I'm not trying to make excuses this is just how it panned out. Following this was a number of contacts about a call.
I was either moving in or moved in roughly when these occurred, so it was either sheer tiredness, or because I wasn't going to stand outside at night in February/March time for calls.
I did, in that period though, answer questions about users and rebooting the server a couple of times on request over messages. Oh, and some broken Boards stuff here.
Months ticked by, other less frequent messages for calls arrived. Again, I didn't arrange anything. Website had an issue.
Other text based discussions about random stuff. But still I hadn't actually got into a chat with all the staff. Or really discussed what was going on with the patch.
Rolling round to start of august august I got a message about object groups here's me thinking "Blimey, they are still working on them maps".
It was a long message so I left it till later to answer properly. Again it was clearly forgotten as at the end of august I must have picked up on it and threw back an apologetic response.
This was also where my first concern about the patch was raised.
"There are a few meshes that need to be "private" and not accessible in Object Maker." I'm immediately thinking; this is what happened with the old markings that went in game.
People wanted to use them as in presets but the creators disapproved.
Since replacing those its been the general consensus that anything that goes into Feral Heart can be used by all of you. Realising there's an issue this is about when I rolled back into Skype.
In a Skype call I had with the staff, by staying back at work late, I discovered the work the staff had been doing went well beyond the original intended patch.
I was now looking at effectively 3 new maps and other changes throughout the Feral Heart world, including complete removal of the grounds.
On top of this the world logic (positioning of maps by maps in 3D space) introduced in the last patch looked like it was going, by the way.
I know a lot of people weren't and aren't happy with the last patch. But I don't see that the good things it brings to Feral Heart should be lost.
To me there's two issues with these maps. They need some additional fun elements and as role players you need more environments than are currently available.
In my mind this this had gone ahead without my consultation, and while I really don't like to see good work go to waste, I would really have to have a deep look at how I could fit these maps into the existing structure that the world provides.
The response I got back from the staff was that of huge disappointment, that they had worked for so long on these maps for them to potentially not end up in game.
Also a distinct sense that I was ignoring the benefits of what they had done, and how they had done it, almost by community request.
Please note at this point, even though I still hadn't been in the maps myself, I knew in the back of my mind that there's been so much work gone in to this that people are going to leave if I can't find a way to make it work in game.
I wasn't and I'm still not really prepared to sacrifice the world logic we have obtained for the old maps.
Its my belief that in doing so is no better than to revert that last patch. And that's going backwards not forwards.
So following this call I made it my mission to at the very least take a quick look around the maps at the weekend.
I was expecting an awkward integration from the call. But seeing the maps it was looking impossible. I couldn't in my head find a way to make them fit with the existing world.
The upshot of this is a 3 week argument with the staff.
I'm saying 100% these maps are not going in game unless we can find a logical place for them (I also made it clear that I was willing to let the staff leave over the issue).
I have the staff claiming that the logic was through out and while it loosely worked it didn't quite fit.
I also took issue with modifying existing maps which were not part of the plan to build these new maps inside them.
Maps which effectively became backdrops for the new maps; increased complication already complex maps, or were simply what I felt to be an improper representation of the original maps they were connected too.
So three weeks of battles roll by staff tensions are at an all time high. By this point I'm convinced that the staff are blind to what they have created just as a parent can be blind to an ugly child.
I'm dropping into late night calls that I was far to tired to really be in. The staff have setup another group chat and are having calls without me.
I have a solution to logical map placement and I've provide it in chat. It's simply been over looked or ignored.
(It's not until after the staff leave that I discover that they didn't understand what I was trying to layout.)
If i wasn't sure before that the staff were going to leave, I've become pretty certain now.
During this time, Shallow was trying to mediate the situation. I fail to answer a message on telegram. I get one back which seemed snappy to me.
At this point I snapped back. In return I get a message stating that she's done mediating and that I'm on my own.
I'm thinking well that's it then. I needed something in place for the staff leaving. So up pops "no moderator October".
On the back of that Nynx releases all the WIP patch stating that I have no intention of allowing it in game.
From my point of view this is simply a political release to side the community with the staff.
I ban Nynx on the basis of lying about my intentions and I kill the maps server side to stop the leak.
I remove Nynx's comment under my no mod October post on the basis that I'm assuming she's gone rogue.
The Staffs response to this was to walk out collectively. Which changes my priorities, even if i make no moderator October work, I still have no forum staff.
Time I was spending on coding is swapped for seeking staff. Hmm was created. And that brings us up to date I believe.
Obviously I made mistakes here. There was clear misinterpretation from both sides. But perhaps now there is an understanding as to why things happened the way they have.
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Hey guys <3
As most of you have noticed there's been a lot going on these past weeks, things that have affected the whole community. We'd like to explain some things, and also offer a sincere apology.
All that has occurred has been due to miscommunications and conflicts between the staff and the server master, conflicts that ultimately should have never been dragged into the community as they only caused unnecessary stress and worry to you all... For this we are truly sorry. These issues could have been handled more professionally from both sides. We want to apologize for the way these decisions have affected your enjoyment of the game and for any kind of confusion that has risen because of them. Hopefully, our explanation will clarify any lingering questions that you may have.
The root of the conflict between the staff and Razmirz stemmed from a lack and lapse of communication which began and has continued since many months ago. Having staff and server master comprehend one another and understand each other’s perspective is a crucial element in establishing the foundation for mutual respect and the coherent progression of a team-- without that, a slew of miscommunications can and did result. In the past, Raz had consistently suggested that he did not involve or authorize himself in patchwork. When production of this patch began, however, Raz showed more of an interest in oversight of the maps. We had no objections to his interest, and for a while, there did not appear to be any kind of concern with the way things were progressing. As time went on, Raz became increasingly busier with his personal life and did not involve himself with patch matters. Most all communication was limited to myself contacting him through Telegram, with him very rarely logging into Skype to look at the discussion that was going on. His participation in nearly all involvement in the patch business chats ceased. Apparently he had removed the Skype application from his phone, due to the fact that staff had commenced business calls during times which were proving inconvenient in his timezone. All of this occurred without him informing us of when he might be back around, and any attempts to reach out and suggest to him a call to discuss thoughts were either rejected entirely or ignored. Problems that arose from the server such as broken maps or a server freeze were dealt with in a timely manner, but whenever we brought up the mention of the patch, our messages would be neglected.
With little to no input regarding our direction of the patch and Raz’s absence, we decided to continue the progression of the patch. In the past Raz had informed the staff that he trusted us to make the right choices and collective decisions, thus there was no hesitation to continue working. Along with this, we wanted to make Raz happy and were willing to handle the responsibility of the patch to allow him peace of mind and to concentrate on matters in his own life. We were determined to make Raz proud but also to bring happiness to the community. We had observed an increasing number of disheartened “FH is dying” threads and general discontent in the community, and so with the stagnation of the patchwork due to Raz’s absence, we were further inclined to bring long-awaited requests to fruition. Throughout this time, we had been speaking openly in the Skype business chats about our future plans and progress.
Over a year from his absence we were finally able to conduct a call with Raz. He brought up many criticisms about the work we had produced-- many of them holding very little weight in our eyes, some outright rude/inconsiderate insults, while others were founded from a seemingly good place but appeared to be overlooking the interests of the community. It was our intention to introduce ideas that the community has been advocating for the past few years-- ideas that ultimately were overlooked in many forms in the past. Despite our trying to exhibit this perspective, Raz was still not satisfied with the version of the maps we had produced and blatantly told us that there was no way he would permit this version of the patch to be released. Amongst our offering to explore and discuss the maps together in a call (with him never resolving to do so with us), and even our bringing in old staff members to review the maps (which they approved of), there were many attempts to establish some kind of compromise or common ground with no results. It got to a point where we would discuss an idea with him or seem to get somewhere in terms of seeing eye-to-eye, and the following day, he would behave as if our discussion had not taken place and revert to his prior opinions.
Following this, it was made very clear to us that Raz had no intention of allowing these maps to pass unless our existing concepts were scrapped or redesigned in the way he wanted them. Most of the work that staff had put into the patch since 2017 was at risk of going out the door. We were incredibly hurt by Raz’s sudden decision to take control over what we had been working on, as in no way had there been an implication that Raz was the one to finalize or determine what the patch consisted of. We strongly felt that we, as staff who have been involved with and communicating daily with the community, had a far better understanding of the community’s desires than did Raz, who worked in the background with the server. The changes that we aimed to add were those we firmly believed would be beneficial additions to Feral Heart’s community, changes that were significant enough so as to not be tossed aside. These changes were a collective gathering of the suggestions made on mass by the community. (Reintroduction of the old maps being one in particular-- of which Raz had said himself he didn’t really want back in the game.)
With no possibility of a mutually agreeable compromise in sight, tensions increased. Staff were told by Raz multiple times that they were replaceable. Raz brought up the fact that he had shut down IT’s server, even though nobody wanted it to happen, which staff perceived as a threat. He made it apparent that he would be willing not only to lose the team who had worked alongside him for years but that he would do whatever he wanted in order for things to be done his way. A mutual bond of trust and respect was damaged even further with the sudden and unprecedented post of Raz’s “No-Mod October” concept. Raz did not discuss his idea with us before posting the thread (which should have been something everyone was on the same page with when it comes to making a big change in the community). We became extremely concerned with this idea as there wasn’t a thorough explanation of how it would work provided in his post. We then decided to post a notice that “No-Mod October” was not something that we were informed about or agreed upon and later that post was deleted by Raz. At this point, we felt like Raz was pushing us out of our positions and trying to spitefully instigate a reaction due to the fact that staff had not agreed to comply with everything he disliked about the patch. Based on Raz’s sudden hostility and impulsiveness in his actions regarding the community on a larger scale, we were concerned that the community would not be provided the chance to see the patch or experience what we had set out to make for them and that Raz would take complete control over the patch. We did not release the maps to provoke, but rather so that Raz would see the community’s feedback towards our work, as it was intended to be a patch for the community after all. We felt the community deserved the final say. Thus staff collectively compiled the patch and released it as a WIP, after which Raz removed the thread, banned Nynx, and cut off the maps from the server, which led to people losing their characters if they had entered the maps. He banned Nynx even though the decision was all of ours to post the patch to the public, and we felt that placing a ban on her was an extreme way to respond to what we had done. We felt it was an unfair action of him to do given Nynx’s hard work and dedicated service towards FeralHeart for several years.
Despite wanting to stay on the staff team, we felt that:
a). Years of long established respect, friendship, and understanding had gone completely out the door.
b). There would be a continued inconsiderate approach to the needs and desires of individuals on the staff team and the community.
c). There would be no chance of a compromise with Raz on the patch.
d.) Raz would continue to make impulsive decisions regardless of community and or staff opinions or concerns
Therefore a collective departure was taken by the remaining members of the staff team.
We know that there’s two sides of this and that Raz might not have seen this the way we did. And that this could’ve been solved if there had just been some kind of communication from the start. It takes two to argue, and we too did wrong in this, letting feelings take over. It’s also why it’s so important for us to have both you-- the community-- and Raz to understand how we viewed all this. It was never our intention to cause a disturbance to those playing the game.
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Well guys there you have the opinions from both sides.
I'm not expecting a huge number of responses to this thread its simply here to provide you all more of an understanding.
With history now embedded in stone. I hope we can move forward without finger pointing or hard feelings.
I hope to get back to you shorty with Part 3 yep there's still more to come.
Raz
PS:
There's been a important argument going on for a long time over this chocolate hobnob (biscuit on Wikipedia BTW)
https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=60226.0
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Glad to finally see feelings from both sides, not just one. It's made me rethink some things as well. And like both have said, I hope the community can move on from this and that the game in itself will patch itself together (no pun intended) and become stronger.
Also...it's a biscuit. A good biscuit at that.
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This is a breath of fresh air. I too am glad we are given inputs from two sides and I completely respect both sides. I'm greateful there is no longer any ill feelings within the Community, and I am glad there is no resentment on the staff and ex staff side. Thank you both for this post. FeralHeart is certainly stronger than it ever was.
Cookies best
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Been watching for this post and I'm glad to finally have a understanding of how things went down. Yes, as Azura said, I personally hope we as a community and old staff and such can all move on from this together and try and let go with a fresh start, new beginning!
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It's very nice to see an explanation after everything that has went on over these few months and get some sort of answer. Because as we know, a lot of members of the community; including myself have been left in the dark and confused about a lot of the things that happened recently. Including myself. I believe this was the right thing to do, Raz. And Sura thank you for commenting as well because there's always two sides to a story and I feel it is right that the community should have both of them. I'm sure this will bring a lot of ease and maybe some frustration to the table here? There is a lot to the situation and I am sure everyone is taking time to read over everything and create an opinion that will be said soon, i'm presuming. Though, I do completely respect both sides here. I am not siding with one or the other.
As for myself, I am just relieved everything is out and the community and myself knows. Thank you, Raz and Sura for doing this, again. It was a good decision. I hope now we, as a community can begin to move forward and look towards the future, becoming stronger as more information is being released about the matter. <3 And cookie...
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Oof, that was a read. But a good one. It is sad to see what all happened during that time, but I am very glad to see both of you explaining what exactly happened with all this. It really does provide a clear image of how everything went down and I think the community will understand the situation a bit better. I will miss the old staff but the new staff holds promise. <3
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I'd like to add that I hope you guys can understand both sides of the story and not point any fingers in either direction, regardless of what has been said.
Thank you both Raz and Sura for this input.
Also it's a biscuit.
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I am glad FeralHeart did not turn out bad in the end. I do now have a understanding of how things all went very downhill. I respect both sides! There was a lot of anger and sadness in the situation, but we are here now. The community is getting stronger by the minute. Its a very big relief to hear this. FH will be alright, and we hope it will always be. <3 Thank you Sura and Raz for brighting up the path a bit.
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I hope this thread will shed some light on exactly what went on before the change of scenery in terms of patches, staff and situation.
It must feel like a lot of weight has finally been released from the shoulders of those involved and, I hope that people will finally understand that both sides have been left at fault for some things said and done. Not just the Server Master, or not just the Old Staff.
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Though I've remained silent on most of the posts going around, it's an incredible relief to know where everyone stands. While I did hold some issues with the way staff and members alike handled the situations (such as taunts, memes, etc), I do think that with this we can move forward as a community. Regardless, I hope everyone on staff currently, and formerly, are doing well. I knew we'd pull through it y'all.
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Can't add on any different thoughts from what's been said.
Glad to see things clearer.
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Thank you Raz, for giving your side of the story! I have a better understanding now as to why you went MIA, and no, that's definitely not an excuse of your part. Real life comes before in game life! Congratulations on your house! I'm glad that you're back, and everything has been somewhat resolved.
As for the part from the old staff, thank you for sharing your side as well, and yes, its very annoying when you've been working so bard to make something and somone comes in and takes control. (Kind of reminds me of season 8 of the office LMAO) anywho, i'm just glad that everyone is working towards a better FH and this whole drama is over <3 Thank you to the old and new staff! And thank you Raz!
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Thank you both Raz and Sura for explaining things.
It’s a cookie by the way.
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Thanks for explaining your collective sides of what snowballed into the chaos that had been fh for that week..
Luckily it's calmed down in the wake of the drama and I'm glad it can continue to move forward.
My only thing was I'd wished you'd asked myself and lady if we'd wanted our maps in that unofficial release. We've since hashed that out, but it's still a regret from my side of things as a map maker. I had (maybe selfishly) wanted to see the reactions of users first viewing for myself, and didn't know about the unofficial release and all the other drama until later that night and I was admittedly pissed about it being in that release without so much as letting me know in the Skype chat.
But again, I'm over it for the most part and am choosing to see it as a beta test, since it's supposed to go into the official patch when Raz gets around to that and all it entails.. can't wait for you guys to see it.
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Here's the point where I'm not really going to aid this situation in any way, but I'll drop my own comment in here so it exists and hopefully I can move on and just not get water over my head. This is a very "me" like post so you've been warned lol.
This whole patch nonsense is something that I never wanted or intended to happen when I personally gave you Raz, and the rest of the staff team access to what was put together and worked on to be the base and foundation of future patch work, work that I had mostly kept to myself so I knew at least something completely bonkers like this wouldn't take place. When I took my leave shortly after the patch we got in 2016 I myself had pretty much gotten fed up with certain peoples incapabilities to listen. Certain people who had given me a hard time had all the options in the world now to do what they really wanted with future patches and the game, while I was nothing but a tired and worn soul. Putting this aside however, it was planned and talked about how we could roll out yearly if not even more frequent updates, where we would add things already planned a long time ago such as Snow maps or climbing maps just to name a few.
God knows what kind of salt buckets I've swam through and heard people complain and nag sometimes about things I'm completely with them on but never quite got to justify.
The patch that was made, was obviously not meant to be final, but rather the best that could be mustered and actually make it happen to build upon. It has taken over two years now since the patch I put together with the staff and laid all the ground work for actually got released and changed FH, but all the very needed additions that was planned at the time never really took place, certainly not making the already first few flat building blocks, seem even blander to some. I honestly appreciate that you tried to stay true to a logical 3D space and a world that makes sense, which was one of the things I tried to really show could be a thing, but this whole thing really was a disaster, everything that took place and how FH yet again got stuck in time, and I do of course from what I've seen from the patch work obviously question certain choices still. The last patch was meant to make future updates easier, which is the case, but things fell apart completely on other ends.
The kicker however is that I did leave back then for my reasons, and I did give the responsibility away to you all so I cannot exactly blame any of you what content you do end up bringing to the game and your reasons for it. But I certainly didn't aim for a 2+ year wait, neither did I think the original maps would've been tinkered with in the way they had by the staff. People are free to say otherwise honestly, but it seems pretty clear to me that you guys needed someone like me to pull the reigns after I left when it comes to this thing.
Afterwards I know for certain there's certain designs of the maps that not even I'm pleased with myself and I'd modify things and do them differently today for sure, and certain design choices I really pushed forward is something that many players never really quite understood or wanted to enjoy, but they were also, not really finished or fully executed.
Great stuff that people are being more transparent now, great that people can talk, you, old staff new staff. Great people can get some closure on what has gone down and can see some sort of light. But to me personally I have a bitter taste in my mouth from all I've been through on my part, and how I've seen what this stupid patch thing has caused during my absence as an admin from the staff. Even though many much needed changes also took place in the 2016 patch beyond just a world change, such as being able to remove buttswing that people got in trouble for, replacing copyrighted music used without permission and sorting out other material that was problematic to the game, I'm wondering how the game would look today and if anyone would've had the patience or energy to do what I did with the staff back then.
I managed to leave in a fairly decent manner after getting drilled for a long time, both on and off the game, both from random strangers and people I saw as friends, and then I got to see this whole dramatic play unfold publicly which painted so many pictures to me I wouldn't even be able to describe it if I tried. I could sit and whine all day long about how a server admin is at fault, and how people are blind to the truth, or whatever people feel is the case, but in many cases people just don't know better and this thing is a mess I'm going to try to move on from despite what I feel about it as a lot of things has just sucked to me personally.
In all of this I still sense that something good will come out of it that is better for the game as a whole, and I honestly wish everyone good luck in taking care of the game and community, moving on from this.
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Thank you for this update, I really wanted to see both sides and I want to say that the community is starting to be more and more active everyday. Please guys, take the time to read all of this,
also that's a biscuit.
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I appreciate the explanation from both Raz and the old staff at this point. I also appreciate the input from new staff, along with Red here. There's been a lot of back and forth banter that honestly, is now just a mess of mass proportions that we all pitched into the flames one way or another. Truthfully and honestly, we are all at fault someway or another, and it takes true will to be able to admit fault where it is put.
I'm not going to say I'm happy the ordeal happened, or that I'm happy any of this happened. Our journey through life is a struggle and this is no different. I really have no pitch to throw at anyone, as my input has no real effect on what this post was intended for, but I do know that I appreciate this post in itself. Not because it was an explanation or an excuse, surely no. But, rather in the fact that there were faults admitted, which are forgiven. We needn't be salty or mad, or should we hold grudges and point fingers like many have said.
Pointing fingers and pinning blame only puts fluid on the flames.
Taking sides and lashing out on the other side is no way to solve anything either.
I've been seeing a lot of hate, a lot of blaming, and a lot of individuals acting two-faced in the error of the situation. None of which should exist, but it does. Mainly because we received no explanation and people were still confused, lost, and scared. However, here is now a thread composed of different points and views of those amidst the fray. Do not take any of this with a grain of salt, but rather put yourself in the positions of everyone here and how they felt during the time. This is perhaps a post that should be marked historically, to look back on so we don't repeat our same mistakes. This is something to move forward from and progress, rather than to keep on about as if it'll do anything. As Red stated above, something good will come out of this that is better for the game as a whole.
There is no more room for harassment, hate, blame, and grudges. This is not high school, and the drama that is created is not amusing in the slightest. With the events that took place, there is no room for anything like that, and honestly it isn't even necessary. There will always be hate, but as of right now I do expect everyone to be respectful as we advance forward. There's simply no room for hate and torment anymore, and I think everyone has had their fair share of it at this point. Reading this post gave me more insight than anything, and will allow us to keep trudging forward as time goes on for this game. Just remember to be respectful of everyone's views and perspectives. No more pointing fingers, and harassing others. Move with the changes, and hope for the best.
I hope you all appreciate and accept the new staff as we continue to provide for the community, respect the old staff for their work and dedication, and appreciate everything that went into the game as a whole.
Much love to you all.
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Thank you Raz, Red, and Sura for clearing everything up. Everyone makes mistakes, and the best we can do is learn from them. I'm going to take a moment to call out most of the FeralHeart community since they were coming up with assumptions without direct source from someone involved and only made matters worse. So in the future, can we please not jump to conclusions? Don't worry, FeralHeart's community wasn't the only one at fault. As Raz said, "there was clear misinterpretation from both sides," so everyone was honestly to blame for this pandemic happening in the first place.
I'm certain many of us will be able to move on, and for those that left because of this issue, I hope they'll one day wander back into the community.
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Thank you, Razmirz and Suragaha, for letting us fully understand. I read both your posts pretty throughoutly to understand everything (I even had to use google translate for some of those specific words that you used. Danish ftw lol).
I hope things in Feral Heart will rise with positivity from this point, and I can’t wait to see what the upcoming update will provide for the game and the community.
Again, thank you for this.
~Ellen
P.S: I prefer cookies.
P.S.S: I used my phone for this, and I did therefore not write a long post like most fluffs here around here... I couldn’t be arsed and I had to sleep. :3
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Appreciate both of you explaining your sides of the story, it really opens my eyes, at least. From the start of it all I could just tell there was a communication error and muddy feelings being tossed around, as it was hinted at from the start. That's exactly why I tell people who I'm gonna work as a team with that I thrive on communication, or at least have a mutual understanding of such. Communication is a key element when developing something, as is patience and a want to understand the other's views and opinions.
When it comes to personal feelings and views, sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and let things be. There's a lot of people out there in the world who'd rather have it their way in relation to having control. In some cases that's not particularly the issue, yet tensions still arise. That always leads to failure and hate. Everyone struggles with it, some more so than others, but in the long run things are so much easier if you can just let go.
Both sides had fault in things they've done and said, but I don't look at em any less for it. If anything more respect has accumulated for them as they admit what they've done. The only thing I can say is if I had any relation to this issues I would've tried my best to see both sides.
I agree with wanting to keep a more realistic 3D world approach, but adding in some slight fun bells and whistles here and there wouldn't be too bad.
In a whole, I hope you new staff can learn from this and do even better! Learn from the mistakes of others as well as your own so you can thrive at what you're trying to accomplish. I know all of you will do wonderfully~
P.S.
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it's a cooookkkiiieeee
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Ah thank you so much Raz, Sura, and Red for your inputs. It clears the air a lot for me and now I can understand both sides better. I think I understand how both sides felt, and this spiral was a mixture of stress and miscommunication from what I can see. Now that I've learned about feelings from both ends of the island I can say that nobody was right or wrong here, everyone was just confused and stressed and that's how it all spiraled out of control.
I hope that everything will only improve from here, and that the game can heal and grow from this point forward. Also... That thing is a cookie, no doubt about it, nobody can tell me otherwise. lol
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thanks for the explanation guys. i understand how things went down much clearer now.
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Its a relief to finally know the events that transpired, leading into this train wreck of a disaster. Having this clear, honest transparency with the community is refreshing and much needed, I hope it continues this way from here on out.
I will put it bluntly in my own opinion, which is not something I’m always fond of doing. Both parties involved were at fault, the staff allowed their emotions to run high and blind them of their duty to the game to remain calm and objective, and Raz abused his powers after years of absence because things were not going his way. I do not believe Raz should have had total authority to decide exactly what the maps would be like and what was released just because he is server master (though all my respect to him for his years of being such server master and keeping this game going), and I do not believe the staff had the right to release the map patch as a form of retaliation against Raz. This was something that got very out of hand and affected the whole community. The fact that the community itself had no knowing of this coming storm is possibly the worst thing as everyone was blindsided by what we deemed sudden and scary events.
I see both sides to this story and still respect both the Staff and Raz, my opinion is by no means an attack on either side but what I personally believe to have gone wrong in the course of things. I understand that things were stressful and intense, things happen and we are all only human. I hope we can build a better foundation to start again from. Trust can be made again with reliable and honest communication, let the community be heard and let us hear what is happening.
I love you all and appreciate the work, effort and stress you have been through to keep this game going <3
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Thank you guys for the update. I'm glad all of the salty and angry people have calmed down, and now everyone can see that nothing over the course of this situation was done out of pure malice. See, folks? Never hurts to not automatically demonize someone over a virtual game, there's always rationale behind certain things. Mistakes were made on both sides, which I saw from the very beginning, and the whole community got riled up over something that clearly was going to work out in the end one way or another.
Thanks for giving the community an inside look at this conflict, something I hadn't anticipated. The game's feel and the community that gets online hadn't changed, so I'm glad people can move forward. It's fine, guys, just like I'd said before. Welcome to new staff, thanks to old staff, and now we're moving on.
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I for one am extremley happy that I now know what was transpiring.
I will say however, I wont pick sides because reading this, to be honest, both sides actions in this explanation pissed me off just from reading it.
As you cant change the past though, I still have respect for all of you old staff, current new staff and Raz as well as Red.
I dont blame anyone in this situation given Raz didnt have control over irl duties, and the staff could only do so much and hope to get it right.
I wish I couldve seen the patch maps but I did not and thats okay. I still commend everyone that made those maps.
Currently our community is to put quite frankly, a little tired, atleast from what Ive seen.
Hopefully this can wake us back up and get us moving along.
If I had enough talent or whatever qualifies a helper, I wish I could help in some way if possible AT ALL.
This community and game raised me and seeing everyone like this breaks my heart.
I cant ever hate anyone as I know we are all human.
So thank you Raz, Sura, Red, Old staff, New staff, and everyone involved in just trying your best, even if it got messy.
I think as long as you are trying your best, thats all that matters. Some may be blind to that, but I certainly am not.
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Thank you for the explanation. I still completely disagree with how everything had transpired in the past and some of Raz's views on the situation, but I'm happy to see a clearer explanation of everybody's mindset during this whole event. Doesn't really directly solve some of the issues that happened, but this transparent and public explanation is much appreciated.
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Thank you for the updates. I feel that these updates have really shed some light on a few mysteries. I agree with what was stated above as it doesn't directly solve some of the issues, but the public explanation is very much appreciated.
As I do feel that the situation was blown way out of proportion and should've been handled differently.. I believe that we, as a community, can put it past us and move on. We now have a new line of staff that have bravely accepted the challenge of stepping up and facing the community after this event. I only wish them the best.
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Thank you so much for the input, being able to see and understand both sides was really insightful, and incredibly important for the healing of the community after all that happened.
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Thank you both for shedding light on the matter. I appreciate your point of view, your honesty, and your open-mindedness.
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Having not fully understanding of the situation here, I had to talk to a friend about it (Who is also a part of the community.) and now that I have some understanding of it, I feel more intent on having an input here although still not fully understanding because I'm such a derp, I'm not about to comment my opinion on either sides actions, I doubt that's not something you guys would want but anyway...
Both sides made mistakes and by the looks of it, both sides have realised it and hopefully will learn from this so something like this wont happen again. personally, I'm not interested in this as much, I'm more focused on now and the future and I hope now that this issue is resolved, the staff will too. There's a new roster of mods now so it's a new start and a brighter future for Feral Heart and I believe these new mods will make it prestigious again, just like the old days. I care for the well being of each and every mod on that roster right now (And former mods) so I felt like I needed to give my input before I lose my mind over it. Regardless, I appreciate the insight in this matter and I hope there's no hard feelings between Raz and the former staff members. stay positive guys. :)
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Thank you for an explanation from both sides! Miscommunication will always happen. Glad that everyone is working to explain, and i do hope old staff decides to return to game as members, would be sad to see them remove themselves completely from the community <3 They are loved. As is Raz, life happens, mistakes are made, we are still a community. More like Family if I am to be honest. Lol
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It is very mature of you both to let each side of the story be told without pointing fingers, how you've accepted your own wrongs is a good sign for a new future, thank you for keeping us up-to-date.
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I see. Now things make sense. I'm hoping things'll go better from here on out for the entire community, staff included.
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I'm glad to see both sides...hopefully we can recover from everything
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Thank you Raz and Lord Sura for the update and explanations.
There's always more than one side to a story, even if we all don't see it. After reading through both the explanations I can see where you're both coming from. Life happens and it's usually out of our control (that's something most kids on this game need to learn). We're all half a world away, and the time zones don't work in our favor. We've all been working hard both in the game patch and in reality. Sometimes it all can be too much on our plate to the point we start making hasty decisions.
This is why communication and comprehension is important, especially in a group project. If there's no good communication, or cooperation, where is it going to get us? Nowhere. As I've always been told "communication is key".
I hope we can all take this as a learning experience and learn from the mistakes that we made to move forward. I still have hope for this game/community, and I want to see it succeed and move on.
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Thank you for the explanation. I look forward to hearing more on future happenings when it comes to this program. I also wish you luck as you (Raz) and your new team of moderators move into the next generation of Feral-Heart. May it be better than the last; may we all learn from our mistakes and use our findings as future solutions to potential future challenges. Good luck everyone!
Very Respectfully,
Angarika/Blakyhart
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Thank you all for the explanations. I'm glad the community finally seems to be moving on and focusing on what's ahead. Let's just leave this in the past. But let's not forget that there was something to learn from all that. Now I'd say that in the end this mess hasn't been completely bad. Yes it potentially made many people leave. But it also brought so many people back. And it made people more involved with the community. It made people who had never posted on the forums to be active and involved. It made the community alive, no matter the reason. And now once things have calmed down and become more clear many of those who said they're leaving came back. And you can feel the spirit of the community rising again. Slowly. But surely. The only way now is up and fowards. And I think it's safe to say we are heading into the right direction.
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good demonstration of why you should always be up front with what's going on in the background if there's even a hint at it having an effect on the foreground.
not necessarily to the community, but at least to one another. you're a team. work together. talk to each other. don't be petty. if someone says 'maybe we should wait', consider it. even if they're being 'rude', because sometimes they can't convey their point as articulately as you'd like.
that being said
being a control freak about it will only make things worse.
try to work together or find a compromise. operating on ones own volition[even if people agree] is how bull like this happens.
i've seen it on Garry's Mod servers, roleplay forums, gaming communities, even one drunk night on Twitter.
hopefully it is a lesson now learned.
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Like everyone else has said, I'm just glad that we now have an understanding from both sides. Communication and having an understanding of one another is key for a better future.
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I know a lot of people weren't and aren't happy with the last patch. But I don't see that the good things it brings to Feral Heart should be lost.
To me there's two issues with these maps. They need some additional fun elements and as role players you need more environments than are currently available.
In my mind this this had gone ahead without my consultation, and while I really don't like to see good work go to waste, I would really have to have a deep look at how I could fit these maps into the existing structure that the world provides.
wow. Although I haven't been very active since the update because of the issues with running on a Mac, I'm in a way glad to see that you don't agree with how the maps were set up. Right when the update came out I nearly destroyed my laptop with downloading programs to let FH run, and I was unbelievably disappointed by the fact that the old maps were gone completely and the new maps were disorganized and uncomfortable. It's sad to see so many familiar faces leave, but it's for the best. We've never met or spoken but I just want to let you know I agree with your (tough) decision and hope everything smooths over.
I want to put this out there as a thought for the future: Feral Heart download for MAC users as the old versions had. I truly miss playing the game. I check forums occasionally but there's little incentive to be active solely for the forums. Just a thought.
I would love to talk with you about how we could make this happen, get back to me if you can.
Have a wonderful rest of the day,
-Shay
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O.o