Greetings, I am Erhiia. Most of you don't know me, but that is alright, considering my lack of activity on the forums. But regardless, since I am here to talk about the very recent changes to FH.
First a little about me, if you haven't already read my introduction that I posted roughly a year ago.
I came to this game almost seven and a half years ago. The game was still relatively new and blooming with people everyday. Some days even averaged close to 1,000 online players. I played the game everyday consecutively for a good 3-4 years. I was there when the wing/dash and lonely cave update came out. After the few years binge, I had a falling out with FH and stopping playing for about a year or so. During that time, the complete game revamp update came out and our community was shattered for the first time (at least from my perspective).
When that update came out, the FH staff, especially RedLineLies (AKA the Admin at the time). He was receiving hate comments on just about every social platform he was on. It was unbelievable to see what some people were saying.
A lot of the younger community, and the older one as well, were complaining about the update. I believe one thing that the community overlooked was all the hard work that was put into making that update.
Feral Heart, in all honest opinion, was dying, and still continues to decline over the past 4 years. The update that was put out by Red and the staff at that time was an attempt to revamp the game and make it more fun. We've had those previous maps for almost 5 years. This was a chance to give players a new experience, and perhaps even a new start.
Eventually, people accepted what had occurred, Red retired his position as admin, and many of the old staff members did as well. This opened up for a new generation of Admins and community members to take role and help make this community alive again.
People need to start realizing that time is a thing. As time goes on, we get older. We begin to lose time for things like Feral Heart. It is honestly amazing that we even had people still willing to take those roles as FH Staff responsibly and actively contribute their part. (This is excluding all the people who want to be staff just to be staff. Our staff before this No-mod October were very active and did an excellent job).
Another thing; Many, many, many people in this community wish to take up a role in the FH Staff, but only about 5% of that pool actually knows the burdens and responsibilities that come with it. The FH Staff is elected based upon their activity within this community, their ability to make executive decisions FAIRLY and EQUALLY (I cannot stress this enough!!!). With these requirements, only a certain age range fits these circumstances, and it's usually those who are 16 and older.
For those of you who are younger and not in high school, let me tell you this: High school is tough. Most of our mods were in high school, and many had other extracurricular activities that went with it. On top of that, some might've even had a job. This takes up so much time.
Many of us high school students do not have the time to take up the role of a moderator or an admin. It is an amazing feat the our previous mods were able to do that.
Now, I understand that a majority of the community is very upset with Raz's sudden decision, and that is perfectly fine. Everybody has the right to their own opinion and thoughts on this action. But think of it this way:
As I stated earlier, the pool of people who can fulfill the role of admin or moderator is very small. Many of those people are beginning to lose interest in the game as well. The system the Raz has put in temporarily is just temporary and an experiment that can in the future help keep this game alive. I hope you all realize that he is why we still have this game today and have had it for the past 8-9 years. Sure, he could've sold it, and somebody else would have had their hands on it. What if that person decided to just get rid of the game?
You cannot attack Raz for his decision. You can disagree with him as much as your heart desires, but you aren't in a place to attack him.
People are losing interest in this game, and this system that Raz has placed temporarily could be the key to keeping this game alive as it dwindles down. This system could be used in the future to help moderators out so that they do not have to be online 24/7. View it as a tool for the future.
Example: You're role playing peacefully one night and suddenly a person begins flaming you or even just using foul language in the area.
From my understanding of the system, you can block this person, and they will be put under the moderators radar. Sure, your can take screenshots and send it to mods, but some people (Mostly the younger ones) don't really know how to do this. This way, reporting somebody will have a larger reach.
A very long time ago, there used to be an in-game report button when you opened up somebody's character information. I think that it was abused and just spammed with very petty/puny things like "He killed my character in role play" or "He was in the den when I wanted it" and stuff like that.
Many people believe that the block system can be abused. If you read the notes from Raz, he states that 1 block does not equal a ban/kick nor do 9000 blocks equal a ban/kick. So you do not have to worry. Of course there may be flaws in the early stages of this experiment, but later on, it will be a tool to help the staff in case they are understaffed or cannot make it to be around the map every second of the day.
Please give it some time, and just act like decent community members. Forget that this whole thing was put in place and carry on with your daily FH lives. Abide by the rules and block those who don't follow them. Don't let this be the center of drama in game.
Thank you for reading. Please let me know your opinions as well.
