Other [Issue 29] The Ethics of Camping and “Boxing”.

[MadDog21 230]

The Ethics of Camping and “Boxing.”

 

Ethics really bores many, particularly younger folk and/or those who don’t really know what ethics mean. The lexicographers give us this. “ethics |ˈeTHiks|

pl.noun

1 [ usu. treated as pl. ] moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior: Judeo-Christian ethics.

• the moral correctness of specified conduct: the ethics of euthanasia.

2 [ usu. treated as sing. ] the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.”

 

However, every single Tanker, every individual, gets their knickers in a wad when they perceive ethical wrongs that assail them or compromise their life moments. The consideration and understanding of ethics is for thinkers as opposed to feelers. You know the difference. Feelers are emoters, persons who love the notions of feeling something is right or wrong. Thinkers are those who assess the world and any parts of it with which they’re engaged with reason, contemplation, thought and critical judgement predicated upon the workings of one’s mind rather than the emotions of one’s “heart.”

 

That said, it’s worthwhile to note that the vast majority of complaints, whining and rants in chat or the Forum relate to ethics. Folks dislike being skinned, cheated and shined to apply some English vernacular.  In matches, any ethical tanker loathes “mults.” For the uninitiated, mults are tanks placed in opposing teams to diminish the effectiveness and battle capacity of an opposing team. They’re easily spotted in matches by their inactivity and affirmed by their kill count. Their kill count shows nearly no kills and abundant deaths. Yet they diminish a teams’ capacity to function with balance and effectiveness. One aspect of ethical nastiness comes in the form of campers and boxers.

 

While mults frustrate and madden honorable Tankers, they are the least of those aggravators. They’re the signatures of cheaters, plainly and clearly. The real miscreants reveal in campers and boxers. They can shade their treachery by seeming to compete till a keener eye views their behaviors. Let’s define those for the sake of this discussion for any who might find those confusing. Campers are those Tankers, often of lower ranks but not exclusively so, who behave like mults. They tend to favor picking spots by their perceived safety or security, their crystal drop spots, the hope to keep their ratios slght and numerous other reasons logical, only, to those who decline team support. Like mults, they contribute little to nothing to the team’s efforts. In fact when they select certain spots they actually impede the progress of the team. Not only do they fail to attempt flag capping, establishing and holding control points or hunting opponents dependent upon CTF, Control Points or Death matches, they interfere with efforts of teammate Tankers to do so, and they do little to nothing in support of team efforts and match wins. Deplorable? You bet! 

 

Boxers, on the other hand, appear to be active, but closer scrutiny reveals that their activity is in pursuit of dropped crystal boxes over and above doing anything to support the team effort. This ignores team goals to win matches, and it’s immensely self-serving. What’s more, they rarely gain as many crystals as they could from their share of a team win. They can be observed in crystal rich drop zones driving themselves dizzy turning circles in hopes of snagging crystal boxes one by one and, in fact, interfering with the paths of warriors competing for team wins. Rather than engaging opponents, they turn, churn and burn for crystals above all else interfering with other’s movements, and, worse, they substantially diminish a team’s chance for a match win.

 

The motives for such strategy are clear, even simple. Greed. Ironically greed is ill served. Were these miscreants to work for team victories, their reward would generally be greater, sometimes much greater, than what they earn by boxing. Surely they’d gain the respect of their teammates rather than justly earning their contempt.

 

It’s appropriate to note current changes within the game regarding these issues. Administration and Developers took note of feedback in the Forum. Temporarily and experimentally, they’ve pulled crystal drops from the games and added equivalency to the battle fund. This should please the warriors while frustrating boxers, even campers. It means anyone who wants to earn crystals in matches needs to actually compete to earn them. Every Tanker needs to support their teams in the battles. Radical concept, huh? This means a sea change in game tactics setting them as they actually should be. It makes the team goal clear to all, and it results in actual team play opposed to the self-centered, toddle about boxers doing literally nothing for a team win. It’s appropriate to note this is a test, and whether or not it becomes a permanent change will be decided in the future. Additionally it also clarifies the reality that Tanki staff, in fact, do pay attention to the community’s feedback and preferences. As an editorial aside I truly hope it becomes permanent. Playing on a team with ether campers and/or boxers is maddening. Mults are bad enough. When we join teams, team support ought to be a standard expectation. This change moves us nearer that. I sincerely hope it renders this article moot.

 

None can control the actions of others. So it is. So it has always been, but we can control ourselves. Competing honorably, vigorously and ethically ought to be a standard, but so, too, ought all humans be ethical and honorable. That fact is clearly not the case, but it remains that we can be so. Good hunting and blessings!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by Hexed

[greyat 2,972]

Indeed... but an idealized world, sadly, cannot be achieved.

Always remains the one who would not be enlightened.

Edited December 2, 2014 by greyat

[Stedi2612 0]

Mad Dog   

               Bang on the money !        Nice piece .

[r_AWE42000 0]

Great article. Really reveals what ppl do for money.

[Jesse_X99 47]

Decent article, but it has not fixed the mult situation I'd like to point out...

[Legit 1]

"What’s more, they rarely gain as many crystals as they could from their share of a team win."

 

I used to cry camp at stadium battles alot and would often walk away with more crys than the guy in first.

Great article though :D

Edited December 3, 2014 by Legit

[Zypyk 4]

This s a great article and a solution brought out a while a go was voting in match to kick out the mults out of the battle. Team vote i believe it as called. What ever happened to that? I liked it. The only problem was people would abuse it but it would be great to get it back.

[Truthteller 4,204]

What people do for money..

Edit: Nice job MD21

Edited December 4, 2014 by Truthteller

[Lord-of-the-Snipers 1,620]

Completely agreed with your view on the (ex)crystal grabbers, with one exception:

there was and is a large group who is simply too young to understand how teamplay works.

 

Can 't really treat that underaged group as it should be done if they were mature enough.

Something to do with "juvenile court". ;)

 

For the other matured group that does understand the concept of teamplay it 's indeed greed

and lack of ethics IMO.

 

If Tanki ever bring back dropped crystals, which I really hope they don 't, it should only be done in DM.

 

Crystal grabbers can 't don 't do any harm in a DM, they would just present themselves as easy canon fodder:

though it would be sad that they still wouldn 't learn the concept of teamplay, won 't improve their skills and indeed notice

you can most likely earn a lot, lot more with teamwork!

Edited December 6, 2014 by Lord-of-the-Snipers

[canadarules 1,938]

this is not philosophy

[blackflag444 256]

............

[T3chio 18]

This was a good article, i agree mostly with everything said, and like others said the younger element, not only the young ppl but also the weaker ranks, i've noticed that the higher your rank the more crystals you will achieve in a battle, and as a high rank you can make more by playing as a team, but the weaker ranks don't make many crystals and my younger brother made up to 200 crystals from boxes b4 whereas now he only makes approximately 100-150 crystals from the battle fund, i would suggest yes doing crystals in DM, but also making it where weaker ranked battles have them to

[fufususumumu1 240]

great article, but are not thou have the wisdom and knowledge and obliged to put thy text in a far less complex, labyrinthine and ancient language?

K GUYS BRING ON THE HATE!!!! :D

Edited December 9, 2014 by fufususumumu1