[SUGGESTION] Make it more obvious griefing isn't allowed in wastelands

Tutorial, New player guide, server messages all state no griefing, out of the 4 places it's stated only one is the website.

It's not mandatory to use the forums, but it should be, lots of good information here. Anyone who does not use the forums to find out information they need either doesn't care or is lazy.

I've been to the Wastelands once, I think it was for some event ICC was running. I've never paid much attention, and I was always under the impression that you could do as you pleased there, because of the way it was talked about. "Don't build structures", etc.

Now, I know the EMC rules, but even so, without having ever really thought about it, I had the wrong impression in my head, as it seems, have some other long term members. As I said though, I'm sure if I went into the Wastelands, the overarching EMC rules would have kept me right again, without thinking about it.

So if we get the wrong end of the stick, what chance has a new player got?

Not sure how I feel,
"Griefing" is usually referred to as when a player destroys another players building, yet didn't that player that built the building grief the landscape? Call it what you want, but the wastelands are specifically made to be decimated beyond repair, however some people STILL decide to build there when they know better. So it creates a bit of controversy among different members and staff.
- Wastelands meant to be demolished
- Yet griefing is not allowed
It's kind of... weird to say.
Anyways, I just hope a solution is found

If it did though, then no-one has an excuse. There'd be no:

"I didn't read the book"
"I didn't go on the Forums"
etc,

It's right there, the very split second you log into the world. So you couldn't even say I didn't see the spam info until after I'd done it.

There would be NO defence for griefing.

Well, I would never grief or steal anyway, I just never considered that the wasteland might be no griefing, since it's pretty much there to BE griefed, if that makes sense. And what brickstrike said, about how people aren't supposed to build there. Again, I'm not going to grief, steal, or mess with anyone else's buildings or whatever. It just surprised me that the no griefing rule applied to the wasteland.

Yea, now that SMP5 is receiving most of the new players. (As of 20 hours ago). It would make sense to have a mod on SMP5 at all times.
I've been helping newbies non-stop whenever i'm online in town.

But more of a mod presence would be good in general, I agree. I know they are often around, but they are not visable, and they have their own playing to do as well.
More mods needed?

I'd say a lot more Mods are needed. I've had a look on some other servers (well run ones) and there's generally a good percentage of Mods to Players. As I've mentioned before, even if EMC is wary of giving Mod status to the wrong people, an interim level would be good that could be given to large numbers of suitable people without all the singing & dancing powers that come with a Mod role.

It reassures players. If I log onto a server and don't see Mods, I presume it's poorly regulated. I either leave because of it, or people with malicious intent use it to their advantage.

There is no excuse for griefing now. It is stated in many ways not to grief. If the person complaining that they didn't know griefing was not allowed then it's their own fault for not paying attention and using the resources available to everyone. Besides all the notices both server side and forums/wiki side it should be universal knowledge not to grief something that was built by another player no matter the circumstances, If it's not yours don't touch it, it's not that hard of a concept to understand. So taking all of that into account the person who griefed someone else knew what they were doing when they did it. There is no excuse for griefing period.

You assume knowledge.

I download Minecraft, find a link to EMC through a server list, join it, rush straight out into the Wastelands, without any understand of the etiquette of MC and smash the first house I see before I get server spam, then I have see no warnings about griefings.

I just tried it there.

From opening MC, to joining EMC, I went back to the Tutorial, I skipped it, went to the Wastelands, and no mention of griefing.

Someone want to double check for me in case I missed it? However, again, if I did, then a new player could too.

Yea I was on 5 earlier and about to be again, and while helping out new players is fairly easy there is a lot more than we usually get in a day. 35-40+ new players in the 3 hours I was online, most of them were fine, cordial, and were asking questions to try and figure out the lay of the land, engaging in conversation and such. But there were a few that were being rude and generally disrupting and there was no mod around. Even just having a mod online afk would deter a lot of the troublemakers who wouldn't listen to a regular player(i've tried). More mods would be nice, because we know you can't all be online 24/7.

I assume basic human decency, what possible reason would someone have to join a server, go out to the wild(wastelands) and destroy a random persons building? None whatsoever. They just aim to misbehave in my opinion.

New players are used to faction, prison and in-general havoc-natured servers. You can say, "Omg no excuse very tolerance wow such strict all adult no kid," but that won't stop anybody. Some Minecraft players aren't quite raised to be in an in-game community. They're almost like cats, to put it in a way. You can get a new cat, and it'll be the meanest, most terrible thing with claws. And you can try to change it with all the love you give, all the food and manicures, but it'll stay as a grumpy cat. We're just such a rare type of server, that getting a player to stay for a long time is very often a rare personality type.

I also assumed the rules of the Wasteland were a bit more lenient as it is a periodic reset world with explicit warning not to build anything you intend to keep...
I never found joy in destroying things or killing other players. However, in the Wastelands I would never say to myself "Oh look, a wood shack and no trees... Guess I gotta keep going and potentially die trying to build the pickaxe I need to get underground..." No, I would remove 9 planks, make a crafting bench, a set of sticks, a wooden pick and then dig to cobble, find 3 pieces, make a stone pickaxe and dig until I find an abandoned mineshaft.

That is a means of survival yet it can be misinterpreted as griefing.

However, if all of the trees in the forest are missing because some jerk burned them down for the "lulz", that is griefing. Even then, still a bit of a grey area. More inconsiderate than griefing....
The wording and the overall atmosphere of Wastelands is the taproot of confusion, not the lack of messages alone.

Now, in the Frontier, I would not touch anything because it is our "creation display" world and our "Wild Community" destinations. Tearing down a persons extensive build for materials is a jerk move.

I don't go into the Wastelands or the Frontier with lava and flint and steel because I do not grief. However, if I find an abandoned wooden shack and I am out of raw materials, somebody will be hard-pressed to stop me from surviving the messengers of the apocalypse that are Enraged Mobs.

What manner of language is that lol

Hmm, I think it's our job as normal players to help where needed, if we are friendly, helpful people that is. I think we probably do need a few more mods though, just because of the message it sends. I don't see mods on SMP1 that often... but it could be because I spend most of my time in the wasteland xP

If I go out into the wastelands I take tools with me(new players get a whole set when they go through the tutorial), if I didn't have those tools because of a death or I couldn't afford them and no other resource was to be found nearby of which I could make tools except for a wood shack built by another player I still would not use the shack for materials. It's not mine. There are plenty of resources in the wastelands to be harvested by everyone, 10 servers of wastelands with tree's right outside the protected spawn. Bottom line is griefing is not allowed Period, them's the rules.

Of course yea, nail on the head my good man , I help out wherever I can when it comes to new players. I remember what it was like when I first joined, I got a lot of help from the more experienced players and I try to be the same way with the new players that join every day, because now I'm the experienced player and that's how you keep a community going. But normally it's only 1-5 new players a day, today has just been hectic with smp5 becoming the new recommended server, hasn't happened in a long time.