[Surrender] Burning the House Down

[CoraMcstrap]

 

(With apologies to Hammer Horror affectionados)

With a sorrowful wail Fark floated through the wall, more shreds than bedsheets. It was tough out there. A playful poltergeisting had turned into a three mile chase up the road whilst being stabbed with pitchforks. USN hadn’t had it much better, every night they’d waited patiently for the full moon to come up only for any sight of it being obscured by the huge, great big bonfire the Johnsons had planted in the front lawn. 
UPN slouched down in the favourite coffin with the faint cry of “more aftersun!”. The Johnsons had discovered a terrifying new weapon, sunbeds. After a terrible ruckus outside  The Federation stumbled down into their crypt with half their ribcage missing. It seems that not even a poor skeleton’s bones were safe from the Johnsons (although USN did at that point start grinning and staring at the ceiling) 
With a loud cluck and a lot less feathers, LPH flew through the window, whilst Polaris waddled through the front door drenched in blood and gore. Villagers armed with meat cleavers and seasoning, were still chanting outside 

WTF, Genesis and Sanctuary pulled a heavy, dust-laden grimoire down from the shelf, hoping to see if there might be an incantation that could help. “What’s it say?” the housemates of the Haunted Mansion, breathlessly croaked. 
The murky ink swam across the page in response. Peering and squinting to read the runes with their one good eye, the three muttered, “errr…. wave a white flag?”
The housemates looked around for one in a hurry, but of course there wasn’t one. White wasn’t their colour. Luckily they had the next best thing. 

Climbing up onto the roof, the housemates pinned Fark to a large stick (with only a little consternation) and started flapping her around for all to see.

The Johnson’s family saw the housemate’s peace sign and accepted their surrender, although with caveats. They asked for a large letter box to be built outside the Haunted Mansion so that the villagers could list any grievances that they might have. Looks like kidnappings and hauntings might be off the menu for a while!

Haunted Mansion sphere (i.e. Fark, The Federation, USN, UPN, LPH, Polaris, Genesis, WTF & Sanctuary) surrender to the Johnsons (i.e. Dark Brotherhood, Fighting Pacificts, Waffle House & Thunderstruck) and acknowledge that they’re very good at fire and brimstone.

As part of these peace terms they agree to open a suggestion server for how to improve themselves (donations of fresh blood most welcome)

Now Searching for Wisdom
 

The Haunted Mansion and Friends

 

The Johnsons

Edited April 18, 2022 by CoraMcstrap

[Chad]

Good job y'all hopefully everyone had a good time and happy rebuild to both.

[Mega]

Nice post!  Also first! 

[Krampus]

Why must you make me read that much 

[John M Keynes]

Good game, y'all both put up a nice fight 

[Malichy]

9 minutes ago, CoraMcstrap said:

The Johnson’s family saw the housemate’s peace sign and accepted their surrender, although with caveats. They asked for a large letter box to be built outside the Haunted Mansion so that the villagers could list any grievances that they might have.

I am interested in seeing the results of this letterbox. There better be some spooky stuff in there. o/ peace

[CoraMcstrap]

5 minutes ago, Krampus said:

Why must you make me read that much 

It's good for you. 

 

[Kevanovia]

Wishing you guys the best going forward. Here’s to a bright future

[ToxicPepper]

Congrats on peace

[Kurdanak]

I still think imposing terms in a no-CB shits and giggles war is lame as hell, but congrats on the peace nevertheless.  

[Kosta]

17 minutes ago, Kurdanak said:

I still think imposing terms in a no-CB shits and giggles war is lame as hell, but congrats on the peace nevertheless.  

Some individuals egos were hurt, hence the terms. 

[Kevanovia]

21 minutes ago, Kurdanak said:

I still think imposing terms in a no-CB shits and giggles war is lame as hell, but congrats on the peace nevertheless.  

If the “terms” that were given end up being a net positive for the parties and PnW as a whole, then I’m not sure what the issue is. But you’re entitled to your opinion.

[Arln]

Finally food production is back on. 

[Malichy]

20 minutes ago, Arln said:

Finally food production is back on. 

I'm not sure what you mean. At no point in this war was I not able to produce food. I think I got to -55% (Europe) because of nukes but was still producing 70k+ per day in fall. This wasn't a major nuke war. Any perceived food impact should have been kind of negligible in a < 3 week war.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Malichy

[Asclepius]

Tempted to downvote for not referencing "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads in the title or body. 

Looking forward to seeing what amusing advice is given. 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Asclepius

[Kurdanak]

1 hour ago, Kevanovia said:

If the “terms” that were given end up being a net positive for the parties and PnW as a whole, then I’m not sure what the issue is. But you’re entitled to your opinion.

That's a heavy "if" lmao. What's up with the quotations around "terms?" This criticism server was a straight up term for peace, was it not? Would you have accepted simply a surrender, without some extra salt in the wound? 

The issue to me is declaring a war just to fight (which isn't a bad thing), and ending it by imposing terms that frankly come off as demeaning. The term that made it to the end isn't half as bad as the ones from earlier in peace negotiations, at least, though I'm sure those were "jokes," right?

There are ways to communicate constructive criticism that don't involve opening up a peanut gallery in return for peace. DMs, embassies, public channels - taking this route screams disrespect, even if I trust the intention. Attacking an alliance to improve them isn't even a new concept - Mensa rolled the hell out of TFP and gave them tips along the way and after, leading to improvement at the time - the key difference is that it was all voluntary and in no way attached to attaining peace itself (although it did include meme terms, which I did find distasteful then as well). Terms, radio show, a criticism server - making HM jump through all these hoops was as a major !@#$ move, true to the Johnson's name. But hey, that is indeed just my opinion.  

[Kalachthefirst]

Happy rebuild

[Arln]

3 hours ago, Malichy said:

I'm not sure what you mean. At no point in this war was I not able to produce food. I think I got to -55% (Europe) because of nukes but was still producing 70k+ per day in fall. This wasn't a major nuke war. Any perceived food impact should have been kind of negligible in a < 3 week war.

You still could, yes. But now food production will actually be more profitable, again.

[Malichy]

7 hours ago, Arln said:

You still could, yes. But now food production will actually be more profitable, again.

My apologies, I initially thought you were commenting from the other (buying) perspective. From production side, yeah the return of higher yields will be nice.

[Jacob Knox]

Congratulations on the peace, and good luck on rebuilding. To both parties. While I'm still personally on the fence about the public Discord term, I hope the war is a good learning experience for everyone involved.

[PnWPaintMC]

Wet Bandits, I'll be waiting for our next rematch

[The Baron]

Been a pleasure 

 

[Kevanovia]

21 hours ago, Kurdanak said:

That's a heavy "if" lmao. What's up with the quotations around "terms?" This criticism server was a straight up term for peace, was it not? Would you have accepted simply a surrender, without some extra salt in the wound? 

The issue to me is declaring a war just to fight (which isn't a bad thing), and ending it by imposing terms that frankly come off as demeaning. The term that made it to the end isn't half as bad as the ones from earlier in peace negotiations, at least, though I'm sure those were "jokes," right?

There are ways to communicate constructive criticism that don't involve opening up a peanut gallery in return for peace. DMs, embassies, public channels - taking this route screams disrespect, even if I trust the intention. Attacking an alliance to improve them isn't even a new concept - Mensa rolled the hell out of TFP and gave them tips along the way and after, leading to improvement at the time - the key difference is that it was all voluntary and in no way attached to attaining peace itself (although it did include meme terms, which I did find distasteful then as well). Terms, radio show, a criticism server - making HM jump through all these hoops was as a major !@#$ move, true to the Johnson's name. But hey, that is indeed just my opinion.  

That "heavy if" is looking a lot lighter now. The talks have been very respectful thus far. The quotations is that as far as "terms" go, this is one of the lighter and more helpful ones that have imposed. As mentioned in the VC negotiation, we would have accepted just a surrender the day they came to us for peace had they offered it up. Alas, the conversation was not steered in that direction. At the time it was frustrating, but now that we've arrived to this moment perhaps it was meant to be so that we could have this great conversation with the community as a whole.

It's too bad the people in Rose has such a low opinion of the people of Orbis that they believe a positive conversation around improvement is impossible. I'm happy to see these conversations in the suggestion server prove their theory wrong.

Here's to continuing the work towards communication that veers towards a positive direction and not letting negative attitudes or toxicity get in the way. 🍻

[Kurdanak]

4 hours ago, Kevanovia said:

That "heavy if" is looking a lot lighter now. The talks have been very respectful thus far. The quotations is that as far as "terms" go, this is one of the lighter and more helpful ones that have imposed. As mentioned in the VC negotiation, we would have accepted just a surrender the day they came to us for peace had they offered it up. Alas, the conversation was not steered in that direction. At the time it was frustrating, but now that we've arrived to this moment perhaps it was meant to be so that we could have this great conversation with the community as a whole.

It's too bad the people in Rose has such a low opinion of the people of Orbis that they believe a positive conversation around improvement is impossible. I'm happy to see these conversations in the suggestion server prove their theory wrong.

Here's to continuing the work towards communication that veers towards a positive direction and not letting negative attitudes or toxicity get in the way. 🍻

From one high-horse to another, I respect the grandstand, but you keep deflecting away from the inherent toxicity in imposing this on a sphere as a peace term. And again, it's certainly lighter and more helpful than your original terms of enforced MMR on Fark and a sphere name change that opens HM up to being meme'd on indefinitely (just because it's fun for you, does not mean that it's fun for those taking the brunt of your jokes). I'm glad some folks like hidude are making the best out of the situation, genuinely, but I go back to my issue here in the first place - that in order to obtain peace after having been rolled by the Johnson's (and their handy-dandy mercenary safety net), HM is required to make this server. The foundation is dirty and disrespectful, even if followed up by admirable clean action by the community. I believe that feedback is best received when done so voluntarily - your approach risks alienating several of those you claim to be trying to help out (evidently, considering the backlash from some HM gov). It's understandable to be rubbed the wrong way by having the guys who just rolled you then sit you down to have your internal affairs criticized. Is it really that shocking that several, even outside of Big Bad Rose, are reacting cynically to what you did?

And on that note, regarding your Rose-based rhetoric there, lmfao, guess some of my gov didn't make you happy. Sorry, but I'm speaking for myself here, Kev. Obviously a positive conversation around improvement is possible; I just listed multiple ways in my quoted post, ways to help out an individual/alliance/sphere without some pretentious help term presented as for HM's own good.

Again, good on the individuals making the best out of this. I just think that there are far, far better ways to go about giving advice than this. Ways that, believe it or not, people are using and will continue to do so. May we both have positive results!  

[Quichwe10]

On 4/9/2022 at 11:24 PM, Kurdanak said:

Mensa rolled the hell out of TFP and gave them tips along the way and after, leading to improvement at the time

Wait, when was this?