In the release last week I had hoped for more gameplay changes to make it into the build. These were delayed, in large part because of some lengthy conversations about behaviour on the Forums. Over the last few years, the general quality of conversation on our forums has declined, due to some negative, attack-driven behaviour that ratcheted up the degree of melodrama, and generally polarized or derailed a number of conversations that might have been otherwise useful. It's also created some volatile situations (like the PK-reset debacle of last October) which used up a tremendous amount of developer time, and would have been far better handled through Support Tickets instead of inflamed public forum threads.

As a result, we've have established new guidelines for forum usage and behaviour (across all forums, including Role Play), which are now being enforced by our volunteer administrators. The specifics are in a sticky-post at the top of the General Forum. Please be aware of, and adhere to these updated, more specific guidelines, as violations will result in being muted on individual threads, across individual forums, the messageboard as a whole, or even administrative action that impacts access to the game.

The last thing we want to do is mute or ban anyone, but things have gotten really out of hand lately, so some action is needed. The forums are intended to be a positive place for the community to give constructive feedback and suggestions about the game, and plan community events and the like. Obviously this can work well, as evidenced by some of the new content in the last patch. But while it's good that people have strong opinions about the game and its process of evolution, keep the discussions civil: debate the idea on its own merits, and not the individual posting the idea. Avoid attacking entire play-styles, but find a way to logically express how a change could improve and balance the game to the benefit of everyone.

Thanks everyone.

- Guild Software, Inc.