I spent this weekend mulling over
this news about playing both factions on the same server. I have played both sides of Gorfang before and I have to say playing with Order for a change was the most fun 3-4 weeks I ever had in this game. Unfortunately, even though it's a blast getting to run around and play with people you otherwise would never get to cooperate with, experience tells me it comes at a price. People by default don't want to believe you're just playing for fun or the challenge of being the underdog; they assume the worst, and although I never played Order to "help Destro out" or vice versa, I still had to deal with being treated as such. Shit, to this day I still have ignoramuses from both factions sending me vitriol about "crossrealming."
I don't need to say cross realming is retarded. Why anyone would feel the need to cheat at a game that is so fucking easy to begin with is beyond me. I guess people cheat for the sake of cheating? Like when I get cut off on the freeway by douchebags going 80 down the emergency lane, they just want to get ahead because they can? If everyone was mature and used common sense this idea would be great, but in reality there are plenty of people on each side who aren't mature enough to handle the opportunity. And I'm not talking only about the cross realmers themselves.
There are players on Gorfang, that honestly think every fucking time a zone lock fails, or if the enemy even
shows up, it's because "Cross realmers are helping Order/Destro out!!! Derp de DERRR!!!" This tinfoil hat bullshit is more harmful to our side than cross realming itself, in that it cripples our realm's ability to work as a team. When no one is comfortable communicating with each other in /1, /t4 or even vent, coordination is lost, especially in open warbands where trust is most likely to become an issue. Hence we have people who think they are doing our realm a solid as they refuse to join/let each other in warbands, refuse to coordinate with other WB leaders, refuse to fucking work together and yet sit there in wide-eyed disbelief when our forces fall to pieces.
The risk of cross realmers actually being out there of course hinders the chance of pulling off a successful surprise ambush, which is probably my favorite thing to do in ORVR, but this is not like Battleship where peeking over the partition can completely ruin the game. Whether or not you are unfairly gaining tactical information, in Warhammer the plastic pegs have to actually fight the plastic ships before you can say ZOMG you sunk my Martyr's Square or Hatred's Way. If your forces are not prepared to respond to incoming enemies, whether you know they're coming or not, then you fucking fail. In most zones/scenarios there are only a handful of places the enemy could be at or attack from, it doesn't take cheating to get a pretty good idea where the other team is/might be going.
I worry that this will now be a catch-all excuse for sucking miserably in RVR. Instead of sitting back and thinking critically, "Gee whiz, what can we do better next time," shitty players will jump on any excuse to point the finger at anyone but themselves. If these idiots stopped and actually thought about it, the amount of sensitive information to be gained from cross realming is so limited that the effect is minimal, if any, if your warband(s) play smart.
Andrew nailed it with his idea about a 6 day lockout timer for switching sides. I would be happy with this or even a couple weeks. I am giving Mythic the benefit of the doubt as I am assuming they have a much better-justified reason to do this than what was outlined in the Producer's Letter. I just hope they recognize the real harm from this news exists not in the elevated risk of cheating but in our newly exacerbated unwillingness to cooperate with our own fucking realm.
