RazorFox

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In all seriousness, there are a lot of factors to consider here. First and foremost, you should take meta-factors into account (i.e. "real life" things that would factor into what to do) -How big of a douche is your DM? This is incredibly important because it will determine the likelihood that Tim "the Timinator" McShithead has, in his infinite smugness, put some kind of stupid enchantment on the scarecrows that makes them immune to all damage unless you say a secret word that nobody would ever guess or something. -What time does Jeff's mom want you guys out of the basement? This is important because if it's 7:30 and you have to leave at 8, you might not have time to go into a verbose description of your character's entire life history and explain why he has a deep uncontrollable hatred of scarecrows because his father was raped by one before his eyes when he was a child a week or two ago and that's why he is currently going super saiyan and destroying all the scarecrows regardless of whatever stupid shit is coming out of Tim's stupid pizza crust mouth because he is a fucking idiot and Jeff's mom can suck my dick. -How much Mountain Dew do you guys have left? I'm thirsty. Then there is of course, consideration given as to who is in your party: -Does your party have a wizard in it? -Is he wearing his robe and wizard hat? And of course, other pertinent information: -What does your Pokedex say about the scarecrows? This would deliver all kinds of valuable information, such as their level, type(s), evolutions, and a small paragraph talking about scarecrows and what they do in their natural habitat. -What do the scarecrows look like? A clever player may possibly be able to taunt the scarecrows into going away by poking fun at their attire, calling them poor-looking if they are dressed raggedly, calling them fags if they are dressed stylishly, or by simply pointing and laughing if they are dressed like members of KISS because at that point it should be pretty obvious they were asking for it. Whatever were they thinking? -Is your party close enough to the door to get to the hag's cottage? If the scarecrows are "shambling," maybe you can outrun them, bust up into that bitch's house and be all like "What the fuck scarecrows?" So as you can see, Jester, you haven't given us enough information to make a good call.

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

Respect was the central issue I had in mind when I wrote this.

Welcome aboard, brothers.

Let's take a minute to talk about drama. Webster's Dictionary does not define drama as "Exaggerated and often needless interpersonal conflict or turmoil over trivial matters," but it really, truly should, because that is what the word is often used, albeit colloquially, to describe. Here in Ordo, we do our best to avoid it, having an entire service branch working full time to ensure that it's kept to a minimum, but unfortunately it does crop up from time to time. It takes many forms across all levels. Maybe it's a squabble over policy amongst the officer corps. Maybe person A thinks person B broke a rule and B is calling A out over it on Vent and now A thinks that B is a dick and potentially also thinks he's out to get him. Maybe somebody stole somebody's boyfriend. Maybe there's an ongoing rivalry between two people who were in enemy militaries before joining Ordo. Maybe you built or scripted something for your squad and Munitorum didn't like it. There are all kinds of situations that can arise in our ever-growing community and can cause this kind of interpersonal bitterness. Needless to say, Ordo is a big group comprised of all kinds of people from all over the place, and like any other large, diverse group with a strong social element to it, it is occasionally prone to certain kinds of problems which usually have one or more common driving factors behind them. The factor which I find to be the most pervasive and arguably the most potentially damaging is cliquishness. Ordo is of course a group fundamentally divided into multiple parts which comprise a greater whole, in the form of squads, divisions, branches, etc. Functionally, this is a necessity for the group to operate efficiently. Socially, it has the potential for rivalries to form, whether it's alpha squads competing with each other for prestige and/or glory, one division perceiving another as arrogant, or whatever. Cliques don't have to necessarily be based on any established subgroup within Ordo either, i.e. a group of friends from a now-defunct military that joined Ordo together. Now, I'm all for camaraderie. It's tremendously important to our group's cohesion, but there's an old Arabic proverb of which I'm very fond: "I against my brother, my brother and I against my cousin, my brother, my cousin, and I against the world." I think this sums up the Ordo mindset nicely. Though we may not always agree on things, it is critical to keep in mind, at all times, that we are part of the same whole working towards the same ends. As such, we must not reserve our camaraderie for our friends and acquaintences. We must view every other member of this group as a comrade and a brother in arms and never forget how to do that. Case in point, I once asked Aryte a long time ago, when I was still an NCO, about the notion of a sort of Ordo "in-crowd," that I perceived at the time to exist. Aryte responded with the following: [2008/12/11 19:36] Aryte Vesperia: Yes. [2008/12/11 19:36] Aryte Vesperia: My in-crowd is the Ordo. [2008/12/11 19:36] Aryte Vesperia: Lol. This is something that really stuck with me, and since that conversation, I've viewed the entire group as my own in-crowd. Nobody is unworthy of my time or attention so long as they are Ordo, and everyone in this group is worthy of my respect. It is a principle that has been quite handsomely rewarding, by allowing me to better contribute to the group's overall functioning, and by opening up avenues of communication which would eventually honor me with the prestigious offices I have occupied during my career. But cliquishness is just one root cause of drama. On a more personal level, there is the desire for rank or prestige. Think deep down about your approach to contributing to the group, or more specifically your motivations for contributing. Is it a desire to see the furtherance of the group, or to see the advancement of your own career and position? Now, this can be a touchy issue. It's one which people can become very quickly defensive about, since it sounds like quite a selfish and ignoble thing to accuse someone of, as though anyone that would want to see themself advance in rank only wants such a thing out of a desire to be fawned over and praised at every turn for how awesome they are. Color me naive, but I'd like to believe that a vast, vast majority of Ordo members are of solid enough character that they're not motivated by such shallow things. In the off-chance that you're reading this and that really is all you want, fyi, officership and the Guard are 90% paperwork and responsibility and only 10% praise and telling people what to do. If all you want is to boss people around and convince yourself you're somehow superior, you can go ahead and leave all your Ordo groups now, please. Christoph and his big fluffy tail eagerly await you and your butt. Ordo officership isn't about that. If you're still reading this, consider the following: -If you've ever been despondent over being passed up for a promotion, then you're motivated by a desire for rank. -If you've ever felt a desire to "prove yourself worthy" of some position or another, you're motivated by a desire for rank. -If you've ever been jealous of someone else receiving a promotion, you're motivated by a desire for rank. -If you've ever kissed up to an officer or Praetorian with the hopes of garnering their favor, you're (probably) motivated by a desire for rank. And you know what? That's remarkably common. The rallying cry of most people trying really hard not to be "that guy" (not to be confused with thatguy Andel, who is a gentleman and a bro), is "I don't care about rank, I just want to serve!" That's an entirely noble sentiment in theory, but denying your true intentions to yourself will only muddle you up and throw you off. Your true attitude and mindset are pervasive, in that they manifest in everything you do. Take a hypothetical situation involving E-5 Bob. E-5 Bob wants to become E-6 Bob really badly. E-5 Bob is kind of sort of friends with E-5 Steve. They both do their exams and have met the minimum time requisites for promotion, but come the weekly meeting. Steve gets E-6, and Bob remains E-5. Well Bob plays it cool and congratulates Steve but inside he's going "What the hell, I work hard too, why did Steve get promoted and not me?" So Bob starts to feel crappy and inadequate, like he wasn't good enough to get promoted, and it doesn't help that Steve has a fancy new rank insignia and enough QP to unlock the Subjugator or whatever and is making no secret that he's pleased as punch with his new toy and Bob decides he doensn't like Steve as much anymore. Four days later, Bob snaps on Steve in Vent for bragging about that goddamn Subjugator for the eighty millionth time and gets his ass CIR'd. Bad end. How did this happen to Bob? All he wanted to do was serve, and he did that to the best of his ability, but he was deluding himself rather than confronting the real issue. He had the best intentions, but he gave into competetiveness without realizing he had done so, and in letting his emotions get the better of him, he created drama, and it bit him in the ass. And herein we see the value of remembering that we're all part of a greater collective whole. Bob and Steve are both part of Ordo and therefore both integral and valuable parts of the group. There's absolutely no reason they should've been at odds with one another for any reason. So we've explored some of the places where drama comes from, and have established that drama is more or less going to be an inevitability, so why avoid it like the plague? There are a few simple reasons for this. First and foremost, Ordo has standards. These standards set us apart from most of the other groups out there. Drama, left unchecked, is the number one killer of militaries. Case in point, I saw more of it when I was in VG 1.0 than in nearly any other online community I've ever participated in, period. Let me paint a picture for you: Imagine, if you will, a military without behavioral standards. Two soldiers get into a petty disagreement in IMs. This quickly devolves into name-calling, spills out into the open, and turns into teamkilling. Crossfire starts hitting innocent bystanders, who take notice and attempt to intervene with their own bullets. Next thing you know people are in aircraft dropping bombs on people. People are being blackscreened. The base has essentially turned into a giant free-for-all melee situation. The leader of the group is present and watching this, but rather than dealing with it, he joins in briefly, spends a few minutes snickering and jeering, and then logs off to go play Crysis or something. The situation tires itself out after about twenty minutes when people start logging off, and then the base is down to just a few AFK people. This exact scenario played itself out at least once every week or two in Vanguard. Can you imagine if such a thing happened in Ordo? It's unthinkable, isn't it? It's been over two years since I've experienced such a thing, and yet it remains fresh in my mind as I now write this. I make it a point to remember this kind of bullshit because it embodies the reason we maintain such rigidly high standards of behavior. It is therefore up to you, as the backbone of our organization, to uphold those standards to the best of your ability. Secondary, but no less important, is a slightly more abstract notion. Time we are forced to spend sorting out needless infighting and problems within the group is time that forces outside of the group are spending devising new ways to destroy us. There is absolutely a sycophantic element out there in the community that would give anything to see Ordo destroyed. They despise us for our success, for all that we have accomplished, and for the dogma of respect and maturity that we uphold. If anyone in this group ends up overly consumed by petty internal rivalries or infighting, then they are helping those people. So next time you find yourself involved in a dramatic altercation of some sort or another, take a step back and try to look at the bigger picture. Hell, even just think back to this notecard. Ask yourself "Aren't there more important things to worry about?"

Spring-assisted folder I just bought.

GET BERETS ASAP

YOU MOTHERCOCK

Kill Bill Vol. 1 />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdjuS17DGlA

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16_EIq9qaTA

Honestly, if there's even the slightest chance that Diablos Korobase might have the same thing hanging on his wall, I'll pass. Besides, I can just get this one...

From theflagfactory.com!

Well that's what you get for trying to ruin a good thing.

God, Burr, thanks for reminding me of how much I miss my Makarov.

Oh, here's something else too: />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzfQwXEqYaI

First time I ever spoke to him

To this day, I wake up in the middle of every night in a cold sweat, screaming Geodan Price's name.

That would make sense, I think.

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-BQbnriWM0

Damn, that's like a museum-quality shin gunto there.

Okay, picture this. You've been up all night and you've spent literally ten hours defending against lone-wolfers non-stop. No breaks longer than a few minutes at a time, just lone-wolfers all night for ten straight hours, dealing with cheeseshit spamcannons and horse vagina ninja backflip AOs and broken English and shitty attitudes. Things seem quiet and it seems like you might finally have enough time to take a much-needed goddamn smoke break but oh, check it out, here comes Grim Troops. You ever fought Grim Troops? The only time I ever see them in Titan with any numbers is in the early AM, sometime between 5 and 7 AM SLT usually, and they do the same thing every time. They rush to the Forge in the NE corner as fast as they can, cap the objective, and then hole up down there. They use a lot of aggressive gesture-TPing so they're goddamn close to impossible to remove because in addition to immediately TPing everyone back there at every opportunity, they all wireframe. They do this for usually a couple hours. So in my sleep-deprived state, having spent the whole night not only fighting these people off (entertaining them, really), but also trying to keep track of how long each bored keyboard-warrior had been there, trying to figure out how to divvy up all those Mercury reports in a way that made sense (gave up on that sometime around 7 AM my time), trying to enforce rules upon people that respond with bitching and name-calling because they're convinced that I just couldn't handle their l337ness, and trying to keep track of intermittent visitors running around, maybe I lost my head a little bit. It's easy to try to say it should've been done by the book and all when you weren't there but I would bet money that if you were in my shoes, you'd be singing an entirely different tune. Everybody that had been there with me the whole time had my back on it.

I tried to play it under the influence of LSD once. That was a terrible mistake because the monsters did not remain confined to the computer screen, proceeded to occupy my bedroom, and did not leave for something like four hours.

Yeah, due to budget cuts, we had to tell all the boots to cover the cost of the gun.