I hear plenty of people that have been with BYOND for a long time talk about their good old days. They talk about when the community was primarily made of people that could actually program competently or have a civilized conversation with someone else. They might also mention the lack of anime games and/or rips.

After some time, the anime guild of BYOND became the largest and most active of 5 main genres of guilds. Look around the anime guild and you'll see tons of Naruto, DBZ, Bleach, and other various anime games packed with players. It's pretty obvious that those are the most active games. Most games in the other guilds don't even get past 100 players at one time. Not only that, but you can't even count the amount of ripped anime games on BYOND.

For me personally, I'm not in any way associated with the anime guild. Look at my guilds that I'm in and the games in my favorites. You'll find no anime games. Regardless of this fact, I believe that we as a community are handling this "issue" of anime games and rips in a completely wrong way.

The first thing that bothers me is what happens when someone makes a post about an anime game or rip. The first thing I usually see is plenty of nays. The post is instantly nayed by tons of people just because it talks about an anime game or rip. Something is wrong here. Are we judging on the content of the post or the interests of the poster?

Anime is a genre of game here. Most people wouldn't slander a man's name just because he likes country and the other person liked rock. Why would you try to put down the person that's actually helping BYOND? New games breed new players. New players breed more money for BYOND. I often wonder where BYOND would be without the money coming from the anime guild.

I know what you might be saying. "They're all a bunch of stupid morons that can't spell to save their life! All they care about is Naruto. We need to get this trash out of BYOND!" What kind of person are you to call another person or that person's interests trash? The fact is that that kid is indeed a person. If you can get a little bit past the poor spelling you can see a human being and interact with him. It works everytime.

On the topic of rips. Sources get leaked and people build off of those sources. All that these people are doing is trying to be something. You ask most of them and they will say that they just want a game to call their own. They want to be something on BYOND. What sickens me is that we alienate these people. How are they supposed to get anywhere else if we treat them the way we treat them by putting them down and telling them to get out of here? Maybe if the "gurus" of BYOND were actually a little more welcoming, understanding, and acted a little more like teachers, these people could get somewhere. We need to actively communicate with these people in a civilized way. Believe me, they can be civilized.

The main point that I wish to get across is that we need to talk more with these people and not alienate them. When we treat them like scum, it won't change anything. If you have a problem with your friend, you don't just continuously yell at him and verbally beat him down every time you see him. You will most likely eventually talk the matter out and come up with a solution. One of you will take up the stance of a leader, an unbiased leader. So it should be when dealing with the anime side and rips of BYOND. It's time to stop being superior and start going to their level. You don't have to talk like them or share their interests. We are a community. It's time to start acting like one.


You've just read my stance on this. Please leave your own comment on the matter.