Shadow Cities Etiquette and Behavior Guide

Shadow Cities Etiquette and Behavior Guide by Kieri

There has been a lot of conversation in the chats recently about courtesy and etiquette in Shadow Cities, so I thought I might write up a quick guide to the “unwritten rules” of the Academies.

Caveats:

This is only my opinion, based on my time playing the game and the interactions I’ve had with other players.

There are obviously a lot of exceptions and flexibilities to these rules, and I’m not going to enumerate them all. Instead, I’m going to layout the pinnacle of Shadow World etiquette, and you all can take it from there.

I’m also mostly going to cover within-academy interactions. Cross-team etiquette seems to vary a lot more based on what battle group you’re in and what’s happening in the campaign, so I’m going to leave that alone.

The Rules:

1. Wheaton’s Law applies: Don’t be a dick. If you’re wondering if you are being a dick, you’re probably being a dick, so stop.

2. Remember your magic words: Say “please” and “thank you”. Also good parts of your vocabulary: “hello,” “nice to meet you” and “good night.”

3. Don’t troll, spam, spoof, or cheat: Just don’t. Ever. It doesn’t make you cool or a “winner”, it makes you an attention-seeking moron.

4. Don’t Kill-Steal or Dom-Snipe: Unless previously arranged, the first person who hits the spirit or structure gets the kill. Major exceptions: a senior mage beating down something for a junior (which should have been previously arranged); pitched battle – if there’s resistance, just hit the damn things, and someone getting their ass kicked by a spirit. Help them out!

5. Tag your beacons: When you cast a new beacon, it’s considered good manners to post a status with the reason for the beacon; i.e. “Raid,” “War,” “Miscast”, “Home beacon”, “Hunting Beacon”, “HELP!”. If the beacon is untagged, people assume it’s an alarm and react accordingly.

6. Respect Beacon Tags: Before you jump to a beacon, take a second to glace at the newsfeed to see if it’s been tagged. Then, do as the tag says – don’t take reserved spirits, don’t flood miscast beacons.

7. Divide and Conquer: If you and just a couple of other players are setting off on a raid, use chat to figure out who has what mission and divide the target entities accordingly. Then, abide by the agreement. Priority claim and final say goes to the person hosting – whoever cast the beacon or posted the status arranging the raid.

8. Respect your elders: The people who have been playing longer are happy to help, so ask them questions and make friends, but no one is going to think you’re cool for talking smack to a level 15 who’s been playing for a year. This applies to both Academies. There are veteran players who are highly respected by both sides – bother them and EVERYONE is going to jump down your throat.

9. It takes a village: We were all the idiot new person in team chat not so very long ago. Answer questions, give tips on spirits, lead them through raids. Even if you aren’t one of your battle group’s “usual” teachers, it won’t kill you to step in if none of them are around. Don’t heckle the newbies, steal their kills, or ask to be a guide just for the sigil – actually help them out!

10. Get off my lawn: Don’t place your structures (wards, doms, catchers) on some one else’s beacon or gateway unless specifically asked. Those structures make the beacon visible in cloud view, so you might be destroying a sneak attack. You can’t harvest dominators that are away from your physical location, anyway, so you are wasting energy, and it’s really frustrating to stare at an unharvested dominator in your base day after day after day.

11. My realm, my rules: If you are at someone else’s base or beacon, respect their wishes. After all, they are your host – and your access point to this area. Respect their truces, requests for stealth state, spirit reservations, et cetera.

12. Good Samaritan: If you see someone getting their ass kicked by a spirit, jump in and help. It’s way more frustrating to get banished with people watching than to loose a few energy points to a kill-share. Good way to know if they need help: check their mana bar. If they’re running low, pitch in!

13. Be the bigger person: If you violate one of the above – inadvertently or otherwise – or you think what you’ve done might be perceived as a violation, just apologize. A quick “my bad” status will go a long way towards diffusing a long circular argument. And if you must have that long circular argument, have it in private messages. Don’t publicly accuse someone or blacklist them until you are sure it’s necessary.

Overall, remember it’s just a game, so try not to get too worked up about things. However, also remember that everyone one of those little orange and green balls is a person, so treat them with kindness and courtesy – just as you would a person you met on the other side of the veil.