What feels like another world ago, I was finding ways to become a blogournalist, especially with ArenaNet. I dutifully followed Regina Buenaobra’s personal Twitter account because at that time I saw digging for any and every crumb of Guild Wars 2 I could find… when few else were. She used to link a lot of personal stuff, mostly feminist blogs, and since I wasn’t finding any Guild Wars 2 info, I usually read what she linked.

A real life friend once maladroitly called me an Inverse Darth Vader. She meant I acted with a heart of gold, but my thoughts were always on the Dark Side. In keeping with this aspect, I read the feminist blogs, and I didn’t understand any of it. I have a wife, mom, and a sister who I respect and treat in kind, and each seemed to want different things from my respect. This all just confused me about woman more. One thing Regina linked did stick, severely.

I wish I could find it now, but one blog entry was a retort to all the negativity against feminist action. Every answer was basically “I demand more.” For example, if the question was “What do you expect with the way television portrays woman?” The answer would be “I demand more.” It really wasn’t an answer so much as a philosophy. The writer didn’t have all the answers, but she had a will and a belief that things could become better.

Martin Kerstein just put up a great article on his team’s beliefs and goals in creating their Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 communities. There are a lot of questions to the article as to specific actions like forum bannings, moderator slavery, blog resources, and time available for ArenaNet to commit to this monumental task. Yet, that’s not the crux of what Martin is trying to say. The main point is that they demand more, and so should we.

Why should we let people pollute our community? It’s going to happen anyway. No, I say, demand more. The ArenaNet CMs are the point-men and women. They are not the community. We are the community, and we should demand more of ourselves. We should be inclusive, patient, and clear-headed. If you want to result to the lowest common denominator, and just accept that ‘that’s the way of things.’ I won’t be joining you. I’d rather believe we can do better, and act as best I can to that effect.

I’ve seen fantastic communities within games. Some MMOs I’ve played even have had whole servers deemed “better.” I don’t see why the official forums or any Guild Wars 2 community should be any different. Demand more.

–Ravious

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