Overheated

It's fun that people care a lot about what you do. Unfortunately this leaves the possibility to disappoint those persons with every step you take.

Now, Wurm development takes lots of steps every day by a lot of people. This is because we are rushing. There is a reason for this, it is not a coincidence and it is a conscient development strategy on my part. I have goals to reach - I want to reach version 1 of all the features and polishing will come later.
I look at Wurm Online like a car being put together. Right now it lacks wheels and I can't rest until I put them on. After I've taken Wurm for a test drive we'll start replacing parts and polishing the chrome. I think I've made these kinds of allegories before.

This leaves plenty of room for disappointments which you players will have to live with. We seldom optimize right now. It takes too much time. You should be aware of this. Eventually we will take fewer if not smaller steps and with greater care.

Two examples of such steps are
1. The appointment of the mayor of Glitterdale. I hear fears but I see no failure. He sure is better than I was. We will optimize later.
2. The ban of Kingen. Some people think that he should get exactly the same punishment as some other player because the situation was similar. I haven't looked into the case because I don't feel I have to in order to say this: it is not the same case. No cases are exactly the same (I stated that Kingen had been banned before which was wrong but that is irrelevant).
I don't think that you should be able to expect a certain punishment for a certain crime in Wurm since then you can calculate on whether breaking the rules are worth it.
The GM's however do try to follow their own guidelines in order to keep it fair. I think what Kingen received was a standard first term ban.

All in all a ban is one of those steps where we risk disappointing a group of players. It is not fun for anyone involved.

Another thing I want to say about bans that the GM's have done: I've investigated a lot of those pretty thoroughly. At least twenty. Maybe it's a hundred but I don't think so so I'll count low. I've had to question very few and only felt that one or two was wrong or should be reconsidered. None have had any kingdom bias. And those are usually high profile cases - for these there are lots of bans that are without question.

That said, I am trying to code away most situations that are bannable anyways.

Team member of the week is Oracle - not for the ban but for being such a fantastic team member. Like all the GM's he takes the heat that most of the time should be aimed at me. He seems to pick exactly the right persons for the job all the time as well.

Player of the week is Miggy!