Now that we had the guns for 6 months, and we've given them their fair chance, what does everyone think? It's been long enough that we can start seeing the changes they make to rp, and the trends they start.

My vote is that I was happier without them, for several reasons. I must admit, though, that they make the police seem more realistic. Here's why I vote that don't I like guns.

1. Guns have become a sort of "holy grail" in cd. It seperates rp'ers into two castes, the haves and the have nots. While I do agree that good rp should be rewarded, I have seen more people playing the numbers and stats since the introduction of guns.

2. Because of how guns have polarized the population, mildly or moderately violent rp'ers and those who play a "low profile" role are left floundering. There are several people on sim who play peaceful characters and may never run into this. And there are several highly visible, highly violent characters who do get guns. It leaves those who are somewhere in the middle at a crossroads, with only three options. Give up the low profile aspirations of our characters, forgo violence altogether, or get killed. (Notice reading tags was not listed. This is not an option. It would be a form of metagaming.)

3. Combat scenes involving guns are just ludicrous. Without the armed citizen tag, you can't even handle a gun? Now, that means that if through rp, if someone drops their gun, that under no circumstances can someone without the tag pick it up and use it. They have to stare stupidly at it scratching their head. I understand the tag for ownership and full time possession, but for the sake of realism, if the person with the armed tag drops the weapon, it's there. And it will be used by whoever can get it. According to the rules, however, a person who is not wearing the proper tag can never turn a person's own gun against them. While rp isn't about winning or losing, there are winners and losers. There need to be, or there is no story. Think about when you watch sports. There's a limit to how big of a lead one team can get before you get bored and change the channel, whether the team is the one you're rooting for or not.

4. gang rp. It's such a big part of this sim, but it seems to have dropped off a bit since the introduction of guns. Recruiting is more difficult than ever. If you have your armed citizen tag, you are forced to choose between that and representing your gang. It decreases your gang's presence. Sure, ICly, you still have the armband. But how many people are going to cam on everyone's arms instead of just seeing the tag and saying, "That means they have a band that I can see." And truthfully, I myself log on less frequently. The reason is simple. If your opponent has a gun and you do not, you are rendered useless. That simple. one emote and you are no longer a factor. When combat was all blades and blunts objects, combat scenes were able to involve the whole gang, and took much more thought. If a gunfight breaks out with a gang member who doesn't have the armed citizens tag, they have almost nothing to contribute to their gang or the scene. They are reduced to cannon fodder, and every time their turn comes up in PO, they are left OOCly wondering, "What am i even doing here?" In one rp, I even noticed two cops emoting about how dumb they feel coming unarmed to a gun fight. I was impressed with their rp, but I picked up the vibe that they feel the same way I do.

5. Police. These are the people who smart characters will either try to stay on the good side of, or avoid altogether. but, they' need to arrest you in order to build your character stats so you can earn the armed citizen tag. This is a conflict of interest for several characters. Before guns, I have had many, many fun rp's trying to convince various officers to provide my gang with inside information, and making friends on the inside who just might turn the other way when a member of my gang is doing something wrong. Those scenes have led to even some of the clean cops letting me get away with things. Now, being faced with guns everywhere, I'm looking back at those awesome scenes and feeling like I'm almost being punished for capitalizing on the corruption of the hpd. If I had gotten arrested instead, the history of my character would be far less colorful, but i wouldn't feel excluded from scenes now.

I have done a few scenes involving guns before I came to this conclusion. The times that my character got shot are not what make me hate the guns so much. Even almost getting killed, and needing to spend a day on google to figure out how my character could possibly survive wasn't too bad. It's actually the times I didn't. The times when I saw the gun, but could do nothing about it. The times I was left feeling like my posts were reduced to nothing but "filler" simply because I hadn't been playing the stats. Those times are becoming increasingly common.