Conservatism

Conservatism
General Policies:	Keep the balance between pvp and no-pvp
Relative Size:	Sizable majority
Followers	>200 active members
Associated Crews:	BE, EM, CSN, Xenia, XD, SPQR, TNE + many more

'Conservatism' is the political movement that intends to keep the current status quo (keep things as they are right now). Followers of the movement believe that the current balance between levels of pvp and levels of more 'passive' players is good, and oscillates naturally back and forth without the need to change anything. A fundamental belief is that both pvpers and more passive players (such as builders) are needed in order to create drama and keep the server interesting. Without drama and friction, things would become boring.

The ideas of conservatism outline most of the moderation and rules on Piratecraft. Pretty much all of the staff members, including the owner Godsdead believe this is the correct approach to the server as it has proved successful over all previous years. The ideas of the server's moderation were formed with the intention to keep the current balance between pvpers and builders - with rules that forbid harassment, any form of cheating, and rudeness in order to keep the more 'frisky' pvpers in-line. This enables both pvp and 'passive' building playstyles to be viable and successful for all players.

Players who believe the server is still too pvp-dominated usually follow the ideas of Impirism or Pacifism (as an extreme), or on the other side of the spectrum players who believe the server does not have enough pvp follow ideas of Shrekism or Anarchism (as an extreme).

Example Policies

These reflect commonly suggested changes players from these crews suggest and aim to show the general aims of this group.

• Development of plugins, warps, and competitions to get more people involved.
• The need for staff to moderate drama so it doesn't become a hostile environment for the rest of the server.
• Keeping current functions, mechanics, and rules.
• Try to ensure both pvpers and non-pvpers can be satisfied with given updates, changes to rules, as to keep both playstyles viable and successful for all players.

Followers

The majority of the server's members believe this is the correct approach to the server. As outlined above, they believe that both pvp and non-pvpers (passive playstyles) should be more or less equally viable, without one starting to dominate the other. Some players agree more or less strongly with these points, but generally if you like the server as it is currently, you'll normally fit into this group.

While the server is called 'pirate' craft, it does not mean the server should be focussed around pirates attacking each other. A prime example of this is the growth and size of the British Empire, which generally agrees to these policies. While they themselves follow a passive playstyle of building and cooperation, they know that pirates belong as much to piratecraft as do communities of non-pvpers.

The majority of the server's active staff team also follows the policies outlined above. They don't wish to let one side start dominating the other; which could lead to loss of players on both sides. The main two advocates of this policy in the staff team are Godsdead and Maximus_Terragon (Maxy) - who have recently rewritten the rules page to provide greater transparency to players on the server rules.

Criticisms

The problem with trying to satisfy both sides is that the extremes of the two sides are not satisfied. In gaining support of players that are more pvp-focused as well as less pvp-focused, you lose the support of players who want a strongly pvp-focused (Anarchism)or strongly anti pvp-focused (Passivism) server. This has lead to big disagreements between some veteran players who believe in the more extreme end of the spectrum, and subsequently to damaging of relations and bans/server quits.

Followers of Shrekism argue that the server is still too anti-pvp, while followers of Empirism argue that pvpers have come to dominate non-pvpers and that pvp needs to be moderated more strongly. Followers of Cysteenism argue not enough is currently done to tackle the influences of these vocal 'extreme' minorities, especially in regard to toxicity and 'verbal abuse' some of these players show in regard to staff and other players.

The other main criticism of conservatism is that it potentially holds back the server from gaining more members. Either side of the spectrum pushes for their pvp or non-pvp agenda, saying "it will get the server more members" when in reality this is usually not the case.

At the same time it has also been argued that along with the balance between pvpers and non-pvpers, the balance between new players and veterans should also be considered more strongly. The server is currently working on re-developing its main 3 warps (/warp cove, /warp spawn, and /warp ships) into one big new spawn island, hoping to create a better experience to new players trying to learn the server's long list of plugins, and therefore having more new players stick around.