I first played Ravenblack City before it had earned itself the prefix 'City'. Specifically, Ravenblack's Vampires! game started out as a viral click game - the purpose was to get people to follow your biter link. If they did - whether by legitimate interest, or by clicking a cloaked link (latter which was circumvented fairly quickly) - then you would gain a 'pint of blood'. The game kept track of your blood count.

I signed up at the time with the name 'Blood'. I figured it was an appropriate name - or, rather, a name with a certain irony. I hadn't actually expected the sign-up to work, but it did - had truly no one else taken the name before? The answer, though, trivially was: No. It had been taken by another eight people before me, but the game at the time wasn't set up to have unique names, just unique IDs.

When the game finally migrated to the interaction model (the city), names became unique. My old account was re-designated Blood9. Needless to say I didn't care to keep it then.

But the city intrigued me. By early 2003, I considered signing up for the game again. I don't have the exact date of my re-registration in mind, but it can only have been a few days before The Abyss was created. I'd signed up to the Yahoo!Group Ravenblack-Blood (at the time not part of Yahoo!, and instead only later migrated) shortly after creating my PinkGoth2 vampire, and Az proclaimed the creation of the forum on this group, luring me - who never enjoyed the Yahoo!Groups concept - to the one environment I felt truly at home in... fora.

Had Az not created The Abyss, I would likely have ceased playing the game in another week. Communication in MMORPGs is essential, and I'm picky about the media that I choose to communicate via. Without a forum community, I would have been mute, and I'd never have warmed to the vampire roleplay.

PinkGoth2 - Pink Goth the Second - was, as a character, an intentional copy of myself (who is, after all, still Pink Goth the second). I asked myself the question: how would I react if I became a vampire? What would move my world? How confused would I be? At the time, my name was Neike Satana, and as such, this became PinkGoth2's full character name.

My first dabblings in the community were overly hesitant. I was afraid to give my character any sort of powers in-game as at the time, wars frequently broke out between clans, and not many people had all powers available at the time, simply because the city was so new... and it seemed to me as though getting the powers would be like the acquisition of a large sign proclaiming "I am a warfaring vampire".

All the more was I pleasantly surprised when I was made moderator on The Abyss - first of the General board, then global, and later administrator. My moderator history began this way, and much of who I am today was shaped by the experience. It was truly valuable.

Then, finally, I warmed to the concept of powers, and slowly acquired one after the after, at first carefully chosing the powers I wanted. I roleplayed elaborately as that was, after all, what I came from and what I knew. I never had the mentality of that Ravenblack was to be played as a game - wherein there are winners and losers - and instead played it like I would any roleplaying game: as a social construct that allowed people to have fun together.

And then, things started to go downhill.

Shortly after I created - mostly on paper - the clan Splinters of Dusk, an event tore through the community of Ravenblack players that has shaped city 'politics' since.

The game was never set out to support the standard concept of winning and losing - there was initially no way to slow another player down in any way, shape or form, and as such there was never such a thing as 'defeat' for anyone that didn't acknowledge something more abstract as the same. Yet, at the time, one thing had established itself as a defacto indicator of loss: bloodpoints.

If a vampire had been taken to zero bloodpoints by means of weaponary, it was common practise for this vampire to remove themselves from the battlefield and admit defeat. There was never anything enforcing this decision but for the will of those involved, and mutual respect. Of course, with mutual respect, such forms can be relaxed and reshaped - and this was the purpose of the Splinters of Dusk, a clan created in true roleplaying spirit, tailored as means for all involved to have fun, regardless what their characters were doing.

And the Splinters of Dusk (a/k/a the gekkonids) weren't the issue. What was, though, was a vampire called Bloodspawn who decided to continue warfare after he was zeroed, with no forewarning, and, most importantly, with no good OOC standing with the people he was at war with (which the gekkonids would aim to do). As such, the involvees felt stabbed in the back, and what had been implicit so far was written down by a lad called Mooncalf: the resting rule was born.

Or rather, the codex of honour. (This prompted a response from me.)

And for a while, that's all there was to it. The vampires who swore to it did so out of personal honour. Unfortunately, this didn't stay that way... and as it caught on and became ridiculously popular, it became a dishonour not to have pledged by it. For this reason, it's now 'the resting rule'.

I spent my time as PinkGoth2 being politically involved in the game's community, raising awareness for the honourable ways to play the game without pledging to 'rest'. And mostly, it worked. But I was just one person against plenty others, and powerless in the wake of certain events unfolding.

At some point - and I am heavily ashamed that I no longer know when this was - I was given, as a gift, a vampire from a friend of mine - to my further shame I have forgotten who - which I swore to take care of, and suggested that I might roleplay with him in future: Sudden Death.

At time of receiving the vampire, I had no specific plans regarding roleplay with him, and kept low-profile with him, moving him almost predictably in the city, feeding him, acquiring powers, and so forth. I had a personality in mind, but no place to roleplay him, nor more to work with.

Until real life decided to steal my time. I slowly began to withdraw from high-profile aspects of Ravenblack... I stopped moderating, I retired from the Splinters of Dusk, and as such, left behind the life I'd established with PinkGoth2. Still, I didn't want to leave. As such, I joined an isolationist clan that would require none of my diplomatic and political skills: Die Nachthexen. Except, I obviously couldn't join them with PinkGoth2, as she was somewhat obsessed in-character, and fixated on the Splinters of Dusk.

I saw the opportunity, and seized it. Sudden Death became Sylvain Deimos, and joined Die Nachthexen shortly after having had personal warfare with a vampire in-city after being attacked without any message left as to why. This occurred in the following fashion: He had been intent on zeroing the other vampire, and whittled away at him until the Nightwatch intervened. The Nightwatch thread on the case was OOC, really, and I, as a player, apologised after realising the vampire had no roleplay interest at all, even though the Nightwatch perked up at being told that he had landed the first strike. The case was closed on mutual OOC agreement.

I'm not sure how Sylvain changed his mind, but whilst strolling around the Nightwatch board, he came across another case involving Die Nachthexen - and immediately took liking in their handling of the case. Intrigued, he applied for membership, and was accepted with open arms. (Note: OOC and as a player, I already had good standings with Die Nachthexen, since they had frequent interaction with the Splinters of Dusk, and we exchanged OOC ambassadors... so I originally was an OOC gekkonid ambassador in their clan, and later created a deep story around Sudden Death and joined them in an IC fashion.)

Unfortunately, my past came back to haunt me.

Raven Black, the creator of Ravenblack Vampires, is a listener. Instead of putting his game online and leaving it to rot as it is, he constantly works at it, providing he has the time. And he listens, though he doesn't always answer.

Shortly before I left the game, tensions between resting and non-resting vampires had reached a pleasant nadir after Cerridwen created a new city hub Yahoo!Group that imposed no resting restrictions upon its members, allowing both sides to speak to each other and roleplay with each other there.

And then, the Splinters of Dusk became a problem.

I still believe it was a mistake that they went out to attack What The, given that she was one of the most prominent resters not wanting anything to do with the non-resters, and the Splinters of Dusk policy had always been not to attack such people out of respect of their leanings. She'd zeroed another non-rester not too long ago, however, and they based their decision on this implicit gesture. Whilst it was logical, in that What The had indeed broken her own claims, the decision by the gekkonids was far removed from any sort of diplomacy, which they had once been famous for.

But, mistakes happen. Unfortunately, this mistake changed the game to a point which I could no longer tolerate:

What The, deciding the High Council rules did not apply to her, brought up a new suggestion in the High Council called "BattleCloak". The High Council was an 'institution' created by the players to lighten Raven's eMail load by bundling suggestions and pitching them through majority votes before they were even sent to the game creator's inbox. The BattleCloak, at any rate, was discussed and voted on outside normal High Council rules, which usually collected suggestions in a database and batch discussed and batch voted them later.

When obsidian, who had been absent at the time the discussion began, returned, she was upset with the path that had been taken, but didn't halt it, which I believe was a right decision. In fact, I don't take issue with the way things were discussed.

My own time limited, I had no time to sit down and detail the issues of the poll that followed. As such, what went wrong is also largely my fault - I should have complained. In fact, obsidian had invited the High Council members to tell her if anything was amiss. And things were amiss.

The BattleCloak was designed to be worn by resters. It would automatically nil all attacks they made against non-BattleCloak wearers, as well as attacks non-BattleCloak wearers made against them. I invited this by its most basic design, because I was always for choice in the matter of whom one would interact with.

At the same time, it took a crucial choice from people: one couldn't rest and interact with everyone. There was no opposition to having the ability to do this. Most clans were, in fact, of this sort: resting, but not discriminating. Still, paradoxially, none of these clans saw an issue with the BattleCloak - they weren't going to wear them, and so it was understandable, as it wouldn't affect them, but at the time, I felt abandonned.

The option of seperating the concept of "resting" and the concept of "isolation" into the powers Torpor and BattleCloak, rather than bundling both in the BattleCloak, was not in the poll.

The poll passed.

It was sent to Raven Black.

And to my horror, it was implemented.

I fought for several more days to get its flaw highlighted, and whilst there was often agreement with my basic statements, people either shrugged it off (those who wouldn't wear the cloak and thought no one else really would, either), or wondered why any sane resting vampire would want to open themselves to attack by non-resters. The concept of 'having fun together' seemed to be dying out.

Finally, I was banned off a forum of a clan I'd thought I was representing - one that rested, and didn't care to discriminate - because my debate had 'gotten too heated'.

Feeling, thus, that I was no longer representing anyone, I left.

I still lurk on the Die Nachthexen forum and the Splinters of Dusk forum, however, I haven't touched the vampires game since my retirement, except in brief nostalgia with a new vampire for a short time - but, noticing my hatred for the BattleCloak was ingrained too deeply, and seeing the blue marking of the names of those who wore it in city, I abandonned the plan quickly and withdrew from the game once more.

Since then, my absence has been permanent.