Do we really need Combat Meters?

I was asked to bring up this matter here, so I am going to go ahead and make my case for why SL Gor doesn't need combat meters and why we should instead start looking at RPG systems which honour In-Character skill as opposed to meters like Gorean Meter and zCS meter, which fundamentally rely on Out-Of-Character skills. For one thing, there's long been a general rule of thumb when it comes to mixing IC and OOC: Don't! But, SL Gor has long had a double standard when it comes to this in the form of a combat meter. By nature, meters require the player to develop gaming skills in a competitive Player-versus-Player way and have taken their OOC skill in meter to stand in for their IC skill and even base their standing within their group on their OOC skill. Proponents of this method of conflict resolution cite that it's more fun and it takes much less time.

However, it is not fun for everyone and forcing it on everyone as the only valid way to fight in SL Gor and/or forcing people who don't find meter fun and/or can't use it because perhaps their computer is too slow makes them sitting ducks when everyone deserves to have an active role in whatever is happing to their character in a fair and balanced way so that everyone participates and has fun. This means that meter necessarily needs to be optional and needs to officially not be the only way or even the dominant way to conduct combat.

The next point of interest is more on the fact that not everyone can effectively participate in metering, yet everyone has to be subject to the meter. Gor Sim management community-wide doesn't care if you are able to defend yourself or whether your computer is fast enough to handle SL in a fast-paced meter system. You either "Git guud, noob" or accept the consequences of not being good at metering. For those of us who lag alot, metering is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Further, because Gor meters fundamentally have a damage output difference between males and females with females being weaker, there's no way to balance it without using what the Gorean Books themselves call "women's weapons" (i.e. poisons and drugs and the like).

So, while the problem itself is not the fact that women are weaker than men (in fact, it's realistic), the fact that the lore of the world of Gor has a means for women to combat bigger and stronger people using underhanded tactics demands acknowledgement in a way that a hormone-crazed man who wants to take a woman he has decide is going to be his new slave can't just snub off because he doesn't want to deal with it. If IC action require IC consequences, being male doesn't excuse you when you try to take the wrong woman; you should have to deal with the fact that she could poison you or drug you, since these dangers existed and we're long overdue for making it so that no one is exempt from these dangers (not to mention, cases of poisoning and drugging gives Physicians more medical RP that doesn't involve giving slaves physicals).

Finally, switching over to a dice-based RPG system that honours IC skill through modifiers to rolls so that it's less about luck and more about whether your character is, in fact, legitimately better skill than another increases immersion through seamless transition between non-combat RP and Combat RP as well as making possible much larger metaplots for sims to engage in or even multiple sims to engage in. Yes, large scale fights in this kind of system takes a longer time to do (on the order of two-three hours depending on how intricate a given combat even is... the fight scenes themselves tend to not take THAT long, but an event incorporating two or three combat scenes can go for a few hours, for sure), but the longer amount of time spent on doing these scenes actually keeps people engaged longer and it allows other people to follow along with it. It allows other people to be involved even without actually fighting. In fact, a well made system actually could make Physicians useful in a support role during such events while significantly downplaying a potential combat capability one might possess. In short, OOC skill should not play any role in IC scenes. Everything should be IC at all times. If it involves using OOC skill to accomplish, then it is not IC. IC and OOC shouldn't be mixed and people should separate themselves from their characters. Everyone should be allowed to participate in a way that actually allows even the laggiest computer to keep up with the fastest. Balancing between men and women without the parameters of what Gor allows, lorewise, should be honoured and become a regular thing everyone deals with (no more cutting out chemical weapons, such as poisoned steel or a drug injected by a Physician who doesn't wanna be a slave because the meter conveniently and deliberately doesn't support it) and the only way to avoid dealing with it is to mind your Ps and Qs IC. Gor RP will benefit for ditching meter and, personally, I will not return to mainline Gor until RPG systems as the dominant alternative is taken seriously.

- Lyra Sophitia Aurelia (Lily Kanashimi)