Turg's last stand (Trying to keep a dieing mud alive)

[turg]

I'm guessing this will be my last post on the BBS. I am so utterly frustrated with this game right now. Take that in mind when you read my gripes. Instead of just reading it and trying to argue, listen to them from the view of a player of 12 yrs here who is very disgruntled.


There are some dramatic changes outside the game that has affected the game itself. First, the visual muds are stealing our pbase. Second, people from the first generation of mudding are getting older and having more responsibilities, and third, those lost players are not being replaced at all that I can see. These are not gripes...these are realities.

Now let me explain to the imms how that affects the average player. The average player who strives to go zoning and killing, no longer has the ability to. The playerbase is at its lowest point that I can remember, and it's damn hard to get anything going. This causes unrest to the few people who do want to zone, and they eventually stop logging on as much and find other things to do with their time. This is incredibly frustrating for those few left that REALLY want to keep this mud alive.

I'm partially writing this post because I feel that I am now bringing a negative attitude towards the game and I'm not sure if me mudding here will benefit the mud as a whole. Let me explain why....A few weeks ago, I got in trouble...or came back to keys in the cage. I had been taking an order for a customer and that comes first for me, regardless of anything else. So, I come back to keys and I'm in the cage. I was at skeletons skillpraccing. I will explain to you exactly how I did it. I typed

trip skeleton;st;trip 2.skeleton;st;trip 3.skeleton;st;trip 4.skeleton;st

I also died twice because millipedes from labby went through a teleport room and ended up in skeles which killed me.......Couple of points regarding this.....There was no triggering, no botting of any kind. There was risk involved and i wasnt putting in any commands that I didn't type myself. Now I understand the imms were just responding to sending me messages which I did not answer. I just find it funny after leveling 10-12 chars here to 50 and skillpraccing all of them, that they would even waste time to cage me for skillprac. I also was told by the imm that I was send several tells....which I wasnt because I have tell capture. Either way, I understand where they are coming from about enforcing the rules, but they are barking up the wrong tree.

Secondly, name changes. I know I do routinely look for funny names and my most recent was the name Fukar. Now I was expecting to get this name changed anyhow, but I was so angered by it because of the lack of name changes on the other end. I asked about Damet, Fakir, Supemam, Fugguz, Hoticak.(If you don't see the references, ask me and I can tell you what they sound like) Ok now yer prolly wondering, why are you mad? You had a really bad name and it had to be changed.......Here's why.



I think there are 3x too many admins here. I realize not any one can be on at all times, but having 3-5admins for a pbase of 30 people is rediculous. I find it hard to believe when I've seen those players online regularly the last few days that the admins do not see them on, but see me. That leads me to believe either 1. they got it in for me or 2. they are doing their boredom work. I feel some of the imms here are just doing their job without looking at how doing their job could be affecting the players. Don't waste your time retorting by saying but we have a job to do and rules to live by etc etc because I will let you know what I think you should be doing which would also benefit the mud.


1. Spend and hour or two going through the name generator and deleting names you don't find fitting. It really wouldn't take more than that because I know. I've pretty much exhausted the barb shaman list of what I consider funny names....

This would prevent the problem before it happens. There will always be some random one that falls through, but it would be much more difficult for players to find these names. I would also like to add a point that there are several people on this mud who do spend hours rolling character names because of boredom.....

2. Find someone else to bug about trivial stuff

Why would you cage me for skillprac? I have never botted before, nor gotten into trouble for cheating. Coming back to the screen in the cage was enough to piss me off though I'll tell you. I've leveled so many damn character, brought so many new players to this game, and I'm being watched for skillprac my 19billionth player. Thanks!

3. Learn some new skills
THERE IS NOT ENOUGH WORK ON THE MUD FOR 5 ADMINS (I dont know how many there are but I'm guestimating) So, maybe these admins need to start learning other skills that dont just pertain to administrating. For example, It would be nice for them to at least make some new zones. They don't have to code the mobs, just make the zones and descriptions. This might make the playerbase a little less unsettled, anxious, and bored.

You might be saying, I didn't sign up to write a zone when I chose to become an Admin. Well, I didn't sign up to get spamchecked by imms for name changes and botting either...I think this is a direct result of loss of playerbase and oversized admin staff.

4. Get with the Time

This game has changed a TON in the last year, again with the playerbase being the most dramatic change. I know past changed won't be rectified but there are a few things that the imms are focusing on that I don't think matter so much. It also makes things tougher when the playerbase is lower.

Example: Driftwood Staff Quest.....

Changed from being able to pop every repop, to being rare once per boot. (There might be a chance for the questmob to repop on pop, that I'm not sure)

Point: When you die in the game, you rarely die from being out of moves. Even if you do, you don't normally remember to get the driftwood staff from your bag and use it and flee. With the pbase declining, I think focusing on changes like that really hurts the game. There are less viggers in the group. There is a LOT more solo walking around. It doesn't benefit anyone except shortens the time it takes to drag corpse or walk. I just don't understand the reason for changing or why they would think to do that. It doesn't make sense to me AT ALL. It is these types of changes that frustrate the old player who is trying to accomplish more with a smaller group, or is trying to spend their time questing.


I also wanted to say that I do believe all of the imms have their hearts in the right place. I just think that their energies are too focused on maintaining rules, rather than looking at the game and finding out why it is dieing. I do believe these imms should take a more active role in changing their repertoire. They must be able to adapt, because the game will not change without them. I think the key to keeping a happy playerbase is to keep them with new places to go. I understand what I daunting task this can be, but that's why we have player builders as well.
I just wish the primary focus would be to put in new zones to give some of the older players, which is primarily the regular players, something to do. All of the other changes can be made secondary.

In conclusion, I hope that you all that have read this super long and boring post to understand that I wouldm't be writing this if I didn't think that those things I've named are pushing people away from the game. I think the intentions of the imms are wholesome, but their delivery is incorrect. If you want to see more regular players and just a more active playerbase in general, I would take this advice from one of the oldest players remaining, who would hate more than anything else, to see the mud die. I see it happening before my eyes and even I've began to lose interest.

Turg - Legend In His Own Mind

P.S. On another note....tiamat was absolutely incredible....I think its about the most fun I've had in a long time, minus the end 1/4. just think a lil downtweaking on the 5 ancient fight and tiamat 2. and or 3. and it would be a perfect zone....Really great work on it and I appreciate whoever put all that time into it....It was my first time in it since the changes and I enjoyed the heck out of it until the end.