Lathander wrote:Well, the “not being nice” thing we seem to have down pretty well. That said, putting up a poll or being mean is not going to accomplish much. My “a-hole” skill has got to be at master by now, but that’s not how you are going to affect change. Change takes time, sometimes a lot more time than some would think it should. In addition, not all changes are a short term positive to players. Sometimes changes are needed to balance things. Hell, I remember as a player back in the day when a lot of the haste gear lost haste. It sucked, but long term it was needed. In addition, and I said this also on Homeland, all of the staff including myself are human. (We are not really gods!) We do the best we possibly can and sometimes things do not play out as were intended. You can’t go wild and just lose it when that happens. You take some time, figure out what happened, and see about fixing it.
As to folks quitting and not coming back, I can tell you from experience, everyone comes back eventually. Toril is a fantastic game and even more than a game for a lot of us. Toril is our society and our home. It is that place that you always know will be there for you. I think Ashiwi really hit it on the head. There’s always something you would do different if you could, but the reality is you can’t. Hell, I’m sure every staff member would have subtle differences on how we would each do something, but we are a team and our work is a collaborative effort.
Lastly, someone said there are so many things that need to be done/changed/upgraded/downgraded/updated/etc. I don’t know about you all, but it is impossible to do everything at once. So we look at where we can make a difference like modifying some of the zones Marth mentioned and new and hopefully fun changes like the new Jot Invasion.
As Marth said, let’s calm down and breathe some. Rags, I have to disagree with you on the issue of the futility of everything. Player feedback is always important, but honey gets you a hell of a lot farther than vinegar. Give things a break with the vitriol.
Lath
"There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
How about modifying zones that aren't done because they suck? However many days you spent on redoing Jotunheim invasion, you can consider those days wasted. Not only did you do almost transparent changes to a rareload zone, you screwed over anyone who did it in the past by making the equipment obsolete. Old Jot invasion required one rogue running to certain spots and killing the bosses. Now, it's the EXACT SAME THING, just have to do Thrym/Mage camps and kill callers. Ambush rooms? Just walk around them. The only thing the change did was make Jot invasion look more like Dugmaren's regular Muspelheim. How about updating Hulburg or adding something to UM2 or SOMETHING meaningful to the 60 hour boot cycle we are going on.
Really, the honey argument and the gods have lives argument are old. If skilled players are right, they are right. Ragorn's post is dead on. He, myself, and others have tried the honey method. Same deal, imms think they know everything. It's really frustrating when additions go in AFTER they get denied a year before. Who was right on those occasions? If the gods have lives, get gods who play and have the time.
You can't have Cyric being a top anethesiologist and Shevarash leaving for months at a time. Appoint people who actually have direction for this MUD. Miax did it when he turned into a Sysop. Pestlience of Everwar gave up his MUD to the most skilled players who took up the challenge and that MUD will be the best it will ever have been.
Lathandar, you of all people should know what it's like being a reasonably good player, especially since what you have to compete against up there (you have maybe one person, Shar). It's extremely frustrating watching imms complain about time management when we see changes in a neglectant time order. You guys changed a zone that was fine when you could have been doing something else. Honestly, after your statement, I can say I've given up hope on any change on this MUD now. You're one of them now. I can say the same for Talona too.
And if none of you hasn't realized this yet, this thread was made because of Cyric's original response to Gormal in the Jot invasion thread. There is no "silent majority" enjoying the MUD. The "silent majority" dislikes the direction (60 pbase now, was around 80 last year at prime) and the "minority" likes it. Cyric, if you actually played or the imms snooped more than just me, you'll realize I'm not the only one who knows this.