mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 26, 2023 3:45:29 GMT -5
Halaster is resigning. For real this time!
The funny thing is, he is absolutely right! The playerbase does hate each other, and the boiling tension between the community's loudmouths are barely stopped by Kind Bearded Canadian Man and his complete unwillingness to actually run a player moderation team; beyond holding the title he only acts on reports and never does the right thing unless asked to. The playerbase hates the abusive staff body for ruining what could have been a really fun game. Chief among those abusive staff is the man, the myth, the legend that coded in spells specifically so his PC could use them, then returned to cover up Shalooonsh's misdeeds for as long as humanly possible. Turns out that could only go so far, eh?
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 26, 2023 3:52:59 GMT -5
As an added bonus, here is Usiku's reply in a discussion about the Moderation Team's efficacy:
I would not be surprised if Usiku, too, resigns because the disgusting ingrates will never appreciate the masterful Shalooonsh cover-up and the fact that staff seemingly never learn from their own mistakes.
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 26, 2023 6:15:32 GMT -5
And for completeness, here is the Reddit post Halaster referenced: www.reddit.com/r/MUD/comments/17dxn1g/rpi_stonks_state_of_the_rpis_report_october_2023/It was this post, apparently, that convinced Halaster that the playerbase irrationally hates the staff, and cannot be fixed. Every single last player is an irredeemably rabid baboon that only knows how to fling shit at each other and the staff. It can't possibly be that the staff put their trust in what has been a completely milquetoast mod team that tut-tuts in the face of a wild amount of rudeness in the community. It also couldn't possibly be that the staff, just a few months after the worst scandal in the game's history, demanded that the playerbase get over it and trust in the staff team that let it all happen and then tried to make it seem less bad than it was.
|
|
punished ppurg
GDB Superstar
Why are we still here? Just to suffer?
Posts: 1,035
|
Post by punished ppurg on Oct 26, 2023 9:54:49 GMT -5
I have my suspicions that "Stonks" reddit writing handle is a subversive entity itself, but that's another story. The implication that the r/MUD post got Halaster to step down is just another feather in their cap. Just wanted to share something I fired off last night in the Shadowspeak. In many aspects of the Arm community, there are people that say that Armageddon is "more than it is right now in this moment". We have the old shadowboarders who have that sentiment, and we have the likes of the harshlands exodus people who say that. Arm is more than it is right now; it's what it used to be and it's what it could be. Contrast that with staff's take, very much now in the moment. You should be nicer if you want "a game that lasts" as Halaster says. And remember he flirted with the idea of shutting Arm down when the Looonsh shit hit the fan. And also in Usiku's reply: "If you want this game to survive, if you want it to exist next year or the year after.. stop it." So it is clear that shutting down the game, or 'barrel in mouth ready to pull the trigger' thought pattern is being entertained in the highest level of Arm's staff team. So there's this fundamental disconnect where the expatriates of the Arm community are more heartened about the concept of Arm as an idea, versus the voices on the staff team where it's a credible possibility that the game could shut down and die if they should choose to pull the plug. I mean, I know that MUDs do shut down and die when plugs are pulled. But when the critics, the outsiders, have a more (for lack of better word) pneumatic perspective on the concept of the Arm community than its current maintainers? I think we're going to be stuck in this bad spirit. The most vociferous critics, for their crime of being the most outspoken about the failings of the Armageddon staff team, "disqualified" themselves from the privilege of fixing the game that they care about. We even saw that with PinkErdlu's bid at staff: in order to get on, and be considered for trial, he had to act with 4/5ths of his persona tied behind his back: basically lobotomized: and then the crushing weight of operating behind the curtain and -seeing- how broken it all is... It wasn't worth it. Honesty is the main obstacle, and the game is content to chug away on convenient and comfortable fibs that it tells itself. Frankly, with Usiku's threat of "shutting down the GDB and Discord", the so-called game is fantasizing of chugging away on no community input at all. How could anyone think that is healthy? Arm is very much a ghost ship; and the phantom winds of its past success, and beloved esteem in those that remain in the community, is misused by the maintainers.
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 26, 2023 10:53:28 GMT -5
What strikes me as interesting about the recent threats about closing the game and the community is that they're really very different from other spiteful decisions staff made, like Nyr disfiguring Tuluk before calling for its closure, or Shalooonsh deciding to mess with Bebop specifically, or Nergal cutting short his metaplot because another staff member leaked some info about it. In those earlier cases, at least the entire integrity of the game itself wasn't under attack from the inside. The idea that no one will be able to log into the game anymore was not floated.
Now, these threats are floated. They don't just represent a paternal desire to turn the car around because the kids are misbehaving. They turn the car around, point at a burned-down warehouse and tell the unruly children that because they misbehaved, Disneyland burned down and now nobody can go. The idea that Armageddon's stewards can just disappear it at any moment is a very new tool in staff's box.
Personally, I feel they should stop bluffing. If they're going to do it, just fucking do it then. Some clever staffer will just start up a backup and lock out the Producers. Or they won't and the terminally-ill game will finally flatline and we can wheel it out of the nursing home staffed by people who beat the game with a bag full of soap bars every day.
|
|
punished ppurg
GDB Superstar
Why are we still here? Just to suffer?
Posts: 1,035
|
Post by punished ppurg on Oct 26, 2023 12:01:42 GMT -5
Good points. Arm staff speak to the thought that they have trouble recruiting new members, pointing to the "no staff psionicists" rule for example as a reason why they are unable to acquire and retain help. Given the staff's flirtations with ending the game entirely, does The Arm Staff team sound like a good vessel to commit yourself to? What rational actor would commit themselves to such an environment, would pursue a foothold in that environment, other than the greedy and the opportunistic looking for a moment of self-indulgence before this flirted end? You could say that the selfless would apply; but the selfless aren't letting the "no staff psionicists" rule prevent them from trying to save the game through volunteer works.
Something remains fundamentally broken at the core of the Armageddon experience. So long as it is broken, everyone is going to feel this friction - and it's going to wear people down.
|
|
|
Post by poorimpulsecontrol on Oct 26, 2023 12:16:09 GMT -5
Halaster isn't wrong. I had my little fit and dipped out because of it.
The community is and has been fucking venomous. Maybe I was naive but I never felt like the OOC shittery bled over into my experience in game in the gOod oLd dAyS. Then it did and I played less and less until it all burst like an abscess.
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 26, 2023 12:59:21 GMT -5
Halaster isn't wrong. I had my little fit and dipped out because of it. The community is and has been fucking venomous. Maybe I was naive but I never felt like the OOC shittery bled over into my experience in game in the gOod oLd dAyS. Then it did and I played less and less until it all burst like an abscess. Elements of the community are absolutely venomous. I think when staff commentate on the animosity of the community, they have a strong tendency to paint with a broad brush and say "community bad" and they end up hammering the people trying to be peaceful or provide honest critique just as hard as the Cro-Magnons who will literally admit to being trolls (elitejarod/Pariah) and still be allowed to stay. Let's be real here: it's like 5 people that are complete assholes in the community, and maybe a dozen more that will come around with a good talking-to. The player mods are too busy pissing their pants to do anything about it because they're afraid that if they go too far, they will be attacked just the same way staff were when they were in charge of moderating and went too far. Instead of letting their own feelings get hurt by these 5 people they have decided that inaction is the best course of action.
I think the only thing Halaster was painfully wrong about was thinking that the playerbase would soon forget about Shalooonsh, his mishandling of that whole situation, and trying to push "we're better now" as the reasoning behind getting rid of those rules. That's what he's been pissy about for the past few days: the fact that he did not achieve 100% agreement with his intentions.
|
|
delirium
Clueless newb
grumpy cat
Posts: 90
|
Post by delirium on Oct 26, 2023 15:12:30 GMT -5
"We didn't listen to those who saw what was wrong and tried their best to offer solutions and honest feedback, even if it was painful to receive. We shunned them or were outright hostile in the face of their mounting desperation to be heard, leading to their frustration and departure, until almost if not all of those people who actually saw the issues and gave a shit left the game. Now we're mad that the dwindling remnants of the playerbase is now comprised of sociopaths, ostriches, or people who plain DGAF."
oh right and we were basically forced to oust sexual predators instead of covering up for them, haha whoops
this is all such a s h o c k I n g development
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 26, 2023 15:31:53 GMT -5
The extent to which staff look down on the players, from Halaster's expectation that they all have goldfish memories to Usiku basically telling people to fuck off if they don't like the game, to Brokkrbot and his "Oops! All Critical Fails" approach to persuasion, is staggering to me. Usiku is right in her later post (https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,59986.msg1099048.html): the game's staff is not inexhaustible. And here we are presented with the dregs of what remains, the last of the best having been driven away to leave us with the best of the worst, who are on their way out too. It's only a matter of time before the three Producers are all players of dwarves who write in all-lowercase and run world metaplots inspired by rough circle.
|
|
|
Post by gringoose on Oct 26, 2023 16:17:07 GMT -5
I haven't played Arm in a long time. The community was definitely toxic back when I played, and it's gotten worse now? I quit playing due to not wanting to deal with this kind of thing and that was years ago. Like mehtastic said about the recent threats of shutting the game down is telling about the trajectory that the game has been on has not changed, and that the game is in its final stage. I guess they can try one more thing to turn things around. Halaster berating the community as he steps down, doesn't bode well for the toxicity of the community to lessen. Maybe they should shut Arm down but I don't play anymore and I'm not invested. Talk of shutting the game down isn't going to make people want to invest, like the talk of Arm 2.0 way back caused people to drop out of investing into anything ongoing. It looks like they're seriously thinking of shutting the game down and it's not a bluff but if it is a bluff that's not smart.
My own personal opinion is that Arm should be ported to a MUSH. And my own personal opinion that the high stakes environment of permadeath and being forced to interact with players that people don't want to interact with brings out the worst in people. A MUSH fosters a more collaborative storytelling environment and an RPI fosters a rat race environment. But this could put the final nail in the coffin of Arm and kill it so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
|
|
|
Post by actuallyender on Oct 26, 2023 19:53:02 GMT -5
Man, I know exactly how Usiuku feels from when staff took me and my wife for granted when I asked them to stop allowing Shalooonsh to interact with us, and their response was not only to store my character, but my wife's as well when it is was in response to my staff complaint.
|
|
delirium
Clueless newb
grumpy cat
Posts: 90
|
Post by delirium on Oct 26, 2023 20:47:35 GMT -5
But Ender, I was throwing around 'buzzwords' and being 'vicious' for protesting against the way Shalooonsh treated me.
Clearly we deserved it.
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,330
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Oct 27, 2023 3:49:07 GMT -5
emote collectively punishes players. say It's crazy that players are collectively punishing us for the actions of a former disavowed staffer.
|
|