Tuluk Derail

Lirathans were the female mindbenders. Jihaens were the male monk warriors.

I don't care how terrible Tuluk was. Having nothing in its place is worse. There's been nothing to this game since it closed. The entire fabric of ArmageddonMUD hinged on the Allanak vs Tuluk dynamic. Removing the latter without replacing it with anything has proven disastrous.

It's almost like when you have a deathgrip censorship on dialogue, the important questions that are necessary to challenge the veracity of an idea are not entertained; thus leaving people to communicate in blatantly generalized and absolute terms.

Did Tuluk have issues? Absolutely. But those issues could be easily and quickly fixed by competent staffers. The closure of Tuluk has betrayed the staff's collective consciousness — they don't believe they can fix it.

The context in which Tuluk was mentioned was passing if anything. I took "Open Tuluk and have a good old war or something" to mean "open Tuluk's gates and set it up for a war". Maybe run Tuluk the same way Gith PCs were run a few years ago. Maybe open it up entirely with a bunch of fixes. It doesn't really matter in the grand context of this thread. What does matter is that staff intended to do something with Tuluk after closing it, in order to fix it and bring it back into the world as an active entity in some way - either PC-populated or NPC-controlled. Year after year, the staff demonstrably failed to do that. Instead of picking up that lost project, they picked up another lost project: Talia started the opening of House Jal, got fired, and her work was likely used to continue and finish the project.

Bear in mind how long Talia was a staff member - around three years ago, IIRC. Tuluk closed in April 2015, over five years ago. This is the pace at which projects are progressing once the projects are put on hold "indefinitely". And it's clearly painful in the context of player interest in the game.

If you ask a typical player nowadays who Allanak's primary rival in Zalanthas is, do you think they'll say "Tuluk", or will they say "the gith"? When the worldwide conflict in your game is asymmetrical, favoring the side of the PCs, worldwide conflict stagnates and becomes nonexistent. Most good RPGs are, in some way or another, about facing off against a much larger, overwhelming force, or are about a conflict between equal and opposite force. This is the narrative challenge that makes a game interesting for a player. Without that equal or greater force to oppose Allanak, it's really no wonder that interest in the game is dropping and the remaining players are less interested in the worldwide conflict narrative as a whole.

Tuluk's reopening isn't necessary to inject renewed interest in the game, and no one said so. It is just one of many methods staff could have used to reintroduce a worthy opponent to Allanak once again, and it's possible that their extensive delay in doing so has led to an exodus of players who need intriguing worldwide conflict to remain interested in the game. Tuluk was something Allanak could spy on (or something that could spy on Allanak), it was something that could have sent or was vulnerable to raider parties, there could have been military conflict a la the Copper War, etc. But it doesn't really matter if Tuluk is providing that once again or some other entity is. The point is that no entity is providing that depth of play that used to exist.

So here are some of my thoughts.

The premise that the decline in players is some kind of a secret that staff denies. I ... Don't really see how is it that staff is denying that. There is no denying this. I don't need the charts to know that the playerbase has been declining for years. Sometimes it grows back a little, sometimes it's stable, but if you take the time of pre arm 2.0 and after, the difference is significant. What staff is denying is that the game is dying and will shut down soon. A premise that is repeated on these forums on a constant basis. It is nowhere near that point. It is still faring much better then many many other muds. I would actually 'want' to find a mud I could replace Arm with, but so far none of them I liked even half as much as arm. That does not necessary mean that they are bad. I just like Arms theme. Call me masochist if you choose, but I like it.


Reasons for the decline are many. Staff shenanagins are absolutely a reason. But it's not "The" reason. Nor is it one of the biggest reasons. It is merely one aspect that people like to blame and demonize a lot.

Game changes are a reason. Guild changes, theme changes, etc. There are definitely a lot of questionable decisions. But none of them are game breaking. They are merely ... Different. If the game began its existence with these guild selections already in place, nobody would have a problem. It would have affected nothing in terms of roleplay, or any of the events that transpired.

Lack of Overarching story. That is a big huge reason. I don't consider Tuluk vs Armageddon war to be one of those. Truth be told, when Tuluk was open, but before the entire staff team focused entirely on Tuluk, the war was stagnating. Nothing was going on then either. There was a constant wait. Waiting on AoD to grow in numbers to become a major enough threat to Tuluk (or at least survive the way over). Oops, Legion got wiped out by Kryl. AoD doesn't have an opponent now. Waiting on the Legion to grow in numbers to become a worthy opponent, oops AoD got wiped out by Mantis, or fell down the hole, or killed a templar and got executed. So while I agree that there needs to be an overarching story, I do not believe Tuluk is it.

Moreso. Right now, allanak does have this semblance of opposition. And they are a combination of rogue Indies and indie MMH. If Tuluk were to open now, then the attention to these Indie groups would get diluted and in the end, nothing will happen, because nobody has the numbers to do fuck all.

At the moment, instead of running Overarching stories, the staff is waiting for players to begin something that they can support. Whether this is a correct decision, or not is another question.

One big detriment (I was surprised at how impactful it ended up being) is the immense amount of negativity. It is infectious and withering. A lot of current staff are new and they are very susceptible to critique. Either by shutting down, going into Analysis Paralysis, Burning out, or ... Lashing out.

Recall the plot about the nilazi guild introduction. Nothing was wrong with that plot. People who were picked were picked semi randomly. With attempts to minimize disturbance to ongoing plots of others. One of the people who was turned into Nilazi ended up being on her first character. But the amount of shit that poured out of these forums was so astounding and undeserved.

People would post complete untruths just to claim that "staffpets" are being favored. Rich are getting Richer and all that shit. A lot of staffers ended up getting locked down. It definitely blew the air out of Rathustra sails. So many people choosing to covet the information and do nothing about it kind of made things complex too.

That plot would've been so much better if people just set aside their hate mongering and fucking played the game. Staff have done a "LOT" of shit in its time. But staff as a body, has a greater change over then Kadius sponsored roles. It amuses me when people talk shit about staff clan wiping Red Fang, while half of the players who were RF back then are on staff team right now.

But regardless, it wasn't an overarching plot, it was just a big plot. There is definitely a lack of a plot that is so big that no amount of inactivity from one faction, or another could put a stop to its development.

Right now. I think the biggest plot is the opposition between Allanak and Red related forces. Ups and downs on this. It's a question if it's a service, or disservice to create something that will pull interest away from them.

But yes. There is definitely lack of things to do. Before, when certain players (ie Red Ranger, LoD, etc) were active, there was stuff to do without staff participation entirely. And that is a giant detriment to new player retention.

There is always a wait. There always was. And it often made people who are used to steady growing busy work of NPC hunting. But there is a lack of some greater thing to get involved in and embroiled into.

I'm kind of pondering how Caste Marrach survives. It has no hunting of any kind. There is crafting and code skills and combat, but the game is entirely focused on prose and player interaction. There is no busywork at all.

So Overarching plot. Definitely a topic worth considering. Is it worth introducing something monolithic and NPC to be the big bad (ie Echri, zombie Tuluk?) with an ongoing development that will cause whatever to make people get involved into it one way, or another. Or should staff wait for players to create their own plots that conflict with each other and then provide world responses to those?

Finally the biggest reason for player decline is age. People got older. They have more experience, etc.

There used to be a game I loved. Underlight. It was created in 1997 and shut down in 2007 (I might be wrong about dates). It was a graphical rp enforced game. It was partly mud, but combat was basically similar to quake. Quasi 3d keyboard twitching. Dodging and slashing/shooting. Precursor to Everquest, or any other of those games.

Last year, the game opened up again and was even put out on steam. Much better ... Everything! Better code development, a good number of players. I remember how much fun I used to have there. I did a lot of fighting and was really good at it. It was amazing that I ended up being a total pacifist when I returned. Because ... I'm way too old to keyboard twitch. I dont play shooters, I am not interested in them. I like rp games for story telling and intellectual play. I was amazed to realize that I outgrew the game that taught me what "roleplaying" is.

That is the biggest reason for people leaving. People move on. They simply do. Even skotos, one of the biggest mud focused industries, is shutting down.

have you guys ever considered trying to not be pieces of shit rather than crying about how awful it is that people talk about you on an isolated, unaffiliated board on the internet?

also i've watched you fabricate entire posts about me and my play history on this board so i find it hilarious that you, having come from a privileged position on staff, continue to complain about other people 'getting it wrong' while contributing to the same problem.

Totally agree with this.

I never quite enjoyed playing in Tuluk, but a rival to Allanak is seriously missing.