Not to Distract from Nergal's Story, But Here's Mine:

Before someone cries about Armageddon staff being singled out.

Many many people in both MUSHes and MUDs have formed the opinion that staff can play NPCs if they want to play a character because of past abuses (across games) or to prevent abuses from occuring in the first place.

When I was trying to get Project Redshift off the ground staff couldn't play PCs. It was in the original doc.

The only reason "staff" are singled out is because they control the game. And if they want nothing to be done in it and want to see it roll over and croak in the boring manifestation it currently is, then "they" should let someone else take the wheel and bring fresh ideas and policies to the table.

I'm looking at one particular el presidente in particular. Drop the fucking ego and the pride and let someone else breath some damned life into the game.

Something else you need to consider is Arm is not the same game. People who want Quick, Shattered or Plainsman back won't get it. That nonsense drove as many players away as it involved. Arm is still a great RP game and I stand by that as I've played for the past 6 months and seen what it has to offer. If I saw insanely powerful PCs/avatars running around I'd be gone in a fucking heart beat.

A big part of the issue with people joining staff in bad faith is that they receive maximum karma, forever. It's a perk of joining staff. You simply become a max karma player in one fell swoop, even if you weren't halfway there when you joined, and you keep it when you quit staff. I'd wager that a not-insignificant percentage of people who join staff do so for that reason alone, even if they convince themselves otherwise. Change this.

I believe staff should be allowed to play PCs, though. They can't stay in touch with the game if they don't play it at all. While they shouldn't be allowed to monitor their PC's enemies or have five concurrent PCs (or three or whatever the fuck it is), I wouldn't want the game to be run exclusively by people who don't play it. Having staffed on other RPIs, I know that there are perspectives that you just don't get if you don't play a mortal character. I would go so far as to say that a game like this can't work if the people running it are not experiencing it from a player's point of view. You wouldn't run a restaurant without ever tasting the food. But they should be barred from restricted roles, or at least not count as an occupant of those. I was appalled to hear that two out of the three permitted sorcs/psis were played by staff. That's inexcusable.

Noone benefits from having staff that isn't passionate about the game. The #1 way to erode staff's passion for the game is to bar them from playing it. Their mortal avatars should not get in the way of player endeavors, in terms of how many x is allowed at a time and things like that, but you really don't want an RPI run by a whole crew of Nessalins who don't give a flying fuck about anything that goes on.

I am surprised that staff are allowed to still play PC's and even more shock that they're allowed to play the top roles (and occupy them). Horrendously shocked that they're allowed to be on with their wiz AND their PC at the same time and use their wiz to locate other players and scan for threats and such.

That actually kind of pisses me off. Seidhr ran me through the fucking ringer that one time because he THOUGHT I might have cheated and told someone where to find someone else, before the logs revealed that I'd Wayed before I died. But meanwhile all of them are literally doing it all the time? And killing people?

That policy needs to end. Right away.

It does more harm than good. I just don't understand how you lose touch with the game? That's like saying a DM has to play D&D every now and then before being a DM. It's not fucking rocket science Lechuk. It's an adventure game. It's a roleplaying game. You run stories and plots. It's really not that complicated. It's not some grand epic story. It's a fantasy game for people to escape to after work or to kill some time.

People overthink this shit way too much.

No other game I've played has allowed staff to play. Some had policies where you could store your imm for a period of time and play a PC. Everyone needs a break now and then. But the concept of playing both at the same time and freely using your wiz account to support your PC? That's atrocious.

First, it's probably why nothing of note in Armageddon ever gets fucking done. On the numerous other games I've been staff on, I had STAFF LEVEL SHIT TO DO. Building, coding, whatever. I became staff because I was interested in doing that staff level shit. In fact, being staff generally killed my interest in playing a regular character. You can't enjoy the puppet show once you've seen the strings.

But second, they're literally fucking cheating and allowing each other to do things that they'd ban a regular player for. That is the most blatant bullshittery I have ever seen in any mud.

And third, where's the accountability for it? Not too long ago, someone murdered me for some shit that was IN MY BIO and that I'd never mentioned. Was that staff? If I had filed a complaint about it ... I can imagine them just having a good old chuckle about it, because they all do it and all think it's fine and normal. They're the special privileged class. They can do whatever the fuck they want.

I appreciate the staff insight, but what it's revealed to me is that ... the regular players are here for THEIR amusement. We're their prey or their sex slaves. Sometimes both.

What a toxic fucking shithole.