Post by alicatsam on Mar 2, 2023 15:25:18 GMT -5
I have a story to tell as well. I don't have staff confirmation of anything, I didn't have staff friends. But I did have a staff member who hated me.
I've played off and on for years, but we will start this story in 2018, when I returned from a several-year hiatus. I played a Byn Sergeant, who was made a Sergeant in a whirlwind because, simply, there were two regularly playing people in the Byn and no Sergeants. The other who was promoted a little after me, ultimately, turned into a magicker and was removed, obviously. But in the interim, I spent a lot of RL time and energy rebuilding the Byn until there wasn't a locker empty, and people even had to share. No one wanted to leave after Trooper, I didn't lose anyone on a contract, save by their own stupidity. Unfortunately, me and the other Sergeant cooperated too well, and that annoyed some staff members. Which is why on an innocuous escort, my Sergeant was shot without delay, by a single gith who only aimed for her. She was too fast for mounts to catch, she auto-fled any time engaged, and my character went unconscious, while riding and being guarded by 8+ Byn. My hp started ticking up out of the negatives, and then she was shot again, against all 'reality'.
I was devastated. She was a brilliant, lively character, with a complicated story and friends and plots. And it happened because a staff member decided she should die and there was no way to escape. And so I took a day or two and made a new character, just for fun. I apped for a sponsored role in a new elf tribe, and was succinctly told off by Shalooonsh for daring to app for one of his clans for a circumstance addressed by other members of staff and myself (which also didn't stop them from rewarding me my 2nd karma). So I moved on, feeling weird about this (potentially) sudden animosity. So I apped for another special role not for Jeepers Creepers' clans and surprisingly (to me) got it! I picked up a Sergeant mantle for the AoD. (which is probably outing my characters and identities). I loved my Sergeant. She was fascinating, dark, gloomy, and the diametric opposite to my first leadership role in all but loyalty. And her unit was INTENSELY loyal.
All was well for a time, my character did as she was told by templars, kicked ass, took names. And then was SUDDENLY and RANDOMLY assassinated by an escaped mul. In the middle of the AOD Barracks. While staff watched, and animated the local guards so that they did not help? And then animated an NPC to tell her corporal to poke her corpse to see if the sergeant was really dead. And after the unit killed the mul, the templarate decided to .... punish the unit? They made one of the Corporals a patsy, and shoved him in the arena, naked. And the OTHER Corporal who would have been the next Sergeant walked in with him. The other Private in the unit charged in as well. And they all died. The entire unit in on RL night. And staff watched and giggled about it on immchat.
Needless to say, the circumstance was suspect. And the mul was allowed and given special permissions for this mission for whatever reason. And I mourned the loss of a character in a completely nonsensical way. And wrote a new character. I was done with clan leadership, and politics for a while. I wanted to explore crafting and foraging, and be away from nobles and templars. So I made an indie tribal scout/master jeweler. She was, frankly, meant to be a simple character. Driven by emotions, incapable of hurting another person by superstition and as sweet as can be. My goal was to make some lower priced jewelry items with masterworks, and to just have fun with a non-stressful role. How wrong I was.
I played a lot. And I got this weird satisfaction from foraging, so I foraged a lot. And that meant a lot of gems. When space ran out, a lot of jewelry. So I sold 2 or 3 of each item when I had too many (there were a lot of items), commented to another staffer that 'whoa, this item is probably too valuable' and they said they'd handle that with the economic overhaul. My character amassed... a lot of coin. A ridiculous amount of coin. I remarked to this staffer via discord that it was ridiculous, and it should be looked at. But then I was suddenly banned from selling in the local markets. My character got upset and asked why, because I was not informed in-game, or oocly. Staff gave me no solutions. But because my character dared get upset, she was suddenly accused of shit-talking the GMHs, so she'll never sell anything ever again. But then it was a different NPC who was an indie, who demanded 150k, an apology, and to turn her over his knee for lashes/punishment and then maybe 90k would be okay.
Who do you think was staffing GMHs, I wonder? And who then instructed an agent to get rid of my character? And posted about it on the GMH GDB forum. I clarified via wishes that staff had no clear idea what they wanted from this, had no standards in place, and were just throwing solutions in the wind. Claiming that things were already clarified to me, when they weren't. And using staff knowledge to claim to other players that my character was 'shit talking', in a way that gaslit me into checking my logs to ensure that she hadn't said anything negative about anyone. So I put in a complaint. I laid out these circumstances, and the best I got back was 'maybe we should have spoken to you OOCly or ICly first'.
I had a mild, half-assed solution come up with, that wasn't actually a resolution and I kept playing. Kinda. And I had another interaction where I wished for a particular NPC to be animated to leave the room and return(borked code things involved). I waited online for nearly an hour before getting this response while I was looking at a page on my browser, only to be told 'there's a huge fucking RPT going on right now, BTW. We're a bit busy. Now where does this person go.' then no less than 15 seconds 'Okay well, you're apparently idle, so you can wait until we're done.' I wasn't idle. I saw it within seconds, and was writing a response. I put in another complaint and asked that whomever that was never handle my requests or wishes again. And my activity dwindled... and then, I just quit. After staff ripped through the Outpost in their "plot" and did so in a way that felt like a violation. My character concept was fucked, I got anxiety every time I logged into a character that was supposed to be low-pressure. And so I put in the retirement request. And the last words from staff on this game was the very staffer who wasn't supposed to handle my requests saying "Done!"
This is just my experience in the game, and doesn't count for the series of aggressions via discord or otherwise. But it makes me paranoid when staff appears near me in every game since. I don't trust people in positions of power in games. I did what I was supposed to. I reported it. And nothing changed. I hope there's no backslide for Arm and its community can stop suffering, but I won't be returning.
I've played off and on for years, but we will start this story in 2018, when I returned from a several-year hiatus. I played a Byn Sergeant, who was made a Sergeant in a whirlwind because, simply, there were two regularly playing people in the Byn and no Sergeants. The other who was promoted a little after me, ultimately, turned into a magicker and was removed, obviously. But in the interim, I spent a lot of RL time and energy rebuilding the Byn until there wasn't a locker empty, and people even had to share. No one wanted to leave after Trooper, I didn't lose anyone on a contract, save by their own stupidity. Unfortunately, me and the other Sergeant cooperated too well, and that annoyed some staff members. Which is why on an innocuous escort, my Sergeant was shot without delay, by a single gith who only aimed for her. She was too fast for mounts to catch, she auto-fled any time engaged, and my character went unconscious, while riding and being guarded by 8+ Byn. My hp started ticking up out of the negatives, and then she was shot again, against all 'reality'.
I was devastated. She was a brilliant, lively character, with a complicated story and friends and plots. And it happened because a staff member decided she should die and there was no way to escape. And so I took a day or two and made a new character, just for fun. I apped for a sponsored role in a new elf tribe, and was succinctly told off by Shalooonsh for daring to app for one of his clans for a circumstance addressed by other members of staff and myself (which also didn't stop them from rewarding me my 2nd karma). So I moved on, feeling weird about this (potentially) sudden animosity. So I apped for another special role not for Jeepers Creepers' clans and surprisingly (to me) got it! I picked up a Sergeant mantle for the AoD. (which is probably outing my characters and identities). I loved my Sergeant. She was fascinating, dark, gloomy, and the diametric opposite to my first leadership role in all but loyalty. And her unit was INTENSELY loyal.
All was well for a time, my character did as she was told by templars, kicked ass, took names. And then was SUDDENLY and RANDOMLY assassinated by an escaped mul. In the middle of the AOD Barracks. While staff watched, and animated the local guards so that they did not help? And then animated an NPC to tell her corporal to poke her corpse to see if the sergeant was really dead. And after the unit killed the mul, the templarate decided to .... punish the unit? They made one of the Corporals a patsy, and shoved him in the arena, naked. And the OTHER Corporal who would have been the next Sergeant walked in with him. The other Private in the unit charged in as well. And they all died. The entire unit in on RL night. And staff watched and giggled about it on immchat.
Needless to say, the circumstance was suspect. And the mul was allowed and given special permissions for this mission for whatever reason. And I mourned the loss of a character in a completely nonsensical way. And wrote a new character. I was done with clan leadership, and politics for a while. I wanted to explore crafting and foraging, and be away from nobles and templars. So I made an indie tribal scout/master jeweler. She was, frankly, meant to be a simple character. Driven by emotions, incapable of hurting another person by superstition and as sweet as can be. My goal was to make some lower priced jewelry items with masterworks, and to just have fun with a non-stressful role. How wrong I was.
I played a lot. And I got this weird satisfaction from foraging, so I foraged a lot. And that meant a lot of gems. When space ran out, a lot of jewelry. So I sold 2 or 3 of each item when I had too many (there were a lot of items), commented to another staffer that 'whoa, this item is probably too valuable' and they said they'd handle that with the economic overhaul. My character amassed... a lot of coin. A ridiculous amount of coin. I remarked to this staffer via discord that it was ridiculous, and it should be looked at. But then I was suddenly banned from selling in the local markets. My character got upset and asked why, because I was not informed in-game, or oocly. Staff gave me no solutions. But because my character dared get upset, she was suddenly accused of shit-talking the GMHs, so she'll never sell anything ever again. But then it was a different NPC who was an indie, who demanded 150k, an apology, and to turn her over his knee for lashes/punishment and then maybe 90k would be okay.
Who do you think was staffing GMHs, I wonder? And who then instructed an agent to get rid of my character? And posted about it on the GMH GDB forum. I clarified via wishes that staff had no clear idea what they wanted from this, had no standards in place, and were just throwing solutions in the wind. Claiming that things were already clarified to me, when they weren't. And using staff knowledge to claim to other players that my character was 'shit talking', in a way that gaslit me into checking my logs to ensure that she hadn't said anything negative about anyone. So I put in a complaint. I laid out these circumstances, and the best I got back was 'maybe we should have spoken to you OOCly or ICly first'.
I had a mild, half-assed solution come up with, that wasn't actually a resolution and I kept playing. Kinda. And I had another interaction where I wished for a particular NPC to be animated to leave the room and return(borked code things involved). I waited online for nearly an hour before getting this response while I was looking at a page on my browser, only to be told 'there's a huge fucking RPT going on right now, BTW. We're a bit busy. Now where does this person go.' then no less than 15 seconds 'Okay well, you're apparently idle, so you can wait until we're done.' I wasn't idle. I saw it within seconds, and was writing a response. I put in another complaint and asked that whomever that was never handle my requests or wishes again. And my activity dwindled... and then, I just quit. After staff ripped through the Outpost in their "plot" and did so in a way that felt like a violation. My character concept was fucked, I got anxiety every time I logged into a character that was supposed to be low-pressure. And so I put in the retirement request. And the last words from staff on this game was the very staffer who wasn't supposed to handle my requests saying "Done!"
This is just my experience in the game, and doesn't count for the series of aggressions via discord or otherwise. But it makes me paranoid when staff appears near me in every game since. I don't trust people in positions of power in games. I did what I was supposed to. I reported it. And nothing changed. I hope there's no backslide for Arm and its community can stop suffering, but I won't be returning.