|
Post by lechuck on Mar 30, 2023 21:50:52 GMT -5
I actually do think that they have real intentions of turning things around and fixing the administrative problems that led to this recent ordeal. I just don't think they have it in them to run an interesting game worth playing, because that's a different matter altogether. I expect ArmageddonMUD to continue to be boring as fuck and spread woefully thin, so as much as it might be nice to not have to deal with Shalooonsh or ancient, toxic practices from staff, it won't help as long as they don't actually make the game fun to play. It's a lot easier to write up a list of guidelines and police them than it is to get people to put in real work. As such, I expect Arm to continue being a game where nothing happens and where most characters are left with far too few options for interaction to get anything done of their own accord. It'll remain a game with like nine tribes and 25ish clans in total, forever crippled by this fact and the general absence of any meaningful story from which to draw inspiration for character concepts and plots that have more depth than "pay Amos to kill Malik because it's something to do."
It's not that hard to police the rules. Making sure people actually do good work is what takes real diligence. I have no faith in that part. In six months, people will be talking about how nice it is that there's these altruistic new rules that staff seems to abide by, but it will still be a painfully boring game where nobody does anything worth talking about. Maybe we'll have a Copper War 3.0 next year where the armies don't even have time to leave the cities before it's called off. Last time, at least they managed to march thirty rooms out the gates before it was abruptly over.
On my last character, I tried to Be ThE cHaNgE and became perma-wanted in Allanak twice inside the span of a couple of months despite never so much as attacking a PC or getting caught in the process of committing a crime. That's what's wrong with this game. That's why it's a dead end where roleplay is concerned. It's going to wither away as even the last diehards give up from boredom.
|
|
baron
Clueless newb
Posts: 54
|
Post by baron on Mar 30, 2023 22:01:44 GMT -5
Armageddon's name is trash in the greater MUD community (which itself is an extremely niche hobby). It can't attract new players. It's over.
Here's the "way out". Open up all the documentation, publish the complete database of locations/objects/NPCs, publish as many logs as possible. Build a full wiki database of everything Arm, so that AI bots will be able to emulate the world.
Given that information, it would be possible to build an AI bot that would provide nearly a full Arm experience for one or more players to enjoy in a sandbox. It would be expensive as hell to run, but overtime, those costs will come down.
|
|
|
Post by Azerbanjani on Mar 31, 2023 1:32:20 GMT -5
Armageddon's name is trash in the greater MUD community (which itself is an extremely niche hobby). It can't attract new players. It's over. Here's the "way out". Open up all the documentation, publish the complete database of locations/objects/NPCs, publish as many logs as possible. Build a full wiki database of everything Arm, so that AI bots will be able to emulate the world. Given that information, it would be possible to build an AI bot that would provide nearly a full Arm experience for one or more players to enjoy in a sandbox. It would be expensive as hell to run, but overtime, those costs will come down. Wouldn't the AI become jaded cunts after reading all the IMM chatter and notes?
|
|
mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,328
Member is Online
|
Post by mehtastic on Mar 31, 2023 4:33:34 GMT -5
Sooner or later the cycle will spin too fast for the game to handle and it will explode, sending bits of Armageddon all over the MUD community. Pretty sure that's what just happened. True. I'm imagining a future explosion where the staff just publicly override the will of the player mods or this new player committee.
|
|
|
Post by Barsook on Mar 31, 2023 4:36:59 GMT -5
They will. It already happened and it will happen again.
|
|
jenki
Clueless newb
Posts: 139
|
Post by jenki on Mar 31, 2023 7:14:57 GMT -5
Armageddon's name is trash in the greater MUD community (which itself is an extremely niche hobby). It can't attract new players. It's over. Here's the "way out". Open up all the documentation, publish the complete database of locations/objects/NPCs, publish as many logs as possible. Build a full wiki database of everything Arm, so that AI bots will be able to emulate the world. Given that information, it would be possible to build an AI bot that would provide nearly a full Arm experience for one or more players to enjoy in a sandbox. It would be expensive as hell to run, but overtime, those costs will come down. Wouldn't the AI become jaded cunts after reading all the IMM chatter and notes? Yes, but it would only be pretending because ai doesn't have feelings or subjective motives, it only has its training data.
|
|
|
Post by paladont on Mar 31, 2023 9:42:38 GMT -5
There are things they could do to slow the downward spiral they're currently in. Even with the greatest gameplay changes and a massive overhaul, they won't be drawing new players. There are bigger problems that they are unable to address: player trust, how interactions are done and the bureaucracy they've created are systemic problems. The core problem of the 'Producers' and likely a large number of the Pre-March Staff (hereafter referred to as PMS) is that they do not know how to earn the respect of the playerbase and/or run a community.
I don't believe they even KNOW how to address them, much less are capable of following it through. Almost a month ago, Eukalade gave advice on creating a mission statement and finding their direction. Despite this, they did exactly what was specified NOT to do and created a bunch of rules for the staff. It's quite frankly absurd to think they understand how to manage any sort of community at this point. A bunch of people have joined up to their "Community Moderator" team and they are now adding a "Player Council", but this is simply obscuring the systemic problems, not dealing with them.
Armageddon is doomed to die under this kind of management. The writing is on the wall. It's simply a matter of when they will throw in the towel.
|
|
|
Post by dumpsterfirediva on Mar 31, 2023 15:16:50 GMT -5
I think a sane person that comes in and sees a game with a staff count as many as there are with there are as players on peak and yet players have to wait RL weeks to RL years to do anything, with a player 'council' to litigate grievances with that staff because so many people bounces because they 'no vote of confidence' on what happened', take a look around, give it a week generously, and bounce, especially when the person desperately begging them to just take their grievances to the staff that that player is on a council about their ineffectiveness at fixing problems to address, and whatnot, and all the just nonsense, and there's no way in hell.
Like. My hopes faded when player council rather than literally addressing the big problem of transparency first happened. And then the back and forth about how people can't literally monitor players a way more inconvenient because it's not as convenient, and then the literal lie about the thing with someone being able to see past invisibility/ethereal/100%hide/sneak (plus the option of plus hide gear) as how they can't be visible without adding special code! I just can't. I literally can't. You either don't know what the fuck you're talking about, you don't care, or you actively want to destroy it. I don't know or care which at this point.
|
|
|
Post by paladont on Mar 31, 2023 16:22:50 GMT -5
I think a sane person that comes in and sees a game with a staff count as many as there are with there are as players on peak and yet players have to wait RL weeks to RL years to do anything, with a player 'council' to litigate grievances with that staff because so many people bounces because they 'no vote of confidence' on what happened', take a look around, give it a week generously, and bounce, especially when the person desperately begging them to just take their grievances to the staff that that player is on a council about their ineffectiveness at fixing problems to address, and whatnot, and all the just nonsense, and there's no way in hell. Like. My hopes faded when player council rather than literally addressing the big problem of transparency first happened. And then the back and forth about how people can't literally monitor players a way more inconvenient because it's not as convenient, and then the literal lie about the thing with someone being able to see past invisibility/ethereal/100%hide/sneak (plus the option of plus hide gear) as how they can't be visible without adding special code! I just can't. I literally can't. You either don't know what the fuck you're talking about, you don't care, or you actively want to destroy it. I don't know or care which at this point. brokkr.exe has a lot of bugs and nobody bothers to reboot it in a timely manner so you get answers that are often corrupted and make no sense. The obvious long term solution is to stop running brokkr.exe, but that'll never happen.
|
|