Karma Revamp 2023: peanut gallery

You know delirium if you talk like this you're never going to get 10 karma.

I was sort of mildly considering stealthing into the first few day or so of play via VPN, just to hobble around and see what stupid things they did to my native rinth. But this whole karma thing has reminded me of all the reasons why that's a terrible idea. Including Nektol the Trusted Eternal Templar, and Fuckwit the Psion, and Emo the The High Karma Nilizi.

It's just not a clubhouse I want to be in. Especially since I'd be forced into being Mr. Muggle in a high fantasy Harry Potter game.

There were already so many disadvantages to returning secretly, but I think the biggest new disadvantage by far comes from the new karma system. This also applies to genuinely new players. Going from 0 to 1 karma shouldn't take more than a couple of days, but 1 to 2 is functionally a 3-month minimum. You need to demonstrate a 3-month long history of following the game's rules for your "fair play" karma before you are allowed to gain any additional karma. If you start a new account on June 15, you are effectively agreeing to play the first ~10% of the season as a second-class player.

This is a big part of why I think the karma system is effectively a bribe to long-time players in a bid to retain them. In order for karma to function as a reward, it inherently needs to let the people that have it feel like they are above those that don't. By extension, the karma system treats being a new player like a pledgeship. The frat boys get to break you down by treating you like trash while you play your mundane nobody characters, and then give the appearance of building you back up by throwing the third karma point at you, when in reality you will never be on their level because of their seniority and connections to other staff.

The advantageous move for returning in terms of the karma dynamic would be to openly return with your old account, but by doing so, you admit to staff that you are addicted to the slop they're serving up, and they can hold that over your head to encourage certain types of behavior from you. As usual, at Armageddon, the only winning move is not to play.

This is all stuff that would be considered distasteful in almost any other RP MU*, but it's acceptable on Armageddon because it's run by bullies and liars that would be banned from any other game they tried this stuff in. Maybe one day the addicts to the game will have the self-respect needed to realize that they just need to walk away and find something else to do.

this is the same sort of jerkoff argument employed by the staff that you bitch about every day. there isn't any substance to it because your suggestion that the people you're insulting find something better to do while you spam post armageddon commentary is asinine.

your entire presence here is critical commentary about the mud, its players, and its staff. it's not surprising that you somehow place yourself outside of that grouping and lay it on thick with the same sort of elite love it or leave it attitudes that you talk shit on.

consider walking away and finding something better to do with your time.

it's not the same argument, because staff's arguments are followed by actions to discriminate against you, vs here all speech is tolerated, and only responded by counter speech. Those who cannot understand the difference are called liberals.

I've been able to show with login data that what ruined the game was ultimately that the staff ignored allegations of bullying and sexual harassment for years until it could no longer be covered up. I've proposed solutions to improve the game, including in this thread, scrapping the karma system and actually holding dialogue with players to improve the relationship and the sense of understanding of expectations between players and staff. I've admitted to having some self-interest in wanting the game to stay open so that the worst of the Armageddon players can remain quarantined from the rest of the MU* community. Any "extreme" negativity you see from me is a result of cherry picking on your part. And if that strikes a nerve with you, that is still not my problem.