Armageddon MUD is a Cult

Meth lab explosion actually.

I'll have whatever that guy had. Inhales the meth fumes deeply.

But in terms of providing value... I've never been especially moved by the whole "Arm is a cult" comparison.

People are shitty, selfish and domineering in all areas of life. In every organization. Workplaces, clubs, school, corporations, at church, friend groups, in your own family. There are instances of abuse, corruption and "cultish" behavior that occur in all of these instances. What sets a cult apart isn't really how insular or controlling it is... It's whether the stuff they're doing is considered extremely abnormal or deviant compared to the society that they exist within. It's all pretty subjective and comes down to how you feel about the particular organization/group in question. You know, your perspective.

Armageddon isn't all that different from any other game community that has been around for 30 years. In fact, there are other MUDs that have undergone (or are undergoing) similar levels of staff cheating, player exodus and intensive moderation/control. When people recommend games like Sindome, Arx or Haven, I can't help but grin (emote grins), because you're really just entering a similar situation to Arm, with different faces and a slightly different flavor. You're opening yourself up to the same types of abuse, staff favoritism and bad game design, even if they're less blatant (if you pay attention, it's really just as blatant) than the cabal of staff cheaters that have dominated Arm.

So with that being said, I don't think the label of cult is all that helpful when it comes to identifying the shitty behavior that we see among Arm staffers and Arm players. People suck everywhere, especially when you attack something that they currently enjoy. If labelling it a cult makes you feel better about the many years that you invested into it... go for it. I think it'd probably be more useful to recognize your mistakes and move on with them in mind. You know the whole idea... not everything is your fault, but everything is your responsibility. 

Agreed, although I think sometimes it's important to state, and restate, the obvious. Some people lack the awareness, and perspective, to even realize that the Emperor's floppy cock has been slapping them across the face. Though at this point it should be quite clear, so you could safely argue that those playing the game largely don't care... Jaded, unprincipled, not quite enough value for their own time and creative energy. So we're all beating a dead horse here in our own way, myself included.


You're on the money. There are certainly some "cultural" issues with Armageddon's playerbase at this point, but most of the problems come from the codebase (how it's designed and what it allows) and how staff manage the game (or fail to).

Whether Armageddon is meant to be a RPI or PvE/PVP game is something that players can't even agree on, and an issue that staff have always failed to define. The "code is roleplay" debate is the foremost example... The codebase is certainly designed for a hack n' slash game and the claim that 'code is roleplay' certainly supports such an environment. Yet, roleplay is mandatory... although the quality of roleplay certainly doesn't undergo much policing these days. It seems like they scared away a lot of the serious roleplayers throughout the years, so they might as well remove any pretense of Arm being a RPI and embrace the "skyrim with sand and bone swords" meme that has grown out of how people actually engage with the game.

However, if the intention is for the game to be a RPI... I wish the staff would clarify that through how they direct the game, manage the community and future changes to the codebase. That seems unlikely and too little, too late. I've always maintained that we would need to see major changes to the game and the staff team if Armageddon was going to reform or see a resurgence. The changes that I have seen, such as sad attempts at player consolidation, reworks of the guilds/subguilds and minor combat changes, to the introduction of... more tribes... and a player moderation committee... They weren't done well. Can I really blame the current staff team for opting to maintain the remaining husk of Armageddon, instead of engaging in an extensive rework that they likely couldn't have pulled off? I'm not spiteful enough to hold that against them at this point.

I think the only chance of a major upheaval happening to Arm was Reborn, and it's probably a good thing that it failed completely instead of succeeding in some half-cooked, bastardized form... As a wise man once alluded to, at least we don't live in a world where Shalooonsh was molesting cat people.

I made this account to address this thread specifically. I joined a religious organization once that was very cult-like. It wasn't as bad as some others like Scientology but it was on lists sometimes of "cults". They were manipulative and all that, but I left after a few years. I can say from my experience Arma is nothing like a cult. The comparison is very silly and sounds like someone who is just trying to force the word cult on the game because they hate it. Taking a random quote from a random Arma player to then point at a criteria and say See! isn't the least bit compelling.

Charismatic Leader is one criteria and I think we can all agree Arma doesn't have charismatic staff. Another is Consequences of Leaving. There are none on Arma. In a real cult people make it their whole identity and they are convinced that if they leave the group they lose everything. Some even are convinced they go to hell. Arma has nothing like that going on.

Sorry, Bebop, but you're not doing anyone any favors with a comparison like this. And you're wrong.

You made your account specifically to defend Armageddon not being a cult?

...

I'm proud of you.

I wonder whatever happened to the guy that got banned from Arm for attacking Shadows of Isildur in Arm's name, then proceeded to write an apology letter in blood and post it on the GDB for Nyr to read and delete. Hope he's doing well