Armageddon MUD crumples to the ground.

Imagine you are an innocent staff member who has never leaked information to anyone, has plugged away at Season One, and has been playing the game for years or perhaps decades before that.

Then staff privately announce that there is a leaker on the team, and producers are begging for the leaker to come forward as they represent a major opsec risk to the game's functioning. You do not step forward because you have done nothing wrong, but at the same time you hope that whoever is responsible steps forward, and that it was simply an accident -- someone simply said too much to a friend, who passed it to another friend, who passed it to another friend, who passed it to mean ol' mehtastic who hates the game.

A few days later, staff privately announce that if no one comes forward, the game will have to close, because producers cannot run the game if they do not trust all of the staff. Again, you cannot step forward because you have done nothing wrong, but now you are REALLY hoping someone will step forward because the game is at the precipice. Either someone comes forward, or the game you have been playing and working on for over a decade dies.

The next day, no one has come forward, so the staff announce the game's closure. You are, understandably, sad.

Then you read the player comments.

The calls for producers to fire everyone and start over.
The calls for producers to run the game WITHOUT staff, just as a hack-and-slash.
The players announcing their general suspicion of the staff team, that anyone or everyone might be a shadowboard spy.
The players starting up witch hunts, starting off by implying that newer staff are more likely to be responsible than older staff, which will inevitably lead to fingers being pointed at certain staff members.
The players being more worried about their own PC's apartment leases than the health of the game.

You, the innocent staff member, want to continue staffing for these cretins? Stop being a fucking simp.

@pinkerdlu is right I've just been playing the long con all this time. Sitting on Armageddon with sub 30 avg players sex pesting but somehow never being mentioned by mehtastic's consistent reporting. You got me mate!

Anyway next steps... So Armageddon isn't the first RP game to ever break below the critical threshold of maintenance players. I'll assume that's the bigger reason because if you have ~25 avg players and 7 staff odds are 4 of those start are always logged in and 20 of those people are players. When MUSHes hit this problem some of them just go "private" or "invite" only. Normally this is the death of a game because there's something about a private text-based game that lacks the impact of an open one. To familiar, to predictable, to high of a chance of a super clique. I could see Armageddon trying some kind of invite only mode. Perhaps we'll see break through the holidays and a feburary/march seasons 2 relaunch. I guess it kind of depends how sticky the community is and whether they linger around the project. Or we just see the final I'm to old for this shit. Nostalgia and community "reputation" is only so strong to motivate time commitment. Personally in the wise words of people helping others with internet bullying (which is basically what the announcement is comaplining about)... How are they bullying you on the internet, just don't read it?

#Delerak2024