Dark and gritty? Really?!

ArmageddonMUD is not "harsh and gritty" or even all that dark. It's overrun with silly magick and retarded immortal plots rife with deus ex machina conveniently placed at the end to ensure everything reaches a resolution.

It's only dark and gritty insofar as the documentation says so. Some players then try to follow their interpretation of this, which inevitably does make it more "dark" than a game that doesn't try to be at all, but only just. It's almost entirely a facade, just like the "murder, corruption, betrayal" motto which is more self-glorifying conceit than an actual description of the gameplay. The truth is that Armageddon is no more dark and gritty than, say, Forgotten Realms or any other generic fantasy setting.

The game's grittiness is a bit of a joke because there's an easy way out of almost every conceivable problem. Has anybody ever been in serious danger of starving to death, not because they were morons and got trapped in a sandstorm with no water or something but because their character was just poor? Has anyone had to play without some essential resource, not because they chose to do so in order to stay in character but because they couldn't get their hands on it?

Powerful people will completely ignore you as long as you don't bother them, and crime is effectively non-existent except for the random burglaries that take place simply because player apartments are more or less the only things a burglar can target. The reality of the game is that its grit and harshness is completely optional, something you have to seek out and willingly allow in order for it to exist at all. You might get PKed out in the desert, but it's not because people need what you have or because they're rightfully protecting their lands (well, unless you're nosing around threateningly in one of the select few places where this could actually be the case) but because a number players just enjoy the act of robbing other players of their characters. It's not an IC thing at all, just sport PvP.

I think jcarter is right that something happened around 2005/06 that very abruptly put an end to people's efforts to make the realities of the setting real. My recollection is that the Reborn announcement was what did it. It did irrepairable damage to many aspects of the game, and it just never recovered fully. Almost overnight, everyone's priorities shifted from enjoying Zalanthas for what it was to serving their own selfish needs before the game ended, resulting in most players ditching their characters in order to play mindbenders, mages, muls and other exclusive characters.

For quite a few months, nobody gave a flying fuck about the setting or about upholding what made the game world real, they just milked Armageddon for secrets and for the type of roleplay that should be very uncommon yet became constant, everyday fare for everyone whether they wanted it or not. Even those who stuck with their mundane characters had it forced down their throats as every single aspect of the game came to revolve entirely around this sudden explosion of magic and psionicism.

It was all so naive in hindsight. Everything from the fact that the staff claimed they'd completely recreate the game, codebase and all, in six months, to the way almost every player suddenly thought it was their personal time to shine and become some kind of awesome legend of the game. All it really did was fuck with every part of the game, and though they've probably managed to curb the mage boom somewhat by now, the whole ordeal just changed the way people played and perceived the game.

The playerbase, having suddenly all "reached their goal" by being allowed to play the most exclusive, ambitious things they could point at, couldn't really go back to basics and pick up where they left off. Ever since then, Armageddon has had a huge, gaping void where the collective drive and ambition used to be. People's inspiration and desire to make things happen on their own just collapsed and never quite recovered, which is not at all helped by the staff's tendency to be extremely stubborn and lazy about allowing or assisting player efforts.

The worst part is that this won't really change. The staff - Nyr in particular - won't even acknowledge that something is wrong and needs to change, and Armageddon's sizeable admin-fawning GDB clique will unite to harass out of the community anyone who points out that the emperor is naked. The elephant in the room gets censored because Armageddon's community is fiercely opposed to changes and to anyone mentioning what's wrong, so the game is just stuck where it landed and won't move until the people who refuse to help it up finally realize that mere size of playerbase is not indicative of a great and healthy game. They keep paving it over by advertising and getting strangers to visit, claiming that the numbers prove everything is fine (without seeming to realize that the numbers also largely reflect the fact that no other major RPI is currently open) and using this as a retort anytime somebody voices any concern at all.

Okey. I gotta say this. All of your suggestions could be done by players. The firebombing, the water supply sabotage. It is even within the realm of possibility, that they are being done and planned. Problem with the current war, is that people die. So before they do something awesome, they manage to get themselves killed.

Right, my thing isn't that the players can't do this ourselves. It's that it needs a jump-start, prime the pump so to speak. And my example was just that, an example. An example of how a small thing could lead to the players doing their own legwork, starting their own plots based off of events. I didn't mean "Staff should blow shit up!" literally. Why'd I choose a tavern? Because that's the place you're most likely going to have players from different orgs all together in one place. Honestly, I hate war plots because they all end in one giant clusterfuck of a battle or series of battles where players cry about losing their characters, sometimes justifiably so. I'd rather see trade between Allanak and Tuluk opened up and more inter-city alliances and conflict, that to me would be more interesting than a war. But if the state of the mud is currently WAR! A lot can be done with that so that you know...it actually feels like....a war. 

And saying that "It's being done or possibly being done but you don't know it yet!"...come on. I'm talking about doing something very fast that would immediately spark something...instantly. Not "trickle down", everything doesn't have to be an HRPT, just a random event. But the staff has to follow up on it and provide leads and more hooks. I haven't quite lost faith in the playerbase to say they would never....anything. I'm just saying the way it's going doesn't seem to be working, try something new!

As far as Arm 2 goes, well I was kind of curious to see how that panned out. But in my experience on MUSHes (I know....booo!) both staffing and playing, shifting to something else never works and I'm talking games that had pretty robust PB's. So in many ways, Arm is lucky that it kept a strong number of players after those kinds of shenanigans. Thing is, it's kinda a different playerbase and this is about the third time, arm has a different kind of playerbase. So...something...has to change.

Damn, Lizzie - that's at least journeyman sarcasm.

I'm so on the fence about this.

On one hand the world should be dark and gritty, it's what makes it appealing.

On the other hand, fresh blood, especially new players who can have an easier time of stay alive, can help player mundane plots (you know those ones that are actually entertaining and don't require staff) a shit ton. They are rare it appears these days, but when I first started playing, they were some of my most favorite plots. Why? Because mundane character took part, mattered even, although those plots remain all but forgotten to the players involved, they in a way keep the whole thing going for me. High magick world changing stuff is comfortable on rails. Fuck, sometimes it needs to be on rails or just gets silly. (my opinion)

New players who become long time players, can help the mud.

And if some of the most EPIC arguments over the years on the GDB to go by. Soft, f-me, completely out place characters have been around forever. Even at the height of its gritty-ness.

I think also, the problem is we associate "dark and gritty" with "pk and constant player death" which those two things aren't mutually exclusive. Constant threat of starvation and thirst doesn't even make it has much as "dark and gritty" as it should be. Just becomes annoying code the keeps you from doing the things you wanna do, minor annoyance at times really. Damn it my thirst is getting low, I whelp guess I can't hunt down that evil magicker now and attempt to eat his heart, better power walk to town/safe room/ water hole and make sure my 30 day ranger doesn't die over some stupid shit.

Templar's need to be scarier for sure. As well as leadership PC's. But I remember a few times just getting wrecked with a new character cause "Lulz dark and gritty!" and it didn't feel that way, it felt... I dunno grief worthy.

Back stabbing my weapon crafter with no real reason, just to twink rob me isn't "dark and gritty". Extorting weapons/money/and then killing me when I'm useless seems a bit more in line. Or extortion or hitting me up for protection money every day till the point I'm always half starved. Something to that effect. But usually... It's a emote less twink back stab. I feel like I'm playing Call of Duty MUD some days but "Lawlz dark and gritty".

Or there is the fake nice, which isn't fake nice, because even though they aren't being nice for real, they also aren't going to harm you either. It kind of weird, like the player base doesn't know how to inhabit the gray area at all.

But then again, I will fully admit I've never been much in those large events. I've never had much interactions with leaders in clans, mainly because their so damn ham strung and boring. No fault of the player... and in cases the staff. Keeping that particular role alive some days has to be a chore in and of it self, for a plot line that has been months in the making. I don't fault the staff for that, or even players, sometimes I think it just nature of that beast. No one wants their efforts to do something awesome/cool go down the drain cause Byn Sarge number 1 decided that he was bored and wanted to score some drugs in the rinth while wearing a pair of 209 sid boots, he forgot he had on.

But I dunno, "dark and gritty" are hard to do right, while maintain an environment that's productive and constructive to characters. It really comes down to the most awful hard to enforce thing ever. Realistic and good role play. It's really in everyone's hands to play their roles. To allow characters to struggle. To not be so absorbed on what your character can do codely, and more absorbed on what your character would do, can do, our should do as a *gasp* person. I think we all are guilty of wrapping ourselves up like some hermit, letting guilds define characters a little too much, and not focusing on the role.

To kind of make the clear, or at lest ground it in the game. Why are there commoners with 6000 sid in the bank? (sometimes more) Why aren't they fucking going nuts trying to drink that shit away? Hiring whores? Buying stupid shit they don't need to impress assholes they don't like? Why are characters more like video game characters? And a lot less like Real Character? Or real people?

Players in part are to blame, that inescapable meta game we all play because from fucking the start every game we every played pretty much conditioned us to play hoarders, defined by computer code, in a world designed to encourage that exact behavior?

No easy or popular answer I think, its ultimately up to the player base to set the tone, and if any game ever as an example... that will be doomed to fail.


Also would like to note, over time, the game loses it's edge the more experience you have. OOC knowledge is both a curse and a gift, and something hard to balance, but only players as individuals can do that, any other effort will either be too harsh, or ineffectual.