This Forum and ARM IMMs

uhhh i guess it depends? almost anyone except for a small handful of people are free to register and post. there's a lot of people that registration is open to, or people that post here, that i would rather not see around and i don't consider 'welcome' but i'm not going to use administrative powers to block them.

so blanket statement wise is staff 'welcome'? idk, it depends on what you mean by welcome. there's certain accounts here that exist just to white-knight staff for the sake of it. i don't consider them 'welcome' because they seem more like they have their opinions because they're tone-deaf and just want to be contrarian, but i'm not going to go likewise. that goes the same way for staff.

I tried to convince Adhira to come post once. I believe her response was that she wasn't interested in the stress level she associated with coming to a forum which was viewed as hostile towards her. To be fair that is a reasonable reply and there were a few fuck Adhira threads at the time so can't really say she wasn't somewhat right to be hesitant.

On the flip side go look at EoE. Jazet and Alaire got pretty soundly besmirched (great word) and they ended up coming onto the forum and addressing the complaints in a civilized and productive manner. I believe they even unbanned Anaiah after having a conversation with her. I think it's a great example of stepping into the lions den and coming out ahead of where you were had you not taken the time.

If staff aren't comfortable to post here, they are welcome (and have an open invitation) to post on OR. Though the Armageddon sub-forum on OR isn't even like 1/10th the level of frustration/bittervet/burnout that this forum is so I'm not sure posting there would be as effective to boosting and promoting their game as coming here and doing it.

EDIT - When I tried to convince Adhira to come post. I did not personally speak to her a 3rd party did so it is possible Adhira said none of those things.

And I don't think we'd ask them to if it was possible to have an open, frank discussion on the GDB, dissenters and all.

It'd be beautiful to see some of the higher-up staff just descend from their throne for a bit and have an honest discussion about the game. Ask the players what they want out of the game, and tell them in non-marketing, honest terms what the staff's vision for the game is, then work to find compromises where those ideas diverge--openly, in public, where all players can contribute to the discussion. I really think that's all it would take to get things moving in a better direction. I'm sure it's harder than it sounds, but I also think it's worth it.

They are absolutely welcome, but it would take an amount of seriousness and decency that the current staff just doesn't possess. Not that this forum is the epitome of class and civility, but an open dialogue would mandate such a thing, and I'm confident it would be afforded to them if they were sincere. As long as they apparently don't even agree that there's anything wrong in the game, there would be no point in them coming here to discuss the grievances that people here have. They would first need to acknowledge that they are not correct in all their doings, and that an entire community united by their disappointment and dismay with a game they used to love did not just spontaneously appear for no reason.

Instead they refuse to acknowledge these forums, furtively punish any signs of partaking in it with hilariously insecure heavy-handedness, and continue to do the things that cause this community to grow by the week. They're pissing their pants to keep warm and seem unable to understand why it doesn't work. As long as they're treating their playerbase like shit, neglecting the game, alienating veterans of their community and generally behaving like power-tripping narcissists, this community will persist and grow. The lack of an alternate RPI option of any real quality somewhat staunches this situation's impact on the actual size of Armageddon's playerbase, but the effect it has on their actions and habits is plain as day. The game is in dire straits because of it, wallowing in stagnation and deeply pernicious undertones amongst players both current and former.

Sending unconvincing undercover admins here to post that we're all wrong and stupid is not going to fix their problem. It only further highlights how unable and unwilling they are to account for their actions and answer for themselves in an environment where they can't delete people's posts, ban dissenters, and otherwise manipulate the dialogue to favor their narrative. It's disingenuous and pathetic, and it shows that they are not able to hold their own in an honest debate. If they came here with an attitude like "let's sit down and figure out what will sort this out to everyone's benefit," this community would be very open and, I'm convinced, very constructive and genuine.

ArmageddonMUD is a product and community that has been shaped over the course of two decades, contributed to by thousands of players and scores of staff members. They have usurped this, seized control of it and steered it against the best interests of both the players and the game itself. They have ruined the game for many players, they have chased many away who would have wanted to stay. This is not the natural and inevitable course of events for an aging game, this is something that has been happening in the last handful of years in a completely unprecedented manner, with a result not seen anywhere else in the history of the RPI genre. Never before has an admin's abuse generated an entire forum community.

This is why the shadow board exists, and as long as they refuse to consider the possibility that they might be part of the problem, there's no point in an open dialogue. They don't want to reconcile, they don't want to understand or make compromises. They want to stay in control, keep their platform on which to treat people like shit because it makes them feel better about themselves. They don't want to bring the game back on track and help repair what was broken when Nyr and his posse rolled into town, because they're not interested in a healthy game and a positive community, they just want an outlet for their bully mentalities. The game is just the tool with which they get to have power over a bunch of people.

While this community does lead to some useful results now and then, there should be no pretense that the shadow board is good for the game. This isn't a positive, healthy situation. This isn't benefitting the game as a whole. A more open, honest discussion environment benefits the game, but that should not take place in a forum for pariahs and anonymous people who can't reveal their identity unless they're already banned because they otherwise will be. The game's own community should be more mature, forthright and constructive, but years of being treated like shit and punished for saying anything "deviant" has taught them that they can't do that. That needs to change, and until it does, the shadow board is better than nothing, but still a blemish on ArmageddonMUD and, by association, the whole RPI genre of which it is the flagship game and most influential factor.

I'd rather everyone was treated the way that we wish we were treated by them. If someone wants to white-knight, let them. It's a very small and niche community, and I'm sure that roughly 95% of the people can see through it. It just makes us look like an echo chamber if we chase people away.

Honestly, even disagreeing with reasonable, all the attention paid to discovering his true identity just made this forum come off worse, than if we'd just refuted his arguments (which myself and others did at length) and moved on. People deserve their privacy.

I think it's more of a reasonable joke than anything else. He tells us "Think for yourselves!" And he's the one posting on this obscure text appreciation board via proxy.

Whip out the tinfoil hats, man. We got ourselves a STAFFER! Hilarious.

Are you asserting that Asan falsified his log here?