SHADOW BOARD WINS!

B) Nyr leaves and 20+ vets return to the game overnight. Apparently what Nyr represented as a whole really was the problem all along. What Nyr represented as a whole really IS a huge issue we need to take seriously. The game is now alive in ways it hasn't been in 5 - 10 years. Holy shit I can't believe one single vicious turd leaving was enough to turn things around this much. We need to LEARN from this. We need to take this lesson and run with it. If we don't, this COULD go down hill again.

Well, there's not going to be any reconciliation where I return to the game and all is well. I'm sure you can tell from my account that I haven't had any dedication to the game for some years, although I make sure that I stay up to date so that my criticism isn't rendered invalid by being out of date. I play every year, I just don't see anything worth sticking around for anymore. The game is largely dead to me, and I'm mostly interested in seeing it improve for the sake of other players and other RPIs. I used to play with my girlfriend but have largely grown past it, I just still have an interest in the genre's well-being. With Armageddon being the flagship game of the genre, its health is important even if I don't much desire to play it again myself.

As for the problem, you may be surprised to hear that I have no huge case of my own and am no infamous pariah or anything like that, but I have observed how your behaviour has grown worse over the years, and I know many players who did have deplorable run-ins with you. I simply fell out of love with the game at one point because of two things: the game stopped being good, and the staff stopped being reasonable. Those two things are fairly connected, of course, but with different facets.

Armageddon has become such a boring shithole. Nothing's allowed anymore, nothing changes, nothing happens. Not literally nothing, of course, but almost nothing compared to how it used to be, how it should be, and how other RPIs prove that it can be. You're familiar by now with the "red tape" colliquialism. Countless players (and some former staff members) have sung the same song of having reasonable ambitions denied. Most things beyond the commonplace are futile, and what little is allowed tends to require extensive and ridiculous processes of approval. It's all bogged down by naysaying and bureaucracy.

Even if one has no personal experiences with Armageddon's stifling gauntlet of permissions and rejections, the effect this has on the game itself is impossible not to see. The stagnation, the boredom, the inactivity and general lack of passion visible in people's roleplay is undeniable. It's like the playerbase suffers from collective depression.

As for staff, and you: you just have a tendency to be really unpleasant. You tone (whenver you're not putting on your soft voice for the audience) is so condescending that one feels discouraged from having anything to do with staff at all. It feels like being a prisoner addressed by a prison guard. It's like you despise your players, which I actually think is the case. I think you hold yourself above players and take a certain delight in belittling them.

Are you actually aware of how many people have remarkably similar stories of bringing some sort of dispute to staff and finding themselves at the receiving end of your scornfully totalitarian retribution? You give the impression of one who doesn't even really care about the case itself but has arrived to the debate already determined that the player is not only wrong but deserving of reproach for having had some disagreement with staff. Do you know how many players essentially tell this story: "I was a bit upset about something so I expressed my concern to staff. Nyr responded in such a way that I no longer want anything to do with Armageddon"? More than a few of them have documented their claims with emails and request logs to prove that they aren't full of shit.

An entire community has formed from their dissatisfaction with how the game is being run, with the central theme being their objection to your behaviour. Not only are you an abusive, vindictive admin, your administrative decisions have also driven the game into irrefutable decline. You've been able to deny it for a few years because the absence of any real competition for Armageddon has protected it greatly from player exodus, but not even this can be staved off anymore. Your game is dying, and it's because of staff's mismanagement making the game unenjoyable, and your own habit of alienating players with unpleasantness.

You don't need to argue with me. It's a bit pointless. You have no reason (or, I reckon, desire) to debate this. I don't think any of this will sway you, but I think it needs to be said. The power you have over players' privileges in the game provides an immense barrier against negative feedback as people won't want to speak out against staff when their own ability to enjoy the game is up to the whims of those same staff members. As such, the tone on the GDB does in no way reflect how everyone thinks. For every Lizzy whose every phrase is unmitigated self-serving praise, there's one of me who hates what has hapened to Armageddon.

So, don't feel compelled to rebut. If the above does not hit home, there's no point. If it does, let positive changes to the game be your discourse. I'm not so naïvely optimistic as to call for your resignation because I know it'd be completely futile. However, I do think you've harmed the game and need to make up for that by setting into motion a large-scale revivification of Armageddon.

What do you need to do? The following:
> Acknowledge that staff (especially you and Nessalin) too often treat players unfairly, with a certain unpleasant glee and unnecessary hostility
> Promise that the tone will improve and that player/staff relations is something you take seriously
> Promise that you're going to stop removing more content from the game than you add back in
> Agree that the game has been taken in the wrong direction lately, and that change is necessary
> Agree that you're going to let players have some freedom and ability to influence the game again

These are not concessions that you should offer to me but to the playerbase as a whole. You need to convince people that things will get better, and you won't do that by promising RPT schedules and minor code features and whatnot. If you don't change your way of management quite significantly, Armageddon will die -- this isn't some kind of threat or prediction, it's an observation and a self-evident fact. These days, each week's numbers are the lowest recorded during your tenure. The atmosphere in the game is depressing. Even the GDB, with its traditional resilience to negative feedback, is nearing crisis.

Save the game and a bit of your own reputation or you'll be remembered as the guy who drove the oldest, biggest and most popular RPI into the ground.

Delerak,

Thanks for the e-mail. Sorry to hear that there's not going to be any reconciliation, but I'm glad to have been able to give you the opportunity to vent your feelings.

Have a great day,