Summon's not gone, & Bad Whiran Thoughts.
Jan 23, 2016 18:27:54 GMT -5
delerak, bobo, and 4 more like this
Post by punished ppurg on Jan 23, 2016 18:27:54 GMT -5
Once upon a time, there was a big ruckus over the summon spell that Whirans branch, and how it was basically a "fuck you" kill anyone in the game spell. I remember @rgs and others being very outspoken about how this spell should be removed. Then, as it appreciatively happens, the staff listened to the playerbase and removed this summon spell from branching Whirans around roughly a year ago. Nyr even posted to the effect of "you no longer have to worry about that sort of thing happening". Really now?
Let me put this foremost: I believe there are players in this game who have no care for the enjoyment or experiences of other players. I'll refer to these as bad players. Sadly, these players have the potential to get karma; I would go so far that they have a better chance of getting high karma, or "trust", than I do. These players don't engage in any higher level of thought, or appreciation of the game medium; instead, they are connecting to this game with the sole intent of griefing and ruining the accomplishments of others. And this activity is encouraged, and even praised, by the toxic backwards-think of the GDB anti-community aided by the malignant shadow cast by the hostility of certain (former) staff members. These individuals I would identify by name in a heart-beat if I could, and avoid them; they add less to the game than they ruin for the sake of fulfilling some juvenile impulse.
With that said,
Even though summon has indeed been removed from Whirans, they still have a certain spell named transference (or it might actually be "relocate": but I'm going to assume it's transference). This spell is similar to the summon spell in that it yanks people instantly across long distances; however, this spell swaps the locations of the caster and the target. Just recently, I have seen this spell used to effectively end the life of the highest-hour PC I'm aware of during my time with Armageddon. The player who chose to go through with this, I believe, is one of the bad players -- and I will have a hard time being convinced otherwise. Despite whatever in-character motive (or excuse of motive) was used to no-doubt justify this cheap exploitation of poorly-conceived "spells", there is one thing that stands adamant in my view: the complete disregard of respect for a fellow player. Anyone who has ever assassinated a character using the cowardly, no-risk exploitation of a Whiran, is a bad player. The key qualifier is "no-risk"; and believe me, there was no risk in this kill. Transference is just as bad and just as deserving of removal or severe change as summon was. Be aware, that Whirans can make themselves invisible; they can fly, and levitate; they can also "blink" across the map. And, with transference, there is nothing stopping a bad player behind an excuse of a Whiran character in doing the same disgusting destruction as had been done with summon so much that summon had to be removed.
I will answer the inevitable retort that Transference is riskier than Summon -- no, it is absolutely not when used with other spells that a Whiran acquires naturally. In this particular instance, the bad player was under no risk, nor faced any challenge; they would not have risked it if they were. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of someone who has just watched a long-lived player be exploitatively assassinated by a bad player: in this instance, their characters have traded places. This character is magickally invisible, and their bad player has the express purpose of shunning any and all roleplay in order to vacate the scene as quickly as possible.
Absolutely nobody. Even with triggers set up to do exactly that series of instances, the bad player has already made their character leave, because they know they can get away with it. They know that the toxic anti-community of the GDB will embrace their actions, and the staff members will buy whatever flimsy excuse they offer as an avenue of carrying out (potentially not in this situation, but certainly in others past) an OOCly motivated kill based on the character's player and not the character themselves. Even if there was ample motive and valid reason to kill this character, the method in which it was done is a disgrace to the game medium and the community.
And, should this bad player find out who I'm playing currently, and kill me the same way, the toxic anti-community will tell me I've gotten what I deserve for typing this critical post; they are equally terrible and potentially one in the same.
So, when I believed Nyr of all people when he said that this failure of game design had been removed from the MUD -- that there had been an improvement in the overall nature of character conflict -- I had praised the initiative. I consider myself now to be rudely awakened that essentially nothing has changed: only the means have changed, not the method and certainly not the objective.
Now, I would like to propose a solution to this issue -- an issue that was reportedly solved but effectively only contorted.
These are all equally valid solutions.
There are ways to use a Whiran character to assassinate other characters which do not rely on these horrible concepts of failed game design. However, these methods will never be used; as we've seen so many times before, why would the player make the choice of taking a risk when there is a guaranteed, riskless avenue available to them? I am angered to share the same hobby with someone so inconsiderate, and I express the bad player who did this should be ashamed of themselves, however futile that hope may be. And furthermore, I would request that the staff members do their best to ensure their promise of improvement to the playerbase that, right now, stands with a gaping hole in it.
So this is my rant, and, having typed it, I don't expect anything to happen or anyone to actually accept my advice (heh). In fact, the tone is based on that belief. If I'd had the expectation that there would be a better reaction to a benevolent criticism rather than this malignancy, I would go for that; however, in my experience, there will be no difference. Consider me scarred by bad previous staff members.
Let me put this foremost: I believe there are players in this game who have no care for the enjoyment or experiences of other players. I'll refer to these as bad players. Sadly, these players have the potential to get karma; I would go so far that they have a better chance of getting high karma, or "trust", than I do. These players don't engage in any higher level of thought, or appreciation of the game medium; instead, they are connecting to this game with the sole intent of griefing and ruining the accomplishments of others. And this activity is encouraged, and even praised, by the toxic backwards-think of the GDB anti-community aided by the malignant shadow cast by the hostility of certain (former) staff members. These individuals I would identify by name in a heart-beat if I could, and avoid them; they add less to the game than they ruin for the sake of fulfilling some juvenile impulse.
With that said,
Even though summon has indeed been removed from Whirans, they still have a certain spell named transference (or it might actually be "relocate": but I'm going to assume it's transference). This spell is similar to the summon spell in that it yanks people instantly across long distances; however, this spell swaps the locations of the caster and the target. Just recently, I have seen this spell used to effectively end the life of the highest-hour PC I'm aware of during my time with Armageddon. The player who chose to go through with this, I believe, is one of the bad players -- and I will have a hard time being convinced otherwise. Despite whatever in-character motive (or excuse of motive) was used to no-doubt justify this cheap exploitation of poorly-conceived "spells", there is one thing that stands adamant in my view: the complete disregard of respect for a fellow player. Anyone who has ever assassinated a character using the cowardly, no-risk exploitation of a Whiran, is a bad player. The key qualifier is "no-risk"; and believe me, there was no risk in this kill. Transference is just as bad and just as deserving of removal or severe change as summon was. Be aware, that Whirans can make themselves invisible; they can fly, and levitate; they can also "blink" across the map. And, with transference, there is nothing stopping a bad player behind an excuse of a Whiran character in doing the same disgusting destruction as had been done with summon so much that summon had to be removed.
I will answer the inevitable retort that Transference is riskier than Summon -- no, it is absolutely not when used with other spells that a Whiran acquires naturally. In this particular instance, the bad player was under no risk, nor faced any challenge; they would not have risked it if they were. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of someone who has just watched a long-lived player be exploitatively assassinated by a bad player: in this instance, their characters have traded places. This character is magickally invisible, and their bad player has the express purpose of shunning any and all roleplay in order to vacate the scene as quickly as possible.
- How many characters are there in the game right now that have high enough scan to see magickally invisible Whirans?
- Of that number, with the delay on scan activating, would be able to react quick enough to 1) spot the blur of a Whiran after transference and 2) react accordingly, and not the basic level of what's inaccurately portrayed as roleplay such as >draw sword >kill blur?
Absolutely nobody. Even with triggers set up to do exactly that series of instances, the bad player has already made their character leave, because they know they can get away with it. They know that the toxic anti-community of the GDB will embrace their actions, and the staff members will buy whatever flimsy excuse they offer as an avenue of carrying out (potentially not in this situation, but certainly in others past) an OOCly motivated kill based on the character's player and not the character themselves. Even if there was ample motive and valid reason to kill this character, the method in which it was done is a disgrace to the game medium and the community.
And, should this bad player find out who I'm playing currently, and kill me the same way, the toxic anti-community will tell me I've gotten what I deserve for typing this critical post; they are equally terrible and potentially one in the same.
So, when I believed Nyr of all people when he said that this failure of game design had been removed from the MUD -- that there had been an improvement in the overall nature of character conflict -- I had praised the initiative. I consider myself now to be rudely awakened that essentially nothing has changed: only the means have changed, not the method and certainly not the objective.
Now, I would like to propose a solution to this issue -- an issue that was reportedly solved but effectively only contorted.
These are all equally valid solutions.
- Essentially remove transference from the game, as summon was.
- Turn transference into an "offering" of movement, in the sense that the target can choose "yes" or "no" to a prompt to activate the spell. This would maintain the benevolent aspects of the spell.
- When the Whiran casts the spell, they effectively "give" their magickal conditions to the target. E.g. if the Whiran is levitating and invisible, then the target is now levitating and invisible where the Whiran was, and the Whiran loses those active spells where the target was. This would need some further tinkering with spell mechanics and the sort in able for me to be satisfied with it.
There are ways to use a Whiran character to assassinate other characters which do not rely on these horrible concepts of failed game design. However, these methods will never be used; as we've seen so many times before, why would the player make the choice of taking a risk when there is a guaranteed, riskless avenue available to them? I am angered to share the same hobby with someone so inconsiderate, and I express the bad player who did this should be ashamed of themselves, however futile that hope may be. And furthermore, I would request that the staff members do their best to ensure their promise of improvement to the playerbase that, right now, stands with a gaping hole in it.
So this is my rant, and, having typed it, I don't expect anything to happen or anyone to actually accept my advice (heh). In fact, the tone is based on that belief. If I'd had the expectation that there would be a better reaction to a benevolent criticism rather than this malignancy, I would go for that; however, in my experience, there will be no difference. Consider me scarred by bad previous staff members.
