Shalooonsh is back

Will he last amidst the current climate among staff?

Will he lose his shit and tell senior staff to fuck off?

Will a staff member doing things in an "older" way make other staff members jealous or make them look bad in comparison, and will they push him out as a result?

Whatever happens it'll be interesting. Too bad the games been hobbled to the point I have other things I'd rather do. Once upon a time it was fun to be involved with Shall I game, hopefully, for those still playing, it is still so. Maybe other staff can learn a few things.

And to add:

Looonsh will undoubtedly help make things fun for those still involved.

But over the last, what, two years... there have been, in the midst of things that NEEDED to be said, bouts of ugliness that simply won’t disappear because X or Y assumes a position of authority. Because, y’know, at this juncture, regardless of who is on the staff side of things, well... either themselves or people they have been friends with for a decade or more have been subjected to the turmoil left in - and let’s be real, here - the wake of Nyr.

I remember griping to Looonsh (when he wasn’t staff at the time) about Nyr before, and, well, he didn’t really agree wholeheartedly with me. Which is okay.


At any rate, at least in terms of contemporary staff members, Looonsh was the last the really step up and make the game fun for me.

In fact, when he left Kadius as staff while I was playing Sharlo, only to be replaced by Nyr, well... that’s when the game started sucking for me.

Within a month of Looonsh leaving, Nyr turned the most active clan in Tuluk into a literal graveyard bereft of players. It only took a month.

I have to wonder what course the game would have taken if Looonsh had been the one who initially rose to a position of authority instead of Nyr.

And before you start, yeah, I am aware that he’s not perfect. None of us are. But no other staff member in contemporary times made the game as fun for me as Looonsh did.


Really, my only hope is that there will be players who find the fun in what Looonsh does like I did at one point. Who won’t let their view of what happens be spoiled by OOC bullshit or the frequently petty politics of a text based game.

I wish, too, that I could be one of those players, but, even if I had a somewhat stable life and had not lived like a fucking animalistic savage in the middle the mountains for half a decade, now, I would still be reluctant to give it a shot... mainly because I feel like I have too addictive of a personality to dive into ArmageddonMUD when I should, instead, focus on my mental health and well-being.

Big fan of the Loonsh return. Too bad I'm not playing in his clans.

I had a lot of fun with Shaloonsh, the couple times I managed to be in one of his clans. He mostly did Desert Elf stuff if I recall.

That said. The game will remain a shithole, and current staff and their staff alts/friend will undoubtedly monopolize Shal's time. Because he's a competent storyteller, and those are so rare.

The only way for the game to really improve would to jettison all current headstaff, and especially Nessalin. That's just not gonna ever happen.

I was merely reiterating the impossibility of any long-term positive change while Nessalin is still involved.

If you enjoy the game the way it is now, or for whatever reason, enjoy accommodating the power trips of cunts, then having Shal around is better than not having him around. But he's basically just a decent, normal-ish guy who knows how to run a plot, like an above average dungeon master.

He's in no way a decision maker. But you'll definitely win the sweepstakes if you get his clan. Because it's nice having a normalish dungeon master type dude handling your shit, then some neckbeard cunt or cat lady whose sole reason for staying invested in the game is to receive emotional support.

What crippled Armageddon wasn't that the staff were bad writers, or even bad staffers. Though many of them were and are (but by no means all of them. Some were really great and very creative people). What crippled Armageddon was that a majority of the decision makers clique were simply bad people. The kind of people who would not find themselves a decision maker in any other organization on earth, but who crop up occasionally in online communities. They usually get to a position of leadership or responsibility simply owing to longevity. Or for example, being the only one who can code (even shittily) or pay for hosting. 

Nyr was something of a special case, but one which happens more often in RL. He had drive and followthrough and a genuine inspiration to be involved in the game (at first. Always remember, Nyr started out as a player too), but he just had horrible ideas and was pretentious.

The issue, is the fact you get 8 karma the moment you get on staff. So you get these people who get on staff, just to do the bare minimum and read reports, then go and play their staff alt with their new 8 karma.