Thu Aug 3 22:09:38 2017

At 5 o'clock AM, Day of Thunder, 31st of the Month of the Heat
on the Theran calendar Ignolmeer perished, never to return.

Race:	elf
Class:	paladin
Level:	53
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	2769
Hours:	2221

Hope you come back with another mortal!

That to anyone not currently playing but maybe thinking about it a new imm deleting without explanation looks pretty bad.

It gives a bad impression. The player community is bad enough as it is filling in the blanks for themselves with the worst stuff possible.

Just trying to be helpful with an observation. But I get you probably can't do much if you want to be respectful to Inglomeer.

I don't really know what "the worst stuff imaginable" would be. This is a free, old-school, text-based game on the Internet, not North Korea.

I also can't speak for Ignolmeer. But here are some things I will tell you, in the most straightforward and transparent terms possible:

We're all just people. We have jobs and families and lives outside of this game, and we don't get paid a dime for the work we do on CF. Keep that in mind when you see the number of hours that IMMs typically put in, Ignolmeer included.

Being a DM, administrator, area builder, etc. can be fun sometimes, but probably the majority of the time, it's not. It's way harder than I had imagined it to be before applying. If you want a peek behind the curtain, here it is:

Dealing with 12,000-line area files that are so finicky that a misplaced tilde or space can cause an hour's worth of troubleshooting is not fun.

Sorting out or working around technical issues in this big, old, 25-plus-year-old piece of software for the myriad projects we're trying to bring to life for players is often not fun.

Trying to schedule events, area reviews, etc. among a bunch of volunteers in various time zones with various obligations is not fun.

Trying to talk down players who are having OOC meltdowns and ruining the immersive world we're trying to create is not fun, and it is often depressing.

Interacting with and creating stories with quality characters that you all create is a ton of fun. It's what keeps many of us going.

Sometimes, all the not-fun stuff outweighs the fun stuff. When that happens more often than not, this crazy investment of time doesn't feel worthwhile. I imagine that some variable or variables in this equation changed for Ignolmeer, and he decided he'd had enough.

I am solidly in the optimistic, enthusiastic camp. But even after the relatively short time I've been on staff, I can understand exactly how someone could burn out or lose passion for this project.

I am, however, puzzled by the strange, conspiratorial fixations that seem so prevalent on the forums. From everything I've seen, we run a pretty tight ethical ship.

When dealing with players, we try to record everything and provide reasons for every reward and every punishment. I've even been taken aside and chewed out for punishing a player for some pretty awful behavior. I felt the punishment was quite reasonable, but others felt was too harsh.

There's a very strong spirit of fairness toward players in the IMM culture.

On top of that, the stakes are so, so low, but some very prolific forum posters talk about this game like it's a nuclear power. They act like the IMMs are civil servants who answer to them, or perhaps their employees. We're neither. We're volunteers trying to keep a niche, free roleplaying game alive.

In short, we want to have fun. And our idea of fun is watching and helping you have fun. We get giddy talking about ways to surprise you. I love handing out immxp when someone does or says something cool. I get a big smile out of imagining a player's genuine surprise and delight when they find a cool spot that I put into a new area, or I get to help them bring their character's role to life in an unexpected way.

I know Ignolmeer felt the same way. He doesn't owe you, or any of us, an explanation for making the decision to walk away. I only hope that he comes back one day or rolls a mort, if he'd enjoy it, because he contributed a lot to the game and deserves any happiness it could possibly give him.

Just do your best to have fun. If this game stops being fun for you, it might be best to walk away. You wouldn't owe anyone an explanation, either.

(I went a bit longer than I intended to on this, but you can expect me to link back to this post in response to any future conspiracy theory-esque posts.)

NT

Winning the internets!

(n/t)

n/t

n/t

A person devotes 6+ months of tedious work to achieve his or her goal of earning the privilege to join the staff of CF. A few months later they delete, without comment or goodbye to any of the players or characters they liked, disliked or left hanging. All this during a time when player participation is at an all time low and a topic of critical concern for the good of the game.

And this doesn't look bad for the game?

All you said is not unknown to me. I have always had mad respect for the staff. I have a special spot in my heart for this game whether I'm playing or not. Furthermore, I am not a conspiriatorialist. I love reading about the conspiracies, sure. I just don't know enough people OOC to really participate in them. That being said, there are people in this playerbase who will draw deeper meaning into events like this. I don't even need to bother to quote your reply to prove you understand this.

So, to recap, I make two statements:

-a new imm deleting without comment looks bad for CF
-there are players who will make the worst of this

Disagree with me if you like. I'm just being honest with my point of view. I should have acknowledged in my first post that Ignlomeer doesn't owe anyone a response. That still doesn't change how it looks for the game. It's bad for CF.

If you like I can get into the alternatives of how he could have handled his departure. Should we have that talk? Doubtful.

If you feel insulted by my point - well I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to be insulting. It's my opinion, and, if I'm being honest, your response to my post does a lot more for the game than his quiet deletion.

Actually, you writing these posts are doing the actual harm. Chances are nobody would have thought anything of it, but you not only decide to highlight, you argue about it.

You're the problem, sorry.

You go from an outsider thinking . . oh damn that guy stopped playing that sucks. To . . . Oh my god that guy stopped playing and this guy is saying there is something crazy wrong going on behind the scenes! I wonder if he cheated and was removed, I wonder if they ran him off because he saw them cheating! I wonder I wonder...

Instead of just, oh that guy stopped playing.

Yes, sometimes it is okay to let something go without metagaming 2 weeks worth of drama for your own entertainment. This is a newer concept to me as well.

How am I doing harm?

I'm not ####ting on anyone. I'm not complaining. I'm not speaking ill about the game.

I see something that I think makes CF look bad and am pointing it out.

I'm being honest about what I see. And don't think for a CF tick that I'm the only one who thinks this. I'm just the only one who voiced it.

As I said above, I think pointing this out and getting a response from the staff Is better for the situation than not saying anything.

The constant conspiracy accusations and looking for trouble where there is none is strangling CF. Even if you did not mean for your post to promote such behavior, that is what you achieved. Now you've been overly defensive, put recaps at the end of posts, and answered questions that you asked. That's how you've harmed, CF. That's how.

Don't think for a CF tick that we're the only ones who agree with Rashael's post about players treating CF like it's some sort of doomsday scenario, we're just the 8 people in one day who voiced it.

Naw, screw it.

Nothing he said in any of his posts is wrong.

That being said, he definitely was creating "controversy" in the "open" where is usually only in the "shadows".

Personally, much like many other things, I'd rather have discussions about these things over silence...but I understand why silence may be the choice in THIS situation.

But I am not one of you eternally depressed or angry players.

Will you just take your picture already? I try to meme for everyone, but SOME people have to go and make it difficult.

Thank you. Well said.

,

Also while it would be nice to have a delete/goodbye post by Iggy, it's not necessary, just accept it (for reasons which Rahsael outlined) and move on.

But hopefully he'll be around CF in some form or another later on.

Sorry to see you go! I was hoping we'd catch up and continue to grow together, but I guess it's not meant to be.

You were super cool.

gr

Well, sad I never got around to having a follower before this. Fwiw you seemed to fill a role that rarely gets filled in Cf. Team goodie is often really forgiving & to an extent too easy. Personally I always like the vigilante path for goodies but I suspect your religion would have tested my Rp in a fun & exciting way. Glad to have you around for 2200 hours lol, thx glwyn

I didn't get a chance to know you really but you seemed to be doing a great job with the Fortress and I heard nothing but praise for your interactions. I wish you the best in whatever comes next.

And I wonder if anyone managed to uncover even half of it. Anyway, you were good presense and good luck with your next :)

I enjoyed my Ignolmeer follower, even though I'm probably one of your least successful ones :). I hope you come back to the game in some capacity.

2 for 2.

Edited to add: FWIW I thought you were a super net positive for the game, so much so I rolled a char to follow you :(

I am sorry to see this. I liked the RP and interaction generally across several of Fortress characters, and one paladin with your religion. I hope you return in a different guise.

I will temper my immense disappointment with the assumption that there must be a good deal going on for you to skip over dormancy and outright delete. Thank you for everything. I had a lot of fun following you, and I felt that I was starting to get the hang of your religion. Allow me to say that the precepts of the Citadel would make for a very positive religion, fantasy or otherwise. There is a great deal that I agreed with wholeheartedly when delving into the scrolls and I really enjoy the attention to psychology and understanding others. It made me wonder if you didn't have a background or past experience in a related field.

Yet, despite how intuitive the precepts seemed, there were still times that I didn't know EXACTLY what you were looking for and needed some hinting to connect the dots. Still, I had a great deal of fun. You will be missed, please don't stay gone forever.

Thanks for giving a random uncaballed guy some agency. GLWYN?

Was glad I got a chance while it lasted. It was fun, but I never really knew if I got the religion right or not. Kept trying, but meh... More when I delete I suppose.

GL with Real Life man. Hope to see you back in the fields some day.

Aw, man.

I'm a little surprised and more than a little saddened by this. But I know that along with the fun, there is a lot of hard work, time commitment, stress, and occasional disappointment up here in IMMland.

I'll miss chatting and BSing with you. You were a blast, and you're a good guy. Here's hoping you stick around as a mort.

Best wishes and best of luck to you.