"If ImmXP requirements stay for quests/areas, please just admit that these things are only for Immortals and friends to access. Poor Mr Offpeak Noconnections is playing a completely different game."

C'mon man. I'm not trying to lecture anyone, or do the "good PR guy" thing here.

I do not live in a US timezone. I appreciate your gripes with peak vs. offpeak. I have been dealing with this myself for over a decade.

As for "Immortal and friends to access", see my response to Polmier.

"There is no way every immortal agrees with these changes."

You're right that there might be a deviation in what each immortal agrees, or disagrees with. That's how democracy works. Majority rules. It can be just as frustrating if somebody wants to achieve something personally and it deviates with a vision which the majority does not like. But that is a check and balance against one individual "going full-retard" and skewering the MUD.

"The fact that you guys are forced to toe the line and show a united front is really annoying. There would be many immortals who are too afraid to voice their real feelings about changes like these for fear of being hit with the Valg stick."

I'm not "forced to toe the line and show a united front". If I disagree with something I'd rather not undermine the efforts that someone else has made out of mutual respect. It takes hours of vision and labor to create something in this game. It can be quite demoralizing from a personal (or even a group perspective) to see those hours go to waste.

I'm ultimately a volunteer. I can choose to opt out of the process whenever I wish. I can also choose to raise the issue in public, or in private, so as not to fan flames. I am never going to be undermining another volunteer's hard work and efforts, it is a matter of common courtesy and human decency.

"You had no mandate to make this change."

You're right. I didn't directly have a voice in this change because I have not yet finished my area which I have been dragging my heels on. If I had worked harder and faster (see: personally accountable here), I would have had that voice. Given that some of the individuals which do code work have spent tens of thousands of hours coding, I can respect the necessity to finish that hurdle, even if it is a lot of work.

"There is a serious disconnect between the playerbase and the staff (who have, for the most part, inherited a great game and have a responsibility to the playerbase not to #### it up)."

Have you seen any kind of progress on this front, such as people reaching out to the community, or trying to engage more actively in conversation on these boards? I certainly have. Things might not be exactly how you personally want them all of the time, and I mean, I don't know what to say to that. Really. Very rarely in life does everything work out exactly as we want, or intend.

All we can do is keep trying to work on addressing communication between the staff and the players coherently and constructively and try to improve the game.