Before coming to CF I played a mud that I now generally refer to as a nightmarish-comic-book-caricature of a mud. It was pretty much pure hack and slash, and the assholes came out like mad. When there wasn't a flamewar running rampant on the global chat channel, there was always about 4 notes telling everyone about some girl that the guy writing it supposedly schtuped the weekend before last. Oh, I should I mention the if the imms liked how well you ####ted with others you'd get promoted and generally just handed sparkly gear? Now for all of you drooling over this mud, I'll hit some bad sides that go hand in hand with this mentality on every mud I've seen (and by bad sides I mean things that make everyone cringe, not just me) punishments were handed out just as rewards were, totally based on whim. There was no level range for pk, and there were spells that were one shot area affect high damage. Meaning that the level 50 mage could, and generally did, stand right outside the newbie school and pop his spell off. Then, when the global death channel echoed how many people (mostly level 1s) had just died, he'd get applause. Still sound like fun?

My biggest problem with pure hack and slash is that it becomes Everquest without the graphics. If I want hack and slash I can load up several games I've bought or go back to my old ADOM and Slash'em files and get all the mindless hack and slash I want. If I want to chat with strangers about it while I do it, I'm reasonably certain I could find a chat room somewhere. What makes CF so wonderfully different, and one of the reasons I myself get so cranky when people don't roleplay, is that the mix of roleplay with hack and slash. In theory, at least, there's a reason why the guy just popped up and killed you. There's a reason why you're hunting whowever you're hunting. There's a reason you do or don't sac/return all the gear. More than that, there's 2 challenges to CF, the most obvious is the one everyone overemphasises: pk. Pure and simple it's killed and be killed. For those who pay more attention I see a lot of praise headed towards the good rpers as well, and as that's the second challenge in CF (or the first, I'm not really ordering them here)...well, I think I've said more than enough about my disdain for hack and slash.

...and Floofi hugged the Kerrak and all was laid to non-combative floofination!