While I have not played in what seems like ages I do continue to lurk on the forums so as to stay connected to the goings on here. That said, Daurwyn's post on Dio's about the recent review and the controversy it caused at TMS has led me to the following suggestion.

The "Story" of CF is quite dated and could use an overhaul. The myriad changes that have been implemented leave many of the topics (precursors to cabals, immortals, etc.) irrelevant. While it's certainly not my place to even begin the revision process I thought I would make the suggestion and see where the immortals could take it.

The review cited the story's apparent lack of continuity and that is the one point I will agree with. The game has come so far and yet the "story" has remained static. Obviously not every event can be chronicled and I realize it's not the place of "help story" to replace good old-fashioned research in the lyceum, but I think there is plenty of room for improvement.

Ok, with Gorthalon, I will freely admit I broke character on several occasions. But when I did, it would happen like this: (I was a Herald at the times it happened usually, then as an Acolyte too)


pray "Lords, would it be possible for me to take a moment to explain to so-and-so an idea that would be difficult to express via normal talking?"

An Immortal tells you, "Yes, do it quickly."

Me tells newbie, "What you are looking for can be found in help files. Most of what you want to know can be. First, I would type "help newbie" then "help newbie2". If you have any other questions, feel free to ask."

Now, whether or not the Imms liked me doing this, I don't know, but seeing as how I never got in trouble for it, I tended to not care. I was a newbie once, and I only had one person ever do this for me IC, and I was one of the most thankful people in the world. I was playing an evil character and kept running into the sewers and not into the Academy, and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I was getting so frustrated (this happened for like 30 minutes IC...I know, I sucked).

There are going to be those instances where you just can't do someone IC without going completely ooc (see help files ex.). I guess its really just up to the individual player to determine if they want to risk their character to explain something.


IMMS, I guess I'll ask this now...is sending up a pray like I did to go OOC with a newbie alright with you? I play because I enjoy interacting with people, and when a newbie says something completely ooc like, "God i'm going to delete. i can't deal with not knowing how to get gear or exp. no one wants to help me. this mud isn't fun," I can't help but sympathize with them due to what happened to me oh so long ago. If you do frown on it, whooops.

Leaf

Ignorance is bliss, and I know too many happy people.

That said, Daurwyn's post about the recent review and the controversy it caused at TMS...

I'm not sure if you read the followup thread to that review. My impression, and I may be biased because I participated, is that the majority of posters felt we handled that situation well. Only Kylotan felt we didn't, but there's 6 other non-CF-staff posters on that thread who were very positive about us. Getting 6 out of 7 strangers to back you on the Internet is about as good as you're going to do, given how flame-happy relative anonymity tends to make people. "Controversy" is something of an overstatement.

(On a semi-related note, there's a recent thread on their forums largely by Soljax/Josiah and his experience on other muds that I think is an entertaining read.)

The "Story" of CF is quite dated and could use an overhaul.

I agree it could use the inclusion of more recent events. Helpfiles of that kind can be a blind spot for us. Imms play and watch the game, so they're up on game balance, the impact of new features, etc. However, it's pretty rare that I go back and read basic helpfiles unless I'm glancing them over to see if a newbie question is answered in detail within it. I'll see if I can get an old-timer on staff to take a gander.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I'd pay to have Thror write it. That mug is good at what he does.

If you are an asshole to someone on the newb channel, there is a very good chance it will drive them off.

I suspect numerous people leave for good without ever posting a review like that.

I've seen the log of what was said, and I agree that in this case there was nothing wrong. However, I have seen a -lot- of unwarranted aggression on the newbie channel, not by imms, by players. My post on Dio's is intended to demonstrate that abuse on the newbie channel will mean fewer players in the end.

I went over my logs of recent newbie channel conversation. Over the last few days there have been 4 thank you's from newbies in my logs. One of those thank yous was in response to an explanation of what to expect on the newbie channel and why people might not respond to certain questions. Others were to responses to questions. However, if I were to go back through all my logs to pick up newbie channel stuff, I guarantee I could find logs of players being unnecessarily abusive, including to me. I think it is safe to say that those on the receiving end may well have been put off the mud as a result even in cases where they had just made an honest mistake, as opposed to the person who posted that particular review.

I guarantee I could find logs of players being unnecessarily abusive, including to me.

Yup. This is why I have a fairly quick trigger with pulling people off of that channel, and why I encourage other staff with the ability to do the same.

This is probably less obvious from a player perspective, though, since I don't publically admonish the offender. (It tends to create confrontation, and give desired attention to attention whores.) I'm also fairly vigilant about reminding staff to answer the questions being asked quickly, and not leaving it to players to do so. (This is often because misinformation gets handed out, but it has advantages in first impressions also.)

It's not clear what else we can do with a public channel that is necessarily on by default at creation. I may start pulling people aside for blatant abuses of it, and throwing down a little deterrent value. Doubly so since a lot of the offenders are (as you suspect) veterans. I'm sure they'll post logs about how they were oppressed by the Man just for having a little 'fun' with new players, and how the staff is 'ruining their fun', but I've heard them whine that song before, and it doesn't bother me.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Seems like much of the strife (and noise) on the newbie channel revolves around new players having their feelings hurt by being told, "This isn't a chat channel."

Possible solution:

Code it so the first time a player says something on the newbie channel they get a short 2-3 line echo informing them that the channel is a) not for chatting, b) not for assembling groups, c) OOC, d) intended only for game-play related questions.

Might help some people avoid making the mistake of misusing it and getting slapped down.

I do hope it's on your todo-list to implement the "Coventry" feature described in that thread. I'd further extend it to squelch emotes, hunger/thirst echos, room entrance/exit echos, socials, echos from following/unfollowing a PC or mob, notes, etc.

My use of "controversy" was melodramatic. It's my humor. I know you all are interested in advertising on sites such as TMS and I think a more current "story" will go a long way towards helping you with that.

I think the story should be an introduction to common themes one is likely to find in the game. As it stands now the only ones who will understand the topics discussed in the story are those who have played for a good long while.