>It makes Iunna look like a whiney child because someone
>didn't like her way and liked Baer's better. I am not Iunna's
>best friend, but I think I know her well enough to know this
>isn't all of it and probably in the scope of things is very
>small...very small.

As stated, it's an example of the kind of clash of styles. It was the most relevant one that I could think of that I considered to be fair and didn't require me to say anything that I think would be taken as bad by anyone.

>I hope you will read this and hear what I'm saying, but I
>realize that this might be a futile effort. I do not believe
>I am alone in my feeling on this.
>
>I feel like, and yes, I realize my feelings are subjective,
>that we get this kind of "I am the Great and Powerful Oz" vibe
>from you most of the time because we aren't good enough to
>know all of the secrets you know. We are told "not to look
>behind the curtain." That you take on a very dogmatic "This
>is how it is and that is it, stop asking" kind of attitude
>with the playerbase, but guess what man, most of your
>playerbase is getting older and we don't accept this kind of
>response anymore. I'll be honest and say that much of the
>time when I see your responses to things I say to myself "Why
>bother, he will just deny it is true, put down the poster in
>some semi intellectual way, or just completely ignore the
>issue.

To some degree these kinds of discussions (around someone leaving) are always going to be weird and stilted, because it's not really our way to talk bad about the departed. So you have one party who is unhappy be definition, or they wouldn't be leaving (assuming it was their choice to leave -- which it is in this case, but isn't always) and one party that isn't really taking part in the conversation.

There's a few reasons for that. One is that if you look at the veteran imms who have left in the last few years, it's not the first time most of them did and we have in mind that it might not be the last.

Another is that we think everyone who's stayed around for a while has brought a lot more to the game than bad and that's generally how I'd like you to think of them, too. I know how people can fixate on the negative and I don't think it accomplishes anything constructive for me to point out the reasons we might be frustrated with immortal X, Y, or Z (and to be clear I'm not saying that was the case here) to counterbalance the reasons they might be frustrated with the rest of the staff they're leaving.

So, I don't know. I agree that the kinds of answers you end up with are not very satisfying and I don't know that I'd be satisfied with them either, but I don't know how to give you better ones. I'm open to ideas.

>I say this to be productive, and not hurtful because
>in general I really do value all that you, and your wife do
>for this game, but people are right when they say her comments
>are snarky and mean on PBF's.

Sure; but so are/were mine or Valg's or a lot of people's, often. I don't understand what's different there.

>I think Vlad gave a very good
>analogy to what the situation "could" be like and honestly I
>see your posts as being protective and defensive of your wife
>and they are an attempt to minimize that CF just lost one of
>its best RP immortals who has given a lot of value to the
>game. Not only that, but the response you gave makes Iunna
>look like a child because she didn't "get her way."

I understand that you're reading it that way but I tried very hard to *not* convey that message.

>I don't
>know how much power you have in the CF world, but could it
>possibly be that people take the approach that they aren't
>going to listen to the complaints of someone like Iunna
>because it might make you unhappy?

I honestly don't think so. Team IMP gets along and agrees more than it doesn't, but it's also not uncommon for one of us to disagree strongly with one or more of the others and piss each other off a bit about it.

>Maybe we should be setting a precedent that PBF comments
>should be constructive without tearing down the person. I
>realize that I have contributed little to this game in the way
>of ideas and other things, but I do know I've been donating
>since you have been asking for them, long before we did PBF.

If the playerbase actually could agree that this is what they want I'd consider it. Seriously.

But the message I've consistently gotten from a lot of people is that the negative comments are the biggest draw to PBFs for them.

In some areas there really is no pleasing everyone.

>Maybe that shouldn't matter, but I've tried to contribute
>financially to this game because I don't have the patience to
>write an area and I've tried it three times. I've been in
>this game for nearly as long as you, and I wish you would
>believe me when I say that you come across very much the "My
>way or the highway" in your posts and that you do not come off
>as reasonable. You do it in a nicer way than folks like Valg
>though, so I give you credit there.

That's not generally the impression I mean to convey; there certainly are areas where I'm interested in talking about better ways to do things.

But in some areas, yeah, I do get to have my way. I'm not, for example, going to delete just because Tolnum (whoever the hell that is) wants me to.