I'm choosing to reply to Kenshin's post here rather than on the Battlefield because it feels a more appropriate forum for this discussion to me.

So let's just grab the bull by the horns, kick it in the groin, and talk about it.

>Why all the anonymity? It just makes everything look some
>sort of cheap cover up. I don't get all the behind closed
>doors stuff that the staff puts up.

Speaking for myself, it amounts, essentially, to a desire to play the game like anyone else and be reasonably left alone about it.

People don't become imms because they hate playing CF. By and large, we want to stick around because we love the game, and while we want to contribute to it in other ways, the spark that made us want to in the first place never really dies.

Frankly, there is no policy or attitude towards imms continuing to play the game that would make all of the players happy. Not one. I've played games where the volunteer staff wasn't permitted to play at all, and it's not a solution. It seems like one in the short term, but a year or two later you get why it isn't.

So we play. I won't apologize for that.

Sometimes, like anyone else, we play because there's a role idea we have that we think is cool. Sometimes there's an area or set of areas we want to explore. Sometimes it sounds like fun or it's a good way to kill time. Sometimes we see a cabal that's losing badly and want to try to play the underdog and equalize things a little.

Sometimes we play a new or revamped class or class combination that hasn't seen much play yet in order to try to find the problems or fix the bugs in it, and god help us if it takes trying something out in play to see if it's balanced or works right before we fix it.

But sometimes, like anyone else, we just want to play the game. Really play. To take something you think could be tough and just play the hell out of it and see if you can accomplish half as much as you think you can.

When I play, I don't want 50 tons of baggage to come with it. I don't want to have to defend daily whether the way I killed you was a smart, innovative tactic or a "obvious bug." I don't want to have to explain to you that the "super-secret item "I have is, in fact, something I got by tripping the last guy who had it to death. I don't want to have to tell you that other the limit-4 "super-secret item" I have was maxed out the first time I tried to get it, so obviously at least four someones who aren't me must also know how to get it. I don't want to have to read you second-guessing the choice if I end up tattooed, in a cabal leadership position, or if I get a quest spell. I don't want to have to deal with OOC tells trash-talking me twice a day.

I sure as hell don't want to read fabrications and #### for eight years after I play a character from the very small but vocal chunk of the playerbase who will seize on a small truth (e.g. Nepenthe played Istendil) and use it to tell ridiculous but sinister-seeming lies for years until even sane people are starting to believe it might be true (e.g. Istendil was part of an all-imm engineered team to take over Empire, Istendil had a full set of A/B/S the day barrier wands went in, Istendil mudsexxored with kobolds.) The most frustrating part of that syndrome, really, is that some of the worst offenders are people who seem rational, normal, and likeable 99% of the time until the just start making #### up.

I don't want to deal with any of that ####. I just want to play the ####ing game. To compete, win, and lose like anyone else. To make friends and enemies, laugh about it when it's all said and done, maybe share a log or point out moments of brilliance or stupidity.

This a game of players with colorful personalities and big egos. It's a game of intensely competetive people. These are, incidentally, some of the things we all love about it. If you think there's any way besides an attempt at anonymity to get something resembling a fair shot at just playing the game in a community like ours, I'd like to hear it.