>I logged somewhere between 200-300 hours over the last month.
>Get on my level :P.

Imm hours are considerably different from mortal hours. The amount
of attention required just to stay alive as a mortal requires that
time to be much more dedicated. Maybe all 200-300 hours were just
as active as if you were playing a mortal, in which case... holy
####, but I suspect if you are honest, they weren't.

>1) Not so great. I was the one aiming to run orc stuff, pretty
>much single-handedly, and I got no orcs. I managed to interact
>with the 1 or 2 orcs a few times, but that was about it. As of
>now there is still only one orc over 35. Nobody really rolled
>up for the month, and you can’t have an Orctober without
>orcs. I don’t understand what the second half of your post
>has anything to do with Orctober?

I'm closing out my Orctober and getting things off my chest.

>2) Feel free to look and see the attempted communications as
>of late. So again, I don’t really know what you’re talking
>about. I don’t expect official forums to be as active as
>unofficial ones. My private game chats tend to be a lot more
>active than any game’s official forums, but that’s just my
>experience, since folks are talkative in chatroom format
>more-so than forums. We haven’t shut down conversations or
>deleted posts much lately at all. The trend is, if anything,
>towards the opposite. So again I don’t really get what
>you’re talking about (maybe it’s because you haven’t
>been paying attention I guess? But it sure makes it feel like
>any efforts I have towards that end are lost. Either way,
>I’ll keep going).

You are clearly trying. Keep up the good work, honestly. I believe
the staff would be well served by participating in game chats with
players. The community is small enough to support it.

>3) I don’t view it as a love it or leave it thing. But I’m
>also not willing to sacrifice the game to try and please
>everyone. I don’t expect to make everyone happy, so I just
>focus on playing the game and trying to make it fun :).

I'm not expecting a sacrifice, but something like Halloween forms
was little/no sacrifice, but instead a different decision was made.

>4) Any player can have input on changes. I go out of my way
>to read every single post made. Anyone can also kick ass and
>apply to become part of staff. I’ve done it, and I’ve seen
>a number of others do it. If you’ve got a history of denies
>or something similar that makes it tough, then roll a series
>of serious characters that shows your behavior has changed.
>Dedication (my sphere!) is worth a lot. As per applications,
>we bother to look through each and every one pretty seriously
>(at least since I have been around). I know saying “Trust
>me!” isn’t something I expect you to buy, but I haven’t
>seen anyone not get a serious look when applying. Player ideas
>can be implemented. Not all player ideas are mechanical.
>Someone saying “There should be an event like X!” – and
>I can potentially run said event, and said event seems fun?
>I’ll do it. Not all suggestions are equal. Someone saying
>“CF should have guns!” has a different input value and
>potential success than someone saying “There should be a
>monthly X event!”. Not everything in CF revolves around
>changing code, and I learned that pretty quickly when I joined
>the staff. I think it’s a big loss if you can only focus on
>that. But code stuff CAN change. How likely? I can’t even
>tell you that, I imagine it’s about how appealing the idea
>is to the codey folks. But I can tell you that’s not my
>focus at all when it comes to the game. But hey! Recently we
>updated the website, helpfiles, and some other fun jazzy
>stuff. So there is always progress :).

I'm not sure this addresses my issue, but I'm content to have
stated it. I doubt I would try and Imm again in the future,
and I doubt I'd be any more welcome then than before, probably
less so.

>5) I’m not really sure what the Runescape stuff is about,
>but I’m probably just a dummy who is missing the point or
>something. But I’m always game to get more players. One of
>the big incentives is people playing. So if you’re willing
>to make that change with me, log in and let’s have some
>fun!

It's about a different game's different approach and success.
I get tired of the MUD genre is dying so of course numbers are
down argument. I found this fascinating because A) it's a
game similar enough to CF to be worth comparing, on a lot of
scales, and B) They have a ton of people, and C) They have more
people playing an old version than their "current: one.

>As to Hell, I don’t personally blame the playerbase at large
>or anything like that. The area was closed as per the reasons
>Scarab outlined in his post. That is why, no other reason. He
>was up front about him, so give him credit for that.
>
>I’m happy when people enjoy the npcs I spent time on, and
>I’m happy when they don’t. I enjoy interacting with
>players and, ideally, playing the game together. It’s good
>stuff.
>
>(Edited to cut some of my Aquinas #### since I ended up
>rambling)
>As to Aquinas, he never said anything like that which I’m
>aware of. I’m familiar that in Summa he talks about the
>nature of ideas in relation to divine wisdom, in his
>commentary on Aristotle’s ‘On Memory’ he talks about the
>nature of relation between images and depictions, and in the
>third question of ‘Ideas’ in Veritate that he definitely
>talks about the relationship between an artist and the product
>(“Now, what imitates a form by chance is not said to be
>formed according to that form, because according to seems to
>imply direction to an end”). The whole purpose being to
>argue about the three meanings of form (that from which a
>thing gets its form, that by which a thing is informed, that
>according to which a thing is informed).
>
>If Aquinas did say that somewhere though, please link!

I have no idea if Aquinas stated it. Matt Colville stated it,
and I like the quote. It makes very little difference to me
whether someone else also said it... Or whether he is misquoting
or quoting someone else.

>All in all, I’m not really sure where you’re coming from
>given the current state of things. Orctober didn’t go great,
>dialogue has been ongoing, people can stay or leave as they
>want (and enjoy the aspects of the game that they do enjoy),
>everyone can have input, and if you want to improve the game
>– then play the game. At least I think that’s a decent
>short summary of the insane amount of crap I wrote above?
>
>Thanks for the post!
>
>-Ish

I'm coming from a place of disappointment, that I didn't play
CF in Orctober, which I planned to do. I'm coming from a place
where stating my disappointment and frustrations will allow me
to get to a better state of being me.