Since we the community of CF always scream for more stuff and what we want. Id like to hear what the other "side" wants.

Such as, what would you want to see more of from the players?
How can the players make CF a better place?

What would the Immortals/staff like to see happen more?
Where would you like CF to get?


And as a last point, thank you all for the effort you put into this game. Having enjoyed it for 10+ years I just want to say thank you for all the efforts. Your work is appreciated.

Regards Lars

These are just a few thoughts off the top of my head that keep me coming back to the game:

1) Show consistency. It's one thing to say you 'are' this type of character but another to show it over and over again.

2) Let your balls (or in the case of female characters 'ovaries') drop. I love nothing better than an outstanding fight. I'll generally reward well for watching one also. Personally, it keeps me coming back.

3) Players (nor immortals) are not entitled to more. We all should be playing this game because we enjoy it. The moment a reward or a perk belittles your experience I encourage you to consider why you are playing this MUD.

You want my attention as an Imm? #2 will do wonders. Let em drop!

I hate people with sick gear who won't fight :(

>These are just a few thoughts off the top of my head that
>keep me coming back to the game:

#4 We have to go into the octagon with lil' m to make a change to battle.

>Since we the community of CF always scream for more stuff and
>what we want. Id like to hear what the other "side" wants.
>Such as, what would you want to see more of from the players?
>How can the players make CF a better place?

#1.



Yes...I'm talking to you.

#2.



This would probably reduce the amount of traffic on our forums by 90%, but ultimately would make it a better place.

>What would the Immortals/staff like to see happen more?
>Where would you like CF to get?

I'd love to see a place where the Immortals wanted to get engaged with the players and roleplay. I'd love to see a place where ideas are tossed out, refined, and ultimately implemented. As it stands, CF (and the internet, and our culture in general ) is an anonymous attack on anything that isn't exactly how we want it. We've turned into a society of griefers where there is very little, if any, constrictive criticism, it's just pure venom.

real names are a requirement. i know facebook isn't great for discussion threads like a forum but it could work

Bravo good sir. Bravo.

I've long advocated stricter moderation of the official forums. Why not just revoke the posting privileges of those, mortal or immortal, who don't use them how you describe? Sure - at first people will be angry but in the long run everyone will be happier. It presents a more attractive, professional image for CF.

I can tell you when I drop in and see activity like we see from Alston (who certainly isn't even close to as bad as it gets) I 1) don't post, 2) drop in less and as a result 3) play less.

Imms don't want to just be the forum police all the time I would think, they want these forums to be a place they can engage in just like the rest of us. It's not hard to take a step back and reread before hitting post. And if you read it and say, man I come off like an ass in this, probably deleting is the best thing to do.

If anytime anyone posts anything someone has to troll, or just be an ass, it sort of stifles the good constructive people from posting as was just noted above. I'm not saying on the battlefield or some such you have to always say great char, you are awesome. People should feel free to give honest feedback, but just do it in a way that is not coming off as being a ####. Then when you receive that type of criticism, it's easier to see it as just someone's thoughts on a character and something you can discuss or not.

As it is now most threads end up left with a lot of generally useless posts, or worse, ones attacking other posters for basically no point. Things don't always have to be how you see them, and one poster's view is not the only correct view but I'll be damned if the internet doesn't showcase some of the most intolerant people I've ever seen.

For example if Pro posts a question or thought, don't feel a need to criticize or make it personal just because he's Pro. If it's not anything you care about or know about, just don't post. And if he beats that dead horse, ignore him, instead of throwing in a negative post. He needs someone to respond to after all.

I actually think Zulgh is correct, the internet in general is not a good thing for the free flow of useful information and ideas via forums. Annonymity makes people say things I imagine no sane person ever would in person. That much vitriol and venom flowing around is just toxic to the environment. It's up the the posters and PB as a whole to decide if that's good or not to be a part of. I know I try my best to not be an ass, but I'm starting to just wonder why I bother posting at all. Much as I enjoy CF and talking about it on the forums, eventually you reach a point where there are better ways to relax and have some fun.

asdf

You've written a fantastic follow-up, and exactly what I was thinking. If the Imms can spend less time being the police, they can spend more time interacting, building, thinking, nurturing CF. Being the police is a thankless job that does nothing more than burn you out.

But the principle only really works in an ideal world. Even if 90% of the PB only makes constructive good posts, 10% can ruin the atmosphere.

This is why I've suggested that you crowdsource or otherwise put into every forum user's hands the ability to do some level of self moderation like you see on slashdot, digg, and reddit.

I realize this is additional work for you to set up initially, but it could save lots and lots of time in the long run, while also giving the "silent majority" a better way to voice their opinion and keep trolls from gaining attention.

It appears Slashdot's forum software is essentially available for free under GPL license if you were interested.

I assume since I got no response the last 2 times I brought this up that there is no immortal interest, but I still think it is a good idea.

That would ease the strain from you. I'm sure there are decent people who have a level head who are not imms that could be your eagle to watch over the forums. Much like the unofficial forums is run by non-imms who do a pretty good job at watching over the forums. This would free you up from having to police.

And yes, I agree with you 100% if everyone would not be an ass on the forums it would be much better. But you can't kill assholes with hearts, rainbows, and unicorns... Some people are just bad for the forums and should get temp bans (24hr bans or longer for repeated offenses) for acting childish/name calling, etc. I dont think you should have to babysit. Perhaps you need a babysitter and some stricter forum rules on being courteous to your fellow forum posters. That is my suggestion, it is by no means a perfect solution, but it might ease the strain off of the imms.

<3 Zephon

Not a job -I- would want in a million years... but surely we could sucker someone into it.

Might be a way for me to be helpful besides my entertaining characters.

Random thought - why do we only have staff members moderating the forums? Is it possible to recruit player moderators?

With this particular forum software and its limitations (specifically, I don't think I can let someone police anything without them being able to see who all posts as who), I wouldn't be in favor of non-higher-imm moderators.

But man I'd love to give that job away if/when we can get something written in this millenium on the case.

Give me a set of rules you want enforced, a policy you want followed, and I will do it. I don't care who plays who or who is who anymore. All will be equal on the fora.

Consider me a volunteer, sir, if when in this millenium it happens.

adambleedsgreen@gmail.com

If anon-posting is the only issue, I'd vote for doing away with it in favor of player moderators. I don't know if that completely solves the problem, but there are my pennies.

edited to add: VIPs on Dio's don't seem to have too many issues with that particular conflict of interest, however. Just be good at picking effective and mostly impartial moderators.

1. Because people post logs of their active characters with their handle instead of using the anonymous LogFiend.

2. Because people out each other's active characers, despite the fact that it is specifically against our rules.

Because VIPs delete the above two to protect these people's anonymity, they have more information on who plays who, as VIPs can still see these deleted posts(or should I say hidden posts, delete is old Dio's language for it). In the old days, we had anonymity in forums and VIPs could check with the ban button who the anon guy was. A system akin to our current Enforcement Log was implemented: a bot that posted bans on VIP board. If a VIP checked someone that way, others would find out.

>But man I'd love to give that job away if/when we can get
>something written in this millenium on the case.

Could you let a non-imm code up something for the forums, or would that require the same level of trust it takes to be an imm (even if not a cf-source-editing imm)?

>Imms don't want to just be the forum police all the time I
>would think, they want these forums to be a place they can
>engage in just like the rest of us.

I honestly can only remember one or two threads in my CF career where there was honest, no bullcrap discussion about what the real issues with CF are, namely balance and OOC and how those worlds collide for both positive and negative gains.

So on that line.

True - I posted comments on Nabighah's logs on the log board a week or so ago that never got approved.

Helpful - Maybe the imms haven't seen those comments and this post will prompt one to check.

Inspiring - I think my questions being truthfully answered could inspire me to play again.

Necessary - I feel it's necessary to say that I posted there in a quasi-conspiracy theory manner.

Kind - I really ####ing love some of the imms here and I haven't played since I played Namric. Especially Zulg, that dude is the ####ing man! Scarab and Twist close behind.

nt

I pretty much always tried to be constructive with posts, and I know a lot of other players did as well, only to be constantly passed-over, contradicted, talked down to, or otherwise made to feel like our help was both unwanted and unnecessary. After all the years I put into the game, I think the sum total of impact my posts made was probably somewhere in the vicinity of jack ####. And I realize the staff is going to do their thing, but consider that after feeling so completely ineffective for so long just makes people not want to care about posting constructively, and then the trolls take over.

Are you so certain there isn't a current IMM or 10s of current players that took many of the things you said as more gospel than the IMMs?

Are you so certain the impact of your posts is jack ####? You have a sticky post on the bug board for one. I myself know I've read of your posts and found them often humorous and insightful.

I don't know man, food for thought.

Out of curiosity, what would it take to get Zulg the char to come down and interact with players?

I know I've seen you vis a couple of times recently, but in the past any attempt to contact you has been met with quiet mode/no CB response(if I was playing an Imperial)

I gather that it's not typically your show to come down and shoot the #### with the mortals...but it would be seriously cool if Zulg came on down and got involved in some stuff, but that may be because there's an aura of power and badassery around any Imp and even more so with you that somehow translates IC, at least to me.

Google search your name before you roll.

Don't give us a hard time if we ask you to change your name because
you didn't do the above. We typically ask nicely and only turn into
d-bags when you turn into one too. Your other option would be for
us to tell you to delete, so consider it our way of playing nice.

To me that's far more egregious than say a human named John.

If Google becomes the gold standard of name acceptability then we're going to end up with Captcha names.

BTW, I hate Captcha names.

I'm just saying.

The game won't let you roll a John but it will let you roll names that are the first few letters of common mobs so that you can use that to your advantage later on.

A thief named Guar anybody?

Using Google as a tool to see if a name's been used before almost invariably brings back 1,000's of hits regardless of it's obscurity unless, as I said above, you use the captcha method and randomly rake your fingers across the keyboard.

So you see I'm just sayin'.

...and never used a name that showed up on Google.

It's not hard at all.

Cloud Giant Ranger - Kindaraak
Elf Invoker - Jaesryi'ia
Human Assassin - Tehllan

etc etc etc

I didn't even think about these. Then again (caveat) I've been writing a fantasy book for the last 8 years so I have a ####load of fake fantasy names.

Make your fantasy a reality.

...than I was in 2003 :(

But, I do have the entire timeline, race/class explanation, Gods/Pantheon/etc, magic explanation, etc etc done.

Now all I got to do is figure out how to get past this one chapter that is killing me (it's a chapter in which the hero begins to realize he's not the hero everyone thinks he is...and every time I write it it's just so ####ing emo I delete it and start over).

I am a copy writer and I write articles for publications in my industry. When I've attempted books (non-fiction) I always find it hard to manage that much information. It's like too much wet clay. Very hard to keep the same voice and a continual theme running through that much writing.

A nice little bit of freeware that helps organize characters, settings, and plotlines.

I won't claim it is everything I'd want to see, but it is decent for the price.


http://www.novelist.ch/joomla/

nt

It's an organizational database. You will find it would still be of use to you.

You're that cool, I bet you write great stuff.

nt

I heart Eshval.

I see a lot of people more than willing to "bring it" in terms of RP
when they're either in front of IMMs or think they're being watched.
If you're in my cabal, if you're a follower or even fall under one of
my spheres, I'm watching you ALL THE TIME. Please put twice as
much effort into roleplaying with your enemies, your friends, your
cabal. Not only does it make it more interesting for others, it brings
the level of RP up across the board.

Also, sentences start with capitalized letters. So do names and the
word "I". :)

Do you expect us to RP with Mobs?

I've tried it, never been rewarded or even recognized for it, so I quit. I've seen it mentioned in PBF's or comments from time to time.

Edit: Not as one of your followers.

>Do you expect us to RP with Mobs?

Not really. By "each other" I mean other PCs.

You might have meant you meant all the time.

I treat the mobs around me at all times as if they were players. It helps me immerse myself in the environment.

Because that's hawt.

Because she is truly hawt.

>Because she is truly hawt.

This kind of thing is creepy, dude. Not this post alone, but in this thread, you've been posting some questionable stuff.

I don't know if you're joking in some way or what, but it's weird and inappropriate.

My bisexual drunk Herald would flirt back, my paladins get all indignant, my mages get all geeky and shy, etc. My orcs just kill them. I don't emote doing dirty things to the bodies anymore though. I don't want to get emote stripped. Again.

Expect? No.

Enjoy? Yes. I am always impressed when I see a mortal interact with a mob.

That said, I certainly think there's a point at which roleplaying with mobs is a silly exercise in talking to yourself (though I sometimes still do it when I RP with mortals, but I amuse myself easily.) When you are *with* other players though, sprinkling a little sayto with some of the NPCs as it might come up makes sense. I also love to see it when mortals take the time to seriously consider (beyond the 'consider' command that is!) how they should react to a mob. So maybe that peace-loving monk or the farmer working in his field IS neutral, but is your paladin still going to slit his throat for his shinnies? Yes, I know the Balator orphans are great experience at that level, but maybe your prim and proper Imperial James-Bond-esque assassin might not rampage around a village killing orphans all the same.

Some of this comes under Iunna's plea to *rp with each other*.

And I suppose I can't speak for everyone, but in my experience, leveling up or running around trying to gather gear is really tedious if you don't sprinkle some RP in there and have fun with it.

For years I have adhered to the principle of not slaughtering sentient mobs with my goodies and most of my neutrals with out some pretty hefty IC justification. But again I've seen titled, leadered, virtued paladins doing it and I have never been rewarded for not doing it.

That goes for Outlanders too. I see them just mowing down natural creatures or PC's pledged to the tree or preparing to pledge and there's no down side.

I don't even think 90% know they can request as a neutral Outie from neutral and good natural beings. They just slaughter them.

All I get is grief when I bring things like that up so I yield.

ntnt

nt

But that was after a long break of doing it and as was noted in Kriks Battlefield thread, no one noticed. So I'm done with that.

Maybe just play the game to enjoy it instead of making everything you do about immortal attention.

You're wrong. #### off.

I never get imm attention for this..so I am no longer doing it. He isn't wrong more of just restating what you said. He is just putting in his own words. If that isn't what you meant....be clearer but that is what it sounds like. Your words were Imms don't put anything on your PBF or notice you doing it (Imm attention) so your no longer doing it...hence the no longer doing it part at the end. Can you see where someone could get that from what you said?

It's harder and harder for me not to denigrate your intelligence.

You didn't say that if you did those would of been the words you typed but instead you wrote something different then wonder why people mistake what you wanted to say. And no I am not saying spell it out for people I am saying say what you mean. If not then don't act better than others because of your own miscommunication skills. Sort of get what I'm trying to tell you? Writing 101 it might sound right to you because you know what you mean. Doesn't mean the reader understands because they aren't in your head.

I really do spend probably a good solid third of my time RPing with mobs, just because it helps me immerse myself in my character.

Iunna,
First, I have never been a follower of yours. Second, I'm a slow typer so I tend to not capitalize my "i" when I talk in game. I have justifed it in my mind because when I speak to someone IRL I don't say: "capital h ello to you! Capital i love your shirt!" I know we are typing here and that grammar dictates capitalization, but its not the first thing that would come to my mind when I'm getting my face bashed in by a giant warrior.

Text doesn't convey feelings well, I'm not mad, just giving a different side to the idea.

I'm utterly staggered that you wrote this and can't see what the problem with your thinking is.

You wrote: Text doesn't convey feelings well, I'm not mad, just giving a different side to the idea.

This is exactly why you should punctuate and capitalize. IT CONVEYS FEELING!!

Got it?

Conveys intelligence

nt

dbdfb

Almost there!

You wrote 100 and people in the same sentence!

Amazing!

At this point, if I still remembered how to unban people I'd probably give you a week off.

I have no idea what you're even trying to do hear other than the closest text equivalent of hearing yourself talk and it's just so far past anything that's relevant or useful.

n/t

nt

.

So don't try to use or fix it.

Unless you are using the policeman's ten finger system or something. Most of us don't talk much in the game when there is an immediate threat to be bashed, or drop caps for hurried, very terse says or gtells. I would encourage using caps correctly whenever there is no great immediate threat as it generally appreciated. Once you get used to using caps, it would not be an issue using them in the game.

1) Be excellent to each other.

2) While you're at it, you don't have to be excellent to me, but maybe just be a little less willing to believe what someone else says I did or said.

3) In RP, strive to do more than the bare minimum. Shoot for 37 pieces of flair and a terrific smile.

4) In PK, complain less. In any fight, you can win or you can lose, but if you bitch at someone until they don't want to fight you again, you're a loser forever.

I really like seeing a short chapter about interactions I've had with my followers. Gives me a great idea on what you took out of it and what I can jump off from there. I try and be very responsive in my interactions, which is to say I try to give back what I get, and having updates is very helpful for trying to customize your experience. I like having those role updates because it's sort of feedback that I can go off of and respond to before a deletion thread pops up, if that makes sense.

Also, please don't delete or auto right after I empower you. That makes me a sad bear.

I slide over have a little chat with you, you're 9/10ths cool and looking to play so I sleep with you.

But at the next morning I wake up before you do and realize no matter how great you were in the sack, your views on vengeance will never coincide with mine. I realized it the night before but I'd been drinking and eyeballing your tattoo and hot elf curves.

Now that I've had my shot it's time to go and while I agree to call you back, what i'm really saying is, I'll call you to tell you I'm visiting the Mother and can't come over tonight.


Note: This was a satyr. I've had good experiences with you as an Imm.
Note note: This was not actually a satyr, it was satire.

nt

sd

If you're going to ride me on a one night stand, leave me a note on the pillow so I don't think you were kidnapped. K?

They just did because time between my logins spread too long. This is also what happened to my Rayihn healer Isadrievien. Rest of CF was deleted a month after that, so it wasn't a big loss.

egar

Jack Reacher was at that bar and knocked you out with a cue ball for working with the Russians to kidnap the ambassadors son.

That story was just a dream you had.

Note: This story includes a Lee Childs reference.

>I really like seeing a short chapter about interactions I've
>had with my followers. Gives me a great idea on what you took
>out of it and what I can jump off from there. I try and be
>very responsive in my interactions, which is to say I try to
>give back what I get, and having updates is very helpful for
>trying to customize your experience. I like having those role
>updates because it's sort of feedback that I can go off of and
>respond to before a deletion thread pops up, if that makes
>sense.
>
>Also, please don't delete or auto right after I empower you.
>That makes me a sad bear.

Apologies about that :) Work issues.

This requires that I write one first. :(