It would also be hard for me to point to a player who expresses more generalized hatred for the staff... we'd be more impressed if a character like this came from a player for whom trash-talking random immortals was actually roleplaying and not just like every other day.

Thanks for saving me the time of typing all of that-- I also can't think of a player who has sown more vitriol (under at least a half-dozen aliases) for the staff than this one has, even going back a few years. One or two people are in the ballpark, I guess.

The sheer volume of tears being shed because some staff (me included, but not nearly alone) felt this character's roleplay was "just like every other day" is interesting, though the sources of the tears are not surprising in the least. Mizzarah was treated with restraint-- had we simply slaughtered or crippled him immediately, the same people would absolutely be howling about how the unfair imms abused their power and smacked him down. I know from internal discussion that this concern was a source of some of the restraint he received- people don't like dealing with the cry-fest.

And of course, the above concern is heightened when the person involved is well aware of the existence and wording of those policies, and can thus exploit them.

My personal decision was to ignore this character other than field questions from other staff about how to handle him. (For the record, it's always been my opinion that people were too conservative with Mizzarah, although I understand the hesitance originated from our internal policies about not causing mortals to die where practical. Staff have been censured or demoted in the past for taking excessive liberties there.) I remain unimpressed with the role's execution, which is a shame because the underlying concept would have been interesting in the right hands.

At the end of the day, if the worst conspiracy floating around is "Valg was unimpressed by a character and gave his reasons for it.", we're doing a pretty good job.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com