Recently I had fought my way to L11 as a newbie, and was quite pleased with my progress so far. Upon being asked to group with someone else who was L7, I was happy to do so--not only to help him out, but to get myself some exp too.

However, upon reaching the desired location and exping for a little my "teammate" became very belligerent and overly rude. He seemed to be VERY well-versed in the game and was getting impatient at my slow attacks and bad EQ; I advised him that I would be leaving and he could be rude to someone else. Threats followed, and he ran to the door of the building we were standing in. If I attempted to open it, he would close it with a trigger.

I attempted to look for another door, and was suddenly attacked by another player three levels higher than me. I fled back to the door only to be met with the same behavior from the L7. Eventually the L14 managed to chase me around the building and kill me. I couldn't fight, I couldn't leave, and I couldn't execute any commands without being pounced and subsequently tripped. Upon explaining this to the "Father of Anger" (an IMM, apparently), he tells me all is fair and good then goes invis.

I have elected to quit playing this MUD, and have put my character in the one-week deletion process as of today. I liked the general MUD atmosphere, and enjoyed the class-system but Father of Anger's advice of "learn from the experience" has hit home: don't play this MUD. The L7 veteran is CLEARLY abusing his noPK flag and DIRECTLY, INTENTIONALLY involving himself in PK. He prevents me from leaving knowing I can't kill him to make him stop, calls in another player bigger than me, and sends tells gloating the whole time that I'm being chased around and beaten. I don't see how his abuse of the "game mechanics" involving divine protection is any different than others who apparently drop their link during PK so as to avoid death (HELP PK).

This was a simple case of seasoned players bending good-intentioned rules to make someone else miserable for not putting up with rudeness. I find it hard to believe that someone could consider this situation and find that this is a "good" MUD environment. It seems to me that it just teaches players to find ways to abuse mechanics and bend rules to their benefit.

Newbies beware.

-Zurstorben