Obviously, first and foremost, no - the Imms are not trying to
kill the MUD.

Secondly, to address your Umiron quote -

> "Lastly, I would encourage players to remember that regardless
> of how you feel about this or episodes like it, you almost
> always lack information and context that we do not. That doesn't
> automatically make us right or someone else wrong, but do try to
> acknowledge that reality when not only forming your opinion but
> specifically when passing judgement in writing on a public
> forum. Thanks."

Having to deal with Umiron WAY more often than most players, at no
point is he a control freak. The one bit of truth I'll possibly
give Mr. HardTruth is that he may not always come across as the
best PR guy. In all my dealings with him, Umiron is very much
like many other coders who've also been maligned at times
(Valguarnera, Zulghinlour, etc) - he's direct, no-nonsense, and a
get-the-job-done sort. I tend to feel like it's a personality
trait of coders.

As far as posting the log of the whole scenario, it's not that
we're keeping it from everyone for our own nefarious purposes,
it's for the players' own sake that we don't spew those situations
into the realm of public knowledge. As an example, I've deal with
multiple RotDs this month, and the entire goal is to address
whatever concern/problem/cheat there may be, punish if needed, and
then hopefully that's the end of it. As with anything, some have
been characters I've had to keep an eye on, others have been ones
I never expected, and haven't had a problem since.

Also, for those who continually whine about favorites, or jalim's
supposed hookups - that's part of exactly why Matrik got the
punishment he did - because he got punished based exactly on his
actions, and nothing to do with who he is or isn't. Most of the
time Imms don't want to know what player's behind the character,
and often don't know. I happened to be on later on after the
original incident, and spent a good bit of time looking into it
myself...and until these threads had no idea it was Matrik who got
banned.

I'm actually rather surprised to find out it was him, as I feel as though for the most part, I've generally enjoyed Matrik as a player. As far as banned - yes, bans are permanent - but perhaps the better term is they're indefinite. Doesn't mean someone can't be unbanned, but it's not going to happen w/o Immortals specifically choosing to remove it. Given the fact that he got banned, a forum crusade definitely isn't the way for it to happen (though yes, it has sparked a great deal of discussion, awareness, etc). I expect the better option to possibly see results would be a civil e-mail to Immortals. It's quite possible, perhaps probably, that he remains banned, but it's the proper route to approach it, if he wants to convince the staff he's not going to run into further trouble. It's also something he'd have to initiate.

Ultimately, I am rather pleased to see that aside from perhaps a bit much passion, and assumption that the Immortals have no clue what we're doing...overall this has been a relatively civil conversation. For that, I'd like to offer at least a small thanks to those involved.