Yes, its come to be that time for me as well, and while we can all agree I've said this before, this time I mean it. Zmud is unlicensed, and after this I'll be blocking dios and officials in my web browser.

I've always thought of MUD's like a party where you have fun. When the party is great, you forget about everything else going on and completely immerse yourself in it. This departure has nothing to do with immortal conspiracy, nothing to do with changes to the game, and everything to do with you folks reading this, the players. CF in particular and MUD's in general are becoming the party where everyone there is an asshole. How long do people stay when the house is great, the beer flows freely, but the participants are 95% asshole? Players out there who I think are doing things the right way know who they are. God knows I am far from perfect IRL or IC, but I can honestly say I was never a complete ####head player. Lately I've been logging off from CF shaking my head at how many assholes now populate it and wondering why I continue to play it. The answer is simple, and to continue the party analogy, CF has an awesome house, the best beer, and great music, and not only that, but I felt comfortable there. However the point has come where I am not really the age to party any more, and even if I was, the sheer #### involved just to get to have some fun is just not worth it anymore. I no longer feel comfortable coming to the proverbial party and there is only one reason - there are too many assholes there.

At some point in your lives you, the other players, need to remember that CF is a game designed to be 'fun'. It isn't about killing the most people, having the most gear, or even having the best RP. In the end 'fun' is the goal of every player and immortal. When players go above and beyond normal means to make sure an experience is unfun for another player, you push people away and they leave with a bitter taste in their mouth. This goes for immortals as well. CF doesn't have the new blood coming in fast enough to match the rate that any number of issues are turning veteran players away with.

Now I may not be the 'big name' or 'badass' that will make some of you wake up with this little spiel. I'm not a Challen or a Jhyrbian or a Nepenthe who can force people to instantly take that look in the mirror. Ask yourselves though who it is going to take leaving your party for you all to realize you are being assholes. Not IC assholes, but assholes as players. I am not talking about "one time I did some cheap kill blah blah blah". I am talking about those of you who seem to find enjoyment ####ing other players over. You know who you are, and the community does too. The ones who are always chaotic-psychotic killer RP, constantly flame people on either of the forums, and are consistently negative in every possible interaction.

This speech has gone on a bit longer then I intended, but I do want to say you immortals did a great job building a world that is both rich and complex as well as challenging. I hope you all can find a happy harmony in gameplay/fun for both yourselves and the players in the future. Lastly I hope you angry, unhappy players that find enjoyment pissing others off get a clue, or get hit by a truck. Take your pick and best of luck to those of you in the community who don't fall into the asshole category.

Shadowmaster out.

Sorry to hear that. I know I flame people often on the forums. Though, I like to think that in game, I am not a jerk. My gank-o-meter is usually pretty small. I exceedingly rarely full loot, usually not even on purpose (ie, cabal raid and other people full loot). I try to help out newbies in game as well, by ranking them when other people won't and "saving them" from mean Pk'ers if I can. I've even had a character titled "The steadfast beacon of light, bastion of honor", which was one of my prouder moments since I've ever started the game. So don't confuse me with the pricks who full loot you in game just to be mean, because I'm not that guy.

I know how frustrating it is to deal with other characters who don't want to promote sportsmanship to some extent in game. It can be quite trying and I myself have ranted and raved about it on more than one occassion so I think I've said all I can say as far as that goes. Its a game and the objective is to have fun and when you're not having fun, well, you're right its time to move on.

I only hope after a break you'll be better and come back and if not, I wish you the best of luck in your other endeavors.

it says a lot that you care about being 'not a jerk' inside the game, but don't mind being a world-class whinging moron outside the game. you can't go a day without some stupid flame war.

go find shadowmaster, and play a round of golf. you're just as bad, so you'll probably get along great. then get in the same car, and drive off a cliff. thanks in advance.

n/t

Keep the senseless anonymous flaming to yourself please.

I'll start by disclaiming that I don't have any idea at the moment who your characters are other than those very recent, and my comments are based on that.

As a player, you were around as big of an asshole as anyone playing the game. I'm not saying you were THE biggest asshole playing CF right now, but I can't think of a bigger one at the moment.

Maybe you once weren't like that and lost your way. I have no idea. There's a saying: "Be the change you want to see in the world." If the problem with CF in your eyes is that there are too many assholes, the solution isn't to try to out-asshole them. Even if you succeed, it's only a pyrrhic victory.

The game's got one less ####head right now with your departure, but if you came back with the right attitude, it could have one more great player. Play the game the way you think it should be played (within the rules, of course!) and #### what anyone else thinks about that or does. RP breeds RP, and people not being ####heads breeds more people not being ####heads.

.

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." - Jimi Hendrix

He actually was one of the coolest people to interact with on a MUD scale about four years ago. But then he became an Immortal on a CF derivitive and well, that MUD has died, largely due to the douchebags that ran/played it. Ever since then, I believe he has taken a lot of the everyday BS to heart a little too much.

Plus, he's always come off like an a-hole on the forums because he doesn't 'play nice' and kiss everyone's @$$. Do I agree with everything he says? No, in fact, knowing our relationship, you'd probably be shocked at the amount we disagree. However, his characters, save for a couple lowbie douchebags, are some of the coolest (ie, not a douchebag) in the MUD.

I really think he doesn't need to be playing this game, or any others. He has too much going for him in RL to worry in the least about an online text game. Not knocking all of us losers, but, yeah, well, we're losers.

Heh,


I think Arolin posted this same type of statement about 7 years ago.

Everyone he thought was an asshole in the game had a similar sob story of why it was justified.

My point being, it's asinine to respond by being a bigger asshole and it's silly to be surprised when that doesn't "fix" the mud.

I had hoped you would have quit a long time ago, though in many ways, I selfishly hoped you would still play so we could have a PK against each other (only once in 4 years of MUDin, and that was on Halloween, heh).

You got a good thing going in RL, and I think you've learned and experienced all you could hope for playing these online games. One day I know I'll see a game you created online, and it will be as good as we always knew it would.

PS I've learned that dealing with the @$$holes who play these games gets easier if you look around after something really ####ty happened, notice your nice house, beautiful girlfriend, and cool things, and be like 'These douchebags are probably playing in their parents basement and are overweight social lepers. Geez, my life is pretty freaking good'.

I'll see you at the prime-rib table, my friend.

>I had hoped you would have quit a long time ago, though in
>many ways, I selfishly hoped you would still play so we could
>have a PK against each other (only once in 4 years of MUDin,
>and that was on Halloween, heh).
>
>You got a good thing going in RL, and I think you've learned
>and experienced all you could hope for playing these online
>games. One day I know I'll see a game you created online, and
>it will be as good as we always knew it would.
>
>PS I've learned that dealing with the @$$holes who play these
>games gets easier if you look around after something really
>####ty happened, notice your nice house, beautiful girlfriend,
>and cool things, and be like 'These douchebags are probably
>playing in their parents basement and are overweight social
>lepers. Geez, my life is pretty freaking good'.
>
>I'll see you at the prime-rib table, my friend.

Or else you understand some of them are doing -way- better than you and don't come across as the total pricks that it appears Nepenthe thinks he represented himself as. It's all nice that you're being incredibly supportive of him, but really, it sounds like he needs to smell the #### he's shovelling.

From what I gather. You got killed and full looted. If anything, the person that took the time to help you get good gear, should be more annoyed. In case you are wondering, 'the person' is me. If asked, every piece of what you held, could have been regathered in a short time frame.

Its a viscious cycle..with certain people determined to try to make the game less fun for other people, it just fuels the inner rage for the others. I personally try to help gear, rank, give directions, share information, to anyone that asks. You dont have to be a lightwalker ####licker to help people. Things like guarding someones corpse till they get back. Returning things to your enemy. Roleplay is roleplay, but we are still dealing with a game involving less than 50 people that continue to play over and over.

Dont let a small group of ####heads ruin the game for you. There are more normal people playing that arent tools.

I'm playing a sphere anger character that is a prick. I've gone too far some times and I've tried to real in some.

>I'm playing a sphere anger character that is a prick.

Why would you want to do that? I understand that not everybody needs to play a nicey-nice cahracter, and how boring it would be if they did. But still, it sounds like you intentionally made a role that people are going to find obnoxious. Now obviously I know nothing about your role and you don't want to be talking all about it here, so I'm not expecting any kind of conversation about it. I'll just hope that your character is a prick in a way that makes other people think "heh, that guy's really playing a prick, that's pretty cool" instead of "jesus, that guy's a real prick"

It's definitely possible to play a character that's unpleasant to other characters and still make it apparent that you, the player, are not the a-hole. Then again, I know some people have the attitude "I play to have fun for me and too bad if the rest of you don't like it". And I think that's a poor attitude for a game that's so dependant on the community. Not that I'm saying you have that attitude, I don't know who it was who said the words to that effect.

I tend to play nice but I made this guy to be an embittered champion. Wasn't working.

Fun is a very subjective word, my fun comes from pking, if I wasn't allowed to pk as much as i wanted to I would have never played. Some people's fun is from exploring and getting cool eq and quests. Some people actually have fun only roleplaying. Your idea of fun just differs from that of everyone elses. That doesn't make anyone a bad person, it just means you're weird.



Cheers.
Jhyrb.

P.S. Merry Christmas.

Having fun pking, roleplaying, being a ####, taking someones nice gear that you might need, doing what you want is one thing. But these little pricks running about around saccing charred bracers/skull rings/fine leathers/full looting noobs as a level 30 etc. etc. etc. (we could all go on with the list and we all know it) Is what takes a great cake with unique and tasty icing and literally ####s on it.

thats all I have to say

You need to enjoy the game for what it is. CF has always been like this. It will not change. In fact, any game you play that involves pvp is like this (DAOC, WoW, SWG). Forum trolls that get their e-peens hard with posting, newbie killers, etc.

Try playing a ranger that stays in the forest 100% or the time. You can kill those e-peeners easy and never die.

Maybe I am speaking to a closed door, but in shadowmaster's defense, CF has NOT always been like this

Since about 1994 it has been. To be honest, it is alot easier nowdays. Imagine 3 times the amount of E-Peens in your pk with a lot more unbalanced powers.

A lot more powers, A lot more people, way more killing, way more hatred, also though, way more roleplay, and way the #### more class

arguement over

nt

I'm trying to figure out if you mean past or preent with these comments. The way more roleplay part makes it rather immpossible to be comments on the past. Or maybe you're talking about a couple years ago rather than ten or so. If it is about the (distant) past: No, meh, yes, no, hell no, no.

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." - Jimi Hendrix

Yeah, RP was great. You basicly read from scripts to get into masters, battle, entropty, etc. Then they gave you a quest. That is assuming you just didn't email the leader and say, "yo, this is Joe, let me in."