Retroactive punitive policies

[Harker]

I enjoying PKing on unclanned characters.

I don't expect to get bonuses or progress in any meaningful way.

Are you saying the belt wasn't meaningful?

Not at all. I very much look forward to dying with it eventually.

I am saying I didn't expect to get anything out of PKing other that the warm fuzzies that wanton murder brings about. Moreover, by PKing on an unclanned character, I know I'm not participating in the QP rat race and not progressing the character in the terms of the game. I'm just playing.

My point was simple. If people like smobbing and stuff, the need to get QPs shouldn't be a factor. If, instead, they wish to progress a character, earn bonuses, and participate in advancement in terms of the game, then they need to spend some time attempting to murder their fellow players characters too. I spoke up because someone claimed that people don't PK on unclanned characters. I know that to be false because I do it with some regularity.

Neither clan rank advancement nor the accumulation of QPS is a requirement for playing the game the way you enjoy playing it. Those are aspects of the MUD that entail obligations on a character for game mechanical, role playing, or other reasons (most of them reasonably good).

What I said is **I** don't generally PK on non- Clanned characters. To me personally getting some kind of QP reward out of my time on the game is a factor.

[isabel]

I feel that inexperience, not being known and not agreeing that ppl should be forced into pk will make it so I won't be heard (who is this guy, who cares anyway, right?).

I'm the quiet one, the middle, the newish one that keeps mouth shut because everyone else is so loud and only seems to care about their own position.

I'll just stick it on the list of gentle demotivators to play, like when they messed with Tower RP stuff.

Why do I care? I guess I don't for myself, really. I'm not super motivated to master in the Wall Guard, don't even know if the pk would be a requirement for me, FM is a neutral city state, more or less WG are just glorified local police and something nice for the rich ladies of the city to look at. Doesn't feel like fighting the shadow would be very RP of them (unless the shadow is right outside huh) but they're a LS justice clan right? so it probably is required. But I digress...

Activity begets activity... pve leads to pvp on it's own, build a bouyant game environment and people will live in it, some of them, nay many of them, will turn to murder at some point. Let the play flow how it flows.

It feels like there have been a lot of new players find the mud in the last few months, why aren't they staying? They're your future pk content, once they're trained up and engrossed.

(sounding too salty here)

Newish ones have the best perspective I've always felt, and should be listened to.

What you're describing is also how it used to be..years ago when a robust LS drove the game at all levels. Created pk opportunities, was a space for new players to enter and learn, lots of RP, lots of different things.

But...

We just didn't get LS leader conversion. An entire decade threw up maybe 3-4 LS leaders while DS continued to average higher pk levels.

Then stuff came in that really broke LS - I don't even know what all, but great clan after great clan just lost people (dragonsworn for example, but every clan really..look at Sal Cav for instance) who cared about RP and Pk and recruiting people into the clan and hence teaching them to pk or whatever and become the next generation.

The darkfriend influx was probably the final nail in the coffin, because by then LS was long dissipated.

Funnily then a lot of DS players started to migrate. Fades became Gaidin. Dreadlords became Aes Sedai. Of course the best players had always played both sides, but there was also always side and clan loyalty.

And then pk truly became an insider thing. Clans lost meaning. Sides lost meaning. All that remained were players and groups who either liked or disliked each other.

Clans became just a way to make a class master you didn't have. Activities were just about qps or eq because the camaraderie was long gone.

The only clan that even retained the old clan feeling were WBs, and they had to stay hard to join at risk of losing that very thing.

New players who joined were constantly expected to go toe to toe with elite pkers who have been playing for decades..with no clan or leader to Shephard them.

Every now and then an elite player would wake up and think..oh let me do a class or show someone something..

But that was a pebble in the storm.

Clans are the lifeblood. They create a home for a player. A crew to hang out with. A base to be safe in. An RP to play by.

Light side is the lifeblood. But it has drained away......

And as it spilled on the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the dark one (rig? Jaster? Kryyg?) shook his fist and said - where is the pk? mAKE them pk!

But there was no markus, no Eol, no dorien, no kark, no tarn, no muntson, no verarthia, none to say - 'I spit in your eye, sightblinder.'

Now we shall see what the future holds..

[plando]

I'm hearing the words coming out of the staff's mouth, and that they want players to partake in all aspects of the game or be more well rounded but, I'm failing to believe the things I'm hearing. Here's why:

The irony is I'm just staring at everyone that has a remort or secret clan and can't help but laugh out loud because I'd argue even people who avoid pk still pk (even against their will and dying in the process) more than a lot of bonused players actually contribute to the game in any form of RP other than existing. The same bonused players think that they're above RP because of how good they have become at PK, despite having some of the coolest opportunities in the entire game to RP and they just don't or they do a TERRIBLE job at it, to the point where it's comical. Can they kill you ten times over? sure! Doesn't make any sense though based on this new narrative we're pushing. More well rounded players, partaking in more aspects of the game. Sounds like rules for thee, but not for me. Where's the changes for them?

I think this is a bad change.

Did you guys honestly think upstairs that you'll be celebrating this like some playoff win upstairs one day? that this will be the foundation for monumental change on a free game in the year of 2024? What do you think is actually going to happen haha, I got to hear this from someone like Vampa or Elysia.

I'm not affected by this change at all, but I empathize for others who are. I love to PK, and I love to RP. I also support those that swing harder towards one side of the spectrum than the other. Don't bother me none. Don't bother the 10 statters on at any given time. I just think it's poor decision and I can't see what the people upstairs think they see. I think you got this all wrong.

Decisions like this contribute to scenarios where I don't think people trust the staff anymore. Sprinkle in some rampant toxic players, coupled with a small and shrinking playerbase, and this just looks insensitive to the remaining decent players minding their own business. Do you think your change is worth losing 1-3 players? even 1 player? I don't. Ain't much of a game if we keep chipping away at the best parts of it, the players. There's no "shenanigans that occurred along the way" without them. There's no PK or PVE. There's no need for staff, good or bad decisions made by the staff, if there are no more players left.

Might be time for some reflection. I don't think you got it right. We appreciate a lot of the volunteer work, but it don't mean we like or agree with it.

[Aldevir]

From what I've seen over the past week of trying out the game again, it seems like the people I'm seeing involved in PK on LS are the type of people who would be happy to rally around anyone impacted by this who is trying to get their scalps. I doubt I'll be any good at PK, but am happy to try and help. You can certainly have my share of the scalps if we get any.

If this ends up being really hard on some people, it seems like the Staff is much more flexible now and open to adapting to find what's best.

[Thore]

From what I've seen over the past week of trying out the game again, it seems like the people I'm seeing involved in PK on LS are the type of people who would be happy to rally around anyone impacted by this who is trying to get their scalps. I doubt I'll be any good at PK, but am happy to try and help. You can certainly have my share of the scalps if we get any.

If this ends up being really hard on some people, it seems like the Staff is much more flexible now and open to adapting to find what's best.

You're not wrong, but I thought I was "done" with the character of mine that is impacted, and I suck enough I'd rather have the people rally around helping another one of my sub rank 7 characters get to rank 7 rather than go back and redo some stuff on the impacted character. My time is limited and it's not like I can just "up and get those scalps" super quickly like those who are on the MUD a lot more often. Not super butthurt about this change, but I'm just saying..

Edit: not to mention I would need to re-prac the char because it's set up totally for PvE and would blow chunks in PK. Not an awful thing to have to do, but a less than ideal thing to have to do!

[isabel]

Plot twist: AI replaces humans and every xp scalp now counts as 10 player scalps