Personal message from Allalltar to players

[Allalltar]

Hello Everyone,

Disclaimer at the top: This is my personal statement and opinion, it has nothing to do with the opinion of the geas wizards or other wizards in general. If you wish to argue the point, either do it here or with me personally ( through mudmail or communes ). Do NOT bother other wizards with this.

So, we're here at this point. Not the first time, likely not the last either. The "point" is, where I am considering whether this game is worth the free time it is getting from me in a terms of investment. I am a professional software engineer in real life and I have a good idea of what my hourly rate is at and geas is getting quite some time for free and I am really asking myself whether I am doing this to myself. The reason? You lot. Before everyone now feels they'e been whacked with a heavy boulder, I will say I generally like players. I like fixing problems, I like making little RP events, I like making features and see people's jaw drop. If I catch whiffs of "I never realized you could do that, amazing." I am feeling generally quite happy. The last few months however have shown to me that this game is vastly different from the game I would like to work for and before I just decide to quit, I decided to instead give you a rough idea of what has been bothering me those past few months and if I just change the minds of a few people, sitting down and writing this post has been worth it.

My first main point of aggravation is OOC cliques. Yes everyone likes to play with friends, I do too. Maybe you've even made new friends on the game, that equally is awesome. Where it gets problematic, is when the game stops being about game "faction" vs game "faction" (using faction here loosely from one person to entire guilds) towards being about entire cliques plotting to bring down other cliques or trading information amongst each other that are in game secrets or identities of characters or similar. This often leads to the one or other event landing at my (or a different wizards) feet and we have to pick up the dirt. My advise: If you're playing as a group of people, take care that what you share and discuss is not giving away things other players wouldn't discover by themselves, especially regarding secrets like how certain restricted guilds work, plans of guilds, general identities of secret guild members, things spoken on guild orbs... if you think about it, am sure you get my point.

The second point is about metagaming, meaning to describe using knowledge, especially gained through alts or friends, to further your own agenda or using ooc connections to people to improve your characters stance. This includes things like having alts just to read boards, having alts in guilds that are at war with each other constantly ( esp satho vs crusade/taniel, but you can likely see the other problems there). It is really frustrating when you spend months weaving secret things into the game only to find one person that doesn't give a shit and just ooc tells everyone. We can not always tell how it happens, but I had another case of this recently and I can tell you it is incredibly frustrating when people suddenly have knowledge of this that they could've had no IC ways of knowing.

Third point is general fairness towards other players. Just because you left a secret guild, doesn't mean you should be betraying all their secrets to their enemies. It is a fairly shitty thing to do, as far as I am concerned and it will ruin the game for those people who remained there. If you get the privilege to be part of something restricted and hidden, please do your part to preserve it for future generations. Those that come after you should also have the ability to enjoy the secrets with wonder and discover for themselves what all the mystery is about. If you're sharing guild secrets IC or OOC, you're essentially taking this away from everybody else.

Fourth point is something that has plagued geas since at least a decade, but has become more to the surface again and that is what I call "chatroom mentality". That is that people generally like to sit around and talk, ignoring the game setting at large. There is nothing wrong with a good RP session at the market of a city or anywhere, really. That's not what I mean. What I am referring to is people going out of their way, bending everything that is around them so they can be friends with each other in character. If the characters are just a bunch of farmers, that is alright too but joining a major guild is a privilege, not a right. When you join one, you accept a certain RP background that comes with it and that -should- influence your characters actions and believes. That probably means you can't be friends or hang around with everybody. Your character has gained a certain new path in their life and should likely adhere to it. Of course, there's a lot of nuances to this, but every time I see the leader of a main guild chatting at a market place while a few rooms away the guards of that very city they're supposed to protect get slaughtered, I am questioning if am working for a dark fantasy RP game or a fantasy themed chatroom.

That is not to say that I am telling you how to play your character, maybe your character has good reasons to pass up that particular fight, maybe your character has an issue with their guild currently and thus feels not bound to their duties... there are plenty of excuses one may come up with, but only to a point. As a wizard, I am asking myself why I should bother giving people interesting encounters and threats to the city, why invest time in surprising tasks and challenging foes, if people much rather would sit at a fountain and chat?

Then, there is the point of lore. Game lore, as sparse as it is, exists for a reason. People not knowing the game lore is one thing and that is, to a degree, fine for younger players. Established players simply ignoring game lore or constantly trying to redefine it because they don't like how it is, it is entirely frustrating to watch. For example, I have heard the 100th time about this "oh, but that darkelf isn't evil, they made a wrong choice and are trying to repent for their sins." This may be an interesting story arc for the darkelf, it may also be alright for the one or other char to accept that the darkelf is repentant, but a large part of the population would still run away screaming at the sight of a darkelf. Those are the people who eat your children and murder your parents. How a large part of characters can be "fine" with them, is beyond me and frankly frustrating. (From the darkelfs side, the aspect of lonliness and permanent lock in, that is another matter, but beyond this posting).

I want to remind all past and future judges of Arborea and Elvandar: You are a judge, as such someone who decides cases and punishes criminals. You have also, to a certain degree, influence upon the law. You are not the ruler of the city and should not behave as such. You have certain power, but you are not above the city officials, be it city commander or queen and should keep that in mind. We do not get involved with IC matters outside of livequests unless we really really have to, but some past judges have made us seriously question that stance. So please, keep it civil. With great power comes great responsibility.

Speaking of fairness and responsibility, there's one last thing I want people to remind of: You are playing the game with other players not against them. I feel this ties into most of what I am trying to say. Stop being against each other OOC and going out of your way to make the game less fun for others. On every action you do, think that the person behind the screen is someone you know in real life and might just deny your existance if you pull something of. Geas allows you a wide variety of things you can do to someone your character is oposed to. Sometimes it is required as a statement, sometimes someone just had it coming. But, there are many situations, where the most harsh response likely isn't needed. Especially when it comes to hard earned equipment, looting and repeated killings. We place very few restrictions on players in that regard and do so in good faith that people will find a level that, at the end of the day, will make people still willing OOC to shake hands and agree they have a good time. Lately, from what had been complained to me, had been told to me or that I happened to catch while moving through the game, that spirit is largely not there anymore and personally reduces the environment's quality and makes me not want to be here anymore.

All of the above said, I have little to no hope of this post changing anything. I decided to get it off my chest, in the hope that someone actually does read it and reflect upon it and maybe change their stance and behaviour in the future.

The post here will be locked. I will make a copy to it to the general ooc board for those who have trouble with the forums. I'll point at it in the news. I'll give it a little more time to decide where I stand with the game in the future.

Allalltar out.