I dont get it..

[LiquidShell]

I busted my ass for a long time to -earn- the karma I have and I'm very proud that the staff trusts me that much. It kind of saddens me to think that Joe Hakanslash will be able to walk into Arm2's chargen on the same footing as me.

I really feel that these types of people, myself included, will primarily weed one another out, think of some -- hellish apocalyptic battle of twinks, we wont need another cataclysm, they'll do it alone.  Another thing is that most of your power gamers tend to be subordinates, or soloist, they can't create anything on their own.  So you'll most likely be directing them with your vision instead of being forced to comply with their own.  I personally am not worried with the lack of karma for the first three months or forever if the imms see it fit, if people abuse what they're given it will no doubt be taken away.  

I for one am going to make a mad dash for the strongest personality when arm 2 blows open, and defend it fiercely, I think since we have a chance to make our own environment who better than one of the more dedicated players to shape it, plus when you have a good rper at the helm it tends to elevate all of the other players to the higher level.

P.S. WP as our dedicated leader, you'll need to comply with the will of your peoples, first off I want the PIT, and lots and lots of brothels! Whores make the blood thirsty warriors, and savages easily manipulated.

[Ghost]

I for one am going to make a mad dash for the strongest personality when arm 2 blows open, and defend it fiercely

And you will cry like a little school girl when he dies in two seconds in a nearly meaningless fashion with an ooc like "PWN3TT!!111"

In a more serious answer: my main concern is, if the karma-nonkarma guild distinction in the amount of power a character can wield will be similar to that of arm1, we might have a sort of chaos at the beginning of the game.  It sucks when you lose a character, it sucks worse if it is a dissatisfactory death, worse if it is dissatisfactory and there was pretty much nothing could do, worse if you are led to believe it was ooc driven..

Currently, even though the basic idea behind the karma system was to distinguish the guilds/races that are -harder- to play, I am not really sure that is the case anymore.  At least for most of the guilds.  To give a simple example, being hunted down and hated is not much of a problem for a magicker after he hits 3 days, because then the hunters become prey most of the time anyway.  And if there is not a hunter around anymore and the magicker is bored, this might end up being a danger to people minding their own business.

That is currently my main concern, that since even new players will start the game with pretty much anything, I would hate to see a well developed character being killed by a branched out sorcerer, for the reason being, because he can.  I would rather prefer, for the first three months, only non-karma guilds being approved, and for anything more you would need to special app.

That is my opinion after all.

[Malken]

Characters will drop like flies within the first three months, anyway. It might or might not be from other characters, but also from the fact that no one will know what to expect, where it's safe and dangerous, what can get you killed or not, etc...

I sense a massacre anyway within the first three months, because people will want to see the new world, will want to explore, will take risks, even calculated ones in a world you have no idea about will be deadly..

If you decide to be a tavern dweller on your first character and not take any risks, then I seriously doubt that anyone will, within a month, be able to develop a sorceror-type character, know where he can hide, know all the dangers that surround him to develop his powers, etc...

On the other hand, human warrior nobody #6 might be the first one to discover a poison that no one is aware of yet and use it to kill a few well established characters until the others realize it and start seeking out an antidote.. So you just have to expect to lose your well established characters at first.

[Medena]

I think that the consensus among both players and imms has always been that while the karma system might be flawed it was far better than having nothing at all to ensure the integrity of some roles.   My apprehensions of a game without it or some other kind of system are less about inexperienced players rampaging around on killing sprees and more to do with roles being RP'ed inappropriately and in such a way to be detrimental to the IC environment.

I assume that the decision to make the first three months free of karma restrictions is not debatable.  However, perhaps a statement from the imms about the rationale underlying the decision might better help us understand and thereby alleviate our concerns.  I don't recall ever having seen an explanation of the thinking involved with it.  I am not saying that the imms have to justify all their decisions to us but in this case I think it might help a lot.

[fourTwenty]

I think that the consensus among both players and imms has always been that while the karma system might be flawed it was far better than having nothing at all to ensure the integrity of some roles.

I Don't even have any Karma yet and I'm a fan of it. I agree with what Medena said, but somebody fill me in...what exactly is flawed about the current karma system?

Just asking?

[Dalmeth]

Well, all I know is that the staff has repeatedly said that the opening the new game without karma is more of an experiment.  I for one am glad they will be stress-testing the new system.

[jhunter]

I don't have any big fears about it.
I've seen people with karma doing things that made me go: "What the hell? This person has karma of -any- kind?".  And I've known people whose roleplay was very impressive who (from my understanding) had no karma at all.

I think that the way they are doing it to test it out for the first three months is the way to go. The better roleplayers will be able to choose what they would most like to play and really work to set an example for similar roles in the future. The twinkish losers who do stupid shit will learn, die alot, or worst case....get banned.

Another good thing about it is that the staff will get to see each of the types in action and be able to tell much easier what needs tweaking, removal, added,etc.