Realism

[Yokunama]

As of late, I been noticing a lot of people wanting realism by adding coded penalties to our characters.

Honestly, I did not come to Armageddon to play in a world with real-world restrictions due to the code. Hell, I want to be that ninja-like-elf that faught off an entire T'zai Byn mercenary group single-handedly, becoming the next Sorcerer King in Zalanthas, or trying to find the eight horn and turning into Voltron. Armageddon is where I come to get away from real-world restrictions and try to accomplish something that would not be possible in the world and fascintating at the same time for myself and others.

If people took a bit more responsibility, we could see a bit more realism. For example, I 'think' there was something mentioned in a thread about torture, and how it would be more 'real' if people actually made appropiate responses in the gruesome scenes. Just a little effort from the playerbase can help add that feel of realism.

If I wanted realism, I could go back to doin whatever I was doing before I started playing.....

Maybe we need players to set examples instead of coming up with ideas that add even more pentalties to the growing wad we already have? Maybe we need to stop and consider real-life situations and act as a real person would instead of making the code limit us to what we can and can not do? Am I the only one that feels like this is suppose to be a fantasy world?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I do think that some ideas have hurt, but I also think that some ideas have been marvelous. I don't mind amping up the difficulty of the game, or raising the level of 'realism' some. I think that you can still manage that fantasy aspect, even with the changes. In fact, the older your character gets, the better they get, the more of a fantastic character they become, particularly with skill-relevant scaling penalties.

[fourTwenty]

Honestly, I did not come to Armageddon to play in a world with real-world restrictions due to the code. Hell, I want to be that ninja-like-elf that faught off an entire T'zai Byn mercenary group single-handedly, becoming the next Sorcerer King in Zalanthas, or trying to find the eight horn and turning into Voltron. Armageddon is where I come to get away from real-world restrictions and try to accomplish something that would not be possible in the world and fascintating at the same time for myself and others.

The problem with this is that all those T'zai Byn mercs you just walked through wanna be that guy to. And you can become that badass just not without lots of work and good RP.

Maybe we need players to set examples instead of coming up with ideas that add even more pentalties to the growing wad we already have? Maybe we need to stop and consider real-life situations and act as a real person would instead of making the code limit us to what we can and can not do?

This sucks. Maybe you should go play a MUSH. I like coded penalties, that way I don't have to deal with people going "No, your toting a big trunk so you should be slower and therefore you missed" I love the new changes that have been implemented lately. This is supposed to be one of the best RPI's and while I do feel that some of our playerbase are great RP'rs some of them are fucking twinkish. Whether they don't care or don't notice that's how it is. And anybody can jump on my case about that statement if they want but I've seen it. A lot. Coded limitations help balance things out and keep it fun for -everybody-.

Am I the only one that feels like this is suppose to be a fantasy world?

Okay, the giant insects, incredible magicks, and evil super-villan dragon aren't fantasy enough?

This is simply an opinion of yours. Personally I was drawn to the game because it was suppose to be low-fantasy, yeah right, but I hang around because every now and then I come across somebody who plays a role and plays it well, and it's enough to make me stay. In my opinion we have way, -way- to much fantasy. But again, that's an opinion, I think anybody you ask is going to have a varying level of how much fantasy they want in the game.

[FantasyWriter]

Am I the only one that feels like this is suppose to be a fantasy world?

A fantasy world grounded in believable realism.

I HAVE seen many PCs that could slaughter an entire troop of mid level PCs.  I have played two of them. (both were mundane, and one was even a breed)

Its not like the recent changes are guild or race specific, they are across the board.
Everyone suffers the same for them.
If you want to play a ninja magicker elf, I believe there are whole teams of them on WOW.
IF you want to play a in a believable harsh world full of mystery and permadeath, the world of the all powerful mantis head is the place to be.

[musashi]

I more or less on board with FantasyWriter here. I want my fantasy world, but I don't want a "let me do anything I want, and hence, let everyone else do anything they want, because it's a fantasy world" fantasy world.

When trying to immerse myself in a fantasy world, the realism actually helps me along because the more like my world the world I'm pretending to be in is, the easier it becomes to make-believe, and the more breathtaking the differences.

[Jingo]

I would be in favor of a more robust sleep code that might give you benefits to a good night's sleep. But I'm probably in the minority.

Hmmm, and maybe a simple injury code that is more geared to the prevention of twinkery rather than simply punishing a character for dropping to X amount of health.

No to everything else. There are already plenty of things to kill my character.

[FantasyWriter]

I would be in favor of a more robust sleep code that might give you benefits to a good night's sleep. But I'm probably in the minority.

No to everything else.

I use to be a big supporter of this idea, but because of previous discussions, I realized that it really hurts players with low play time, which would make an OOC issue into a very significant IC one.

[Jingo]

I would be in favor of a more robust sleep code that might give you benefits to a good night's sleep. But I'm probably in the minority.

No to everything else.

I use to be a big supporter of this idea, but because of previous discussions, I realized that it really hurts players with low play time, which would make an OOC issue into a very significant IC one.

Bleh. Make it optional and a non-factor if you play for less than two hours at a time.

[Clearsighted]

Am I the only one that feels like this is suppose to be a fantasy world?

A fantasy world grounded in believable realism.

I HAVE seen many PCs that could slaughter an entire troop of mid level PCs.  I have played two of them. (both were mundane, and one was even a breed)

Its not like the recent changes are guild or race specific, they are across the board.
Everyone suffers the same for them.
If you want to play a ninja magicker elf, I believe there are whole teams of them on WOW.
IF you want to play a in a believable harsh world full of mystery and permadeath, the world of the all powerful mantis head is the place to be.

This is pretty my feelings on the matter.

[AmandaGreathouse]

I really like a lot of the new coded things that have been added, myself. I like having a realistic framework for physical interaction with the world. Personally, I've always been kind of in favor of a system I found that allots hit points to different body areas, if you lose all the hitpoints for the body part, it's considered amputated, if you lose a certain fraction, it's considered broken, and so forth. And it does, in fact, have hard code in place that cuts your speed in half if you're bopping around on one leg, and keeps you from dual-wielding if you have one hand (etc). With the exception of a very few things (the material destruction involved in crafting, for example), I think the game world does very well at establishing such a framework.

[Rairen]

If you're already struggling to be the dreamy l33t character, trying to make the game less restrictive isn't going to significantly improve your odds.  Studying, practice, a good IC mentor, and... well, death, are going to be your best teachers.

[AJM]

I am all for the realism, I like to think that after some crazy Apocalypse where people deform into other races it would be like Arm.

[Lizzie]

When I want realism, I turn off the computer and enjoy a few hours of real life. Or I'll read a book that is set in the real world, on the planet Earth.

When I want to immerse myself in fantasy, playing something completely unrealistic, something I can't possibly do in the real world, on planet earth, I play Arm. I play Arm because it's playable. Playability trumps realism, in my personal gaming preferences. If what I try to do becomes unplayable, then I will simply stop playing it. Even if it's realistic.

[musashi]

Playability trumps realism, in my personal gaming preferences.

Big +1 to that, but I consider realism the 2nd most important thing in my gaming preference so, it's still pretty important to me.

[Lizzie]

For me, "believability" trumps realism too. Realism is -way- down on my list of needs. I don't need it to be realistic...the notion that some guy built an ark and saved the entire planet by gathering 2 of every species on Earth into the ark and floated it over a flood - is not realistic. But some people believe it. And that's okay! So it doesn't need to be realistic. Realism != believability.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I can't really agree completely. I feel that realism and fun need to balance each other out correctly. I feel like we are making a huge effort towards this. The coders have been awesome to listening about their code changes and adjusting them based in input. I think that we have a decent balance right now. Perfect, no ... but I think staff is working to make it as perfect as can be managed.

And that, I like.

[Clearsighted]

When I want realism, I turn off the computer and enjoy a few hours of real life. Or I'll read a book that is set in the real world, on the planet Earth.

When I want to immerse myself in fantasy, playing something completely unrealistic, something I can't possibly do in the real world, on planet earth, I play Arm. I play Arm because it's playable. Playability trumps realism, in my personal gaming preferences. If what I try to do becomes unplayable, then I will simply stop playing it. Even if it's realistic.

I've never understood this argument.

It seems that there are primarily three sorts of people that play muds or even games in general.

Those that do it for a challenge, or the thrill of the competition.
Those that do it for immersion, to really lose themselves in the world.
Those that do it to relax and have fun after a hard day's work.

There's nothing wrong with the third type of person. It just bothers me when just because it's set on Zalanthas, common sense or any kind of inconvenient challenge is supposed to be thrown out the window, since it's all just fantasy anyways. There are afterall, two other sorts of people for whom it will either increase the challenge and thus their enjoyment, or the immersion, and thus their enjoyment.

The second component of the argument that I've never understood, is how realism is automatically at odds with playability. As if anyone would actually support more realism than was playable.

[Jingo]

This game is many things for many people.

Believe it or not, tavern sitting is the biggest part of the game for some people.

[Clearsighted]

This game is many things for many people.

Believe it or not, tavern sitting is the biggest part of the game for some people.

I'd say dedicated tavern sitters fall under the immersion category. It's all in broad strokes. Most people overlap to an extent.

[Ghost]

You can not expect everyone to behave themselves in the proper manner when there is not enough of a coded support.  Yes, people can RP it properly even though there is not a coded support, but what is proper way?  According to who?

How many different ideas or explanations do we get for a simple physical system?  How many different ideas on a simple suggestion of "approach/engage" code?  Yet this is something so obvious and easy.  Now take it to something that is not so obvious and well defined, such as Way or Magick?  Then you have a real chaos because everyone completely takes it their own way.

Of course there needs to be a coded balance that should give a realistic feeling.  You can not have a code where everyone is flying and then ask them to "RP they are walking".  You can not have a code where everyone is immune to magick and then expect the playerbase to be scared of magick.  You can not have a code that makes some people powerful in coded ways and then ask them to RP they are weak.

Coded support is there for a reason, because everyone has their own opinion.  When in conflict, most people will side with whichever way benefits them the most, which basically leads to a shitstorm