Armageddon exit interviews...

[staggerlee]

Today I got my form-letter Armageddon exit interview email. Wow, I must have quit!  The exit interview/summary was a cool idea, but my strongest thought as I wrote a response was "Hell, I I'm not even humoring the idea of going back anymore."

At this point most posts like this would take the following format: I'd share my concerns about the game, lament its downfall and cry and wail and gnash my teeth. I don't see the need for that, my concerns about the game have been heard a hundred times, and I compiled my reasons for leaving and sent them to staff. Anyway, hey, I'm not bitter about anything, I just drifted away. So there's no sense to that.

Instead I have a question:

Of all of the things to do in the world, what is it about this game that compels you to dedicate your time to it? What keeps you logging in?

[Chettaman]

You're awesome for this, staggerlee.

My lack of need to do anything else.
Sad. I know.
I might have to take a break also... maybe.

[Gimfalisette]

-- Free
-- Compelling roleplay with fascinating PCs, every so often
-- Sort of fulfills my sandbox-game need
-- Sort of fulfills my making-a-positive-leadership-contribution need
-- Sort of fulfills my strategic-gaming need

For comparison, my other favorite games ever are:
-- Star Wars Galaxies, which was intensely sandbox-y, and somewhat roleplay-y, and I got to play the leader role
-- The Sims, intensely sandbox-y, somewhat strategic, somewhat leader-y from stuff I did in the community
-- Civilization, strategic

[Gunnerblaster]

Of all of the things to do in the world, what is it about this game that compels you to dedicate your time to it? What keeps you logging in?

Not only is Armageddon one of the few things I really derive some joy from, but I also feel like I'm letting players down on an OOC-level if I fail to do my best for them, in-game.

I like trying to be the guy that people can ICly and OOCly rely on.

[janeshephard]

I don't understand, if you don't log in for a while you get an email asking you why?

[staggerlee]

I don't understand, if you don't log in for a while you get an email asking you why?

Well actually, I was just trying to make it sound good.  Vanth phoned me and sobbed on the phone for four hours last night. And judging from the messages on my answering machine today Shalooonsh is being sent to slash my tires.

[Conspiracy Theory]

Mostly it's an excellent, involving, deep time waster that fulfills my creative needs by letting me shape my characters. That's my foremost concern in playing, most often - making a deep, entertaining character.

[Vanth]

I don't understand, if you don't log in for a while you get an email asking you why?

Well actually, I was just trying to make it sound good.  Vanth phoned me and sobbed on the phone for four hours last night. And judging from the messages on my answering machine today Shalooonsh is being sent to slash my tires.

Why don't you love me anymore?  WHY?

[Vanth]

But seriously.  Yes, every once in awhile we grab a list of folks' emails from the GDB, who haven't logged into the GDB in awhile (the basic thought is that if you made a GDB account, you were at least somewhat invested in the game at some point).  We send them an email asking if they left for any particular reason, and let them know what's new.  This time we also pimped an upcoming in-game event, Luirsfest.

[AreteX]

I keep coming back for the POTENTIAL.

I've had fun experiences with characters that didn't last very long, and I've had fun experiences with characters that lasted a decent amount of time.  I've developed interesting relationships, had some weird things happen(MINDWORMZ!).

For me mudding was always great, I used to play PK muds from a certain Codebase all the time(Emlen).  The thrill of the hunt, and possibly losing your equipment(when you died, it wasnt permadeath, but you lost EVERYTHING you owned).

Now, I have that in a roleplay sense, and even stricter with permadeath.  I really think this is the best possible place to try and roleplay anything because it MATTERS what you do in the world.  I caused ripples with a character(at least I think) and its amazing to think what WAVES I could cause in the future.

Potential, its free, its interesting, its unexplored(for me) and I love it.

[solera]

"What is it about the game that compels you to...."
Oh man! Where do I start...
I guess it is letting the creative urge loose, an alternative to writing, a step up from making stories in my head when I was sent to bed early as a kid.
But there's the twist...I'm not in control of the story, and its not my story.  I just get swept up with all the others.
And I like wandering and gathering in the wilds. 
And the pathos of pointless deaths. 
The patterns our stories weave and traces of themes that emerge. In retrospect , I love the spiral pattern of new life and death a past character traced in the sands.
Maybe if I played 8 hours a day it would be less compelling than when I only get sips and tastes.

I got a letter too, I guess because I changed GBD handles. 

[Shalooonsh]

I don't understand, if you don't log in for a while you get an email asking you why?

Well actually, I was just trying to make it sound good.  Vanth phoned me and sobbed on the phone for four hours last night. And judging from the messages on my answering machine today Shalooonsh is being sent to slash my tires.

While I appreciate your want to be able to drive, installing runflats and ruining my favorite switchblade are not the best ways to score brownie points.  Jerk.

[Kryos]

You hear some people making it sound like some sort of gigantic shitstorm is swirling ig when you read their posts about this that or the other thing players do/do not do.  The truth is, every time I log into Arm, I have a good time.  Some days, it's a high on life holy crap this is amazing kind of fun, and others its a heart-pulling, tear-jerking, shaking your fist at the heavens sort of time.  Either way, it ends up being a rush.

No matter what activity you choose to take up, if you are passionate about it, you will come to disagreements with others who participate in it as well.  If you let this cloud your judgment and taint your enjoyment of what you do, perhaps it is time to move on indeed, as that typically causes you to become destructive to what you enjoy.

[Aaron Goulet]

For comparison, my other favorite games ever are:
-- Star Wars Galaxies, which was intensely sandbox-y, and somewhat roleplay-y, and I got to play the leader role
-- The Sims, intensely sandbox-y, somewhat strategic, somewhat leader-y from stuff I did in the community
-- Civilization, strategic

We used to play ALL the same games. 

[Zoltan]

You hear some people making it sound like some sort of gigantic shitstorm is swirling ig when you read their posts about this that or the other thing players do/do not do.  The truth is, every time I log into Arm, I have a good time.  Some days, it's a high on life holy crap this is amazing kind of fun, and others its a heart-pulling, tear-jerking, shaking your fist at the heavens sort of time.  Either way, it ends up being a rush.

No matter what activity you choose to take up, if you are passionate about it, you will come to disagreements with others who participate in it as well.  If you let this cloud your judgment and taint your enjoyment of what you do, perhaps it is time to move on indeed, as that typically causes you to become destructive to what you enjoy.

I couldn't have said any of this any better myself. I can't think of any time that I logged on and didn't have fun at all. It's the type of game that the more you put in, the more you enjoy it (usually). The day I stop playing Arm is the day I can't afford the time/energy for it.

[Cutthroat]

I like to have fun. I also like to contribute to The Whole Story, in some small way.

[Pale Horse]

Chopping motherfukerz up with bone swords.










....and the social role-playing.  I got the exploring and all that urge out of my system with my first many characters.  Now, I love the plots and digging in.

[Rhyden]

Great post, staggerlee.

I've often thought of leaving the game myself, even if just temporarily. Sometimes it's healthy to take a break, snap back to reality, and remind yourself that this is just a text-based role-playing game, and losing our characters isn't the end of the world. I think the biggest emotional stress we as players face is the death of our most beloved characters.  I believe this is the biggest factor that drives players away because they can't deal with the stress of loss. The easiest way to get around this, for me personally, is by realizing at hour 1 that this character is going to die. Every character we make might as well be a ticking time bomb, with an expiry date stuck to the back of their heads. I've learned how to cherish my character's life and the short time they are allowed to live, instead of focusing so heavily on the end results (as shitty as they may be).

[Ampere]

tbh it allows me to explore facets of myself that are normally relegated to some arboreal node at the back of my brain...I also like killing people, and finding treasure.

[Fathi]

I don't really have a whole lot to say other than I'm kind of in the same boat as you, Staggerlee. I still enjoy the game when I do play it, but I don't have as much free time to do so as I used to, and that's started a bit of a snowball effect that makes me want to log in less and less. Most of the game's roles don't accommodate casual players very well, and the playerbase can be downright nasty to you about it, all of which culminates into "if I can't devote a lot of time to Arm, it's better to just not play."

[Thunkkin]

Why do I come back after a hiatus?

Because the stories stick with me.
Because I can go for months without thinking about Zalanthas and then, suddenly, something will bring it to my mind and I'll realize that I miss it.
Because if I play any other game, I end up feeling bored because the stakes are always so low and the choices are so constrained.
Because I like the idea of chopping mutha-fuckaz with bone swords, even though my characters are always cautious and wimpy.

[number13]

I've been reading forums, playing in a different RPI. Ironically, five email messages above my "Congratulations! [character name] has been approved for play at Armageddon MUD!" is the message Staggerlee received.

My return-from-hiatus impressions:

1) I'm seeing nearly zero PCs off-peak, and a couple handfuls spread across a city-state at peak.  I've been logging on in 10 minute spurts, roaming about to confirm that not much of anyone is around, and then logging.  I know where they might be... in the other city-state, locked up in a private or clan area, doing the same log-in/log-out spurts that I am, out being tribals in the desert.  But I'm not seeing them, so the willpower to continue is fading.   One doesn't walk into a city-state role expecting it to be solo roleplay.

I'll most likely keep trying with the character, at least for a few more days, because I know arm's population migrates in cycles, and Sunday/Monday tends to be busier. It's just pretty discouraging, and it makes me feel a little guilty for the couple random Internet people I've sent to Arm's website over the past few weeks, talking up the game's RP standard.  If they did get as far as logging on to the city-state I suggested, then what? Nothing. No one to RP with.

Player base does need some serious consolidation, on the order of nuking a city-state and the majority of tribes (in particular, isolated tribes).  I know it sounds drastic to the point of sarcasm or hyperbole, but that really is the quantity of demolition I believe would be needed to properly concentrate the existing p.base.

2) There's a need for casual roles that serve meaningful purposes, or are otherwise just simple stupid fun.  There have been times over the past couple of months when I would have very much liked to log on to Arm -- if it didn't mean having to deal with having a PC, and the associated baggage, while still having a defined place in the world -- knowing about plots, participating in plots.

I'm not 100% on how to pull this off, but it would be nice to have the option.

3) The grindmill. If mundane skills advanced at x2 the rate they currently do, it would still be an order of magnitude slower than progression on most modern games. In the time it takes one to get a barely competent warrior (10 days, or 400 hours), you can have all the unlocks for Modern Warfare2 ten times over.  People speed level in WoW to 80th level in 15 hours; a more typical example is closer to 100 hours.

It's related to #2.  If it takes 40 hours to get a pickpocket who can pick pockets, then I'm likely to lose interest prior to being able to enjoy the concept I rolled.  And staring at that 100, 400, 1000 hour climb, it's mentally much easier to fire up Desktop Dungeons or Guild Wars instead and get a half-hour game in. Or troll the forums even, to (sort of) satisfy my Arm itch.

-----------

[racurtne]

I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and be the one to sit in the bars off-peak and wait for people. I'll do it, too. We need off-peak players something serious.

The thing that keeps me logging in is that I know that if I do, that gives others a chance to interact and keeps people playing. If I can do my part to encourage new players and keep the old, then that goes a long way to solving the problems of having no one around with whom to RP. And if that gets solved, little plots or even some novel interaction can give me something memorable to do with my time on Arm.

I keep logging in in the hopes that I'll have a chance to flesh out my character so that when their tragic story ends, I might actually feel something from it. I keep logging in to involve my character in something big when it comes up, to make something meaningful happen for others' characters, to meet and analyze other peoples' characters. I can muse on how my character would view that person, how they would use them, how they would help them, how they would treat them. I simply log in to enjoy taking an active role in a story much bigger than any single character, no matter how small the role may be. I play for a number of reasons, the most important of which is "If I don't play, then I can no longer read this story", and in my opinion, it's a good one.

[janeshephard]

3) The grindmill. If mundane skills advanced at x2 the rate they currently do, it would still be an order of magnitude slower than progression on most modern games. In the time it takes one to get a barely competent warrior (10 days, or 400 hours), you can have all the unlocks for Modern Warfare2 ten times over.  People speed level in WoW to 80th level in 15 hours; a more typical example is closer to 100 hours.

It's related to #2.  If it takes 40 hours to get a pickpocket who can pick pockets, then I'm likely to lose interest prior to being able to enjoy the concept I rolled.  And staring at that 100, 400, 1000 hour climb, it's mentally much easier to fire up Desktop Dungeons or Guild Wars instead and get a half-hour game in. Or troll the forums even, to (sort of) satisfy my Arm itch.

Muds are grindy. I don't mind this with useful skills. I do have an issue when my -contact- skill takes days for it to get half decent.

[Yam]

Armageddon let's me act out all of my best fantasies without being a pariah. Or inmate.

Or cannibal.