Communicating with the staff...

[Ayashah]

This post is not to target anyone in my clans, nor anybody else's.

Recently, the staff has been discussing the topic of communicating, or rather the lack of, between players and the staff. This is a list of a few instances of which we've said we would like to see more of in emails.

1. Your character in a clan dies.
2. You want to join a clan, either by IC recruitment or special App.
3. You (the clan char) killed someone, either in your clan, in someone else's clan, or non-affiliated person.
4. You killed someone in a clan other than your own. Eg, if a Tor kills an Borsail, let the Borsail staffer know.

Reporting stuff:
5. You have an idea for a plot/rpt/plan that you want to initiate with your character (usually a good idea to do so, clanned or no)
6. Your progressions in this plot/rpt/plan
7. When your plot/rpt/plan ends, either successful or not.
8. You quit the clan
9. Any important news.
10. You did something that may cause trouble. Eg, insulted someone in another house.
11. Your feelings on your situation. Frustrated by lack of activity or?

The point of this post is, we staff do appreciate receiving the emails and knowing what's going on. We're unable to keep tabs on what's happening 24/7, and also, unable to psychically read your minds. So, a lot of events in-game leaves us in the dark, unless players do email us to let us know what's up. Even if we don't respond, these emails are very much appreciated.

If you're playing a leader-type role, the rule of thumb is to email your staffer once a week (even if it's to say nothing happened). However, if you're not a "leader", don't feel like you can't contact us also.

I couldnt reply to this post as it was in the staff section so I transferred it here. I think some of the reasons most do not want to email special little plots or ideas they have going to the staff member their pc is currently under is because sometimes those plots/ideas do not benefit the clan and they fear the imm taking action, even though there is no IC indication of this pc's plot.

Before anyone jumps in and says "Oh! That wouldnt happen.", yes, it does. A few examples:

1) NPCs in my pc's clan basically backstabbed her, in her mind, and my pc reacted IC to it. Within 24hrs I had an email from the clan imm explaining why the NPCs did what they did to benefit the House. I could see the imms motives behind how the NPCs reacted but that still doesnt change how my pc preceived the circumstances IC. It almost felt like ooc pressure to change my pc's attitude on how things happened IC to go with the flow on OOC matters behind it.

2) I have had characters plotting to leave a House and they were contacting another House for things. An email shows up from the current imm my pc is under wanting to know why I didnt tell them and why my pc is leaving the House. Emails back and forth, my pc doesnt leave the House but imm support that was there before is hard to come by after that. Granted, that imm might have felt slighted that I didnt email in what my pc was trying to keep hidden from the House and therefore decided that there was no reason to invest further in helping my pc do things for the House, I dont know. I only know my side of things.

3) Sometimes pcs have IC reasons to not join/volunteer to go on outings when the House calls for assistance, even when I, the player, would want to go on the outing but I cant find a good IC reason to make my pc go. There are circumstances of having a ranking NPC animated and upon finding out your pc isnt going to the outing the NPC has reacted in a way that didnt make sense for that NPC. For example, instead of ordering you to help out in preparing things they almost appear to sigh with disappointment and ask for you to atleast help out in preparing things. Which makes it appear that the imm in the npc is disappointed your pc wont go to the outing instead of the hardass NPC whom one would expect to snap out an order to get off your lazy backside and go help pack things.

Please excuse any rambling or incoherent sentencing in this post. I currently have a cold and I am sorta loopy on nyquil at the moment. What all that basically was trying to get across is, we are told over and over again, dont share ooc, dont share ooc, dont share ooc. Like a 2yr old that keeps trying to touch the stove and is being told by his mother, dont touch or you will get burned, once burned they will try to keep their hands well away from the stove.

It is heartening that the staff wants to have better communications with the players but you have to understand, there is a huge fear of being burned. If the staffer finds out that a clan member is plotting against the House, will steps be taken to make sure no damage is done to the House by that player? Will the player lose all imm support because they are planning on leaving the House after their term of hire? Will promotions be withheld from that pc due to the fact that OOC the imm knows that pc isnt going to be in the clan long, so why bother? Will all support drop out when that imm knows OOC that a pc is trying to start a new 'clan' in the future that might take some business from the House they currently are in? Granted, maybe the imms found out IC by informants but there is that doubt of "hmm, I just emailed them that and now they all of a sudden know about it?"

I know that most would respond "No! That wouldnt happen." but I know there are players that can say that they have experienced the same thing. Imms are only human and perhaps players put them up on higher pedestals than they should be on but players are only human too. Perhaps it is wrong to be wary of how imms will react and jaded in a way due to a 'few' past incidents but like imms get jaded about players, players get jaded by imms. Imms invest alot of time into the mud but the players invest too. Maybe not in the same way but dedication to the mud comes in different forms.

Myself, I usually try to not bother imms, I hate to because I know they are busy and I dont want to add to that plate. Perhaps that has come across in a different manner due to the fact that the only times emails/words are exchanged is when something has happened. Therefore, the only communication between myself and staff is over an issue. I guess that we, the players, will have to take that first step off the cliff and see if we are caught or let to drop. Perhaps it will be the first step to better communication between staff and players. I am willing to give it a shot to find out.

[Bestatte]

I'm kinda with Ayashah on this. I -do- e-mail my clan imm on some things, and refrain from e-mailing them on others. When I'm a subordinate to a PC clan leader, I leave it up to the PC to decide what's worth telling -their- boss and what's worth keeping to themselves.

I figure, anything I tell a clan IMM, I'm telling that clan's NPC superior. If I don't want that NPC (or VNPC) superior to know something, I'm not gonna tell the clan IMM.

Whether that's realistic or not, appropriate or not, it's just my perception of things, and that's how I've come to react.

[Anonymous]

I was always afraid it'd seem like I was trying to monopolize their time.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Well said, Ayashah.

[X-D]

Not much more to say other then, Yup.

[Boggis]

From personal experience I'd say that you're not going to get burned by the Imms for informing them of your PCs plans. I don't think the Imms are there to try and "beat" your PC. I think keeping the Imms well-informed can lead to a richer RP experience for both your PC and the people around you as a greater cast of characters can be drawn into whatever it is you have going on if the situation warrants it (PC, NPC and VNPC).

I figure, anything I tell a clan IMM, I'm telling that clan's NPC superior. If I don't want that NPC (or VNPC) superior to know something, I'm not gonna tell the clan IMM.

I don't agree that not informing the Imms because you don't want the clan NPC superior to know is the right way to go. If, for example, you're plotting to kill your PC superior in your clan for another clan the Imms of both clans should be informed. From my experiences I'll trust the Imms to keep the IC and OOC knowledge separate and keeping them informed just helps to keep your actions / goals transparent. Your actions can't come back and bite you on the ass OOC'ly if you've been in communication with the Imms. Following on with this example, lets say you kill your PC superior without informing your Imm and the person from the other clan didn't inform because they didn't want their NPC superior to know either. Suddenly the Imms will be like, "Why the hell did he suddenly up and kill his boss?". They'll have to look into everything and figure out what the IC reasons for what happened are to make sure there's no abuse going on. Why put them to this trouble? Better to keep them informed from the beginning I think.

I was always afraid it'd seem like I was trying to monopolize their time.

As Xygax said to me once, "You can -never- mail me too much". I'll just mail them with what I've got and if they want to take a closer look at it they can and if not then no problem.

All that being said I think Ayashah does ask some good questions such as how informing the Imms could effect your IC promotions, etc. It's natural to wonder if your PC could be adversely affected by informing the Imms. It's difficult to trust somebody you don't know at all save as some strange internet name. And it's true that Imms are only human like the rest of us and maybe this has hurt some players before but I think keeping a constant, open communication will help to build up a level of trust. One of the major roles of the Imms is to keep the various stories ticking over on Arm and they can't do that if we're not telling them what's happening.

All this is just my opinion based on my experiences on Arm. Maybe other players have had less heartening experiences but I'm happy to keep going the way I've been going.

[Sanvean]

One of the reasons this has come up on the staff side is because of a problem that keeps coming up and which is frustrating to both sides. Over and over, we see this pattern appearing.

1. A player does something that is unrealistic or perhaps is a abuse of the code. They don't mean to do it; they genuinely think it's fine. It may be forgetting that they are only a small cog in the vast virtual machine that is a merchant house and assuming they have more power than they do, to name a common one. It may be an actual bug, or a flaw in the code, and they assume it's intentionally designed that way, to name another.

2) Because no one on staff knows or notices what they're doing, it continues. Maybe for a few days, or weeks, or whatever.

3) Finally someone on staff notices and goes "WOAH, how did that guy get 9 million sid?" or "How the hell is she managing to fly between Tuluk and Allanak?" And they come down on the player like a ton of bricks. The player gets pissed because they feel that if what they were doing was wrong, why weren't they told earlier? And the staff member becomes pissed because they feel decieved, or as though the player was trying to slip one over on them. Bad feelings all around.

One of the things we're trying to work on over on the staff side of the things is communicating better and letting people know what's realistic and has a chance of succeeding - and what doesn't, as well as how it might be tweaked to make it realistic. But we need player help in that because we can't monitor 24/7.

This is as much for the players' benefit as anything. In all seriousness, if you are doing something that affects a clan, you should be letting the clan immortal know.  

Play as though there is a virtual world around you, and not just those two NPCs you interact with - because there is one.  Or even take those two into account - I've seen players do things like spill assassination plots in front of NPCs and then be outraged that the word somehow escaped.  Nobles need to remember that there is a vast network of servants all merrily gossiping away in their households, for example. Merchants need to remember that they are one of a hundred or so other merchants, all vying for success in the house. Templars need to remember that there are a bunch of other cut-throat Blue Robes who would be happy to climb the ladder to a Red robe by stepping all over their corpse.

I'll refer back to this quote:

I figure, anything I tell a clan IMM, I'm telling that clan's NPC superior. If I don't want that NPC (or VNPC) superior to know something, I'm not gonna tell the clan IMM.

That's not a good assumption. The staff member is not the NPC running the clan; the staff member is responsible for the entire clan. They're not there to make sure the clan succeeds financially or gains massive power. They're there to make sure that players in the clan get the staff support they need, to provide the structure against which plotlines can be played out, to ensure that things are being played realistically.

I've used an example before of someone emoting that they found a bag of obsidian in the street and then wishing up to have their bank balance adjusted accordingly. It seems to me that not letting staff know of a plotline and then getting upset because later on the plot gets stopped because of factors you overlooked or were not aware of and which the staff could have provided information about, has certain similarities.

In short, cooperation is much appreciated and may end up creating a much better game experience for all concerned.

[Xygax]

Just to chime in on this, I know that it is MUCH easier for me to -support- my PCs actions when I fully understand what they're up to, and what they're thinking.  Some of the fears and concerns mentioned above really worry me; if you are so afraid that your clan immortal is "out to get you" (the time-honored "eating my brains" syndrome?), you're really going to have a VERY hard time making any progress within that clan, or AGAINST it.

As a clan immortal, very few things are more exciting to me than someone telling me they want to try to rip off my clan.  I LOVE that!  I love that, because it creates an instant plot for the PCs in my clan, instant conflict, and a potentially long-term evolving thread of activity.  In fact, this is just as good, from my perspective, as someone who wants to grow my clan's power.  My job is to facilitate you creating a story.  I'll step in and stir things up with stories of my own, if needed, but I'd much rather see you do something creative with (or to!!) my clan, for a variety of reasons.

Please, please, please do not be afraid of the staff (except for Halaster.  I don't care if he's a legend now, or not, that guy's karaaayzee).  Give us a chance to support and reinforce your plot-ideas by keeping us informed.  Overly informed, even.  Boggis is right, you can never e-mail me TOO much, and I sincerely believe that the rest of the staff (to the last) have this same attitude.

If you -do- feel a staff member is directly acting against you, you should e-mail the mud.  More likely, though, there are forces operating against you (most often driven by other players) of which you simply aren't aware.

-- X

[Petra]

There are some staff members who are really big on e-mail exchanges, others whom I rarely have any contact with or hear from.  I'll be completely honest in saying that the staff members whom I know I can get feedback/support from are the ones I feel more obliged to e-mail every little tidbit of information to, just as I feel more obliged to join their clans over others.  In fairness, I will certainly keep any clan IMM abreast of my character's major ongoings, but if I scarcely ever hear from him/her, I'm not going to keep sending away all these minutae of trivia (which some people enjoy hearing about) if I rarely ever get a response back, otherwise I feel as though I am wasting my time or talking to a brick wall.  And I'm not saying this with a "nyah nyah" attitude, rather, I just think some staffers seem more interested in knowing all the small details than others, based on their responses (or lack thereof).

[Sanvean]

In fairness, I will certainly keep any clan IMM abreast of my character's major ongoings, but if I scarcely ever hear from him/her, I'm not going to keep sending away all these minutae of trivia (which some people enjoy hearing about) if I rarely ever get a response back, otherwise I feel as though I am wasting my time or talking to a brick wall.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. The staff is working on being more communicative, and help with that is appreciated.

I'm more interested in what happens now than endless rehashes of "This one time at band camp a staff member was mean to me and made my character cry." I'm aware there have been problems in the past on both sides. Let's try this and see what sort of result we get.

[Bestatte]

Well I for one am very glad for the input from Xygax and Sanvean. I am also (so far) extremely pleased with the input from my current clan Imm, especially since I'm not a clan leader and "just a grunt."

Since I already tell my PC boss stuff that goes on in my PC's life, should I also e-mail my clan imm telling them the same things my PC boss is likely to tell them? Does my character's perspective on this (or my perspective as a player) change anything, or is it just redundant info and unnecessary to repeat?

If y'all like other perspectives of issues from various members of the clan, then sure, I'll help with the experiment and start sending stuff in. I'm still hesitant to e-mail if my character is planning to murder the NPC... but maybe I"ll just hold off on those plans til I get feedback on more mundane stuff

[Rindan]

I was in a clan that had a series of betrayals at one point.  I don't know the full story and I wouldn't tell it even if I did.  My character performed the last betrayal.  I knew my character was leading up to it, so I dropped a line to my clan imm and explained to him exactly what I was planning and why and gave a rough time table for what I intended to do.

I did get an e-mail back that did have the undercurrent tone of 'damn it, but your character was fitting his role really well', and they described what they thought a realistic response would be just in case I was having disillusions about what would happen if I did what I did.  I personally didn't take any malice from it.  I went through with my plans and dropped them another e-mail the second I did it.  As far as I can tell, no one did anything unrealistic to stop me.  If anything, I think I picked up an audience because during my treason an imm echoed a command to the room by accident (some imm command), cursed, and apologized.  I pulled off what I wanted to pull off, and while it didn't go perfectly to plan, I ended up surviving the ordeal.

I can understand how people could take away a "don't do this!" message when they tell an imm their plans, but I imagine they are more just trying to make sure you understand what you are doing and the potential consequences.  Hell, they are human and might grudgingly want you to stay simply because you are a good addition to the clan.  I wouldn't let that stop because I don't think they are going to go ahead and punish information.  At worse, the world is going to react realistically to your actions, and so you should simply be prepared for realistic actions.

Personally, my experience with keeping the imms up to date has been good.  If anything I will do it more now.  I generally just left the e-mailing up to clan leaders and kept my e-mails only for important things as a leader.  If they want more, I am happy to oblige.

[Ayashah]

I have to say that I am very pleased with the responses and thoughts of all those that have posted in response to this thread. I think it has cleared alot of things for all around and will hopefully have a good impact on the imms and players alike.

Hopefully my original post didnt come across as a "she thinks all imms are out to get her" as that's not true. I just like to do things myself and I know I can do almost anything I want to without having to bother the imms except for loading things, getting npcs or building something permanent. I guess its pride in a way. Thats a rub off from RL and having to do everything on my own. But again, as I stated in my first post, I am willing to put aside my reservations and give mailing regularly a try.  

[Carnage]

For me, it depends on the situation. If I'm planning on, say, assassinating a PC that's in good standing with their clan. They contribute a lot and are the leader and everything. I might e-mail my clan imm but I'm not going to CC the imm of the other clan. I'll ask my clan imm as well to keep it under wraps. Quite simply, staff are human too. It's easy for a "maybe you should take some extra guards around as well" to slip through because the staff member really enjoys that PC or whatever.

At that point I'm cheated out because that staff member blabbed to the player. I've got no way to prove this and basically get screwed over for the entire thing. On the flip side of the coin, maybe they just take extra guards out that week. I still have absolutely no way of telling whether or not the imm told that player. At that point I could personally be wrongly thinking that the imm blabbed when the player was just lucky. It's just a tangled mess.

However, this almost never applies in my opinion to your clan imms. If I'm important enough that my clan imm wants a weekly update, they hear everything. They can vouch for you when another imm might say, "Hey, how did that aide's weapon skills get so high? Is he twinking out?" "No, he just got beaten up in a fight last week and wants to learn how to defend himself". It's as simple as that. Your clan imm might be what saves you from being constantly snooped and under the suspicion of doing something wrong.

So they can crush your idea.  And they hold grudges forever. Likely, in my opinion,  if you don't get along with an imm or make a mistake, expect your future requests to categorically denied/crushed. They are busy and never respond and get pissed when you ask again after a week. Suddenly everything you do will becme twinkish, or unfit for the harsh desert reality of zalanthas.  You can wait around hopeful that your request will be handled by an imm who doesn't hate you. But they are thick as theives. Don't hold your breath. Now this is only MY personal opinion.  Basically I don't trust them with the information. For all I know a few legions of sone army or another are going to magickally appear where I am and kill me because some virtual NPC read my mind. For that reason I rarely did anything on a regular schedule and left mostly on whims when I did do anything for fear of imm reprisal. Probably why I don't use the think command. Which makes me look like a bad rper which makes me even more disgruntled Now I expect them to censor this message, because basically they are the 'MAN' and they don't tolerate dissent. They will say something like if you have a problem with  the imms you should email the staff. But I know they don't really give a crap about my opinion so why bother? Better give them reason to despise me so I have excuses hehe. Then they will say if you don't like it here, there are plenty of other free muds to play etc. But obviously I do like it here. Oh and they will say I am ungrateful for what imm support I have gotten. You can't buy my love. Not to say they want it. In fact they might even let the post stand to show how little they regard my opinion, and show it with vehement demonstrations of their verbal attacks skills.

I know plenty of other people who say they have had decent luck emailing and communicating with the imms. That is probably the best way and could work for you undoubtedly.

I wanted to speak out the truth. The truth of how I feel. Not the truth of the situation. But what is truth? I am sure everyone else loves and respects the imm for their time and effort . I respect that they have created a great RP environment. Its a great mud. I play as much as I can. Player-Imm interaction..hmm. I think I have dug my own grave deep enough. Weee! Done rambling.

p.s. I would like to add I usually dislike imms as a general rule and who am I to tell if these have actually done anything any of you would ever be offended about. Now really done.

[Gorobei]

Wow.  Was that one of those newfangled joke posts?

Anyhow, I for one am going to start sending in reports, now that they're being called for.  Who here -doesn't- want to be like me, right?  So, start sending!

[Sanvean]

As you can see, it's frustrating to players when they get reined in for doing something unrealistic, and we end up with situations where increasingly unpleasant emails are flying back and forth. Hopefully, with more communication, some of this will be avoided.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Beware, IMMs of ArmageddonMUD. You shall receive massive loads of email from me. Heh.

[Ix Machina]

Another suggestion when emailing your clan immortal about happenings is to specify whether or not the information is a report or whether it is you simply keeping the immortal abreast of happenings. And a good rule of thumb is to cc: the mud account as well so everyone can keep track of things.

What some members of the clan I work with do, is submit an email with subject lines of: Information to Elders/Superiors/<npc above pc name>, or "PC audience with NPC/Superior/Elder" or "Reports". Something that mentions that this is a straight out report meant to be taken in an IC context to the higher-ups in the clan.

Often, if the email doesn't mention anything like the above, or it is not clear if someone is informing us about their pc, or making an ic report, we will treat it as OOC information just to put us on the same page, or we will email back asking for clarification.

I would say that as a way that you can be absolutely sure that your OOC information stays that way, or your IC report is treated as such, is to specify which it is. (And always cc: mud@ginka.armageddon.org).

[X-D]

I have to say, I normaly don't e-mail prior to things, mostly cause often they are not planned and partly because, sadly, some staff DO use imm gained knowledge in an unrealistic manner. Not bitching really, because it is hard to keep things seperate for players as well as staff.

And I've seen it happen BTW, and often the reason given is VNPC, Well, I know of at least 3 cases where the VNPC would need to be a halfling/sorcerer/mindbender or staff, My money is on staff.

I do on the other hand try to let clan imm's know things that are going on, like I said though, often after the fact, but hey, better late then never:)

Oh, on dead newbie's little rant, I can't speak about the highlords, but I know for a fact that Ness don't take no shit on staff breaking rules and will delete in a heartbeat, I have a feeling sanvean might take 1.6 heartbeats, But only cause she might give you time to say "I can explain!" :-D

Oh, and lastly, I don't think staff should know -everything- before it takes place, I've gotten much more realistic NPC reactions from the suprise events then the planned

[Nechomacus]

One thing I have done in the past when communicating with staff members is to make two portions to my emails.  One would have the header: IC and the other would be OOC:  

It was a general rule of thumb that anything under IC was to be known to the npcs and vnpcs.   The OOC was things that were not to be known to other players/npcs/vnpcs at all.  It worked out well on both sides and has continued to work well now that I'm on staff with players.

I'd encourage anyone discussing two different things to do the same.  It's worked well in all situations.

Nechomacus

[Ayashah]

So they can crush your idea.  And they hold grudges forever. Likely, in my opinion,  if you don't get along with an imm or make a mistake, expect your future requests to categorically denied/crushed. They are busy and never respond and get pissed when you ask again after a week. Suddenly everything you do will becme twinkish, or unfit for the harsh desert reality of zalanthas.  You can wait around hopeful that your request will be handled by an imm who doesn't hate you.

Okay, thats a bit too much paranoia there. I am by far NOT a favorite of some imms. Basically, as I listed in my post, I only seem to communicate with them when an issue arises so I come across as defensive and too emotional. BUT I have NEVER believed any of those imms would set out to kill my pc on purpose. Mayhaps do somethings that dont make sense IC and cause an IC reaction that they werent expecting but never hateful, spiteful, "all her pcs must die" syndrom. I might have had a brief thought when something happened but I know that's not true. But I realize that its something I can change. I can be more open and see where that leads.

Thats called learning from a mistake. Perhaps, before deciding it's all the imms fault you should step back, take a look at your actions in game and out of game and see if the rafter in your eye is bigger than the splinter in theirs.

[Rindan]

I think you people are WAY the hell to paranoid.  If am imm really wants to squash you, they can do it and make it look they didn't.  I imagine it takes a few seconds to load up a PC looking NPC, go find you, and kill you.  They can have a magiker randomly jump you, then can just flat out slay you.  It seems silly they would bother to wait for the moment when you are trying to communicate with them to go ahead and kill you, as that would be the most obvious time where you can point a finger at one of them.

E-mailing the staff might result in your plans not going the way you want them to.  It might go this way because they simply animate the world in a realistic manner.  If you e-mail that you are going to poison and kill Lord Inbreed in the barrel at 10 PM on Saturday, and that time roles around and you poison him so he is knocked out, then jump onto a table, pull out a sword and begin to rant about why you are about to commit your act, don't be surprised when soldiers show up a few moments later.  A dozen VNPCs and perhaps PCs went out of the tavern, there is a soldier a room away, and the rest of the bar that didn't run is frantically waying for help.  That is just the world acting realistically, not an imm out to get your personally.  

Further, while yes you might have the world act realistic in a negative way for your cause, it also might turn out to act realistic in a good way.  You might plan an assassination in a noble's estate.  You sneak onto the noble's wagon and follow it into the noble's quarter.  You emote a distraction and sneak past the door guards.  You get inside, find your noble, and kill him.  You stuff the body in a closet, then steal some servants clothing.  OOCly, you are stuck and you can't get out.  ICly, you pretend to be a servant and an imm has you talk your way past the gates to freedom with no one the wiser.

I personally have seen the imms go out of their way to be the good guys.  If you wish yup that you want to bash down a door to freedom, you are more likely to break through the door then have an imm echo your arm breaking and taking away use of that arm.  They are not afraid to make the world act realistic in a negative manner when it calls for it, but form what I have seen they always tend to error on the side of making the world too forgive instead of too brutal.

I am 100% sure that is how it goes for some people.  But in my experience. No.

[JollyGreenGiant]

Hmm.  So, I read Sanvean's post.  And this thread.  I'd always figured imms had "stuff to do" and "didn't want to be bothered", before, but after reading, I figured, "Eh, why not."  So I emailed my clan imms.

I would like to stop and point out that the mud I played on previously, there's no chance I would have done this; the admin was an egomaniacal control freak, and emailing him anything never ended well.  To all those who think you've had bad experiences with Armageddon's imms - try experiencing the horrific awfulness that is Threshold's admin.  Since joining Armageddon's cast of characters, however, my experience with the staff, helpers, immortals, etc. has been nothing but positive.  So despite the naysayers and my own personal reserves, I figured I'd give it a try.

Well, while one attempt doesn't exactly constitute a trend, I'd say so far so good.  I even got a response, and it did nothing to diminish my growing confidence in the staff of Armageddon.  So... try it again, even if you've had problems in the past.  It's a game, and it's free to play.  Honestly, what's the absolute worst that could happen?