Armageddon in 2007

[ale six]

I thought it would be interesting to collectively look back on Armageddon over the course of the last year and analyze it a bit. What were the major events, what trends did we notice that came about or died off, what did we like and dislike, and what do we feel about the way things are going?

It feels like we had more turnover in staff this last year than in others previous. We had several veteran staffers step down or leave the game (we miss you), and we had a bunch of new ones taken on (you all rock).

House Borsail was closed as a clan, probably for good. The Atrium is gone too along with it, and I think a tribal clan or two was shut down? I haven't played in the tablelands, so I'm not totally sure.

We had many many many many many RPTs, some big and some small. A couple were big enough to be on the world-changing level. Sadly, the Zalanthas History document file didn't get updated at all in 2007. The last thing on there is about the Copper War.

Speaking of the website, I remember there was talk about redoing it, but that seems to have been pushed back too.

The staff seemed a lot less shy with changing the game world and making things feel less static. I really liked that feeling, I hope it continues. The world is more exciting to play in when you feel like it can definitely change.

It feels like there's been more emphasis on PC actions driving the game, and not being led by or checked by NPC actions. This is good, to a point, when it puts players, rather than predestined plotlines, in control. However sometimes it feels like the virtual/NPC world really doesn't exist at all, or isn't put into play when it realistically should be.

2007 saw a perceived upsurge in karma-classed PCs being created, which seemed to be suppressed or taper off later on in the year. I remember it felt like in the early months of the year, just after the Arm 2 announcement, everyone was feeling a rush to play things they hadn't played before, do things they hadn't done before, and everyone wanted to have a way to affect the end plots somehow. It feels like after that initial rush, we realised that Arm 2 would be a while longer yet and settled back down to playing normal Armageddon again. I definitely think that's a good thing.

I can't really remember what code changes happened in the last year and which were earlier, but I definitely love the additions of things like feel, bio, and watch, whenever we got those (it feels like it's been a year or so now.)

I cast mon summon Gimfalisette to analyse player login trends over the year, but at a glance I can say there were 258 unique logins in the first week of the year and 254 in the last week.

What's everyone else remember and think of 2007?

[Adhira]

I just want to add a caution here that posts need to be very general with regards to anything IC.

IC information and flaming will not be tolerated and will result in this thread being removed.

Enjoy the thread, just remember the rules. 

[Troicha]

I like the stuff that happened with the things. Oh, and those other things. And a few foos and bars, too.


Seriously though; 2007 has been a very good year, bitching and all.

[Rindan]

I would call it a mixed bag from my perspective (that is to say southern commoner).  I would say that from what I saw, up until just recently there was an absolutely plague of super-natural voodoo crap.  I personally felt that the game on every single levels was felt more like cliche fantasy than the dark low fantasy of that made me love Armageddon.  After a while  you just found yourself throwing your hands up in the air and decide that after the fifth time of seeing a water demon, he is more annoyed at having his hunting grounds occupied than shitting himself in terror.  After hearing gemmers babble about eating babies and how awesome they can unleash forces of d00m and having absolutely no one respond negatively, he might start to think that Tuluk isn't such a land of barbaric savages after all, as at least they still find unnatural freaks disconcerting.

I would say in general, that the RPed social taboos in the super natural were bent to the shattering point and barely get lip services anymore (in the south).  I could stomach it a lot better if someone just told me that "yeah, this is IC, Allanak really just doesn't give a shit any more and your commoner doesn't mind chatting with gemmers and getting getting cheaper-than-templar water from them".  Instead, we have a wide range of opinions as to what is socially acceptable with newer people thinking that this is business usual and older players tearing their hair out in frustration as they fight the tide.  I personally wish that the hand-o-God would come down, clarify acceptable social behavior so there is no disagreement, and help enforce it.

The only bright spot I can say about the supernatural piece is that in past month or two it seems to have cooled off a little.  People are still casual about it, but at least I see fewer obviously supernatural folks wandering around.

Supernatural bitching aside, I think that the game has been healthy. 

Code wise, the improvements have been wonderful.  Countless long time bugs have been fixed, and countless minor long time wanted features have been added.  Code wise, I would say that the game is the best it has ever been.

As far as the player base goes, I probably wouldn't say I have seen any improvement, but I don't think it is noticeably worse either.  I have met some absolutely awesomely played and inspirational characters.  I would say that the player base is as good as it ever has been, which is to say it has been damned good.

From a commoner perspective, crime is dead.  Outlaw groups certainly have been active from time to time, and an annoying amount of it has focused on he supernatural, but every day petty crime is pretty much extinct.  The normally low levels of crime have been reduced to even lower levels.  The utter gimping of pick pockets, one of the most abused classes in the game was, IMO, was utterly inhuman and cruel.  Sneak and hide improvements aside, there was no reason in the world to make pick pockets even more of a pain in the ass to play than they were before.  There has never been a time in the past 10 years when pick pockets were ever more than the most minor of nuisances.  Pick pockets, my they rest in peace.  Crime outside of pick pocketing has been extremely low.  I am not sure if south-side elves even exist these days.

I missed many of the RPTs, but from the once I ran into and seeing the aftermath, they were good fun.  It has been nice to see the world get shaken up a little.

In general, I would say that I would call the year a mixed bag.  The glut of supernaturals was a real downer for me that made trying to play an average commoner with average commoner views annoyingly frustrating and futile.  The flip side was that the coded improvements were substantial and that the player base remains strong in terms of RP.

[Gimfalisette]

I cast mon summon Gimfalisette to analyse player login trends over the year, but at a glance I can say there were 258 unique logins in the first week of the year and 254 in the last week.

The tawny-blonde data analyst appears in a deafening explosion and choking *poof* of smoke, blinking and wheezing.

General trend of player logins was a slow decline from a 4-week average of approx. 255 in January 2007, to a low of approx. 220 in May 2007, and then a sweeping rise from late August to late September which brought us to our current 4-week average of about 265. So, great news, even though we faltered some, we have more active players now than at the beginning of 2007. (The bad news is that this is still 60 to 70 players less than our former average of 330, pre-announcement.)

[Teal]

I'm not sure can I can really offer an amazing perpective on Armageddon and the changes in 2007; having started playing just this last June. I don't have a long-term view of things, and have played few characters, only one that I would call "sucessful." The annoucement about Arm 2 was already out when I got here; and for awhile I was unaware of really what that meant. This was followed by the paranoia that I wouldn't get to play in all the different places I wanted to before The End. Now, of course, I'm more settled in, happy with my current PC but still looking foreward to the oppertunity to play in more cultures and clans in the future since Arm 2 seems to be less of "an immediate threat"-- Not to say that I'm not excited about it, but I still want to experiance as much of the first Arm as possible.

As a new player, I didn't realise just how odd the crazy excess of magickers in the south was. I think that the Arm community though did a good job dealing with that; the karma off where people decided to make a change for themselves by saying that they wouldn't play magickers and such and asked their karma to be taken away for that. I'm not a participator in that, hoping to someday have the option to play a 'Gicker, but I think that dedication of the players is really what keeps Arm going.

As for Arm staff-wise, I think that's been good. I'm sure I'm not aware of all the leaving and the comings, nor even know anywhere close to all the staff, but they're around making things interesting and helping. Requests, for me at least, seem to be handled in a nice amount of time, and with little if any issues. Even where I've had requests denied the reasons make sense to me, and are explained well. I think I've had only one disagreement, and it wasn't with the denial, (which there was good reasons) but a slight miscommunication of info. The imm inhabiting of people, despite still giving me chills, is well done in all cases I've seen. Which I suppose is to be expected, but hey, this is from a fairly new player's perpective, remember? So get out there n' try m' new swill, gith-th'-feck-out! (That quote would be Nyr, by the way...)

The one thing I do dislike about this year is the amount of people whose PCs are wishing for death, or being unafraid of torture. Being the heroic "I'm not afraid, curse the Templarite! I'm going down in a blaze of flame!" thing isn't origanal, nor IC. Your character wants to live. Grovel, beg and plea for crying out loud! These people are ruthless! They will kill you! It will hurt! For Tek's sake, even if it's too late to live, they might give you a fast death if you grovel enough instead of letting you know just what kinds of things cause those screams from the other jail cells! ...Yep, just a mite picky on that. Hopefully, we'll have more pleading and groveling next year.

There certainly seem to be a really low number of elves about in Nak, at least. Ocassionally you'll see a few more briefly pop up, but they seem to die off pretty quick. I don't know how well elves are being played, but I know I had an elf PC that I played absolutely awefully. They were basicly, a human. I'd only read the barest minimum for elf docs. Having read more since, I have to say that if played properly, elves look pretty damn fun and cool. If I do play another elf again, I'll certainly try to live up to that, because it sounds awesome.

Hmm. What else? I still have yet to see my first visible staff-member on "Who" despite being assured that they do become visible, on occasion. The most people I've ever seen online at once was 120ish, which was amazing from my perpective, since I think 40ish is the "usual" max I see. The least number of people was when there were two other people in the world besides myself.

Holiday wise, I've seen Arm things for Holloween and Christmas, the Turkey of Doom that supposedly exists illuding me. I have to say, those holiday things are awesome, and I like them, despite being unsure how to IC treat them. Mostly I think I ICly ignore them, but OOCly, I can say that they're awesome.

Submissions-wise, there has been awesome art submitted this year, which I love oggling, and impressive stories for reading. I'm not sure how many logs or songs were submitted during the time I've been here, but I've gotten to look at old stuff sumbitted before and I have to say, it's a nice collection.

GDB-wise, I still miss the old forums, whose layout I liked more (Yes, I know it's nearly the same now, but I'm picky) but these are dandy too. It was really good that all the posts were able to transfer over, as well as the accounts, which made life alot less stressful then it could have been.

I'm kind of rambling on now... So, in conclusion: Yeah, a few things that could have been better, but being new to Arm I have to say that more then anything else, I'm enjoying it, and hope to be here next year with an older and wiser perspective. Meantime, there's lots of Arming to be done! =3

[Malken]

Ah, to be a young, innocent Armageddon virgin again.

[mansa]

Ah, to be a young, innocent Armageddon virgin again.

True that.  I haven't had mudsex in 4 months!

[Malken]

Ah, to be a young, innocent Armageddon virgin again.

True that.  I haven't had mudsex in 4 months!

You're not missing much, 2007 was a pretty bad year for it. All the good mudsexers left long ago, -I- have the data on it.

Well, to keep on topic, some:

Enjoyed: The new Imms, the old Imms, the HRPTs, the new code additions, the 'giker purge.

Disliked: The playerbase. (Well, except for two of you, you're pretty awesome.)

[Desertman]

I love the playerbase.

[Sephiroto]

Like many people have stated, I too was irked by the surge of high-karma characters.  The recent changes I have observed in the playerbase are quite pleasing.  This may or may not be due to the karma-off...I'm not too sure.  I really hope to see things go back to 'normal' until the end of 1.Arm.

I was a little worried about the many changes that occured in the staff ranks at first but, as time went on, I came to embrace the new leadership.  I have greatly appreciated the support that the staff has offered myself and those whom my character relates with.

I hope that the characters still living in 2007 will prosper through the coming year and that we will make Zalanthas an interesting and exciting environment to escape to.

If my character dies, Krath forbid, I'll be joining the no-karma ranks...probably with a human assassin or warrior  and play Arm as a mundane like I did 8 years ago.  Long life the grit of Armageddon.