Dealing with Death

[Testing]

Everyone deals with death in different ways.  Some people eat a lot, some people mope about and cry, others turn to psychiatrists or perscription drugs to deal with the pain of losing a loved one.

Many Armageddon players deal with it by griping that it was totally unfair or done for no reason.

The line "there was no RP reason for it that I could see" is something I must have seen now a hundred times.  I think that's a terrible assumption to make.  Were you part of a House?  Did you work for nobles?  If you did then a rival group has interest in seeing you dead.  Maybe you're a loner who spends all their time hunting in the wastes, you killed a scrab that someone else had their eye on, they needed it badly for food, so they took it off of your corpse.  The fact is that much of the time you have no idea why you were killed, just like you don't know every plotline which is going on.  It might be nice to know, but not everyone wishes to reveal their diabolical plans to you James Bond style before they put a hole in you.

Several years ago (so I think this is fairly safe to mention) I assassinated a servant in a noble house which was a rival of the one I was working for.  He had been making all sorts of trouble for us and I decided to handle the contract I put out on him myself.  Some time later I find out that he e-mailed the MUD to complain that he was killed for no reason, it was just random and totally out of character, and that they needed to watch me yada yada yada.  Since then I've seen plenty of people griping about kills which I helped perform or plan myself complaining that it was for no reason, ignoring the fact that they had been involving themselves in things that were potentially dangerous.  You might be a humble merchant for some house, but if a rival notes that you're making a lot of money for them, you might just end up dead!

Most of the complaints mention that the attack "came from nowhere" or something to that effect.  Well that's called an assassination.  You might not be a very important person at all, but you can still be targetted for an assassination, in fact I personally prefer to cut the underlings out from beneath a difficult target.  And if you're killed in a bar so what?  Strategically speaking for an assassin it's not a bad place.  The person is likely seated, totally unsuspecting, not moving around, maybe even drunk.  There's a crowd, so you pass unnoticed till you're right up behind them and...  well...  You all know the story.  A crowded tavern just means a difficult escape, not a difficult kill.

Assassins can make a living by identifying reasons people would wish to see someone dead and then proposing that very idea to the party who would be interested in seeing it happen.  I have yet to encounter a character where I couldn't envision a scenario in which they would be murdered by contract, so the fact that you get killed might be exactly that sort of situation.

It's ok to hit your monitor.  It's ok to scream when you read "Welcome to Armageddon," but seriously, if you don't know, assume that you were killed for a reason.

[Anonymous]

From another side of things...

Just because everyone and their uncle is suddenly looking for a missing persion doesn't mean that missing person was cheating OOCly in avenging their death. Maybe, JUST maybe, that person was popular, and available all the time, and now that they're not around for a RL day or two people start wondering where they are and why they can't be reached with the Way.

So for all you killers out there, don't assume that the posse looking to lynch someone is only looking, because "obviously someone found out OOCly." Maybe someone did figure it out OOCly. Maybe they didn't. Maybe it doesn't even matter because the character was around so much that they would be missed ICly anyway and it makes total sense for people to start asking questions in the game.

In other words it goes both ways. You know what happens when you assume.

[Insulted]

Being someone that was recently accused of OOC information abuse for exactly what Guest just posted about, I will back that up.  In fact, I'm REALLY pissed off that I would be accused of that, especially in the particular circumstances that surrounded that situation.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

There have been numerous instances where folks have died, seemingly OOC, but where IC events actually dictated the path of their date with Drov. I have, myself, been in possession of OOC info where I know OOCly someone is doing wrong. ICly, the information was never given to me, and thus, I'd not kill them or punish them or whatnot.

Trust players more.

Accept that death is inevitable. I don't care how careful you think you may be. You are never safe, ever. Stop whining about death (and here, I refer to the player base as a whole, not any one individual) and start thinking more IC. Very rarely is someone in this MUD killed for strictly OOC reasons. Just because you think it's OOC, does not mean that it is.

Immortals are constantly monitoring deaths. In many cases, they pick up on OOC actions before the player base does. So, let the Immortals decide the right or wrong of a death and move the fuck on. You don't know shit about whether or not it was OOC.

If you've been accused of OOC play, then look back upon your actions. If you feel that the Immortal is wrong (and this is possible, because they are only human, after all, but unlikely in most cases), then say so in a polite and condusive manner. You may still be punished, but the best thing to do is move on and prove that you are not playing OOCly. If you were, move on and learn how not to play OOCly.

The Immortals tend to be fair about giving chances out, so if you do get caught, it is very likely that you'll get a chance to rectify your name. DO so. If you only play OOC, and can't help it, go play another game.

In the end, just play the game. When you die, accept it. If you don't, rejoice. But just play the damned game.

EDIT: It was brought to my attention that I said 'we' in a manner that seemed to imply that I was staff. I am not. I thought I should clear that up for any readers who may have caught the typo.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

You may also want to stop passing out OOC info, or recieving it. If you think that OOC is killing your character, or that OOC information influenced your descision, then stop participating in the spreading of it. If you feel that it is a touchy thing, then stop.

[aeshyw]

I highly suggest that anyone who is in a position where they have to sometimes PK other characters email the mud ahead of time if possible.

I personally do so and then also wish up that I'm about to 'do the deed'.  That way its pretty transparent to everyone what is going on and the IC reasons are pretty clear. It only takes a second to do this and I think it makes things easier for the staff to investigate if anyone does complain.

[JollyGreenGiant]

Also, email your clan Imms, if you're in a clan.  For some reason, they like to know what's going on...

[spawnloser]

While I can understand what you're saying, Venomz...some people just can't be blindly trusting of others, staff or players.  They want to make sure that their concerns are voiced so that they can get a confirmation that something was kosher or not so that they know.

Still, I have to agree that people seem to accuse people of using OOC information way too flippantly.  I know of one case that I was asked about it.  I'm guessing that it was because I suspected something and asked about it, so someone assumed that I had OOC knowledge of what had happened.  Now...I don't know if I should take this as an insult to my character or intelligence.  By the accusers logic, I'm apparently too stupid too realize that someone that should be around isn't...and someone's spreading info OOC, cheating.  Yeah...you can probably tell that I'm still not happy, but still, the staff looking into this shit is a good thing, to make sure that everything is running as it should...that noone is abusing the system.