Posted by Proud Blade(VIP) on April 23, 2000 at 17:37:35:
In Reply to: Bah, so which is it? (text) posted by Ex-Imperial on April 23, 2000 at 17:14:39:
> Number One strike against rping: bloodoath. Totally fucks anyone who didn't roll up to be an imperial or arbiter in the first place. It's useless. Anyone who takes it for a purely RP reason is a masochist, at least in my and the vast majority of players' opinions, because it is not generally considered 'fun' to play a horribly crippled char on a mostly-PK mud.
True, at least now. When the Empire is strong, taking the BloodOath has a nice benefit- Imperials don't attack you, and you can pass the Centurions that clog every road. Right now, Empire is a non-factor, at least at the higher ranks, and there's just no incentive to Oath, and deal with alignment troubles through roleplaying. It's easier to just give Empire the finger, knowing that they can do little to harm you.
On a separate note, I would hardly call CF "mostly-PK". It's a nice balance, actually.
> Second strike: what he just said. Either it's yes, we'll take rping, which means not anath'ing the non-cookie-cuts. Or it's no, no roleplaying, in which case why have the fucking cabal? Or why call it an RP mud?
No. If you are playing an Imperial, you accept certain contraints on your RP. As an example, your RP shouldn't include giving gold and gear to lowbies to help them out. You can play an Imperial "by the book" and still have plenty of flexibility. I did, and I had a lot of fun. And yes, a lot of my fellow Imperails were Anathed around that time.
That being said, it does seem like there are more Anathema than Citizens these days. But that could be one of two things:
1) The IMMs are being too strict or arbitrary, or
2) Many members of the CF playerbase don't play Imperials well enough.
I haven't played an Imperial of late, but based on what I -have- seen, it's more 2) than 1). A lot of people seem to expect Empire to be less heartless and brutal than it is. It's not the Boy Scouts. It's not even the Michigan Militia. It's much more evil, and demanding.