Posted by Proud Blade on March 22, 2000 at 20:12:32:
In Reply to: encouraging cookie cuts? dragging this up the forum.. posted by Citizen Kane on March 22, 2000 at 14:57:56:
The IMMs aren't stupid. They know a lot of people will try to play non-traditional characters that happen to be powerful race/class/cabal combos. They know that people will try to weasel out of past mistakes by inventing on-the-spot RP solutions. They know the difference between "chaotic", "evil", and "will do whatever is best suited for getting me gear, PKs, and XP.".
However, they also recognize worthy effort. They watch and listen when you don't think they do, and they either take notes or have damn good memories. They can know your login pattern, your frequent groupmates, and a ton of other things I'm not aware of. They definitely know what you say over the cabal channel.
The reason I write all of this: Most of the time, when someone posts on the Forum that some IMM screwed their character, and I've met that character, my reaction is "Hmm... I remember meeting with that guy and being quite disappointed." The characters I meet in the game who impress me never seem to get into that sort of mess. They are too busy trying to complete quests, become their cabal's leader, or just chat.
To use a recent example, read up on the Everntien threads. If you ever interacted with Everntien, you probably noticed that he could (barely) talk the talk, but could not walk the walk. He hid in his guild, only logged on when his range was favorable, and broke character from time to time. He was very concerned with gear and fame, and didn't seem to find time to come out and try to whoop my evil ass, even when I was virtually the only evil on in his range, and was visible and not far away. When I heard he lost locate object, it didn't surprise me. When all of the other IMM allegations came out, it was rather predictable.
Going back to this case, look at the reaction of the accused. Did he calmly plead his case to the IMMs? Doesn't look like it. Looks like he likes public name-calling, ranting, and cursing. If I were the IMM in question, and saw that the Imperial had performed such a quest, I would have slapped him around a bit as well. From both accounts, this is how it started. But the IMM also claims that the character failed to justify his actions, or even admit that they were errors. I'm somewhat certain that the IMM was just testing the character, and the character failed the test. Result: Well, the price you pay for the ease of joining Empire is the sword hanging over your head. Lawful Evil just isn't tolerant of errors.
And plenty of people have gone on for some time as Anathema. It's not much harder than being uncabaled and un-Oathed- Imperials would kill you either way, although they might make a bit more effort for the Anathema. And it's not like Anathema have never been allowed back in. Properly handled, it would be possible, though a challenge. And in any case, there are certain advantages to being free from all cabal obligations.
There is no Vast IMM Conspiracy. They do not play the game to ruin people's characters on a whim. Cursing them out on an OOC forum is not helping, either. Pick yourself back up, and either make something out of this character or roll up a better one.
To borrow from another: *plink* *plink*
> I should say, I seriously doubt any imm anath'd any mortal solely because of this. I give the imms much more credit than that.
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> "quest there isn't so there is no good roleplaying way to solve the quest."
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> There's a couple bad things here. First is the utter lack of shades of gray. Nobody does, or should, start out a Scarabaeus or Istendil. At level 7, being evil you're mowing down dockworkers and prophets by the dozen, but how is it out of role that you'd take a quest to escape the monotony of whacking a few more forest creatures? Every act is supposed to be of preconceived foul intent? That breeds caricatures.
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> Also in this case it's reasonable to assume the bard and the princess will give a reward. Not written out, no, but it'd be a good assumption. If I hadn't gotten a reward afterward, and I were evil, I'd simply kill the questors out of spite.
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> And the biggest thing I see wrong is this punishment for "bad roleplay" done so far after the act, before most players have any reason to be excessively 'good' or 'evil'. Cabal imms should judge roleplay as it relates to the cabal and actions done while in the cabal. This was a really lame reason for him to be anath'd. A quest could've been written to shame or punish the guy, but blunt anathema? By a divine source suddenly popping out to bring up a good deed done long before the oath was taken? Before his role is solidified? That's stupid. And it's very unsophisticated, given all the possibilities here... were I an imm out to discourage this, I would write a quest or find some way through mobs to do so. Divine wrath for saving an Elf for boots 40 years past fits the immortal role about as well as saving the Elf fit the mortal's.