Posted by Shokai(IMM) on April 25, 2000 at 13:24:20:
In Reply to: Immortal Screwing posted by Old Imperial on April 25, 2000 at 05:07:41:
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> Immortals are human beings, unfortunately. Behind that mask of all-knowingness is somebody who is prone to the weaknessses of mortality like anyone else. In the world of CF, they are pron to one more thing, the old adage that power corrupts.
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Power? Power?!?! I don't know quite what you think goes on in ye old CF world, but a sense of power I have not. I don't walk around all proud because 'I'm an immortal on CF' wee-ha. Yes we are human, which means that there are 2 sides to every story...for once can we actually be right? Instead of everyone jumping on the 'immortals suck' bandwagon? The percieved sense of power we have is only as real of an illusion as you believe it to be. Could we fuck everyone over, sure. Do we? No. Why? Well...because that would ruin the point of making CF wouldn't it? Remember, kids, we all played mortals...we all ran around doing exactly what you're doing now...hell some of us probably thought that the immortals were screwing people over, once you step behind the curtain...the scene changes. There are probably more restrictions on what an immortal can/can't do (yes, even the Imps) and get away with than there are on normal players. We are the immstaff because CF was something that we enjoyed enough to *work* on, and make better.
> There will ALWAYS be a reason to screw someone over. Anyone can be screwed over with an RP reason if one is looked for. Someone mentioned that they should look at the 'spirit of the law' and not 'twist and turn the meaning of every word'.
To quote Chris Rock, "There's a reason to push an eighty year old man down a flight of stairs...just don't do it!!" That's pretty much the attitude we've adopted as a staff. Sure, we could screw people over, but why? What would it do for us, except undermine what we're working on?
98% of the complaints that I've heard against any immortal, when I've looked at both sides, I'd have to say the immortal was totally correct in what they did. Could they have been more civil? Possibly. Could they have been a bit more through in explaining? Perhaps. Could they have held thier temper a little more while the guy told them how pathetic they were? Possibly, but why bother at that point? As you pointed out, we're only human...and if we're not treated as such (ie: occasionally shown a small tip of gratitude/respect for working on this game that gives us nothing but a sense of creating something fun for othere people) don't expect us to coddle you when you screw up. Golden rule "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", I feel confident in saying that the vast majority of the CF immstaff lives by.
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> The question is. Do immortals serve themselves, or the mud, or th people who play them? I was around when people were being screwed over during the knights, i had three, not one of them was screwed. I've had fur Imperials, not one of them got screwed either. But it's the same trend. An elitist immortal imposes his own strict standard on a cabal, and everyone who doesn't meet it, too bad. Ironically, the knight immortals who did the screwing are almost like the Empire immortals doing it now.
And here I play my patented 'bite me' card. Two things, I'm tired of the word elitest...I'm going to replace it with the word 'duckie' (for no reason other than I feel like it...it's a power thing, see it corrupting me?) Now...why the hell would we 'serve' anyone? We're here to work on, improve, tweak, and admin the game...to keep it running smoothly, and fix things behind the curtain so that it continues to run smoothly...and evolves. As for the 'strict' standards of the immortals....is it overly strict that we don't let ragers use 'casting' weapons? Or potions? Or that we don't allow rangers and druids into Arbiters? Or maybe it's wrong to expect Masters to perfect spells? All of these are just exactly what you're talking about with a 'duckie' immortal running the show. Obviously we should just so to hell with it all and let cabals do whatever they feel like, I mean it's just free power right? To hell with roleplaying and philosophy.
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> If you want to punish for lack of roleplay, why does it have to be anathema? You ask a stupid question on the cabal channel and you get anathema? That's ridiculous in any roleplaying sense. The lack of some structure of mild disciplining is partly the fault, but the main reason is the immortal doig the screwing doesn't give a damn whose feelins he/she hurts, whose time and effort was thrown down the drain just because they didn't meet some impossibly high standard.
Impossibly high standard? Are you sir, perhaps, a duckie yourself? I mean 4 Imperials, none of them anath'd...and yet an obviously impossible high standard that you've reached and matained for 4 characters. (ever get the feeling you just disproved you're own words? Because unless you are the godsend of roleplaying, and noone has the ability to be similiar to you...you just did) Cabal standards are just that...Empire is not a fluffy, pat-you-on-the-back-here-have-a-cookie-and-let-me-kiss-your-boo-boo cabal. It's a sink or swim one, yes anathmea does carry some serious penalties...but joining the Empire has some high gains....it's a gamble, feel like you're the best? Feel like you can make it? Fine...roll the dice and stick to your role, and try to live up to the aforementioned impossibly high standards. If not, may I suggest another cabal?
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> There was duergar shaman who was leading people from other sects to find people to kill, anathemaed. Ask who is a rager or the location of anyone, anathema.
*shrug* I know nothing about this incident, so I'm not going to comment.