Posted by SphereMaker(IMM) on June 7, 2000 at 09:16:21:
In Reply to: Another question, then... posted by Entragin on June 6, 2000 at 20:29:25:
> So if one has been praying for a fairly extended period of time with no response, be it positive or negative, should that be taken as denial, and said character/idea scratched?
Certainly that's going to depend on your definition of "a fairly extended period of time". There once was a Spectre (Vhorak, I think) who claimed he prayed about becoming a lich for weeks with no answer, was fuming that no one responded to him, so he deleted. Checking the logs it appears he prayed something like twice in 2 days. So, perception is going to be important here; praying a hundred times during a single day shouldn't be read as "I'm doomed". Praying once at 12:10am every day for two weeks after having sent a note to the immortal probably should be read as "this isn't going to pan out".
Now, the unfortunate reality is that (a) if an immortal never gets to see you in action, they're going to put more weight on the empowerment interview then they probably should, (b) sometimes immortals get busy in RL and disappear for a bit, and (c) most of us aren't excited about spoonfeeding followers. An example of (c) follows:
FollowerX says, "Mighty Xor, God of Pudding, I come here to lay my prostate before you!"
Xor says, "Prostate, eh?"
FollowerX grovels in the dirt.
Xor shakes his head in dismay.
Xor says, "Why is it you disturb the Prince of Puddings, mortal??"
Xor looks at FollowerX and sees the description: "FollowerX looks like he's full of power it looks like. He's lean, he's mean, and he looks like he can clean your clock it looks like. Looks like you don't wanna mess with him! But if your friends to him he will be your friend forever looks like. But don't cross him!"
FollowerX says, "I wish to be your envoy to the world, the whipped cream that tops your message of deserty pleasures!"
And you get the idea. Now here's a guy that's probably real fired up about being a follower of Xor, but doesn't really know what he's doing. Xor's faced with a dilemma. He can't really say IC "go away and come back when you've written a good description" and there's no good IC way of saying, "Dude, you're clueless." However, if he turns around and writes him a note saying these things, FollowerX will keep coming back with new (and typically just as horrendous) descriptions and interview techniques that are hoping to spiral in on the right answers. I can't really speak for the other immortals on this, but for me that's no fun. That's like taking a multiple choice test where each time you pick a wrong answer an alarm sounds and gives you a chance to answer it correctly; what's the point?