Posted by Golmagus on July 7, 2000 at 12:30:59:
In Reply to: You're not "wrong" posted by Tracker of the Wicked on July 7, 2000 at 11:11:55:
> That sort of got me used to the idea that Arbiters are meant to be flawed and abusive. Back when I played Golmagus, the initial purpose of the character (aside from seeing first-hand what it was like to play the revised necomancer class) was to explore playing LE to the hilt -- to walk the line between being abusive/greedy/vengeful and being accountable to the Law itself. I have to say it was a real eye-opening experience. On the one hand, despite the fact that Golmagus was a complete asshole, he ended up receiving a lot of praise from characters who were grateful to see that criminals couldn't get away with the standard bag of tricks they use to avoid punishment (I remember playing characters in the past and thinking "damn, but Arbiters are useless" because they'd never punish the guilty no matter what kind of evidence I could pull together). On the other hand, those same people were horrified if the focus ever turned to them and Golmagus abused them personally. The hard part was that I knew I was going to make mistakes and that ultimately I had to have some faith in the testimonies you get. How hard is it for you and your buddy to tell an Arbiter "X attacked me in Seantryn" and for the word of two-on-one be used to convict someone? In a sense, playing an Arbiter is a horrible responsibility -- you really do have the power to cripple non-hero characters with your judgements, but you also don't want to be completely useless and never flag anyone, either. Nepenthe always talks about how something rates on the fun-stick and I think the Arcane asked above "do Arbiters add to my enjoyment of the game". I think typically its the people playing a given cabal that are going to decide whether or not it's a fun addition to the game (how many Sylvan Warders are out there saying, "gee, it sure is fun having Empire out there"?) and in this case I think Arbiters are something of a toss-up. Although I enjoyed the cabal intellectually (I was always getting called in to explain myself to my superiors and really had to think about how to stay on the right side of the line), being an Arbiter is largely a pain in the ass. I watched so many players burn out on it and lose their minds it was just silly. And the Arbiters that I've seen enjoy the cabal enjoyed it like an addiction they couldn't shake (which may or may not be healthy). I think if nothing else it does keep the protected cities reasonably free of mayhem when Arbiters are actually showing up and doing their jobs, and that's probably a good thing. > But, yes, it sucks, and I understand why you'd want to come here and vent. The thing is, this kind of thing has inspired 70post flames many times before, and no good comes out of it, so it looks like you'll just have to hike up your pants and accept it.
> Expect constant mistakes.
> Expect illegal flags and attacks from Arbiters.
> Expect incompetence.
> Just avoid them, don't play them, and maybe they'll finally go away, again, or the particularly damaging aspect (exp holes from guards) will be changed.