Posted by Curious on October 19, 2000 at 16:56:47:

In Reply to: Why are there no skilled players left? (elitist rant) posted by The Arcane(VIP) on October 19, 2000 at 03:53:34:

> This is going to sound caustic. No way around that, sorry. If you feel personally offended by this (anyone), don't be. I'm not talking about specific individuals, really. I'm talking about the game as a whole, and asking what I believe to be an important question.

> I'm taking the logs I see on the board over the past days/weeks to be some semblance of a cross-section of what the current CF populace is like. If it's not, then my argument is baseless, but I'm assuming that's not the case given the sample size.

The logs aren't a good cross-section; reasons have been
posted already.

> So many mistakes are made, on so many sides, in these logs, that it boggles the mind. Look at the Zorszaul log where he basically was just fucking around, and yet still managed to kill people instead of being forced to flee decisively. I can't imagine how bored he must be, RP or no RP, with the lack of anything resembling a challenge.

> How the hell are people being consistently summoned and then withered before they can react, to the point where what should be a shot in the dark becomes a reliable strategy that enables someone to suck less than should be the case?

> How the hell can a transmuter have someone choked and halted, and have them in a position to be able to get away if not for their own mistakes?

I've seen logs which you've botched just as badly as
the above, bub. Play something not cookie-cutter for
pk purposes and then pop off.

> And so on.

> I've still been trying to figure out why the game doesn't appeal to me as it used to, and a huge part of it is the lack of goals or standards against which to measure myself. Sure, there's one or two out there still, but it's nothing like what it used to be. When I played Challen, or even a year later when I had Athrakagar, there were more truly skilled and dangerous players than I could count on my hands. I died more often... I had to flee more often... there were people whom I was really scared of fighting, and so on. In the absence of that, the combat/PKing aspect of the game boils down to tedium.

I agree in the absence of a challenge the combat/PK
aspect becomes tedious, but there's not really any
players that are *so* far above the rest that they
can't possibly lose ever. Sure there are a couple
of Imms who can beat just about everyone.. Nep, Twist,
and Guerric come to mind, but they still die and
are still challenged. Well, I'm assuming they're
still playing mortals and are still challenged I guess.

> That's not the case anymore. Not even close to the case. Immortals complain that people have all these conspiracy theories and such, moreso now than they used to... the reason why? If there's a standout player nowadays, it's an 80+% bet that it's one of four or five imms that I could name. That ratio, combined with the huge and growing gap in player skill, contributes to that sort of distrust.

I don't think there's that much of a gap. There's a
dozen or two players who are "elite" or "well above
average", and among them there's a couple who are
just beasts.

> You could argue that overall roleplay has improved, and that's true, though it's not a massive quantum leap (as was the case from say... early 1997 to early 1999). But this is a far cry from a pure-RP mud, unless that's what the imms want to make it into. CF has great areas, deep and reasonably original classes, and so forth. But the best thing in my eyes was always the players and the competition and interaction they afforded, and the best of them have long since left.

> That's the simple reality of things, and it's to the detriment of the game. So, where have all the elitists gone, and why have they left (and why aren't new people filling their shoes)? That's something I have to ponder some more, because I don't have an answer. Any thoughts?

I'm curious as to who you consider these elitists who
have left? Gareth? Matraien? Llorenthos? Smuggers?
Dikus? Graatch? There's a big difference between the
elite players from the first age and early second age
and now, but that's because most of the 1st/2nd agers
were incredible cheaters. Juggernaut/Admiral anyone?
If that's elite, then I'm glad they've left and the
playerbase should be too.

"Sad, lonely boy
Caught between infection and directions to the next big thing
Gets so hard sometimes
Always stuck between what you have and what you think you need
What do you do?
When the world just swallows you up
Spits you out"

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup