Yhorian,

You're a great guy. You have made some amazing characters. I loved hanging out with Delilah when I was playing Ujesken. It was some of the best, most original RP I've seen in CF in a long time. Amaranthe did an amazing job with that challenge, and although it didn't turn out anywhere near its potential, I still think it was one of the best things to happen to CF. Period. I'm glad we were able to be a small part of it.

I have no problem with you. None. Zip. Zero. Can you feel my love?

I know you put a lot of effort into CF and trying to make it better. You care. I do too. Sometime we care too much. Sometimes we try so hard we just get frustrated by those who drain our passion, energy, and positivity with their negativity, arrogance, and entitlement.

We try with polite jokes, subtle winks, and teasing nudges. But, eventually, because we care, if our voices are not acknowledged, we have a choice. We can continue down the same path hoping one day things miraculously change. We can leave. Or we can start raising our voices. Start being a little more insensitive. A little more direct.

Any attack you read in my responses was based purely on what you wrote. I do have a problem with people, anyone, saying that some group feels too entitled without acknowledging their very own feelings of entitlement. It smacks of hypocrisy. I have a huge problem with hypocrisy. Hypocrisy tears relationships apart. And I don't want that to happen. Not to us, not to this community. I would much rather have justified negativity than hypocrisy (I don't care for unjustified negativity). While we're discussing morals, humility is a great thing. When mistakes happen (and they always will), speaking to those mistakes goes a long way toward building trust.

In your original post below, you entitled it: "Mystery is attractive." I was told that too when I was an Imm. And to some small degree, it is very true. I remember when I Imm'd, I felt like I was seeing the wizard behind the curtain and some of that mystery was lost forever. But that isn't what makes CF special. That isn't the core fundamental fun of CF.

If you only want the mystery, you'll spend forever talking in dark, smoky booths. At some point you want to take the clothes off of your mysterious date and create some heart-pumping fun experiences. And years later, when there's little mystery left and you've explored every nook and cranny of each other, you can still create those amazing, intimate experiences.

You see, you can have mystery and still have a game where newbies aren't getting raped by the veterans. They step into the smoky room and get sexed by a gaggle of mysterious strangers for a few hundred hours. The strangers are very mysterious, and will usually lube if they realize you're a newcomer. Aren't they so courteous? But it will be a long time before the newbies can fight well enough to even escape a pk on a regular basis. I'm sorry if that analogy is too harsh, but that is essentially what happens after starting CF.

The divide between the haves and the have-nots is the grand canyon. It has grown over the years. In part due to the original nature of the game and everyone just starting out, and in part to design decisions. And unfortunately, mystery is tied into power in CF in a big way. Mystery over the maps. Mystery over the abilities. Mystery over items. And mystery is tied into CF in a bad way.

Here's the challenge for you, Yhorian: Make it so newbies can kill middle of the pack players with their very first character. They might only go 5-50. But get them kills. Require them to learn mystery to do it if you want. Tie your mystery and getting pks together however you want, as long as the average player can do it with their very first character.

The Imms have made some changes to help out. It is a bit like taking baby steps in the right direction. I've made a bigger fuss with some ideas of my own that are more like trying to get us hopping the right direction. What we really need are drastic changes. We need rocket jumps. Did you get a chance to watch this? [www.youtube.com]

We have to stop saying that people don't play CF because of graphic games. That's an excuse. It prevents us from getting to the heart of the issue. There have always been graphic games. I will say, games today are more fun than they were 20 years ago. I tried playing some of my old Atari games and old arcade games on the Xbox... they suck compared to games today. They're cumbersome, repetitive, and the pacing is slow.

Is CF as fun as it could be? Is it as sticky as it could be for new players? Are we even talking about the right issues?

Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it: Get the newbie 5 kills with his very first character.

Your biggest fan,
Paul

P.S. One more thing. If "Mystery is attractive" then it doesn't need power. I would argue that it is power that makes much of the mystery in CF attractive. There are many aspects of CF that are largely ignored because they are viewed as not worth it. The mystery by itself is not compelling enough for most people to mess with it. Most of us prioritize RP over PK in some area, but for the most part PK is what gets the blood pumping. No, mystery isn't that attractive. Especially when it comes to static objects. Does anyone really care about the low level sword of zuron compared to the high level one? Power is attractive. Empower the newbie's characters.

- Paul



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2014 07:35AM by PaulO.