Tired Meme is Tired...just sayin. But- age quod agis- one of the most amazing things about CF in any context is that it will ultimately show you who you are. You get out of the game exactly what you put into it. One RL friend who played for years dove into the game and played by himself. He might group for ranking, run cabal activities (and he had a number of leaders), but he just explored Thera to its fullest dimensions and found plenty of adventure to be had. That's with nearly zero other-human-player-or-IMM involvement. As a result, he was so self-sufficient that he could handle groups on his own, and he was a force to be reckoned with. Though great friends IRL, we simply never played together. Either I had otherworldly problems or he did, or schedules didn't allow, etc. The few times we met in-game, we were fighting each other more often than not. I'll never forget how easily he greased my conjurer with his cloud ranger. Now, you complain about the "clique" of qhcf or of permagroups and #dangerroom etc.... but in the end those are social pursuits. The game is still going to be whatever you put into it. If you are one of the "in" crowd and only group with certain people and always have a perma, etc. to springboard you and borrowed or shared knowledge, then you're getting the big glossy-paged guidebook to the game, which in my experience has been a surefire way to suck all the enjoyment out of said game.

I'm an ancient vet- I witnessed the birth of MUDs and have enjoyed them since their inception. However, I'm a professional and a family man, so my playtime both in periods of play and frequency are limited. Hence, many "advantages" from playing ten-plus years are not really there for me- the Immortal staff does too good a job of changing things up. (An unpaid job, let's remember). Yes, I can reasonably re-gear a lowbie or midbie, I know some good combos and a few tricks of combat, but for all practical purposes I am a perpetual noob. That may be why the game never ceases to be fun for me- I'm like Charly from Flowers for Algernon, enjoying the environs in blissful ignorance, even when I get full-looted in the name of <cause> a few times around level 25. It's part of the game. You can deal with re-gearing and move on and take triumph and joy in simply heroing a character and becoming a story, or you can level-sit and enjoy some lowbie combat. It's like Empire Earth- you can set the end-epoch to the Middle Ages and fight the Arthurian legend, or you can progress to the Nano Age and learn the ways of boundless dimensional combat. If mudding ceases to involve a romantic-nerd-epic element, then you're just playing a numbers game and might as well go play blackjack. If you only played D&D with a calculator and spent more time looking at the calculator than your character sheet/the map/etc then you're more than welcome to continue playing that way- I just wanted to offer my insight on the matter.

My wife and I can afford a nice vacation this year, so a couple weeks will be devoted to the family, and a couple weeks will be free and clear for some serious engagement in digital violence. Some devoted to Skyrim (I got it late) and at least some devoted to plunging once more into the madness of Carrion Fields. Remember that you WILL die, and try not to take it too personally! :)

Est Sularis Oth Dynia.

- TFON