I agree, one curse is already horrible enough, but having up to 9 possible curses? I'm sorry, but I don't see anyone that will stick around Lusternia to quest for karma to remove more than 3 curses on him/her at any given time. Considering the rate at which everyone are running around trying to gain blessings, and if Estarra is going to lessen the amount of karma obtained from quests since someone already gotten 2 blessings in 10 minutes, well...

This won't stop pk's either, I'm sure. This system was built to punish everyone for having fun. The avenger system was the cleanest system I've ever seen in a mud/mmorpg that didn't involve God policing. Now it's become a little more complicated. This sort of thing was tried in Ultima Online, and abused. This will be too.

I just don't understand what's so terrible about dying once to someone, and not being hit again for 30 real life days. Is dying really all that bad? I've been killed before. It sucks, but you get over it. Not everyone is out to get everyone else. If you don't want to fight, why did you come to Lusternia? Stay in Achaea.

Edit: Language censored. (Elryn)

I just got a karma blessing (the Knowledge one) and I do have to say it's quite nice. However, I still karma as a whole. I don't really have much to add to the comments of people above me, except a few words.

I loathe repetitiveness. This is why I don't bash or quest often. Because I wanted the knowledge blessing today, though, I tried doing some questing for karma. For the time I was doing it, I was utterly bored out of my mind. And a blessing only takes 50... 75 would be really to have to quest to get, especially if you have a curse like Chaos, War, Justice, Life, or , because those impair your fighting ability directly, and many quests require fighting. Not all of them, granted, but a good many. And you wouldn't be able to fight them if you were constantly off equilibrium, couldn't damage, got hit for double damage, had level 1 health, or were constantly being hit by powerful diseases.

I must say, I do not like it at this point. I never liked doing quests, and I suppose that I now would have to if I want to be able to play. Group combat on prime is probably gone now as well.

The system doesn't take into account whether someone has attacked you before you kill them for karma reduction- very sad.

EDIT: Like I kept going on in my other posts, forcing people to do quests makes the quest a chore, not a bonus.

Continuing on, I've loved Lusternia because I don't have to worry about a lot of things. Having to keep track of karma is going to be infinitely worse than having to keep track of 50 pages of PK rules and just because I'm an above average fighter, I'm going to have to spend my time competing for a chance to do quests with people. Meh.

You have to be killed by someone twice to call vengeance upon someone.Dying is cool when its for a reason like raiding villages or killing loyal ents and what not, but when you are just walking down the highway and get killed by someone who you have never had any interaction with is a pain in the ass.

Interesting poll. I wonder how THAT will turn out.

** Summary for (Serenwilde) Referendum #80101 **************************
Title: (Days left to vote: 75)
Unilateral Ban on Curses

Description:
Celest and Magnagora have proposed a unilateral ban on curses.
They wish to know if we would agree to the same thing. This is a
non-binding referendum to weigh the Commune's response to the
matter of Curses and if they feel that Cursing should be banned
across the Basin.

Choices:
1. Yes, I agree that Cursing should be unilaterally banned
2. No, I do not agree that Cursing should be unilaterally banned
************************************************************************

What poll?

Hmph. Maybe Celest and Magnagora didn't have one, but in Serenwilde there was a claim that both cities were proposing a universal no-karma-curses thing, and there's a poll on whether we agree. Or did you know that, and are messing with my head for some reason?

EDIT: ...yes, that one. That Tuek posted.

Gods. I was hoping to spring that on everyone. Well, okay, regardless. Daevos, Gregori, and I got together in Lusternia to discuss just that. I'm really hoping the ball doesn't get dropped on it over in Serenwilde.

Meh. I think its amusing that we are going to try and fight metagaming with IC bans.

What do you mean, spring it on everyone? The thing already got opened here.

Yeah, and I wasn't aware that Gregori was planning on bringing it to a Commune-wide referendum. Ah well, his Commune I suppose.

And Narsrim, what better way is there to deal with it? I mean, it's either this or just beg incessantly on the Forums for someone to grab a few strands of logic and hang on for the long haul.

I have only not posted about "excessive pk" because I had zero desire to enter into any sort of dialog about it. People who engage in it never see it as excessive, and those who feel they suffer because of it will never manage to convince them otherwise.

As for people not saying they like doing quests or the other things to do in the realm, just maybe it's because we're happy doing them, and are busy going out there and living our little lives, content to not post about it here for everyone else to critique? The people who post here are a self-selected bunch, and may or may not be actually statistically representative of the people in the realm.

I admit to hardly reading these boards at all. Every time I do I'm further disappointed at the qualities most of us bring here. I hardly respond to threads because it's not worth being seared to the bone by those who are convinced of their own opinion being the most important and anyone who disagrees being an utter moron.

I love karma, and I am looking forward to seeing it play out. I am looking forward to having *some* say over my life. It's going to be small enough anyway, but at least it's something to make me feel less weak, less disenfranchised, and less ignored because people like those I'm alluding to want to spend every hour learning how to hone their fighting skills.

I am not in Lusternia for the fighting and killing. I am here for the roleplay. I enjoy the quests, the complex history, the detailed, interlocking layers, and the potential depth of living in this realm. In order to really participate in this realm, I must, therefore, have a character who actually cares about *something*. In this instance, I've chosen to care about the Moondancers and the Serenwilde. I've built a background, a history, an outlook, and a set of beliefs around this world. I *care*.

Because I care, it's possible for other people to get at the things I care about. Because I'm engaged, I therefore take risks simply by choosing to be in the realm. I accept those risks. I would be completely fine with them, too, if other people in the realm were doing the same thing. If they cared, were engaged, and worked on building a life in the realm that wasn't just doing everything they can to annoy as many as people as possible, or just kill as many people as they can for the sheer pleasure of killing (and don't even bother trying to claim that there aren't people in the realm like that, even if you believe it, I don't and never will, actions speak louder than words).

If I go out and try to defend one of Lady Lisaera's shrines from someone who is defiling it, I expect to die in the process. It's a risk I'm accepting.

I will never agree that walking down the highway to Estelbar should bear the same risk to me. I should be able to walk around the basin without being assaulted by jerks who are just looking for an easy kill or some thrill. Yet, for the last week or more, selfish idiots who delight in doing just that have been jumping people all around the basin for no good reason. And I am not just saying Magnagorans here. There are those in the Serenwilde Commune who are just as selfish in this regard.

I should not have to spend every moment of my life trying to train up just so I can kill in retaliation. That isn't why I'm in the realm, and it's not who I am. At the same time, my enjoyment of the realm is materially lessoned by these idiots.

I think this karma system is a decent way of addressing this problem of people being able to harm me constantly without my being able to return the favour in any way to discourage them from this activity.

Of course it's going to take working through, of course there will be a transitional period, but I love the idea of finally having a way of balancing the extreme power anyone who can fight has over anyone else in the realm who bothers to actually build a life for themselves instead.

Could certain types of influencing give you good karma? I would also prefer that you could have at most one blessing or one curse at any time, but we'll see how it goes.

I'm looking forward to actually being able to leave Serenwilde for one of the first times without being paranoid about spamming WHO all the time. Thanks Divine, hopefully when the balance is found it will be a great system.

Edit: And what Brylle said. *cough*

Karma = bad. Die, Karma, Die!

If all you want to do is fight why do you come to a realm with a rich, brilliant history, detailed quests, and layers of roleplaying possible? Why don't you just go to PK MUD that doesn't bother with any sort of RP at all?

Who decided that valid PK was suddenly "not role playing"? Yet the Karma system screws that over.

Karma sucks, Die, Karma Die.