You know, all these complaints about people having their role-play destroyed by changes wrought by the admins strikes me as rather disingenuous, or at the very least gravely naive. Whatever the cause, it's illustrates perfectly why I hate to see actively played gods -- or any similar deus ex machina -- on a MUD.

The admins who role-play gods are ordinary mortals. They are neither omniscient, omnipresent, nor immortal. Yet by taking on the pretense of divine personas, they invite absolute dependence on them in the form of fanatically devoted role-play.

The situation becomes worse because such fanaticism is rewarded. Any player who openly invokes the name of a "god" in a land where gods are real, and yet doesn't meet public reproach from said deity, will be assumed to have his approval and backing. This turns the player into a figure of authority for those who wish to curry favor with the god (often in hope of receiving tangible benefits), which then thrusts him into real positions of power in the game world.

Thus we end up with an escalating cycle, where players within an organization reward and reinforce each other for building a mighty fortress of role-play on the shifting sands of itinerate deities, then they cry foul when their "gods" inevitably prove to not be all-knowing immortals, and to have more to do with their finite lives than maintain the consistency of a fictional universe.

If you want the sort of larger than life, splash-and-sparkle role-play, where gods sling around world-shattering spells and good and evil are tangible properties, sooner or later you're going to come slam up against the hard truths of the reality behind your fantasy, and have to chose between irreconcilable "facts".

The first few times that happens to you, maybe you can be excused with blaming the admins for baiting the hook. But by the seventh time your cranium cracks up against that old brick wall, take the hint, and understand that this is just a game after all. No amount of sulking or tantrum throwing can make it one bit more "real".

Personally, I get around the problem by not marrying my role-play to anyone else's. Things change, people leave, and if you can't remain flexible in your role-play, your character concept is eventually going to break under the strain.

Not everyone can or would want to go my route, but the underlying lesson here is that you choose your own role-play. No one else chooses it for you. If you refuse to choose carefully, or if you refuse to adapt when you get backed into a corner, it's just not realistic to blame the admins for it. It's only the nature of the game.

You confuse me.

Not in your logic behind your arguments, but in your reason for having such beliefs to begin with...

Exarius...what was the point of that post? Generically bashing the roleplay of everyone associated with an order?

No his point is this...

The first few times that happens to you, maybe you can be excused with blaming the admins for baiting the hook. But by the seventh time your cranium cracks up against that old brick wall, take the hint, and understand that this is just a game after all. No amount of sulking or tantrum throwing can make it one bit more "real".

Personally, I get around the problem by not marrying my role-play to anyone else's. Things change, people leave, and if you can't remain flexible in your role-play, your character concept is eventually going to break under the strain.

Not everyone can or would want to go my route, but the underlying lesson here is that you choose your own role-play. No one else chooses it for you. If you refuse to choose carefully, or if you refuse to adapt when you get backed into a corner, it's just not realistic to blame the admins for it. It's only the nature of the game.

There are only a small few characters in the game that view the gods as truly omniscient. The Elders admittedly are not, you might understand this better if you had done more research in game on it.

Lusternia is not full of characters blindly following divine, knowing they are omniscient and getting upset and disgruntled when two omniscient viewpoints collide, it just isn't that cut and dry.

At any rate, that is far more disruptive an attitude that depending on Elders, as roleplay should and does modify as the attitudes of the people around them change as well.

Edit:Oi, I'm agreeing with Daganev, and he ninja'ed me too.

What are those cats in his avatar doing to each other?

Guido, you win. Here's an unicorn. His name is Charles.

And Veo rides it.

Think some of you are missing Exarius' point, which is just that character concept should be internally driven.

Read his post again...he never said Lusternian deities are omniscient, omnipotent, or even immortal. Senseless to attack his post on the pretext that he did.

Exarius, don't kill my roleplay.

Thanks.

I think what we were responding to so violently was his implication that pretty much anyone who was in an order wasn't making their own charecter.

Which is pretty pathetic. He must not interact with people much.

I dont think anyones in a position to judge someones roleplay.

Though to be honest everytime Ive interacted with you in character Exarius, youve attempted to persuade me to your side of the truth while Charune sends me tells on what was said during the time. Ive never been in an Order, yet Ive felt a sense of unfairness to change. So pray tell whos crying about roleplay being killed? I believe the general cry is that we cant easily effect another organization without resorting to raids and even then its extremely difficult to most but a few.

You can have all the internally driven RP you want, if you don't marry that at some point to outside forces you're nothing but a loner and a hermit and have no place here. Go away.

Sorry to those who took my meaning too literally. and Menancthon has the right of what I was trying to say.

The admins cannot take personal responsibility for your role-play. Only you can. So please take responsibility, and stop bashing them over this.

I only brought up gods as an easy example, and because the people who complain about their role-play getting killed keep talking about how they're not to be allowed fanatics in pursuit of some supernatural goal.

Guido had the best point of the post. This is totally last week, btw. This week is complaining why there aren't dead baby bashing grounds worth anything.

Why is everyone agreeing with Guido all of a sudden?

Right. If I'm a loner and a hermit, then how exactly am I taking up your air?

Just because I don't play with the "in crowd" doesn't make my loyal friends any less loyal.

And no one who plays Lusternia could be mistaken for being part of the "in crowd" in real life. Does that mean there's no place for any of us, and we should all just "go away"? Shuffle off the mortal coil?

Go ahead and hate me for being an outsider, and marinate all the while in your own hypocrisy.

You misunderstand...internally driven roleplay reacts to the environment, but doesn't depend on it for definition.

Anyway, if you don't like someone who posts here, just ignore them. And if they are too ignorant and inflamatory for you to leave alone, help them out and correct them politely.

Hooray for sweeping generalizations!

I am sorry. That might be true for you, but I have no problem working, going to school, going out with friends, whatever. Just while they play WoW a bit, I play Lusternia. I don't see me as something else than my friends just because I play muds.