I just want to know what's so bad about a small org? What's so bad about it when the people who are a part of it enjoy it, and its culture is thriving and deep?

What exactly is so bad about that that you have to go to such insane extremes to try and "fix" it?

Especially when all the problems were created by the Admin. You might have been surprised what happened if you just pulled Viravain out of the spot light and let the great leaders Glomdoring has actually put their talents to work.

Edit: Oh, and I think its incredibly uncalled for, Estarra, for you to say that Glomdoring is made up of a bunch of elitist friends.. especially when the elitist atmosphere was built based on orders from your volunteer. Did you actually know that up until people said it here? I'm kind of doubting you guys actually did, because the way you're talking, it seems like you're absolutely clueless on the reality of Glomdoring.. which is ironic.. considering that that's very Glomdoring of you.

Well, for starters, a small org generates less money than a large org.

A small org is also less welcoming of new players, which hinders expansion.

Wow. Hats way. way off to Estarra.

I have never once in all my years seen a MUD admin willing to just come out and say, "The role-play's broke. Now we're going to fix it."

Again. Wow.

I don't even know how to vote in this one, though. I know what I want for me personally, and I believe Lusternia desperately needs a more neutral organization, but I don't know if that's what Glomdoring should turn into.

I really don't think there's any one person or group to blame for the fact it's come to this. Estarra did lay the groundwork for the fanaticism, but there are a lot of players on both sides of the fence who chose not to see where it was leading, and who failed to veer toward a path more constructive for the game as a whole.

So, yeah. Now it's down to hard choices and no matter what's done, some people are going to feel deeply hurt, even betrayed, So all I can say now is it's time to lay personal agendas aside and let go of the past and think about what's right for Lusternia's future. I think the one thing we ALL have in common is we want to see more players on Lusternia.

Let us recall that this game needs to advance for reasons which are beyond our fun. This game is a buisness and just like any buisness, it will try to appeal to as many people as possible so that more credits will be perchused. Look at Armageddon for instance, this is a very RP intense mud... but -no one- plays it... only a few people.

Glom became xenophobic (pun not intended Xenthos ).

Except.. the small org really doesn't generate less money if there are large orgs.. because the people who don't want to be in said small org goes to said large orgs and still spend money. One possible solution would be to simply not offer Glomdoring as a choice in the Portal, so that only those who know what they're getting into will get into it, and so it won't deter any unknowing novice.

The only positive aspect of Glom becoming a neutral org is that it'd mean potions for everyone.

But neutral orgs never actually stay neutral anyway. It's a bad idea.

Agreed. Right now, I think Serenwilde is the more Glomdoring-esque commune and Glomdoring is the more Serenwilde-esque commune. Glomdoring hides in it's forest with its totems, only recently nabbing a village, and that was mainly on the fact of dumb luck: Celest was there in full force, but they were busy with Southgard. It was a bad time for Serenwilde because I was told most of their influencers and fighters were offline. Magnagora was tied up with Angkrag so go figure. I once created a Glom character, and went CWHO, and for the most part it was CR1s all across the board, so influencing is a problem.

Again, let Glomdoring stay, but there needs to be some changes.

First of all, if Glomdoring can start living up to it's name of "Forest of No Mercy" then things will change. They need to get off their butts and start killing Moon Avatars and Demon Lords and Supernals (tho' maybe not) and start getting into the real world. Not cringing from it, but rather take Glomdoring to the next level and get INVOLVED! That will attract Older players to it. Also, new players will have an incentive to stay WITH Glomdoring if they see that well, I can make something here! These guys have a lot of villages, or if the read the log, they see that they just owned all of the Moon Avatars, it will make people energetic to stay on with Glomdoring.

Yes, when things start out, you will get the pants beaten off of you. I just recently picked up Super Smash Borthers Melee with some people on my floor in my dorm at school, I'm getting my ass handed to me. But that's how it is. I haven't played in a LOOOONG time so I'm rusty. But making Glomdoring, "The Forest of No Mercy" instead of the "Forest of No Mercy for those who come in the forest, in which we let you get blasted with a Totem and laugh at you at a distance and tell you not to come back". Get out and put the "No Mercy" in the "Forest of No Mercy" Glom!

Glomdoring has a novice problem as-is, why compound it?

Anyway, it's obvious that the admin don't WANT a "smaller org", so it's really a moot point. The discussion is how to turn it into a bigger org.

The Admin, obviously, don't always know what's best for the game. This administration has a tendency, and no one can deny it, to do insane extremes. Its never worked in the past, and its not going to work this time.

They can do whatever they want, but their hard-handed approach is going to backfire and get them, and a lot of players, burned.

My two cents

I have made a couple non-Glomdoring alts and visited the forest. In both cases, the response to seeing a novice in the forest was GTFO . In one case, I attempted to be friendly to a high ranking member of Glomdoring, he sighed, led me out to the aetherplex and then informed me that I should stay out of their forest and never come back. When I asked why, he stated he hoped the leaders of my guild were smarter than me, and left. If I were a real novice, this would have turned me off Mother Night completely.

Another thing is some of Glomdorings totems are tuned to strike anyone NOT of Glomdoring. I found this out the hard way as a real novice, and I have had to assist novices under me who just want to explore and got zapped. I think this also makes newcomers less inclined to consider the forest of Mother Night.

However I have to say, I really like Glomdoring and their RP concept. I have interacted with Queen Shayle and Prince Diamante* on my Shadowdancer alt and they were great. Kaalak has also had friendly interaction with Pentu and Diamante*.

I think Glomdoring would do better if it was more welcoming to novices and members of other communities.


*Edited to avoid Thwaping: Diamante is not Diamondais

Diamante.

Not Diamondais.

If I were you, I'd run fast, because she's going to hit you. Hard.

Well, I'll say it again. This is our fault, not the players fault. We should not have allowed it to happen. I'll apologize and keep apologizing for however long you want me to. Would you feel better if you raked me through hot coals?

I'm really not sure what more you want from me.

By the way, if Glomdoring can put aside its pride while it grows, I know many of us in Celest would be happy to have them along on Etherwilde or Nil raids.

Fallen, basically Estarra admits there's a problem. Does that mean she shouldn't fix it? To fix it, Lusternia's going to have to break a few eggs to do it. Which does mean some players in Glomdoring will be unhappy. I don't see any way to fix a major problem like this without upsetting a few people.

I know people get attached to their character and RP, but being in charge of a guild or city means sometimes there must be some sacrifices for the greater good. If Estarra told me Tully had to permanently retire for instance, I'd be a bit upset but I would do it if it furthered the game. (I know this is a very stupid example, but the only one I could think of that affects me).

Sometimes orgs have these problems no matter what IRE game it is. Achaea first copied Lusternia's auto-graduation feature because they felt certain orgs were getting to inbred and drunk with power. Then Houses were started probably for the same reason.

Glomdoring needs some changes.

I can't respond to the topic of creating a new org, but I know that as admins we're always open to player-run plots and events, and bolstering those however we can. Speaking personally, I would love for players to try and impact the world more, and I usually try to nudge people in that direction.

Some plots obviously won't succeed, or might succeed in unforeseen ways, but I think the idea that players have no impact or input is silly! I wish players would try to impact the world more, honestly. Get out there and start your own plots and roleplay!

I think people get grumpy when they're sad, and grumpy admins is a very bad thing. Eat pie!

Anyways, I have a glom munchkin alt, and I was actually surprised at how friendly and helpful several of the players (admittedly, not big names) were to me, because I'd heard all this fwiggleshmigggle about how isolationist and independent and not helpful, etc. Glom was. Heck, it was more attention than I received even as a little Paladin. So I'm kinda confused at where all this stuff about glom not being novvie friendly comes from. Sure, they're isolationy and stuff, but to those within the org, my experience says they're really quite supportive.

My two cents here would be to make Graced freshman novices immune from totems/statues (but NOT GUARDS so we can still deal with the twitty ones) so that they don't get blasted instantly upon taking a wrong turn. However, they should still get some sort of message, like "A statue of Tervic's eyes glint menacingly in your direction" to let them know that they're probably somewhere where they shouldn't be.

Credits. Lots of credits.

And a new Porsche.

Time to bring the cudgel out and hunt some Kaalak's.

Also, I really should have just gone Glom on Dia. Instead of destroying her and everything she worked for. Poor dear, sleeping in a chamber of insanity.

On that note..if Glomdoring was really going to have to be ended because of lack of players I would take Dylara out of Serenwilde for it. I may just end up losing on the whole, but if it keeps Glom..its worth it.

I like this idea. I can see it now...

(GNT): Uncle Kaalak, Uncle Kaalak! A statue of Tervic winked and leered at me!! I'm afraid!

I also really like the concept and aesthetics of Glomdoring and might have emigrated there if not for the big lesson losses. So... my vote for the first part would go the option 2, to keep their roleplay but make it more welcoming. But I also feel this is one of those options that sounds nice, but is very difficult to actually act out. How would you go about it? What kind of compromises would have to be made?

I don't think making Glom inactive would be good either, because we'd have just 3 orgs again and you get all those problems. Umm... as for making Glomdoring into Gloriana... I didn't think something like this could ever happen, it just seemed like one of those 'ideals' that were impossible to reach. Though I guess it's not impossible, Imperian did something like that to a lesser degree (they dissolved one of their all-female warrior guilds, calling it a 'failed experiment'). Though the Admin would be putting a lot of work on their hands because it'd involve coding new skills and writing a whole new area >.< If anything I just hope that option wouldn't turn into 'Serenwilde v.2'

As for Viravain... don't kill her If anything she could slightly transform to fit a different role, like how Isune (when is she going to come baaack!) went from Compassion to Aesthete. Though since a lot of people complain about her getting too involved in player politics (even though that's what Glom was built around, a totalitarian idea? Nothing is/should be set in stone though, IMO), perhaps that should be changed instead.