State of Lusternia

by Sidd

Back to Common Grounds.

Unknown2011-09-25 20:08:30
Really guys, my argument has nothing to do with necromancy. Mentioning it is not necessary or constructive. This thread is going nowhere because of all the game politics and finger pointing.
Krellan2011-09-25 20:17:27
QUOTE (Talan @ Sep 25 2011, 10:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'd like to go ahead and give a rave to Sidd, Nyir, Sadhyra, Janalon, Amani, Dowapaa, Ayisdra, Urazial, Xenthos, Astraea, Silferras, Mikalia, Ishant, Nadjia, Leiliadhe, Marcellus, Ciaran, Alacardael, Druken, and a number of other people who worked their butts off to help turn around Glomdoring's less than stellar environment by being encouraging, bold, and fun.


I feel so left out now sad.gif



From what I've seen in all of the state of lusternia threads, it's always the losing side saying that there's no communication between players and administration.

Anyways, if you hate playing so badly, why don't you put up a real strike. Just leave the org. Remember when 'Delete Glomdoring' used to be a slogan and the potential of becoming an actuality? I even remember the Lusternia world summit Estarra held about Glomdoring's toxic environment and potentially taking away the option for new players to even join Glomdoring at character creation.

I'm sure if you all really hated the environment in Serenwilde, you could all rally together and literally just leave the org to make one super org with another. It's kind of like pushing two king-sized beds together to form the Ultimate Super Bed of Comfort TM.

To sum it up, I just feel like group actions will send a stronger message of your feelings than group bitching.
Unknown2011-09-25 20:23:59
We don't hate Serenwilde, Krellan. You've misinterpreted. Even if that was the case, some of us are just far too attached to our guilds and perks to go start over somewhere else, and we could expect the same problems in our new homes, too.


Thank you, Malicia. Good summary.
Unknown2011-09-25 21:03:54
I want to echo Enyalida in saying that much of the problem comes from the ineffective player-admin communication and the inability of the envoy system to address problems. It's why I stopped fighting and have zero intention of fighting again; I don't mind losing, but I hate losing because I was placed at a severe disadvantage to begin with. The boasting/rudeness/taunting has only increased the dismay. I haven't fought in months, and recently, I "defended" a Nil raid by stepping into the zerg to be beat on. My system was severely outdated and stopped curing, and my only offensive alias performs "ka hold". Ten minutes later, the taunts started as the raiders moved on to other places.

I don't think that gods should get involved in politics either. I've never had any good experiences with it.

Before people start trying to tear me apart, I'd like to point out that much of Magnagora's current state is a result of the imbalances in the game. Not all of it, no, but I can name quite a few of the fighters that have quit or stopped caring for just that reason.

I think it's telling that my enjoyment of the game increased the further I distanced myself from combat, especially when I've always preferred competitive games.
Sidd2011-09-25 21:26:24
I think the majority of people are really missing the point. Iasmos and Sahmiam have actually been the closest to grasping it. It's a game, it's all about perspective. I was trying to present how I view the game and how I approach things that result in the enjoyment for me. I enjoy a challenge, I enjoy enjoy being able to conquer a challenge and overcome it. It was a different perspective.

When Glom first came on top, do you know what people said? 'Oh it's a cycle, they'll fade out and will be the bottom again.' It's been easily over a year, where we've been a strong competitor the entire time. I don't think we've been the strongest the entire time, but we've definitely not been the worse and there's a reason for that. It's about approach, even when we win, we try to figure things out to do better next time. We coordinate, we try new things. We get our asses kicked lots, but we've hardly ever just given up and stopped trying.

and I just want to get this straight, I never once said we have never been assholes or gone too far or been perfectly innocent of any reproachable behavior, I know I've done it, because I've gotten frustrated before. I made it a point to at least try to kill Ryylaet every chance I got to see what unique insults he'd throw at me next. Part of the fault is on him for mouthing off etc, but it's partly on me too. No one is the banner child of innocence and how this game should be played. People make mistakes, we're human, they do things. The only reason that I bring up that things have been done in the past is to point out that this isn't a unique problem to purposefully destroy your gameplaying enjoyment. It's been done before, has been dealt with before and will be done again after you stop playing probably, so the lesson is, approach the challenge, figure out how to avoid it, stop it, defeat it. Maybe get a large group so when Shuy empresses you, it's an entire group and you wreck him. For any problem, there's a solution and it's much more satisfying to beat someone at their own game than to cry and nerf it.
Unknown2011-09-25 21:52:55
QUOTE (Sahmiam Mes'ard @ Sep 25 2011, 02:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I want to echo Enyalida in saying that much of the problem comes from the ineffective player-admin communication and the inability of the envoy system to address problems. It's why I stopped fighting and have zero intention of fighting again; I don't mind losing, but I hate losing because I was placed at a severe disadvantage to begin with.


I am unconvinced that much of the problem is on the admin's side. I firmly believe that the lack of morale, defeatist attitude, etc. comes from the player's side, which can be compounded by a perceived imbalance between skills. Personally, I think every skillset in the game has some truly shining gems, all it takes is for the right person to come out and whore it up.

Additionally, I also don't really believe that just because x thing kills you, it's overpowered. That crutch has been leaned on so much that I'm surprised it hasn't broken yet. A more recent example of this is that brumetower report where the Glom envoys repeatedly gave various ways to bypass it, the people on the other side simply insists that these solutions were both unrealistic and unusable.

QUOTE (Lilian Ama'Rua @ Sep 25 2011, 07:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
A lot of the reason it improved is that the people harassing it, and having enough charisma to encourage others to do so as well, switched sides. They didn't just bring themselves, they also brought the people that liked fighting with them.

A good deal of today's antagonists in the Trinity side used to be Serenwilders. The very worst of them. Of course this antagonism is what encouraged me to become a combatant, something I've never done before in an IRE game. There is, however, a lot of frustration of being a combatant in a losing org. You deal with the apathy of the org you are trying to protect (for a time, I tried writing inspirational posts celebrating even small victories...then you'd have people like Rika saying that the posts were jokes.) There will be the people who won't even participate in peaced revolts, where the most damage done to you is the loss of your bromides. As mentioned before, small victories tend to get stomped on. If a Domoth gets taken, it's going to get absolved and stolen. If a skirmish or defence is won, then triple numbers arrive to really stomp you to make you think that victory was more painful then just a defeat. It's like killing a snake pissed off a whole herd of komodo dragons, and now there's going to be hell to pay.


I am kind of amused that Rika (and others) has been repeatedly called an eeyore naysayer here and in other places. Maybe you guys should do something about that.

Incidentally, I don't know what bringing up the fact that I used to be of Serenwilde has to do with anything. If I hadn't left, I'm sure Serenwilde would have continued to do relatively fine, but I think at this point in time, I firmly believe that Glomdoring would have risen up anyway. Probably at a slower rate, but eh.

QUOTE (Sidd @ Sep 25 2011, 08:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Every thing you've said here, has been done to Glomdoring. Have you met Narsrim? Do you know where Shuyin got his lust/empress idea? I'll give you a hint, it starts with 'N' and ends with 'arsrim.' Except he used Munsia to make a geo meld in the Catacombs and even used shrine powers on occasion.

Etherwilde is actually really easy to defend, you guys have done it tons of times and we have lots of practice so we know the best way to deal with it. I mean honestly, you can't access half of it without bypassing avatars.


Yep, Sidd has the right of it. This has been done before (which, amusingly, was envoyed about and turned into a buff instead!) Did you know that back then, distort and gravity weren't omgawesome, so Narsrim had an even easier time doing it. And he also had a torus he used to take you to other murder rooms.

I'm even going to outline ways to beat it, just for the interest of fair play and to be a nice guy:
1. Distort
2. Monos
3. Trigger the fool lines to reject Shuyin
4. Trigger hermiting to reject

You get the idea.

QUOTE (Rivius @ Sep 25 2011, 12:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
In what way are they purposefully provoking it? If you're saying there's people who are deliberately taunting you like "Sure, come face me alone! Come raid us again!" and you go do that, that is clearly not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the cases where you guys raid or jump someone and they call you a douchebag or otherwise show that what you did was annoying and you use this as an excuse to raid them harder, or at least, to continue targeting them. I called out your gloating as one of the things that harbour ill-feelings and why you get the tells you do. I had a similar discussion with someone over facebook who also had the point fly over their heads. They said that they kept jumping this person because they would get pissed off and send annoyed tells and things like "Gosh you guys always do these cowardly things!" and apparently this was his prime justification for repeatedly jumping them after that. It really is just bullying to get the rise out of people because I just can't believe that these comments hurt their feelings so much.


Ps. No one said you're a jerk for killing or ganking people. That wasn't the point at all.


They purposefully provoke it by sending me tells when I'm just standing around being a bum, possibly afk. While I admit the latter (I go raid, they send tells, I go kill them and their mother to retaliate) does happen fairly frequently as well. Calling out my gloating will just be another one of those "he started it by gloating, so I just gloated back" sorts of things, so we'll just have to agree that doing so doesn't help anyone.

I think taking everything with a grain of salt will make everyone happier overall.

QUOTE (Jello @ Sep 25 2011, 12:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
At one point in time, Magnagora was where Glomdoring is now. Estarra handled the problem poorly then, by just hitting them with the nerd-stick so hard that people quit the game. Necromancy still hasn't recovered (worst skill in the game probably) and neither has Magnagora. Having putrefaction kill you through your own sipping will make people play another game for at least a few years.


I reject that Necromancy is the worst skill in the game when (insert my skill here) is still (underpowered/terrible/not usable). For instance (ability here) doesn't (work/kill anyone instantly/costs too much).

Saying such things has nothing to do with the topic at hand. And between you and me, necromancy is pretty excellent with contagion, lich, putrefaction, deathmark, omen, ghost, and ectoplasm. If you call that terrible, then I think you might be a bit disconnected from reality. In fact, necromancy even has this cool tendency to get buffs no one even asks for (see eyeblast).
Xenthos2011-09-25 22:05:39
I personally feel that there is a difference between 'taunting' ("Hey, you guys, XYZ did blah and now we're here for revenge!" / "That's what you get for raiding W!" / "Leave our little novices alone or this happens again!"), versus:

censor.gif censor.gif you censor.gif censor.gif censor.gif eat censor.gif censor.gif you censor.gif sociopath censor.gif censor.gif.

The first one's been around for the game's entire life-time, the latter has been becoming increasingly prevalent over the last year or so (there were occasional bouts of it previously but not usually from people who stuck around long and really spread it around).

If you're going into the latter category you really need to chill out, it's a game. If the former... well, it is a gameworld and there should be some roleplay / interaction between sides, IMO. Unfortunately it is hard to tell when it crosses a line in that case.
Astraea2011-09-25 22:10:16
Totally agree with Xenthos, there is no reason anyone should be calling anyone else a censor.gif sociopath. I mean seriously.
Neos2011-09-25 22:12:44
QUOTE (Sojiro @ Sep 25 2011, 05:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I reject that Necromancy is the worst skill in the game when (insert my skill here) is still (underpowered/terrible/not usable). For instance (ability here) doesn't (work/kill anyone instantly/costs too much).

Saying such things has nothing to do with the topic at hand. And between you and me, necromancy is pretty excellent with contagion, lich, putrefaction, deathmark, omen, ghost, and ectoplasm. If you call that terrible, then I think you might be a bit disconnected from reality. In fact, necromancy even has this cool tendency to get buffs no one even asks for (see eyeblast).

Forgot Crucify.
Enyalida2011-09-25 22:16:29
There is an odd tendency in the culture of our era to assume that being upbeat will cause good things to happen to you, and that the best way to combat a problem is by being happy about it. I don't really accept this. Generally, labling someone as a naysayer is an attempt to discredit what they are saying (purposefully or otherwise, because you (the upbeat person) are somehow better. A position in the negative is equated with something undesirable.

We are aware of naysayers and do try to deal with it as we can, but even without these people, there is a definite sentiment that we/everyone is just trying to distract from a crappy situation with shiny things, which generally pisses people off.

The empress thing is compounded by badluck fouling tries to reject. Really, I wish that empress thing wasn't Sol.4'ed. It really should be area only summon on lust.

EDIT: Xenthos, if someone says that sort of thing, generally I think that their home org would be interested/unamused if you told them IC.
Aison2011-09-25 22:16:59
I'm reading this and all I can really say is, it's a game. You are meant to be playing for fun, not out of obligation. If you feel defeated it's time for a break... because it's just a game. And I say that out of whatever small morsel of goodness is in my heart for fellow players. Distress over a game is simply not worth it.
Unknown2011-09-25 22:19:12
QUOTE (Sojiro @ Sep 25 2011, 05:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I am unconvinced that much of the problem is on the admin's side. I firmly believe that the lack of morale, defeatist attitude, etc. comes from the player's side, which can be compounded by a perceived imbalance between skills. Personally, I think every skillset in the game has some truly shining gems, all it takes is for the right person to come out and whore it up.

Additionally, I also don't really believe that just because x thing kills you, it's overpowered. That crutch has been leaned on so much that I'm surprised it hasn't broken yet. A more recent example of this is that brumetower report where the Glom envoys repeatedly gave various ways to bypass it, the people on the other side simply insists that these solutions were both unrealistic and unusable.


You're almost agreeing with me when you say to whore out the shining gems. Whoring anything is an indicator of imbalance.

I never said or took on the attitude that because x kills me, it's overpowered. I've stopped paying attention to envoy reports except to give them a passing glance, but I can say that there are examples of things on both sides. You bring up the brumetower report, where ways to bypass it were pointed out. I can point out the trample/sac report, in which ways to avoid it where pointed out, both usable and realistic, yet the nerf went through. I've seen many instances where facts were presented, the logic there, and everything ignored. There is an obvious bias in game balance, and no, I am not trying to make this a Mag/Seren/Halli vs Glom/Cele/Gaudi thing.

I also disagree that it's only the player's side from where the negative emotions come from. I thoroughly enjoyed the game up until I became envoy, and it was there where things started going south. No, it wasn't from my reports getting rejected while others' got accepted. It was from the interaction between the admin and myself there, which left me feeling that my job was to give advice to people that had no want or interest in it. I took the time in one of my reports to explain how the change would affect combat, covering all possibilities that I could think of, and was told, in essence, TLDR.

My general mindset has always been that I want a fair fight, at least mechanically. It's an impossible thing to reach, but I can appreciate when the effort is taken to reach it. Despite having had one-on-one conversations with the admin in charge of game balance, I must say that I feel more valued and heard in games where I am one of a million voices. My attitude would change if I believed that those in charge were making an effort to achieve balance, but while they can say they want it, that they're trying, the overall perceived attitude is that it's not a goal.

Ytran2011-09-25 22:20:43
QUOTE (Sahmiam Mes'ard @ Sep 25 2011, 05:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
You're almost agreeing with me when you say to whore out the shining gems. Whoring anything is an indicator of imbalance.

It's really not.
Xenthos2011-09-25 22:21:29
QUOTE (Sahmiam Mes'ard @ Sep 25 2011, 06:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Whoring anything is an indicator of imbalance.

I whore lunges and jabs.

... I have nothing else worthwhile to do. sad.gif
Neos2011-09-25 22:23:49
QUOTE (Enyalida @ Sep 25 2011, 06:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
There is an odd tendency in the culture of our era to assume that being upbeat will cause good things to happen to you, and that the best way to combat a problem is by being happy about it. I don't really accept this. Generally, labling someone as a naysayer is an attempt to discredit what they are saying (purposefully or otherwise, because you (the upbeat person) are somehow better. A position in the negative is equated with something undesirable.

We are aware of naysayers and do try to deal with it as we can, but even without these people, there is a definite sentiment that we/everyone is just trying to distract from a crappy situation with shiny things, which generally pisses people off.

The empress thing is compounded by badluck fouling tries to reject. Really, I wish that empress thing wasn't Sol.4'ed. It really should be area only summon on lust.

Optimism --> Success
Krellan2011-09-25 22:25:27
The balancing skills talk is really dumb.

If you want things balanced, then you literally just want to throw dice, but with computer code.

Just saying, everything is a game of rock, papers, scissors - advantages and disadvantages.

Only severely unbalanced outliers have ever been corrected with the judgement of the Admin
Sidd2011-09-25 22:27:25
QUOTE (Sahmiam Mes'ard @ Sep 25 2011, 04:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I never said or took on the attitude that because x kills me, it's overpowered. I've stopped paying attention to envoy reports except to give them a passing glance, but I can say that there are examples of things on both sides. You bring up the brumetower report, where ways to bypass it were pointed out. I can point out the trample/sac report, in which ways to avoid it where pointed out, both usable and realistic, yet the nerf went through. I've seen many instances where facts were presented, the logic there, and everything ignored. There is an obvious bias in game balance, and no, I am not trying to make this a Mag/Seren/Halli vs Glom/Cele/Gaudi thing.


There's a difference between claiming something can be countered and showing it to be false with facts and pointing out counters and having someone saying 'well that's not possible' (tramp/sac, prone the trampler or scrub before you get crucified while writhing from shackles? come on man, you know that doesn't work.)

Tangent yes, but important I feel.
Enyalida2011-09-25 22:33:09
QUOTE (AquaNeos @ Sep 25 2011, 05:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>


This from a self help website that focuses on the concept that thinking something hard enough will cause it to manifest...
Vadi2011-09-25 22:37:08
It's a bit dull now that most of Mag QQ'd (and have no sense of RP anymore whatsoever, if anything IC against their will happens, it's "ADMINS ARE GAMING AND HACKING US OMFGGG!!!!". Seriously?), people who broke Hallifax away didn't enchance it's position / seem to have poofed, Serenwilde is just 'meh'.
Sidd2011-09-25 22:37:45
QUOTE (Enyalida @ Sep 25 2011, 04:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
This from a self help website that focuses on the concept that thinking something hard enough will cause it to manifest...


Be honest here, In the majority of feel-good underdog success movies, how did said underdog come from behind and win?

Did the underdog sit there and say everything was pointless and the world as against him so why bother?

Or did they face it as a challenge that they needed to overcome to achieve victory?

I feel you're really just grasping for justification for just sitting and whining, which if that's what you want to do, then fine, but you should probably step down as leader and as envoy and let people who actually want to face the challenge take the helm.