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  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
    The wayfaire bums me out in general.
  • Where can I find the blog index? I've looked through the site but cannot find it.
  • It's hidden remarkably well. It's under Game Info, near the bottom. Here.
  • Thank you!
  • Your link is broken. Missing the : in http://
  • Thanks @Falmiss. It's fixed now. 
    Avatar by the lovely Esei!
  • edited September 2016
    On the topic of baggage - Why not choose a completely new god that doesn't have any (assuming this is an allowed choice by Estarra for all admin)? I suppose this question is in part of how well do past admin take notes on their godrole and second part of how does changing the personality of the god from what people know as a new admin takes it over affect the role, both on a player viewing level and an admin level.

     On a more different matter - How do we, players, tell if a god is just not around because of real life, being to busy behind the scenes, or just because the players make it not fun? How rude would it be seen as if we just asked the god why? For example, @Jadice isn't really seen all that much by her order (however small it may be at this time and that she has said she wouldn't be around as much as other gods might be). While I would love to think that she is just busy with behind the scenes work and trying to earn her godrealm, in the back of my mind, I can't help but think that I could be a reason she doesn't show up. And that I would never know this fact.
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    A really well written blog post and one sorely needed. Thank you :)


    I'm going to go out on a limb here and state my opinion. It's not going to be popular, and I may get flagged for it, but here goes.

    I think some of you in the havens have a serious lack of the ability to seperate your IC persona from your OOC/Admin persona. It's disheartening, because that's really a cornerstone of being an admin that also interacts with people.

    You people in the Havens do amaaaaazing work. Period. I've seen ambiances, world emotes, rp/mpos, and much more that really makes Lusternia come alive from the two dimensional text world it really is. Many people say that newbies are the life's blood of Lusternia; I say that the motivated admin are just as important as the newbies we get. Thank you for all that you do, even the things we'll never see.

    But to think that our treatment of you IC is someone connected to your OOC/Admin work is for lack of a better word, foolish. You mention that when a new player takes on an old persona, that they may not be ready to be treated like the old player was treated, and I get that. But to mortals, icly, there's no difference. It's the same god or goddess that betrayed your god, or urged their followers to slaughter you and your home. There's no cool down period; there can't be, and really, shouldn't be. This isn't Eventru and Lyreth fusion-ha'ing into Valtreth. It's the same person, and while I know it can be rough, I feel that treating this new player in an older god's body with kid gloves is disrespectful at best.


    Not only that, but a character can dislike you icly and appreciate you oocly. Shaddus and Terentia used to go back and forth constantly, but Pesukaru and Terentia got along great. Later, when I came to know Terentia ' s player and we would chat, I found them to be a really interesting person, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.


    So to sum it up, we love you guys and the hard, thankless work you do. That's not going to stop us from disliking you icly.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • Ayisdra said:
    On the topic of baggage - Why not choose a completely new god that doesn't have any (assuming this is an allowed choice by Estarra for all admin)? I suppose this question is in part of how well do past admin take notes on their godrole and second part of how does changing the personality of the god from what people know as a new admin takes it over affect the role, both on a player viewing level and an admin level.

    I would imagine that that continuity and pleasing the base are a part of it. Whenever a new God comes out for any given org, there's inevitably a group that complains (seriously or not) that they should have just brought back x.
  • edited September 2016
    @ayisdra

    The decision to take a god role is a personal one, with a few exceptions. There's definitely a nudge (or a pretty hefty push) from above to take a role that will flesh out an organization that may be hurting for a visible god.

    It's also next to impossible to tell whether a god character has the kind of "baggage" I referred to in my post. How would I have known, having never really interacted with the first Lisaera, that She left unfinished business with a handful of prominent characters? Don't get me wrong -- the perks to taking Her on were huge (who wouldn't want to be a super powerful witch goddess with an amazing backstory?!), and I'm happy with my decision. But some of my colleagues haven't been so lucky. 

    As for how you tell whether a god has gone radio silent for the reasons I've outlined: it's tough. You can't really break that fourth wall. If you are close enough with a god that you can have an in-character conversation, you might be able to suss out some details that way. I've known gods who have had those precious moments with their orders that ultimately saved them for a few more months. 

    You will probably never know why a god has stepped down. It's sometimes totally unrelated to Lusternia and how they feel they've been treated. And sometimes it is. That's, hopefully, what this post is going to get you to think about. 
    Avatar by the lovely Esei!
  • Xenthos said:
    Lisaera said:
    I've written another post here. It is rather sensitive in nature, and I'll welcome any questions you might have. However, I will not: 

    • Entertain any trolling whatsoever. Your attempts to harass me for the post will only prove my point.
    • Give you any names. 
    I also hope that you read it completely. These blogs are meant to be a raw look behind-the-scenes in the lives of the Lusternia administration, and frankly, for some of us, this post was a long time coming. Do we hate you? Of course not! We wouldn't still be here if we did, and we honestly love what we do.

    Do we think it's time some of you curb your attitudes toward the staff? Absolutely. 
    <other stuff>

    I've never understood the "God reveals self, immediately gets insults and rubbish shouted at them, even when your own Gods are zapping you for doing it" mentality.  I've thankfully seen a lot less of it recently than I used to.
    I think this comes from the anti-god groups that see the Elders as failures for being unable to stop the Soulless and that non-Elders have done more in the fights against the Soulless (at least as we know so far)
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    That, as well as how Fain used to urge me to shout insults at terentia until she zapped me.

    I think booze was involved oocly >.>
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • Shaddus said:
    A really well written blog post and one sorely needed. Thank you :)


    I'm going to go out on a limb here and state my opinion. It's not going to be popular, and I may get flagged for it, but here goes.

    I think some of you in the havens have a serious lack of the ability to seperate your IC persona from your OOC/Admin persona. It's disheartening, because that's really a cornerstone of being an admin that also interacts with people.

    You people in the Havens do amaaaaazing work. Period. I've seen ambiances, world emotes, rp/mpos, and much more that really makes Lusternia come alive from the two dimensional text world it really is. Many people say that newbies are the life's blood of Lusternia; I say that the motivated admin are just as important as the newbies we get. Thank you for all that you do, even the things we'll never see.

    But to think that our treatment of you IC is someone connected to your OOC/Admin work is for lack of a better word, foolish. You mention that when a new player takes on an old persona, that they may not be ready to be treated like the old player was treated, and I get that. But to mortals, icly, there's no difference. It's the same god or goddess that betrayed your god, or urged their followers to slaughter you and your home. There's no cool down period; there can't be, and really, shouldn't be. This isn't Eventru and Lyreth fusion-ha'ing into Valtreth. It's the same person, and while I know it can be rough, I feel that treating this new player in an older god's body with kid gloves is disrespectful at best.


    Not only that, but a character can dislike you icly and appreciate you oocly. Shaddus and Terentia used to go back and forth constantly, but Pesukaru and Terentia got along great. Later, when I came to know Terentia ' s player and we would chat, I found them to be a really interesting person, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.


    So to sum it up, we love you guys and the hard, thankless work you do. That's not going to stop us from disliking you icly.
    That disconnect though also involves players not recognizing that the IC persona and OOC admin are not the same thing. If someone takes an existing god role you obviously know the person behind the screen is a new person. They're a new actor playing an existing role. Show up with those old grudges if it makes for a good story but show up with a "My name is Inigo Montoya" moment so they know why you've got that grude. And if it isn't providing a good story just drop it, the grudge shouldn't actually be real.
  • @Shaddus

    Simple dislike of a god role is not what I meant. That's silly. We're pros at taking a player's IC rage and turning it into something useful to drive a plot device we might be cooking up. That kind of give-and-take in an IC interaction is what helps keep the game fun for everyone, including the players who might be a little more aggressive than their peers when it comes to IC feuds. 

    I hoped I made it clear in my post that I'm actually referring to extreme examples of this. Constant berating on public channels, attempts to spread truly vicious lies about a god's words, tells that only aim to upset or terrorize us -- par for the course. We can usually deal with that in our own way. If there's no end to this behavior, however, we have to get serious. We're players, too, and as I said in my post -- we're easy targets. But I digress.

    I'm referring to actual harassment. OOC tells, OOC says in public places, OOC messages on the forums, rants about how terrible we are in forums topics... you know -- classic online bullying. The kind that would make anyone who pours their energy into the game desperate to make it stop. If that means we're unable to separate our OOC realities from our in-game roles, then fine. We're guilty as charged. And it's a unanimous feeling, so if we're wrong for what we're feeling, you're in trouble. There won't be any gods left.
    Avatar by the lovely Esei!
  • NGL. For reasons I may have said some un-nice things about @Lisaera, the Character, not Lisaera the player, recently. I was led to believe certain things, and then Lisaera appearing suddenly at the same time, in anger, was sort of an "oh, great here it comes from the Divine now". Turned out it was for something else entirely that Lisaera appeared and I apologise if you were listening to anything said at that time that may have offended/hurt you. I actually do have a pretty decent fondness for Lisaera the Character, I just don't follow her cause well, everyone and their puppy follows Lisaera in Serenwilde.

    Now, if you could just give @Hoaracle a kick in the shin so I can do something other than just offer to him that would be awesome!
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    Gotcha.


    Well, I hope I've never been the reason that a god has stepped down. Despite my vitriol at some in character, and yes, complaining about a select few, I can't think of a single divine I could say I disliked enough to try and run off.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    And if someone sends you a hateful OOC tell, Lisaera and the rest of the admin, I'm sorry. You're appreciated more than you know.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • SiamSiam Whispered Voice
    Hug @Lisaera...can I hug @Viravain, too? :o

    Now I totally feel bad for trolling Serane that one time(sorry, admins!)

    It's the first time that I've heard of the incidents outlined above where gods are being trolled ooc-ly and willfully and it's disappointing that it's happening. You godmins add another lively facet to Lusternia, and I'm forever thankful for it. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here all the more because of the Divines. It's one of the biggest reasons I never left. :)


    Viravain, Lady of the Thorns shouts, "And You would seize Me? Fool! I am the Glomdoring! I am the Wyrd, and beneath the cloak of Night, the shadows of the Silent stir!"

    #bringShikariback 


  • PortiusPortius Likes big books, cannot lie
    Re: messaging gods to tell them to back off on things. It'd probably be a good idea to put that in HELP GODS or somewhere similar. It's not always clear to newish people that it's an option. When I was new, I didn't even realize that gods had messages like players did. Having been in that position, at that time, it very much felt like a god doing something meant that it was acceptable to the admin as a whole and there was nothing to do except tolerate it. It's certainly easy to feel like you don't have any choice in the matter when a god suddenly shows up to do something with you, even when it's something you'd really rather not be doing. The power difference makes it very hard to tell when something is optional.

    When I was a relatively new person, I was occasionally in the position of wanting to just log off when gods did things with me and feeling like I had no choice but to do so, because leaving would just make the problem bigger. Not always just from gods doing things, either. Players can play a part in this too. My solution at this point is to avoid interacting with gods as meticulously as possible, and it mostly works. I appreciate that the admin has mostly reciprocated and avoided me in an IC capacity, and that the gods who have wanted to involve me with things have asked instead of ordered. But just blanket avoiding god interactions isn't exactly ideal by any means, so it's probably a good idea to make it more clear that you can just message them to back off when it's getting unpleasant.
    Any sufficiently advanced pun is indistinguishable from comedy.
  • I just want to say that I've played non-IRE muds and the types of shennanigans and abuse the gods can and will do in other games is shocking. I've never seen anything like that in my 10+ years of playing IRE games - the admin in IRE are trained incredibly and have a level of decorum and maturity you simply don't see in other games. I just wanted to give some perspective - IRE admins are a very rare breed and are a big factor in why many people pick IRE games. Please don't scare them off!
  • LavinyaLavinya Queen of Snark Australia
    Seconding what Breandryn said. I was in one MUD where the creator and the small handful of admin also played characters in the game and were so....corrupt - giving themselves ranking positions, OP gear, breaking rules, hard on people they didn't like etc etc. It was disgusting.

    Our admin are incredible, and I know I have been guilty of bitter divine-bashing in ooc mediums but I have absolute respect for all of you and the work you do, and just how hard you try to be fair and impartial (from an ooc perspective, your characters can be corrupt as all Nil). You are all so appreciated. 



  • Just to clarify, @Portius, in my experience it's almost never a matter of telling the admin to back off. If someone openly defies Jadice IC, I don't really have a choice except to slap them down. I don't enjoy it, because it's nerve-wracking — what if they're taking it personally? what if they're just wanting attention and this zap will make their behaviour worse? what if they lie about the situation after the fact to all their friends and paint me as a tyrant/bully? — but we are playing actual gods, and it just doesn't make sense for some of those gods to turn a blind-eye or tactfully ignore intrusive belligerence. 

    My response to such OOC messages has been, more often than not, to say "Good, I'm not enjoying this either. Stop actively antagonising Jadice-the-character and we won't have any more problems."
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