Hello everyone!
As of today, Parviane and I have officially stepped away from active management and development of Dark Risings. I want to thank everyone who came forward with kind words over the last week. It's been wonderful to hear that so many of you enjoy the changes we've made to the game, and I hope you continue to enjoy them for a long time to come. We feel great about leaving DR in the very creative and capable hands of our admin Nate and the rest of the imm team. I have full confidence in their abilities, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing the direction they decide to take with DR. Good luck and best wishes!
I know there has been a lot of speculation about why we have chosen to retain rights to DR rather than just leave as most IMPs who step away from the position have done. I appreciate those of you who have taken the time to ask me about it rather than, as others have done, simply bashing us on public forums, knowing we will not respond there. I'd like to try to explain our decision, for anyone who is interested in reading more about it.
Aside from the endless cosmetic changes (such as helpfiles and building, which Nate and the team can do) DR right now is as good as Parvi and I can make it. However, DR is a ten-year old mud, based on ten-year-old code and ten-year-old game design. More and more, it's becoming clear to me that although I don't want to run a text-based version of WoW (which is NOT a role playing game) the fundamental setup of Dark Risings not only enables but encourages this. As a result, we have things happening which, as a game designer, I find extremely frustrating.
For example, many DR players seem to feel that the best way to create a character is to powerlevel to 50 as fast as possible, then spend 3 weeks spamming skills to save an extra 20 or 30 hp, then spend another week spamming gold runs. By the time they are ready to actually play the game (and not just spend hours doing the same thing over and over) they are already a higher level than 90% of the game is intended for. So we get complaints about how boring levelling is, how boring spamming is, how hard it is to get gold, how boring it is to explore areas since they don't give anything good, and so on. This is how the game has always been, and it's proven impossible to convince the majority of players that it should be done differently. It seems like players prefer to play DR in boring ways (and prefer to complain about the game being boring) to trying a different way of playing it.
Personally, I don't like playing games which require (or encourage) excessive mindless repetition, and I don't like running them, either. I think players should explore as they level, finding all sorts of useful equipment and other items which can help them fight, and which they can sell off as they find more, gradually padding their bank accounts. I think they should use their trains, skills, and spells as they get them, because they make an extreme difference in both how easy mobs are to kill, and how fun it is to kill them. This is the kind of game I want to build, and have been building at Dark Risings since I first became a builder almost seven years ago.
However, most Dark Risings players are fundamentally opposed to this kind of game play. I think the "min-max" statsmongering mentality has become so entrenched in the game itself that trying to root it out now would cause not only widespread player unhappiness, since so many people are used to doing it, but would also require code changes so massive that a pwipe would be inevitable. I love Dark Risings: its history, its longevity, its mythology, and its players. It is an established mud with some excellent code and storylines which stretch back over a decade, with no breaks or gaps where the mud was inactive. I think that forcing a pwipe on a mud this old would be fundamentally wrong.
I still want to be working on a very different kind of game, though, and I sure don't have time to work on two muds at once. Therefore, what Parvi and I are doing are splitting the game into two sections: one, Dark Risings, is the game we HAVE built, and which I hope will continue to run for another ten years; the other, as yet unnamed, is the mud we WILL build, using all the things I love about Dark Risings as well all the great code Parviane has written specifically for DR. We are not simply building DR2; the MUD we intend to make will be fundamentally different from DR in many, many, many ways. But certainly, we will be using what we have built on DR; without it, we would have to start from scratch and, in all likelihood, never it get off the ground. It takes far less time to gut a mud and rewrite than it does to start from nothing.
I don't think it's selfish to keep what we have built so that we can continue to build on it. I think it would be a lot more selfish for us to erase ten years' worth of characters so that we could do that. To my knowledge, no other past implementors have gone on to build or even play other muds, and that is pretty significant. We may yet release DR code and our rights to it. That just won't be happening right now, because unlike past owners, we are still USING it. I feel that my last four years as an IMP combined with Parvi's last three as a coder give us the right to do that.
I would love to discuss this more with anyone who would like to comment on it, and I will continue to post updates here as they occur. Once we decide on a name for the new mud, I will create a new blog for it, as well.
Thanks again to everyone who made imming on DR a pleasure. I look forward to seeing you on DR, and having the chance to play with you as a mort!
<3
Sido
Mike, tpb Oksah here.
ReplyDeleteSome caveats that I hope you guys will take time to address in the new project, and this coming from the player view point both here and in other games. You guys, as devs/imps, probably know some or all of this, but better to speak something you already know then to withhold something you may not.
- As long as there is a level max, people will do their dangest to reach it as quickly as possible. City of Heroes has a level cap of 50, and not much to do once you get to it. The story and the joy of the game is in the travel up to level 50. Still, a good 50% of the player base there tries to power level as fast as humanly possible, and many time through bugs and exploits.
It doesn't matter that the meat of the game are the story missions done at every level, from 1-50. It's something psychological, to have the highest level character possible. Anything you plan for or design will have to take that into account, especially if the desire is for the existing DR pbase to give up their existing characters in a play style that they are already comfortable with and that from what I gather differs from yours and Prav's vision of the game and start anew.
- I totally agree that the goal to have people enjoy their characters throughout their leveling career will be a change. There are a few different ways to go about it, not limited to but including:
--- Lower the level limit. Cap the level at 20, rather than 50. People will still rush, but do so in less time and be done with all the spamming faster.
--- Make it much harder to go from one level to the next. Right now you can grab 5+ levels in under an hour if you know the right areas and are twinked out. If it requires one days of playing to get from one level to the next, they will take the time to use lower level spells and skills, as well as explore the lower level areas they will be forced to spend extra time in. More time will be spent in the number's game, though, which may turn a lot of people off and take away from rp.
---Not have levels at all. Everything is a uniform level, and you work for skill points to spend on skills/spells rather than levels. After earning enough skill points (the analog to reaching max level) everything will work.
To use existing DR terms, I create a character and I instantly have lvl 50 hp/mana/move/dam roll, etc, but 'starting' equipment, and my skills/spells are all 40% and unspamable. I could, in theory, go fight the Horror or the Mine Master, but it'd be tough. Rather, I explore area x and get enough xp for a skill point, which I can then use to bump my fireball up to 80%.
The entire world is available to me, nothing to spam, and maybe by exploring certain areas I get skill points that are worth 2 rather than 1, or, certain abilities can only be improved with skill points earned in a specific area.
-Communication with the pbase. One thing I've really learned from the CoH devs is that communication with your players is a life saver. Communicate your vision, listen to the player's vision. Be open with as much as you think is possible, and a little more that isn't at times.
Yes, devs/imps put a whole lot of time into the game, but players do not have to play your game, do not have to be a part of your vision. Players have plenty of things to do, they choose to spend their limited time in the world you create.
When the CoH devs don't talk to the community of 100,000+ players, they players start to leave, start to get visibly angry, start to believe they have a right to exploit bugs for their own right. When the devs come and say, "We're aware of that" or "This is why this issue that you're calling broken is" goes a long way to seeing and being a part of your vision.
This is not to say that you haven't done that, I truly don't know, that's for the people who have been around the past 4+ years to decide. Just something that, as a lowly peon player, really engages me.
--Mike/Pez/Oksah
I'll start from the bottom of your post and work backwards... or maybe skip around a bit :)
ReplyDeleteFirst, I know you are probaby just being funny with this, but I do want to say that I don't consider players to be "lowly peons". I consider them to be equals since we're all people, and I do try, spats of temper now and then aside, to treat all people with respect.
I fully agree that communication with the pbase is important. To me that is a very obvious concept and one that has been central to how I've approached my role as a staff member at DR. I think this has been the biggest difference between how I ran DR and how others have run it. During my 4 years I invited (and used) constant player input, implementing many ideas which were initiated by players, and opening up many of my ideas for player consideration and input before we implemented them. Obviously we are the ones who made the final decisions, as was our job, but I did work very hard to implement player desires and interests in the game we all enjoyed. We built Dark Risings for the players, not for ourselves.
However, our new mud doesn't have a pbase to build for, or to try to please. We are NOT trying to entice the DR pbase to become the pbase for our new mud. We are actually a little concerned that when we open, DR players will log there expecting it to be just like DR. (It won't be.) While DR players will of course be welcome to check out our game, we in no way are trying to poach players from that mud. I realize this blog could be viewed that way, but that is not the intent of it. I just thought people might be interested, and as it turns out, many people are.
Unlike DR, which is definitely a very patched-together concept codewise, and mythology wise (it has had half a dozen coders of various abilities, and relies heavily on D&D, Forgotten Realms, Whitewolf, IoM, etc.), our new mud will realize OUR vision from the very beginning: our code and our stories. Collaboration with players will come later, after the mud is open. Ideally, I think a game like a MUD should be full of players who embrace the style of play the designers have created. That is the kind of player we will be looking for, when the time comes: people who love the game we've made, and want to be a part of it.
I find your paragraph about how players don't have to play our game a little bewildering
because to me, it's obvious that players don't have to play a game they don't like, and have
plenty of other things to do, and choose to spend their time on a game, and so on. I'm not really sure what you're implying... are you saying we should just be grateful for whatever players we get, and not try to find players who do share our vision? Or suggesting that game designers don't have plenty of other things to do and choose to spend their time on a game? Or something else altogether?
Thanks for sharing your ideas about how to change the game from a min-max sort of mentality. While we aren't thinking along those lines exactly, the style of game play will definitely be changing at this sort of fundamental level. In my opinion, the reason people become grinding statsmongers is because the way the game is built allows it. Our new game will be built differently, and not allow it -- nor will it allow many of the other things we dislike about DR. Our main goal is to enforce the rules and the style of game play we decide on with code, not with staff. I expect this to be a challenge to design.. but that is part of the fun :)
Thanks for the discussion!
S
Yay! Good luck with the thingy-ma-jiggy... uh... kan I haz gold plz?
ReplyDelete-Kam
Also as a side note: As long as theres any sort of player versus player interaction of any kind, there WILL be a psycological(spelling?) drive to min/max. Thats how people will always be. Unless you DRASTICALLY change the leveling or stat system somehow, then PvPers/PKers will always min/max to get that extra edge.
ReplyDeleteI've probably played for 5-6 years, maybe more, and since I was brought to the MUD by friends I knew, they were constantly giving me game tips and teaching me how to play it (partially because I wasn't really good at english at the time and DR helped me greatly on that matter). Anyways, the first thing I learned about leveling is that I shouldn't waste (that was the word) any trains/practices until level 50 along with which areas where the best for hunting at each levels. So my point is that this 'minmax culture' has always been there and, as Kamille mentioned, as long as there's a way of gaining an edge, there'll be players looking for it. Isn't that like part of human nature? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteIt's totally up to the person deciding how to level. I personally explored the areas at level 50 and more than once have found interesting things.
As in the last year, I've been complaining (or suggesting) about the game about a couple of things but always trying to also suggest ways of improving it along with those. So again, I guess I'll use part of this post to suggest something that, at my sight, should be on top priorities for a mud: the rp between the players and the game. The players by themselves through their characters play a great role on that but most of the time it's a RP between players-only. Game developers/operators can take it to a whole new level when they give a hand at that. Pretty much similar to the DM on any table RPGs (ie d&d, vampire, etc), if the group has a creative DM, you don't need suplements or anything else; the game will always be entertaining.
I have no clue why I wrote that but I hope that it helps some.
-V
Mike/Oksah here.
ReplyDeleteRe: Sido
What I am saying is that in DR, over time people would often play a game that they no longer liked because of many different reasons: nostalgia and ooc friendships being two major ones (At least in my case). Secret new project won't have that luxary.
And I keep stressing the players because, to me, the most perfectly designed and writen game without any players is a failure, just like the most perfectly writen novel that is never read is a failure. The tone of Prav's note implied Prav and Sido not sharing the vision of the players, Prav and Sido having spent time and money in this game and want to use this sunk cost and future invested time and money into something aligning with their vision.
MUDs are a dying breed. DR started as an offshoot from IoM. Now former DR players are making another mud (See the Facebook group for more details) as well as super secret new Prav/Sido project, as well as DR still around as long as players pay to play. This is diluting the player base of MUDs in general, and makes it even harder for super secret project to get off the ground and be a success.
Maybe you and Prav see a successful MUD as one that's just well writen, well coded, and well built, regardless of number of players. Yet there seems to be a constant theme of vision and designing against what is popular. That is your prerogative, and having a clear vision and able to follow it is a rare thing indeed in today's culture.
I just worry that, after all the hard work at DR, then after all the hard work in super secret project, your vision and result will be too different, too unique to pull in from the decreasing MUD pbase (MUDs in general) that success will be all but impossible to obtain.
Following the beat of your Tin Drum is all well and good, but sometimes you end up the same as when you started, while the rest of the world has moved on.
(Also, sometimes you eat an eel)
Re: Kam and min-max
ReplyDeleteIt's not the desire to min-max that I want to change. It's the form min-maxing has taken on DR. Most people spend massive amounts of time grinding to get very marginal gains (like spending weeks spamming spells to gain less hp/mana than ONE piece of eq can give). They waste all that time gaining an edge that isn't even really an edge, and seem to ignore the things that really can give you one... all the things Parvi and I kept trying to stress on DR. I think people should be looking at classes, races, skills, spells, areas, eq, guilds and so on to figure but the best kind of character they can make. They SHOULD min-max characters, but they should also do it QUICKLY... Create the character they think can be a monster, and PLAY it. Don't pick it out, levelspam it, and equip it, THEN play it. Nobody thinks it's fun to do it this way, but everyone still does it. I think it is a really bad way of playing, and I think it happens because it's the most effortless way of playing, and it is human nature to take the path of lowest resistance.
But what I would like to see is the game starting right from the very beginning. I want to see level 11 characters PKing each other. I want to see level 35 characters just hanging out RPing. I think that ROM code is perfectly suited to this style of play in many ways. PK at low levels is really, really fun because you have to get a lot more creative to kill someone, and it gives a huge sense of achievement to gain a spell like sanctuary if you have been fighting (and winning) for 15 levels without it. I want to see great equipment available for people to get for themselves at level 1, and all mobs built to expect that. I think HOW min-maxing is handled determines how fun a game can be, and I think it can be done a lot differently than it is at DR. I think we can design a game which makes the above scenarios real.
I have a lot of ideas about how a game could be designed differently than DR is. I have the extreme benefit of having been able to play and build a real, successful mud before beginning to design one of my own, and the absolute blessing of having a gifted coder who is also a gamer and who enjoys the same kind of games I do -- intelligent, stimulating, PK RPGs. Right now it seems like MUDs are text-versions of WoW. We want to make something that is more like a text-based version of games like Oblivion or Fallout... except where all the named people you meet are played by real people.
Re: Vaanderun
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that a priority for a mud should be RP between players and the game itself. I do think that a lot of players at DR sort of expect other people to involve them, instead of finding ways to BE involved. I've seen the staff be very eager and willing to help people develop and build on RP, but often, players won't even take the step to see if staff even know about it. It's been frustrating for me because I WANT to incorporate player work.. but.. players often don't give much to incorporate.
I would actually really love to explore that whole question. Why do you think players are so reluctant to fill imms in, and ask them to help out? Do they think that staff is riveted to their RP at all times, so that staff doesn't need to be told or included? I tried to run DR with player privacy in mind... but maybe that wasn't the best approach after all. Do you think players want to be watched by staff? What could make players want to submit work for the game? By this I mean... have their stories incorporated into areas or books, songs, or games, or items, or areas, or whatever they desire. To me it seems like players don't want this. Am I way off? Otherwise, any ideas about why so few players try to get involved in the fabric of the game, or ideas about how to get players more interested?
Re: Mike
ReplyDeleteI don't think muds are a dying breed. I think muds need to step up their game. Muds offer a unique style of gaming which no other game can offer. WoW may bill itself as a MMORPG, but there is no RP in that MMOG. CoH may have a great RP atmosphere, but with its thousands of players, most people will be lost in the crowd. MUDs offer people a way to RP as a true ensemble cast, where everyone's stories are important, and where everyone has a chance to be a star and shine.
As for players... I want to state again that we are not going to try to take DR's pbase. The mud we are building (and dang do I wish I had a good name for it already, or at least a code name) is going to be fundamentally different than DR in many ways, and I agree that many DR players will probably not like it. That's why we decided to build it somewhere other than DR. They're more than welcome to try it out, but I expect most of them will probably prefer DR. And that's fine with me; I think DR is a fun game and have been having a lot of fun getting back into playing it. I hope it sticks around forever.
I do NOT think that we are reliant on DR or the current mudding community for players, once we do open. Just as I have ideas about what a mud could be like, I have ideas about where to find players who would really enjoy the kind of game I want to make. This part really is super secret, so I won't say much beyond this: I don't intend to try poaching players from ANY other muds, including DR. I intend to try to bring in an entirely new group of people, and who knows? They may well filter out to the mudding community at large if they decide the game we've made isn't quite for them. And I would be happy to see that happen. So I am not worried about trying to pull in players from an already depleted mudding community... I plan to find new players, potentially for many muds. So, I do value players very highly and recognize that a mud cannot exist without them. I also believe that if I build a great mud, players will come to it. It may not be baseball in a cornfield, but there is magic in gaming :)
Mike here.
ReplyDeleteRe: Large vs. Small rp. Well, in a small, initimate community, it might be harder for a new person to break in, as everyone is already close, while in a much larger community it might be easier for someone to join up with a given rp area, or to find a group of other newbies and start their own. In any of the 4 cases we've described, guess it just comes down to what the person is willing to put in, regardless of the size of the game, so it's a circular arguement.
Re: Old DR vs super secret project, I guess I'm just, in the end, very confused. You've steped down from DR administrative duties to work on super secret project, but you've kept the ip, giving the impression, to me at least, that the super secret project will involve the ip. (Else why hang onto it?). You've kept the blog, which was originally used as the people in charge of DR to talk about the going ons of DR (And is named Dark Risings Admin Blog), yet you are no longer admins of DR.
My (incorrect, it seems) leap in logic is that if super secret project is based on DR ip, created by former DR admins, then DR players are going to have some sort of vested interest in it. Conversly, if super secret project is not based on DR ip, then why the need to have connections to a mud you're no longer related to in an administrative fashion.
That's my point of confusion, I think. I guess I just never understood why you are building something "fundementally different" "somewhere other than DR" to quote you, but are holding onto DR ip and not leaving it behind to those in charge.
And to note I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything, all this has honestly confused and vexed me and why I keep asking silly questions.
And though I sound negative, I do hope super secret project all the best, the engineer in me tends to look for problems that need a solution before they're a problem. ;)
"...but you've kept the ip, giving the impression, to me at least, that the super secret project will involve the ip. (Else why hang onto it?)."
ReplyDeleteI presume that by "ip" you mean "intellectual property." I can only speak on behalf of my contributions to Dark Risings, but there are several reasons I insisted on not passing the game on to anyone else. Foremost, I spent years developing the Dark Risings code, fixing its numerous bugs, and stabilizing it to a point where it can run for months without anyone being able to crash it (cf. the stability of the game when I started coding). I have implemented features which several others in the mudding community have said are "impossible," leading me to believe I've incorporated truly innovative concepts which I am sure other muds would love to get their hands on. Since there were no other coders at the time I left, passing the "ip" on would require that I entrust my years of effort to the ability of my successor to choose a trustworthy coder. Since nobody I knew on the game even came close to fitting this bill of a trustworthy coder, this would have meant my code would've wound up in the hands of a total stranger.
To answer your question of "why hang onto it" in short, I simply see no reason to donate my years of work to the mudding community at large, only to see it devolved into snippets which appear in otherwise garbage muds. Our project will involve my parts of the "intellectual property" insofar as it will be a very stable codebase with fresh and innovative features. It will involve portions of code I originally wrote for Dark Risings, and I wish for those features to remain unique.
However, I did not insist on keeping the code so that we can have the core features of Dark Risings in our new project; in fact, one thing we did consider is releasing the code and some areas of Dark Risings to the public domain as they existed before I started coding. I have little interest in retaining the features of Dark Risings that preceded my tenure, as I've developed muds prior to Dark Risings and, if I may say be so bold as to say so, written similar sorts of core functionality (a pk system, vampires, et cetera) from scratch in far more robust and expandable ways already.
"You've kept the blog, which was originally used as the people in charge of DR to talk about the going ons of DR (And is named Dark Risings Admin Blog), yet you are no longer admins of DR."
The blog is an unofficial aspect of Dark Risings initially created by us as an outlet for our thoughts, not necessarily the thoughts of whoever may be running the game. With that being said, Nate, who is the de facto operator of Dark Risings, is just as much an owner of this blog as Sidonie or myself. He can post and delete blogs, comments, and whatever else on here.
"My (incorrect, it seems) leap in logic is that if super secret project is based on DR ip, created by former DR admins, then DR players are going to have some sort of vested interest in it."
Players are allowed to be interested in it, but they should not expect Dark Risings 2.0.
"Conversly, if super secret project is not based on DR ip, then why the need to have connections to a mud you're no longer related to in an administrative fashion."
I think by this point the answer should be evident. This blog is not an official channel of communication on Dark Risings, and we're more interested in retaining only our contributions to Dark Risings than the whole mud and everything included. As I mentioned before, we were considering leaving the old version of Dark Risings in the public domain, but realizing that would have required a significant amount of work that neither of us really felt was warranted.
RE: Sidonie
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure if I can answer that question but I'll try to. However I wish someone that had some more experience with RP commented instead since my personal experience from that is close to 10%. I never asked any Imms for my RP because I never felt that any of the RPs I've done on my characters was good enough for becomming worldwide. But let's do it...
Think that if a player is doing a good RP, good enough to have the help from immortals, it would be one noticeable by many. I mean, it wouldn't be a RP between a small circle of people, it would be something that involves whoever wants to participate. That kind of RP would probably be also noticed by some immortals and one could decide helping. Also, it wouldn't be breaking any privacy policy.
I believe you're wrong about saying that players don't want to have their marks in the game. As of now, most of the ones that are
remembered by others are the PKers when they excel at PK. RPers are usually only remembered by those that RPed with them. So "why so few players try to get involved in the fabric of game?" My guess is that if immortals gave a small push to RP, some RPers might embrace it and turn the RP into something big. I recall the drow x avariel war RP, everyone that had a drow/avariel character embraced it and for quite some time there was this big racial RP.
Now an idea part, besides that small push from Imms I believe that if there was one immortal specially for the function (kind of similar to the old quest imms) it would help some. Also, those RPers that wanted some Imm help with their RP could ask directly to him and leave the Guild Imms for guild stuff. Don't think it would be a hard work and if the person chosen for being that immortal was creative the results would be great.
Again, those are the thoughts of someone that is more leaned towards PKing than RPing. The thoughts of a RPer would be welcomed.
-V
RE: Vaanderun
ReplyDeleteRoleplay and Dark Risings.
I'm not an old player of DR, so I missed all the racial wars which have happened in the past. The only evidence I've seen of racial agression is between the Lichnee and Gith. However I do not think that is the only method of mass rplines. And I don't think Dark Risings needs a new immortal specializing in Roleplay encouragement or fabrication.
From my time playing at DR, I've noticed that clans aren't really formed anymore. I understand the reason for not wanting to form clans, why bother when you can join a guild? Recieve two spells and two quest items. Seems logical to me. But understand the guilds are only one form of enhancing players rp.
There are many avenues one can take to form clans. Currently there is a new clan in the making specializing in entertainment, storytelling, plays etc.
I think clans are probably the best way to create good strong mass roleplay for people, other than guilds of course. There are plenty of avenues to think about when making a clan, rp is limitless and is open to evolve.
A few quick suggestions:
*Clan of living beings worshipping Syrin.
*Clan which only accepts a certain class.
*Clan which only accepts a certain race.
All you need is a few people and the rp can evolve from there.
-Mysan Wildfoot
The person behind Sintar. I do have a question for you. You say we should use are trains as we get them But if we do this and we later get decent equipment which is heavily mana for instance and we ended up putting alot of trains into mana to begin with then we are left with no trains with which to balance our character out. The same can happen with hp I screwed up alot of my characters I feel by training hp at 6 or 7 level intervals. Sure it made leveling easier having spent the trains but I always wish I could go back and redistribute those trains.
ReplyDeleteDustin here, TPB Justarius
ReplyDeleteDid a lot of playing on DR and I am kinda sad to see you two go, but good luck on the new project.
I'm actually very upset over the decision for you to leave Dark Risings IMPless and Coderless.
ReplyDeleteDark Risings isn't just a game, or a MUD, to alot of people it's been a huge chunk of their gaming life, and players there have become like a surrogate family for people.
Your decision to abandoned DR in such a fashion is only the seed that will grow to end the legacy that is Dark Risings MUD. I understand your connection to the game, and believe you truly believe your works are invaluable. To be honest, they have been, Dark Risings continued to sustain itself under your command, as it has with past IMPs, but that's not a true credit to yourself, but a credit to what is Dark Risings.
Dark Risings still after 11-12 years, is far from problem free, there are still things in the game that unfinished or plain wrong and imbalancing. While you may disagree, many others feel this way, and without a permenant IMP pressence and a coder who wants to make the game better it will eventually die off.
I sincerely hope you reconsider your choice to leave Nate as an ADMIN and make him an IMP and hand him the game, not just for him, but for all the people who play and love dark risings.
Your contribution to the MUD and it's code has been great, but is it truly greater than those before you? those who made the MUD from nothing to something, with your choice you make it sound like you value your choices for the MUD over theres, and that your work was better and more deserving.
I promise you, it's not. That's not to say your work had no value, it's to stay that all the work done on Dark Risings in its life is VALUABLE, to the players and the expansion of the MUD.
As someone whose played the MUD for a decade, I beg you not to let it slide into the darkness of time and not to let it die. Please, please please give someone else a chance to build on your work and continue to make Dark Risings the most awesome MUD in history.
Hate me if you wish sido and parv, I don't hate you, I just want you to let us keep our game that we too have invested many many many hundreds and to thousands of hours into as players who enjoy what dark risings is. Our contribution as players counts for something to, please don't overlook that and discard us because some people didnt like you, or your vision for Dark Risings.
Make your new MUD, may it prosper and grow and be all you want it to be, I really do wish you get what you want from it, from the bottom of my heart I really do.
I just hope you see it in yours to let us have our own dream and own future with dark risings, and allow others to take the reigns and see where it goes.
thanks,
Old Timer.