The Gathering...

     

The realm of Tirradyn has been an active and role-play intensive wonder of words for folks from every lifestyle to participate in shaping the society in a variety of ways since 2004. We offer over 65,000 rooms, roughly 350 areas, including over 25 inns and boasting an excess of 2000 shops. Our world is made of ten continents, four moons and another planet, with areas of interest located on all lands. Sea ships offer transportation between the continents where one can witness the dolphins swimming alongside as they travel.

The unique council of Immortals, along with active players often offers highly in-depth storylines for characters to get involved in, solve mysteries and be a part of molding the world, for better or worse. A questing office can be found in many of the large cities for characters to gain employment and rewards of coin as well as unique objects for work performed. Players can craft their own armor and weapons, tattoos, jewelry and containers! Our questing system allows for spell-boosted objects and custom pets.

Many areas are classified as Empires. In these lands, characters are encouraged to get involved in the society and can climb the proverbial ladder, eventually claiming a title of respect or a reputation that might instill fear! Like dragons? You’ll love our NPC Dragon Council!

A character can be a member of a guild and a religion. The religions reflect the roster of Gods and Goddesses of Tirradyn. Some members of the pantheon are highly visible and others prefer to keep a distance from the spotlight. As may be expected, the differences in such a wide world can present rising angers and heated debates that often turn to physical outcomes. We have skilled players in the art of role-play-combat and anticipate the option of PK being implemented in the future for those more inclined to that manner of battle.

It is easy to make a name for oneself, positively or negatively, depending on the style and preferences of the character/player. We appreciate and always consider ideas submitted by our players. TG is home and a community that many of us spend the majority of our free time actively seeking to improve and enhance to an even better atmosphere. We welcome visitors to come and spend time with us and see if we may be the perfect place for your creativity.


Mud Theme: Medieval Fantasy

The Gathering... Mud Reviews

37 reviews found, Post a review

Review posted by TG-Player
Posted on Wed Dec 12 17:57:55 2018 / 0 comments
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The Gathering... has many options for players. A large world to explore, and variations of colors to use to customize everything from your character description, to gear, to even your character's own player home. There are many commands that can be used towards making your roleplay experience fun.

It used to be a good MUD. It's gone downhill. I truly hope each year it'll start to get better, and when it seems like it does or will it degrades once more. :(

Warning: This MUD is truly for Adults. It has sexual content even in "safe" roleplay places, and that can be read in the roleplay notes, including Bestiality, Incest, Underage Sex (14 years is the minimum for SRP for the character, though players are much older), Rape, Fetal Deaths, Kidnapping, and fetishes I dare not name, and some of these that are combined. If you cannot handle these roleplay topics, even in hearing about them, move onto another game.

TLDR: I suggest moving onto another MUD where the staff is truly attentive to all that is needed of ALL the player base equally. If this MUD gets into the high 10 ranks it may very well have changed to truly be able to handle new players. To this day of this review posted, the staff is incapable of handling who they have now that have been within them for years to a decade, and who are likely getting fed up with the staff and player behavior alike, though doing things against their very own rules.

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The staff don't really want to do anything about it. This game needs new staff, and kick off the inactive ones or the ones who aren't doing the roles they had agreed to take on. More, or new staff, to take over roles/duties that are necessary to the continuing success of the game. Especially to help their players in roleplay that has to do with the world. There is a control issue with the owners (one in particular who has created the entirety of the world, changed, and pretty much taken it over from what it used to be), and everything that owner has control over or knows will be put on hold for months to a OVER a YEAR when this owner is away.

The players are expected to be patient, to wait that long, to find other things (when no other staff can help, and what game actually works like this?), or the player (not the staff in question) will be made to feel guilty for not being more patient. The smart thing for them to set us is to make it that not one staff member is in charge of any one thing. Then they all can do things for the game and players, and when one is on hiatus another can easily take over. The staff now will get frustrated with players "whining" about these things. They have no remorse for their players, and will expect the players to have remorse for the staff who are having troubles IRL.

Players are not there to know about the real life situations of the staff, or other players. They are there to PLAY and the duty of the staff is to make this game, in its entirety, a fun and welcome place to play.

TG is essentially a gloried sex chat room with the minor aspect of roleplay for players to live out their fantasies.

You will find married couples with numerous characters intertwined with each other (a 10 alt limit), having numerous children. Children "born" in the game will be raised to the age of 14, the legal age a character can be Sex Roleplayed with, and be sexually involved with their own parents, with possible children being born from that.

There are many characters who are incestual. Yes, incest is allowed. Yes, underaged characters are allowed to take part in SRP with characters 3-10+ times their age and experience. If none of this appeals to you, do NOT play here, because these topics are RAMPANT even when you're in the main recall point. That main recall point is where everyone will take their cuddling, kissing, and conversation where you will read all about it.

Many great players have left because of the behavior, insults, guilt-trips, and excuses of the staff and other players, despite those players who left having being very focused on helping this game for the better. This leaves only behind the ones who were the true focus of the problems. You will find a lot of victim blaming going on with those who have the control.

If the rank of this game ever gets up into the 20's, this may signify that it has finally changed because it truly has proven itself to its players to be able to handle more players. Either that or someone cheated to get this MUD up into the higher ranks JUST for players, without anything changing at all.

If you come here, you will get a friendly welcome and what help you might need if you can't figure it out yourself. You will quickly, within days, be able to get to the highest level, however you will soon realize there are many things that need to improve. Take my word for it, those things you will find now are not new. They have needed to be improved for YEARS, and this is because the staff are not focused upon them as being priority, and the staff are the only ones capable of changing it.

- Helpfiles are out of date and will not be updated within a reasonable amount of time after a new feature that would need a helpfile is added into the code.

- Typo's will be found in the descriptions that have not been changed. (You would think that being primarily English and text-based, they'd know the difference between sense and since, your and you're, its and it's, etc...) Fixing these are a repetitive task, however is an improvement to make a better impression on players that may see this as being part of quality on a text-based game.

- Maps in some areas will be confusing, having rooms landing over each other, when there is no purpose for it to be so confusing.

- Areas will be closed off or moved WITHOUT any roleplay, nor any warning/notice to the players. Their excuse? The specific staff who have made those areas have full control of where they go despite those areas having been there for many, many years, and older players being very used to them being where they were.

- In character laws may be RETCON'd into the game without any roleplay. It will be expected of players that this has always been part of it.

- The "safe place" of the main recall point will have numerous rules and laws. However, these aren't for everyone. These are laws of convenience for the staff to put upon the trouble-making players, and not treat every player equally who doesn't follow them. Even staff will be found to break these laws on their mortal characters.

- Not all the staff know the same things about the game. You THINK they would, having been given an immortal staff position AND a God character AND access to so many commands to do as they please to their players. There is a severe lack of communication and knowledge among them. Several of their long term players know far more, sadly more often than the staff themselves, and this is a very poor mark for a MUD to have that is roleplay focused.

- Roleplay with the staff, especially one called a "Global", will quite often be directed at their own mortal characters being in the spotlight instead of an overall general story for those involved.

- Staff feels they can do whatever they want to make it easier on themselves. EX: transferring a player without proper consent to a place where roleplay is being held in a group, instead of supporting roleplay for the character to get to the location on their own.

- Every DM that puts together their own "Global" is different in how they run their global. Though they have helpfiles, anything can change depending on who it is that's running it. Do not expect Staff#1 running a global to be the same as Staff#3 was over 6 months ago following the helpfiles or use the same ideas.

- Both staff and newbie helpers will insult each other, and other players, over OOC channel, which is stated to be playful (though this tone cannot be portrayed through text), even knowing it is against the general rules of the game with OOC channel behavior. These few simply can't seem to help themselves from this "playfulness" knowing that it's not acceptable to all, and frowned upon by other players, scaring players off of new and old or having OOC completely turned off leaving these insulting players to control the OOC channel.

- More could be added but I will stop it there...

The staff have given up on being a well-communicative, player-focused group. They are instead acting as a loyal-to-the-one-owner "friend like family" group who can care less about the needs of the players, and more so upon the constant needs of themselves. Unfortunately being on staff is often a thankless, repetitive job, and to do what is needed for the players entertainment will help to keep those players and get new players.

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Review posted by Jayson
Posted on Mon Aug 10 14:01:08 2015 / 5 comments
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Wow, where should I begin? Do I begin with an apology to TG's staff and players or do I begin with an explanation of why I am apologizing? I'll start with an explanation...

The Gathering is indeed a successful mud and a must play (at least to try it out) They deal with several characters both supportive and obnoxious, on their own time, without pay, with the added stresses of life ... and simply do a magnificent job at it. I feel that it is only right that I retract my previous statements of TG Staff and Mud. I was a jerk to them and they simply did not deserve it.

Being an Imm is a thankless position, all work, no play. Allow me to be one of the few who change that. Thank you Staff for putting up with me like you did for as long as you did. I was immature, thoughtless, and generally acting like a idiot. You guys worked very hard for that mud and still continue to work hard.

Again, I recommend that whoever reads this at least tries The Gathering once.

Now for my apology; I, Jayson, aka Navarre, Soran, Jaffar, Sytren, Synder, Azuril, (I think that narrows many of them down) apologize for being such a harsh bastard to The Gathering's Staff and players. I was wrong for treating you all like I did.

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Comment posted on Wed Mar 23 21:05:16 2011 by Sheylynn:
     

I only wish to say, thank you to Jayson, and that the words and apology mean more than he could ever know.

Much huggles Shey

Comment posted on Wed Jul 3 19:20:10 2013 by Once a Loyal Player:
     

I'd like to point out a few things. One, players can't just come on here and write reviews for this site. You, the reader, are seeing very one sided and bias opinions.

I looked for almost 30 minutes for a place to write a review and gave up so now I'm commenting on someone else's section.

Now to point two. The problems with the game. I played this mud for years. Yes, it was amazing and it had it's moments, but it also has very large unavoidable rp-killing problems. You can walk in and start this mud and you will probably enjoy it for a bit, but you will see the problems first hand slowly start to come up.

1) Lack of Imms that do their jobs/don't abuse their power. 2) A huge amount of blunt favoritism between imms and players. 3) World is too huge to the point the imms can't keep up with the lore they wrote for it. 4) No sort of organization within the imms.

Now you will notice all the problems, or most of them are with the imms/staff members. Frankly, you'll find most muds have those 'boobs' as we will call them who people avoid and are crazy, spouting stupidity and lacking a general ability to rp a character. My problem is with how the mud is run. I could go into many details about the above statements, but they speak for themselves.

After almost 8 years of putting up with this, I walked away. I lost so many years of creative writing and imagination. Yes, this is a well coded mud, with creative thought put into it, but when it's run by adults who lack the ability to really run one, then you have a problem.

Don't think, oh this is one of those people who didn't get their way, because I actually avoided the imms icly and oocly. It was all the things I saw and experienced while doing this that I noticed how messed up it was.

Will I care if someone comes on here to try and disprove my points. No, I'm just giving a general warning to anyone thinking of trying this sight. I'm done fighting for what is right and am ready to move on to a mud that is actually run well.

Comment posted on Fri Sep 20 02:37:35 2013 by Newbie:
     

Well Kind of. Like the last commenter pointed out, you can no longer write a review for this mud; if they were accepted, they are being refused now. I base my willingness to try out new games on reviews...they don't always sway me (sometimes the bile some players spout actually cause me to play it to see if they were justified on not). But when reviews are refused that's a cause to bypass it; that tells me that the ones refusing to be refused have something to hide. It's too bad; it looked like a decent game but I just can't bring myself to try it when they don't allow all players to be heard.

Comment posted on Wed May 20 08:02:25 2015 by A Veteran Player:
     

Player reviews are being refused to the MUD and the staff itself getting bad reviews from some of their players. While the latest review before reviews were being rejected was an apology to the staff for his behavior, it was mostly done so he could probably get unbanned from the mud.

The mud is still the same, if not worse, than it was before. Immortal corruption is still rampant on the mud and I have quitted over these issues more times than I can count. While some immortals are nice and are fun to be around, others are just outright absurd and completely disrespectful to the players in a very obvious way. Sometimes I even wonder if a few select of immortals even want to be here, which is highly true for a certain admin who blantly states that they 'dont care' what players think and usually acts like an utter jerk to anyone he speaks with. There has always been a sense, if even subtle, of favoritism amongst immortals and a few select players whom will not be mentioned, but this is something that is usually common in most muds and is usually acceptable as it causes others to work harder, and get a better sense of achievement for their efforts rather than being given heavy rewards for little effort. While the immortal staff does try its best to run these things called 'Global Roleplays', a roleplay which anyone can join and earn rewards, more often than not they try to keep it within their control and the system they use for roleplay combat is half-assed and somewhat incomplete and flawed, but it is better than having no system in place at all. Not to sound harsh, while being an immortal is a thankless position and some do express their thanks individually for their work, its something that has to be expected and comes with the position. If you are an immortal just looking to get praised for your work, then you took up your responsibilities for the wrong reason. Remorts are currently in the works, but as of this moment most of the classes are unbalanced. Monks, Mages, Thieves, and Warriors are overpowered, while druids, rangers, and clerics are left in the dust with no efforts to correct this in about, if not over, a year.

Now, with the bad aspects of the mud aside, there are still several good aspects to look forward to. The mud possesses a lot of features and systems which could keep you very busy and immerse you in all sorts of roleplay, whether it be playing as a scriber with the scribing skill or a blacksmith with the mining and smithing skills. There is also an empire system put in place, though being somewhat dead at the moment, it still leaves players with the opportunity to rule a kingdom as they (mostly) see fit. Remorts are currently being worked on which is something to look forward to, but they've been 'worked on' for at least seven years with little bits of progress being shown to players to keep hopes up.

Overall, the mud itself is a great place to play and on its own shows that a lot of work has been put into it, but be mindful of the immortals and their behavior, as they are the ones who bring the mud down a few notches overall.

Comment posted on Sun Aug 9 23:31:52 2015 by Unknown Player (I dont want reprecussions from the staff):
     

A few of the admins are complete jerks to their players and they have no respect for their players in general. I would not recommend this mud to anyone.

I am highly disappointed that I got into this mud, only to see the ugly sides of it, and which makes me want to leave it because of those who made it a horrible experience for me. Such a waste of time. The only reason i haven't is because I've dedicated so much to it, and regretably so.

Review posted by R
Posted on Fri Feb 11 21:22:59 2011 / 0 comments
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When I first started the gathering, I wanted a place that I could just relax and have fun and meet people. I didn't know anyone from the mud, I didn't know the staff. I'm always apprehensive from staying on muds that are new and I don't know.

The first thing that gripped my attention when I started the gathering was the people. They greeted me, welcomed me, and there were several people playing. There is never anything so depressing as started a new mud and there is no one around. I might stay a few minutes but usually I get bored and leave.

The next thing that grabbed my attention was that TG is different. I hadn't ever really played a DoT mud so having to have a short description instead of seeing a players name was very odd and different. So, the codebase immediately grabbed my attention also. Also the fact that I had to be 'in character' all the time was also new. I came from a mud that you could rp if you wanted but most people didn't.

What does this say about TG? They have a playerbase that is active and cares about getting and keeping new players. They have a staff dedicated to gripping the attention of people and keeping them interested.

The staff are dedicated and are constantly coming up with ways to better the mud and create storylines to keep player interest and enhance the mud. New zones are being created and the use of mudprogs to enhance areas is being used more often to give a more in depth feel.

Are there problems with TG, of course, but the staff's ability to stay united and work around and with problems instead of ignoring or adding to them is phenomenal. They stick together and never bash each other. Even if one makes a mistake, they never bash or belittle the other.

I've been on so many muds that have a divided front and it's stressful to the players. I was even immortal on a mud that clearly had favoritism, and as an imm they told me to shut up if I tried to be fair and treat everyone with respect and honesty. The gathering is very awesome at not showing favoritism.

There is SRP on the gathering, but instead of looking at the gathering as an SRP mud, I see it as a mud that tolerates SRP. If that is your thing you aren't going to be punished or banned for it. If you don't like SRP there are still rp options available to you and the use of Profile Sheets aids greatly in finding players that have the same roleplay tastes as you.

I also like the fact that tg tries to be as realistic as possible. I recently became staff and one of the first things I was asked to do was go through every area and make sure the place it was connected made sense. If I saw an area connected to a swamp, did the city reflect that and I would note what areas I thought needed to be changed.

The gathering is all about change and adding and enhancing to the mud to create a better roleplaying experience. The staff is dedicated, the mud base is awesome though mostly it is because they have a head coder that is truly amazing. You want something to happen, you can ask Trellan and he will make it happen.

I strongly encourage any to at least give the gathering a shot because it has an immortal staff and playerbase that is just amazing.

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Review posted by Lilly
Posted on Wed Mar 23 21:05:06 2011 / 2 comments
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I have been an Immortal and I have been temp banned. I have praised the MUD (read my earlier review) and I have sworn that I would quit. I have had wonderful time and I have wanted to pull my hair out -- enough to where I thought it best for my mental health that I step down as a Coder rather than crash heads with one of the Administrators about how code should be written, amongst other things. TG is not a horrible place, and I don't want to make it out to me, but I can't help but think that, to an extent, it is a Guilded MUD: a very good outer layer that holds disappointments when held to a stricter light.

I will speak of the problems, since that's what you'll want to know if you're reading this Review wondering if you should play. I find that I can't keep the 10,000 character limit TMC has, so it's only the problems I'll mention.

1) Lack of World and RP Depth. TG has a veritable armada of races. The helpfiles are, most often, very good at giving an image of them, though some are little more than a few cobbled-together paragraphs. There are a plethora of areas across many different continents. Once you get farther in, though, a player who wants quality to their RP world starts to see through much of the quantity to what TG is: a good concept poorly executed through bad area design and a lack of race enforcement. The feel of the continents, which each certainly has its own theme, is broken by having areas that make absolutely no sense placed haphazardly within them: a thriving, peaceful, green village in the middle of a swamp with no mention of the swamp within the village itself. A random taco shop in the middle of nowhere. If immersion into a magical world is TG's goal, then it fails to do that. Areas rarely, if ever, reference each other despite what their proximity might be, and overall the MUD feels more like something cobbled together than an actual believable world.

The problem with races comes from the fact that there are, quite simply, too many with not enough variation. The number of races, rather than helping contribute to the overall feel of the MUD world, waters it down. There's the demonic dog-people, the natural dog-people, the humans-infected-with-a-disease-to-turn-into-dog-people. There's a bland catch-all 'Demon' race, a bland catch-all 'half-demon' race. Beyond that there's no enforced racial alignments, so Demons might be the most wonderfully snuggly people ever, and when a player tries to RP racism -- ie, good people don't like Demons because they are something, you know, bad -- then they are scorned ICly and OOCly by other players and will find their RP greatly suffers for it. The players of TG seem to want a bland world with no established conflict outside of the frivolous inter-character stuff that they come up with, and the Staff of TG certainly does little to help promote anything but the high-school level drama (and the attempts at it by some imms are cancelled out by the 'World Peace!' mentality of other immortals). One will find that TG's IC world tends to be something along the lines of 'Can't we all just be friends OMG we can wheee group hug!' Beyond that, so many players play either: 1) Incredibly cliche characters that are drawn as close-as-possible out of an Anime or established Fantasy World, or 2) A thousand Alternate Chars who all have the same personality ('Rawr I demand Sex!' and 'I'm the soft-spoken shy guy from a bad background who yet seems to have an inner strength that one just has to look for' seem to be common ones). While there are incredible Role-Players out there who do a great job establishing impressive niches, much of the MUD is nothing more than a silly Soap Opera about who's cheating who, who's being true, and who don't really care anymore.

2) Lack of Staff Responsibility, at times. I wrote in my past review that I think TG has a great immortal staff. I still think that, but I have to add the caveat of 'Sometimes.' When they are active, the staff is solid. The coder and Head RP, in particular, I think do the best jobs at what they do that I've seen on a MUD I've played extensively. But all of the Immortals suffer from long periods of inactivity, sometimes justified and sometimes not. I remember at one point when an Admin had gone away for a very stupid reason (I'll not go into the details, I'm not so mad at TG to do that, but suffice it to say it was below High School Drama) and promised to people to return, but did not for several months, causing all the areas, housing, and RP Requests to become bogged down to the point of a player-led questioning of the Imm's methods. The Imm Staff, simply put, need to be more active so they can deal with day-to-day problems and with enforcing rules that the MUD has written down, which often seem to be ignored. It seems, to me, that those who attempt to follow the rules and ask Immortals for permission to do various things are the ones who are restricted, because simply not telling the immortals is the way to bypass any rules. Want to know if a name is okay? Don't ask for the name 'Wynter' (which is one that I know was denied) and make 'Rameses' (the rules state no famous IRL names should be used) and you'll be fine. Want to have a special IC power? Don't ask the RPC for it, 'just assume you have it until the imms tell you no,' as was one player's advice to me. The worst bit is that it seemed to work. To make matters even more telling for TG, the co-owner of the MUD recently resigned being an Imm because she 'couldn't handle the day-to-day problems' and wanted to be a player again. They are still co-owner, though, so I can't help but wonder how much them as a 'player' (which she stresses she still is) continues to affect and decide staff decisions. It seems weird to me that a player would be a co-owner, especially when they don't pay for the server or create the MUD itself.

Within the Immortal Staff, even, there always seemed to be a measure of mistrust and lack of communication. As an example, Char Notes were the advocated way of keeping up with special powers that players had been granted by the RP Staff (in recent weeks these powers have been completely stripped away by the Head RP Imm, which is something I am majorly happy with) but -- and I know because, as I said, I was an Immortal -- the Char Notes were rarely kept up, either because of the bother and mess of adding them, or because an RP Imm 'Didn't want other Immortals seeing the information and being able to abuse it.' Both were things I heard, and the second was incredibly startling and troubling, even as a young coder. When the rule to special abilities was 'If an Imm looks in your Char Notes and you don't have it, then you don't have it' and yet one of the RP Imms said they didn't trust fellow Imms to be responsible, there's an issue there.

3) Lack of MUD Direction - Two years ago any observer, both within and outside of the MUD, would have labeled The Gathering and 'SRP Mud.' Because of a head-butting with the Dawn of Time license and themselves TG was forced to take steps to make their MUD a non-Adult Mud to the tune of limiting people having SRP to a special island and within private rooms -- inns, for example. At that point the staff of TG explained that they wanted to take the direction of the MUD to a more serious RP mud, I'm not so sure that this has happened, though, except in randomly decided bits and bursts. TG often seems to be like a car with a spotty engine: it might suddenly jump forwards all at once after you try really hard to get something going, but most of the time you're just sitting there playing with yourself for entertainment.

To me there seems to be a lack of direction in what to do. The admin constantly say they want to create a more serious RP environment and yet they don't seem willing to enforce the stringent RP-related rules that most major RP areas have. Player harassment, especially for Sex, is not uncommon at all and offenders are generally just given a slap on the wrist in lieu of harsher behavior-correcting problems. A recent 'global' storyline that took place was bungled because of poor execution and, it seemed to me, a confusion between the Imms running the line of what to do about it. Mix this in with a general sense of laziness amongst many players who have been given power to move forwards RP as well and the storyline was almost completely dropped. I'm not entirely sure if the problem isn't with the Staff or the Players, but it certainly is a problem. Over the past year or so 'Player-run Empires/Organizations' was pressed forwards by the Imm Staff and, in my opinion, it was done so way too quickly and far too liberally. It seems like everybody now just has 'troops' that they randomly command and often employ to try to boss people around with, yet it seems to me that this is improperly handled with a lack of any definition into how powerful these groups are compared to each other and troops are just a magical, imaginative number one can draw from without any support. A small town might have an army of 20,000 elite-trained troops, despite the complications one would imagine having so many troops in the mountainous area. Troops seem to just magically poof between areas, making any important conflict a bit of a bore since some Imms allow you to just throw a mystical figure at the problem and demand for it to be fixed, rather than encouraging players themselves to work together at an individual level.

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Comment posted on Fri Jan 21 15:21:43 2011 by Sheylynn:
     

Rather than pick apart every little detail in the review above, or note where they contradict themselves on several points, I'll just sum it all up instead, as I'm sure to run out of character limits if I were to do so.

The assumptions that were made, because frankly, Lilly had no way of knowing what I did or why, he was never privy to any of my personal life, and I am a private person who does not go around announcing all the things that happen. My fathers death, my brothers illness, and the many other things that happened within months of each other, were no one's business. As much as I love the mud, it is in the end, a game, and real life takes precedence. So I suppose to him, that was a silly reason to vanish for a few months or to have to step down for a bit. The reason I stepped down was because I could not deal with the stress hitting me from all sides at once, both real life, and the game.

Lilly's/Lorwen's and my issues began when he was brought on staff, because he has an iron-fist mentality, and was of the opinion that only his thoughts and opinion's mattered when it came to putting things into place in game. He refused to go to those, who had experience in the area that he wanted to change up completely, and ask if it had been done in the past, what had worked, what hadn't, and lord help anyone who did not agree with him. This is pretty much, just one last attempt to get another slam at me, done! lol

Now, to address some of the things stated about the areas, I'm also head builder, so... there you go, yet another slam. Many of the areas that are in place, were there before I ever took up the position, and have been icly there, for some time. Now I suppose that villages just, vanish and pop up in a completely different place all the time, but, how do you go about that, icly, where it makes sense. It seems it's just something else for Lilly to be nit-picky about.

The races, character notes, RP requests etc, fall to the Head RP IMM. My not being on, does not hold up these things, nor does it mean they're done by RP staff as a whole. To say that I have that much power and control in the mud, is, well, silly. The head RP has final say, this means they decide when the requests are looked at and when they're not, and could go through them themselves and approve or disapprove as needed. Our head RP imm does a wonderful job, as do all of our staff, and if there was any high school drama that was created, it was via Lilly, for it was Lilly that constantly poked and prodded at the rules, demanding they be re-worded, that they were not specific enough.. It's a mud. We carry out the spirit of the law, a little common sense goes a long way.

If it had been up to Lilly, half of the mud would have been banned simply because a person was having an off day. He was rude and sarcastic to our player base on a whole, and thought he was better than anyone else there, and that pretty much all of our players were idiots. I love our players, I'm more than defensive of them, and when I stepped in to protect them, he became offended. He refused to listen to anyone other than our owner, head coder or head rp imm, why? Because he could either talk them into whatever he wanted, or in the case of the head rp imm, was too afraid not to listen.

Lilly is.. well.. Lilly. I liked him, loved his RP and his character concepts, he's a brilliant coder. But he has a lot to learn about human nature, and his ego could use being a little less bloated. He makes too many assumptions, does not do what is needed to learn facts, and in his hatred for me, is attempting to destroy the work done by many to make TG the wonderful place that it is. Is it perfect, absolutely not, are our players perfect, absolutely not. But if you wish to have a place, where you can escape, and have fun. Then we're the place for you. We do have in-depth storyline's, we do not rules with an iron fist and allow a large leeway for character concept and creation. Our rules are pretty clear. Just be nice to the players, be nice to the staff, and don't think that you're better than everyone, and you'll get along just fine. :)

Comment posted on Mon Mar 14 03:03:36 2011 by C:
     

, Gathering.... does have it shares of problems. The ones Lilly mentions are not them. With that said the main problem currently in the game is multi-logging. It inflates the mud numbers a lot and also causes Rp to be very slow at times due to people rping two different chars at once.

There a few other minor problems, but they are not worth mentioning, as all muds and mushes have their share of issues.

But everything Lilly said is largely untrue and if it was up to him there would only be robot rp and you would be told the type of char you could play and how you should play it.

Now to the positive, The big lines of rp are fairly well done and always worth joining them. The areas are well done and fit in with the mud and high fantasy setting. Most of players know how to rp and most rp is driven by the players and sometimes the nobles.

That is and The Gathering is worth checking out if you like Rp and Freedom to choose how to RP your char regardless of race.

Review posted by Xu_Ming
Posted on Sun Aug 22 21:19:33 2010 / 0 comments
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(OOC) an ebony haired doll-like woman says to you 'I apologize hun, but the player that has directed you here is banned and has the ability to get around IPs, like he proved a moment ago. I'm afraid its just too risky to allow you to play here, when the suspicion remains that you might be that player. :hug: I hope you find a good mud to play and enjoy yourself.'

I do not know what that meant. I am Chinese. My english is very limited. But the game wizard told me I could not play because I looked like an old player that is banned. The game when I came to it first looked fun. One of the Wizards was nice the Goddess of Love but the other one accused me of being bad. So it is my recommendation to anyone who wants to play this game that they should find another game like she told me to do because we all might be mistaken for an old player. Thank you.

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Review posted by Valec
Posted on Sun Jun 27 18:13:50 2010 / 0 comments
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Alright, where to start? I've played here on the gathering for quite some time now. I've met tons of great friends, In Character, and Out of Character. All of my characters are what you can call confrontational - and I love em. I get into quite a few spats with other players, and at the end of the day, when I close my laptop and sign off, I laugh, remembering the great fun I had during my stay.

There are so many things to do here. Immortal held events are common, from large, global Role plays to a simple, (yet highly addictive) event channel where trivia is often played for rewards. The world is absolutely huge. I mean...huge. With breathtaking described rooms, interesting objects and a nice overhead map so you can never be truly lost a player can spend months finding the secrets that lurk in nooks and cranny's all over. Questing is also a fun part of the world. Obtain your Relic Weapon which levels up as you do, each level unlocking its powers further until it becomes an ultimate killing machine in capable hands - yours!

This is a role-play enforced mud, as such, RP takes precedence. You choose how you want your character to be played. Do you wish to follow a God or Goddess? Remain a Loner and worship none? Join a guild? Become part of an Empire? Perhaps create your OWN guild, or run your OWN city? The possibilities are endless.

The Immortal staff is hard at work improving the world for all players. New code is constantly introduced, new areas always being created, its amazing. The Staff itself is fair and just, and if you had any idea just which characters I play you'd probably choke knowing I admitted that. They are good, loyal, hard working, and they are understanding. The Staff has been handpicked, and each does their job superbly. They are always open to suggestions and new ideas, make judgement's when issues arise that are fair and just (to everyone but the one their judging, of course!) and try to create a fun filled environment for all to have fun in.

But words can never truly explain just what The Gathering is. You have to experience it for yourself. So stop on by, choose one of the 30 races we have to offer, pick a profession and jump right in. We'll be waiting!

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Review posted by Tykune
Posted on Sun Jun 27 18:16:51 2010 / 3 comments
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I have been a player for this mud for just about six years and I must say that it has been on a decline over the years. The mud was good, friendly fun at first. Then strict rules began to be placed onto it, with immortals stepping way out of line in jailing people. Not only have they stepped out of line, but they also nit-pick at the smallest things and grow it into some sort of bigger problem.

Along with creating unnecessary problems, they also recently scared away a player with their actions. They also jailed one of my own characters for disagreeing with them and for the fact, which I will quote, 'I don't take the immortals seriously.'

As a player who has played for longer than most of the current immortal staff, I have to say that I am rather disappointed.

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Comment posted on Tue May 25 11:30:55 2010 by Kedanna:
     

Well first let me say hi. I am founder and co-owner of the mud in question. I'll like to start off with the 'nit-pick at the smallest things and grow it into some sort of bigger problem' that he spoke of. He was in a public area, caressing a girls butt. Now we do allow sexual roleplay on our mud, but not in public. Tykune and the immortal disagreed on if the butt caressing counted as sexual roleplay or not. Rather than moving the roleplay to a private area, he fought with the immortal over it. Very few muds allow players to fight with an imm while enforcing the rules.

Also at the start of the roleplay, the character he was playing with started out under-aged, and tried to change that during the roleplay to keep him from getting in trouble. Which to me shows that the person he was playing with agreed that it was too sexual of a roleplay. She changed her rpsheet, and her short desc to reflect her age change, but she still had the description of an under-aged char. So... call the nit-picking if you like, I call it enforcing the rules.

More strict rules... yes that is true. Compared to when the mud first opened six years ago we had more strict rules in place. Back when anything was allowed, anywhere. I wanted a better mud than that, so I asked the immortal staff AND the players to come up with stricter rules for the mud, if you didn't offer your options at that time its like voting if you don't vote don't complain.

This bad review and his disrespectful thing about not taking the immortals seriously, would get him banned on most other muds, but as if this post he has not been banned from The Gathering... yup we're strict and suck the fun out of it. :P

Comment posted on Tue May 25 13:43:14 2010 by Old Player:
     

It's sad to see this still going on. I quit the mud a few years ago because of Staff and I hate to say it, but things weren't getting better then even though Staff promised left and how things were going to get better and fixed. Unfortunately, it seems things have not gotten fix as promised.

However, the Mud is 'theirs' and they will do whatever it is they wish to do. I've popped on a couple times here and there, but it's been so long I simply cannot remember the commands to play the game. I will agree that yes, at first the game looks wonderful but I will to say Tykune is right... Simply too much complaining over the little things and small problems do turn into larger ones because of it.

Needless to say, I will not be returning to 'The Gathering' now.

Comment posted on Wed May 26 22:38:05 2010 by Tykune:
     

It seems I have been frozen for a week due to my 'attitude', even though that's the same thing I was punished for about 2-3 days ago, except this time its more extensive. so I am going to go out on a limb and say I am probably being punished due to the bad review I wrote on their main recruiting site and simply use that as an excuse. If that is the case, it seems the immortal staff has some growing up to do.

Review posted by Angeal
Posted on Mon May 3 21:18:55 2010 / 0 comments
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timeWhere to start? I have played on the Gathering for quite a number of years, often taking breaks or extended leaves, but even during those I found myself yearning to be apart of the atmosphere The Gathering presents. I've met countless friends OOC, even met one or two I cant stand, but in general, those whom I call friends shall remain so forever. That is the world of the Gathering. Great people playing great characters in a very rich and detailed world.

The Gathering is a roleplay intensive mud. It is quite common for the Immortals to run global storylines, but more then that, the players themselves create storylines for everyone to participate in. From warring Gods to player created guilds seeking valuable quest items there is a role for everyone - and whats beautiful is that if you somehow DONT manage to find a storyline to be apart of, you can create your own!

The Staff is dedicated, charming and just in general fun to be around. There is always an Immortal around, all the time. Our Coder, Trellan is dedicated to his art and presents new code almost daily. There is custom crafting, fishing, butterfly catching, guilds and religions, relic equipment which levels as your character does, and numerous other goodies that I cant list here due to lack of space.

So, if you're looking for a world to escape into that is easy to learn, filled with exotic and fun characters played by good people in a world that is so very richly created, stop by the Gathering. We'll be waiting.

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Review posted by Kestia
Posted on Wed May 13 21:47:53 2009 / 0 comments
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I have been at TG for five years, two as a member of the staff. In this time, the additions and improvements have been constant and incredible. A good number of the staff are working on projects every single day. Sheylynn just recently added a fantastic fishing code as well as a wonderful butterfly catching code for new characters to gain coins easily. Trellan is always adding in new codes that bring about cheers and fainting hearts from the fans.

The Realm consists of seven continents, four moons and all with numerous areas within them and it's still growing!

We have grown in areas such as Kingdoms, Empires, Cities, Villages and Forests that offer immense roleplay for those that enjoy political and historical styles. Characters are very involved in the management and function of the various areas. Some hold high offices through placement or elections and some claim lowly jobs while building their character. There really is no limit to how far a character can go in this Realm if they put in the time and creative thinking. The Roleplay Council consists of three highly experienced Immortals who work with the players to develop their unique character in inventive and logical ways.

Examples (but by no means all) of global events since I have been on the staff are, Sheylynn's 'Quest for Honor' which was an intense adventure for a large number of the players and has lasting and beneficial results for those that finished. The 'Tyssir Chess Competition' was a historical event, which resulted in drastic changes to the environment and the characters that completed it. The Sacred Spirit Society has regular fun events for all levels, such as the Great Key Hunt and the Sophus Scavenger Hunt. There are costume balls, game tournaments, archery competitions, fishing tournaments, festivals, carnivals, debates at the university, public housing auctions (Some are incredible Imm-built homes), weaponry lessons, race studies and countless more! Both players and staff initiate these. There are also countless role-play lines run by players. These are too many to list but a few examples would be the recent vampiric group rising in the Realm, causing troubles and giving vampire hunters some spotlight. We have attacks on the Drow Empire by a resident clan - kidnappings and covert spying as well as recruiting unsuspecting sweeties to do the dirty deeds.

The Pantheon is sometimes (quite often) involved in great storylines which mortal characters are encouraged to get involved in. We've had ancient beings from a replica world aiming to destroy Gods. Malicious Gods from other worlds arriving with dark intentions, giant God killing spiders created and set loose and Demonic courts from the evil moon invading the Mainland.

We have both clans and religions; characters can be involved in both. Alliances are being forged and destroyed with great potential for strife or war to brim.

There is nearly always a member of the staff and helpful players for those visiting for the first time to seek guidance and assistance from. I have to say, the reception is a warm and welcoming one. We invite you to come test our world and stay for cupcakes and tea.

Please visit TGMUD.NET and when you log in, check the 'Help QUICK-START' file which provides great information for first time guests.

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Review posted by Unkownen Player
Posted on Wed Apr 29 22:07:09 2009 / 1 comment
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Alright I figure with all the other reviews about this game, I'd do another one to clear things up.

First off let me start out by saying that all the areas are well done and the mud has some great builders, namely, Sheylynn, Kestia, Seir Mehmet and a few other names I most likely forgot.

Next let me start off with the RP. The RP is well rewarded and can suit most styles of rp, from a evil blood-thirsty thug to a knight in golden armor. There is SRP but its contain behind closed doors or on a lawless isle that has no rules other then brute strength or power, but most of the players. There also always major rp lines to get into, from helping an empire grow to stopping a demonic threat from one of the moons of the world.

Now about the players has whole, all of them are newbie friendly ooc and always willing to help people who are new in anyway they can. And most of the players are very good rpers and even create their own lines at times.

Now about the staff has a whole, I start with LAW first, the two law imms that do the work are generally fair and give more then one warning before bringing down the hammer of law on someone who keeps breaking rules after a few warnings, now onto the RP ones, the RP imms are generally fair and try their hardest to enhance the rp of the players, even helping players out with their own lines they create or making their own for the players enjoyment. Over all the staff has a whole is solid, just with two problems, they have two imms who don't do much for the players or to aid the game, other then srp with other mortals or do things to enhance only their rp at the expense of the players and other imms, I could give some cases of the two doing this, but I don't want two bad apples turning away people.

That is it for my review look forward to seeing you all in game.

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Comment posted on Wed Apr 29 02:50:18 2009 by Kedanna:
     

I thank you for your kind word about the mud and our builders. I know they try hard to make everyone as happy as they can while still holding true to the mud's ideas.

The island you spoke of is working great! All the people that 'just log in for sex' have been given a place they can thrive, while keeping them away from the players that don't wish to do such forms of roleplay. We try to keep the mud with a little of something for everyone.

The thing you said about the two immortals however, I'd like to address. I'm taking a small guess on who you are, so if I'm right I know you've been an imm before on other muds and although we rarely see eye to eye I know that you're a very smart woman. With that being said, things happen on the mud that non-immortals don't know about. Both of the two you speak of help the mud usually by helping me. They both have built for the mud in the past, but sadly no longer have time to do so with a speed like the others. One of the two is a member of the law staff, there's three there not two. The other is my personal assistant on the staff. At the current time of this post, the two you are speaking of are planning to step down as imms because they know they no longer have the time they need to put into the mud and will be helping with the new empire project. So they're willing to give up their status on the mud in away that will hopefully be helpful to the players. To me that is a good staff, not many others would be willing to give up their spot like that.

Review posted by Ketala
Posted on Wed Apr 29 22:03:47 2009 / 1 comment
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I started playing on The Gathering about three and a half years ago. Due to RL, I had to take a break from most fun things, including mudding, but when I came back to it, The Gathering was the place I wanted to be. It didn't matter that the people there were new to me, it was a very friendly environment, and what makes it so special is the people it attracts.

Generally the people who play on TG are a lot of fun, and extremely diverse. Of course there are always elements that are unpleasant, that's the real world too, you can't completely control the people that you meet. I will say that the Admin staff has always been friendly and courteous, as long as you extend the same courtesy to them, and are very quick to enforce the 'Law' of the game. There is just about always someone available to RP with, and the staff usually has a good storyline going, or sometimes a player written story.

If you don't want to RP, the world is absolutely massive and beautiful. It ranges from fantastic flower gardens to the darkest horror. The mobs are as diverse as the people, and can at times seem like they are controlled by real players, they are so detailed. The mud can be serious or downright hysterically funny, depending on where you go and who you talk to. Despite what I have read from some others, I believe the mud to be very Newbie friendly, and a great deal of effort has been put into a Newbie School to introduce players to the basics of mudding, and there is not a time that I have seen a new player sign on that someone has not welcomed them and offered to help in any way they can.

As for calling this a 'Sex Mud' as some have, I believe that they are trying to find things to criticize. Yes, a few years ago it was a very sex heavy mud, but I cannot express enough how much that has changed. The rules regarding sex are very strict, stating that sex is to be in private or in a separate section of the MUD that has been designated for those that wish to engage in such activities.

I have been a builder on TG for a while, and have found the assistance for the builders to be very helpful, and again, always courteous. All in all, my time playing on The Gathering has been an enjoyable experience, and I have met quite a few people that I now consider to be my friends on here. Because that is really what The Gathering is like. It is a community, and we have a lot of fun!

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Comment posted on Wed Apr 29 02:33:30 2009 by Kedanna:
     

I thank you for the kind words about the, mud. Your support and the support of all the players is why myself and the other imms, do what we do. Its always sad when a few bad apples come to TMC and post bad reviews rather than coming to the staff with their problems and letting us try to fix them. Yourself, and even those that write bad reviews, tend to stick around the mud. I feel that the points that you spoke of here goes to show that the mud has good standing power and we're able to keep our players. Thank you for your work as a builder, keep it up together we'll make the mud a better place.

Review posted by Baronnere
Posted on Wed Apr 29 22:16:09 2009 / 3 comments
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I no longer MUD with 'The Gathering...', however unless their ways have changed in the last couple months that I've been away, then I'd have to agree with Jayson's review.

The Staff: They are competent, needless to say, else the MUD would have died long ago with all its other faults, but they fail to maintain time and again the proper attitude for running a 'newbie-friendly and welcoming' gaming environment. True, they are the law within the game, and true, they can smack folks around for breaking the rules. However, when the admin believe themselves not only within a storyline, but in person to be a god... then naturally, they become selfish, whining, and self-righteous.

You sit on this MUD long enough, you'll get to hear a couple of the staff ranting of how they do so much work for their people and yet ask for so little. It's soap opera Olympus style, to be blunt, and unless you're interested in finding a lifestyle and all the drama included, then this MUD is not your cup of afternoon relief. I'd suggest those looking for an enjoyable environment with friendly staff and a pleasant gaming experience to look elsewhere.

The Players: You can reference Jayson's comments for this. You walk down the street, hookers, then stumble into a bar, lesbians making out, and you run screaming into a nearby inn to escape, and everyone and their mother are sleeping with their mothers...Which for those who play here seems construed as an asset rather than a black mark. It's my opinion, and yes I say opinion, that this should be labeled as a Sex-Based MUD with some sprigs of bad manners and a dash of personal agendas.

But, who am I to speak. The staff have all the fun in the world with creating extra characters for themselves to join in the 'rp'. I'll also note that, sad as it is, a friend of mine even after three months away couldn't get rid of all the muck and problems that swirl about this MUD. One of the players (who I will also not name) continued to make every effort to contact this friend, getting information from those still on the MUD, and making life difficult for the person in every way possible. The one responsible for these issues is the average player you'll find here and last I checked was still allowed a place on the MUD.

Here I will however give credit to the few staff members and players who have managed to keep it alive thus far with some semblance of good sense. I wont name them, but if you do for some strange reason decide to move your roleplaying and mob-bashing talents here, you'll pick them out easily enough. They are the white dots on the black backdrop. Though I can honestly suggest you take up knitting rather than attempting to scrape through all the mounds of vile here to find those few good people. It'll be much more rewarding in the end.

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Comment posted on Wed Apr 29 02:23:32 2009 by Kedanna:
     

Baronnere, as the owner of the mud I'm saddened that you did not enjoy the three years you played on the mud. Changed our ways, well we're always changing; its part of why we've lasted for five years now. Its why we're currently ranked 45th on TMC. We're not one of the muds that stays still and lets the world pass us by. With 281 areas and not a single stock one there. So our ways of change aren't going to change.

The staff is great! Seir runs great lines and is always there to help the players with story ideas. Sure he believes in tough love and wouldn't just let people get away with anything.

Kestia, she can turn out a new area just based off a small idea I give in like a day. That girl is a building machine, I tell you.

Sheylynn I've seen her play four different characters at a time, run multi-able story lines all while building and keeping strict time frame items.

Trellan, talk about a master coder, I've seen him code stuff other people would never dream up, being able to check who without logging in? To do lists, I could go on and on posting all the cool stuff he's coding from the mud, and all the backdoors he put locks on to keep other people from getting onto the mud, like the webserver bug that was crashing the mud.

Grakor, this man can whip up a mean helpfile. I can't tell you how often I find him looking though the log for missing helpfiles and then making them. I tell him 'Graky, *he likes to be called Graky* I don't like this helpfile, it a stock dot one and it stinks, make it more better!' He does it. He truly knows the mud and knows full well how to improve it for the players.

Aerius makes the customs for people. Sure sometimes he falls a little behind, but there's a lot of players wanting stuff and he had to deal with it on his own until Grakor became an imm. A lot of the requests are from people that never built before, so they make mistakes and that slows him down, so he needs to talk to them about it. He makes mobprogs for all the other builders and is always out to help other imms.

Phyrra doesn't do as much as she used to, but she still builds and still pushes roleplay for the betterment of the mud. She works with the law staff to help keep god moders in check.

Seraphine helps me with everything, spelling, building, player relations, you name it she helps me with it. You couldn't ask for a better personal assistant.

Cherady, she's a slow builder, but she loves what she does. She loves the mud and she cares deeply for those on it. She's my rock, my heart, and its with her help that I run the mud.

To say the mud is a soap opera is a little unfair. Good roleplay leads to drama, if drama is what it takes to be a soap opera then most of the muds out there would hopefully be called the same thing. If you're talking about ooc drama, feel free to turn off the board or better yet, not date someone that plays on the mud and that attracts drama like a magnet. I don't have to say her name because everyone that knows you or her knows who I'm talking about, and why I say it.

You're not going to walk down the street and see hookers. Sexual things like that and the other things in your note are strictly forbidden in the city and all other areas, but Tu-Lips island. That island has enough warning on it and around it, that if you're there, you're there to see the things in your post.

Bad manners and a dash of personal agendas...its called roleplaying and we are a roleplaying enforced mud. If you're looking for all rainbows and sunshine you can watch one of my 'My Little Pony' DVDs.

So again, I'm sorry you were not able to enjoy your time on the mud and I do wish you could have said something before leaving and posting a bad review about us. You said you agreed with Jayson and his post, well Jayson posted a reply saying he was wrong, do you agree with that as well? I would hope so, and if you or anyone else on the mud have problems with the way things are, we're always changing our ways and the mud is growing and ever-changing, so please don't be scared to talk to the staff. We do what we can to be more fun than knitting.

Comment posted on Wed Apr 29 07:05:01 2009 by Lilly:
     

It is not that easy to run a MUD. Let's all face it, many, many people prefer to get their entertainment from the MMO's, Xboxes, Playstations, and other graphical things out there than the text-based games we all love.

Yet the Gathering has a very solid active pbase, there is almost always a handful of players and an imm or two on at any hour of the day and during the 'good' hours for the MUD you generally see between 10 and 20 players online .. scrolling up in MUSH Client I see that there were 26 on around 11 PM EST last night, which is a bit large for TG but not unheard of.

So obviously the immortal staff is doing something right. When I joined in November of 2008 I knew 0 (zero, nil, naust) players on it. While, granted, the Mud was a bit hard to get in to this is in large part due to the differences between DoT code and the codebase I've been used to playing and really not at all due to the staff, which I have found to be nothing short of remarkable. A MUD that does not keep, as Mr. Baron put it, a ''newbie-friendly and welcoming' gaming environment' does not grow and most certainly does not captivate me and get me thinking that I've found a very long-term home.

The best advice I could give to new players is what I told my a friend of mine after I convinced them to play: read helpfiles, and ask questions. The MUD does have its faults but the imm staff has been working on correcting some of those faults, which are not that uncommon: a few helpfiles need updating and newbies need a bit more in-game help to get started other than the very helpful players and imm staff. I have very, very rarely seen an asked question go unanswered.

As a relatively new player to the MUD and to DoT codebase, I think I can give a more accurate picture on how newbie-friendly the Gathering is, certainly more so than a player of 2-3 years who I never once saw answering my questions about the game, for reasons quite possibly linked with his long inactivity that spanned the month or two I could be considered a newbie.

'True, they are the law within the game, and true, they can smack folks around for breaking the rules. However, when the admin believe themselves not only within a storyline, but in person to be a god... then naturally, they become selfish, whining, and self-righteous.' There are 10 active immortals on TG's 'wizlist'. As with most MUDs, those 10 characters are the best of the Gathering's players, those who have given up a large chunk of their own play time to give back to the game that they all love and make it fun for other players. While some of them do play selfish, whining, and self-righteous characters it is important to keep IC and OOC separate in this regard. I have talked at length with most of the wizlist and I will give my personal stamp of approval - whatever that is worth - that they are wonderful people who care first and foremost about the game that they have been put in charge of.

These immortals do not get paid to do what they do. They are real people, with real jobs and who really have given up their own free time to build and run questlines for the rest of the players of the mud. They are the Dungeon Masters of the game, and I for one approach the imm-player relationship with that in mind. A player who constantly harasses his DM for special abilities or is constantly complaining during a game session or who quits halfway through because their girlfriend doesn't say it's okay for him to play this silly game frustrates any DM. In my time here I have only heard the imms -request- one thing from the players, something that I think, and think most will agree with me on, is quite reasonable: a simple thank you. I try to thank the imms at every chance I get because I, having been an immortal on a few other muds in the past, know that that really is all that it takes to keep the staff happy: knowing that they are appreciated.

With any grouping of people of a multitude of cultures - even of just one culture, really - there will be drama. There are those who play the MUD for reasons other than to just RP and have a good time (or, perhaps, they feel that they and only they are entitled to having a good time). The immortal staff is not amongst that number, though, and those who are overly dramatic generally don't ruin the atmosphere for the wonderful majority. It is, as always, very important to keep IC and OOC drama different, as well. ICly my char has stirred up a bit of trouble and isn't looked on too favorably by a few other groups, but I do try to keep a friendly disposition OOCly (as I said above I don't know anyone on the MUD personally so I would be hardly justified in making public strikes against their personalities) although I will admit I have had slip ups in the past. There are those on the MUD who seek to elevate their own pride and ego at the expense of others, but 1) those players are generally drowned out by the many, many wonderful players and staff of the mud and 2) it is indeed important to remember that a MUD is a game. Not only that, it is a game full of strangers. Any who play will likely get irritated at someone else at some point. I have been irritated with my copy of Halo 3 (Yes, I shamelessly admit that I do play!) before, both at the players over XBox Live and the game itself, but rather than ranting about how horrible and unfair and mean everything is I just turn the console off and go do something else to cool down. Generally, those who cause the most MUD drama are those who do not deal with their irritation in a constructive way.

The apparent debate over whether or not to call TG a 'sex-based MUD' has apparently become quite the issue recently amongst players who have quit or been banned from the game. My opinion is that those who attempt to defame the game have a more difficult time than they will admit in noting its flaws so they latch on to the bandwagon of a topic that has been discussed time after time.

Yes, SRP does happen in the Gathering. Yes, there are people who play simply for that one aspect of the MUD. Yes, there are some suggestive Adult-Oriented themes in the game. No, those themes are not present in each, or even many, steps throughout the game. No, players do not run around trying to get random others to participate in SRP. No, the MUD is not all about sex, nor even half about sex. A vast majority of the playerbase play TG first and foremost for more serious RP, with most who participate in SRP viewing it as something to do between quests if a storyline leads to such actions. For a longer rebuttal to the 'The Gathering is all about sex' argument I would encourage you to read my response to Mr. Jayson's review of the MUD, found here: http://www.mudconnect.com/mud-bin/prev/review.cgi?rid=28126

'The staff have all the fun in the world with creating extra characters for themselves to join in the 'rp'.' An odd spot for Mr. Baron to post this, considering the rest of the paragraph, but I will say this in response: of course the imms have alts. They are players too, they love to Roleplay and be involved in the storylines that the other immortals run. Also, if Mr. Baron is making a jibe that all the imms are involved with SRP with other immortals .. well, much as I love giving valid reasons and arguments towards even the most illogical statements I will simply say that Baronnere is wrong in that assumption. There are some of the staff who participate in SRP, but such is done behind closed doors and does not represent a majority of the immortal staff.

As is so often the case, Mr. Baron's logical argument seems to putter out near the end of his review. While I cannot remember the actual type of logical fallacy he invokes in his second to last paragraph by asking you, the reader, to believe that all are bad because of one .. Well, if I said that a man at Wall- Mart was rude to me, so all wall-mart's are bad it follows the same line of reasoning. I don't know all of that situation so I can't give too much comment about it but I will say this much: those who seek to cultivate face-to-face relationships through the internet run the risk of meeting the creeps who patrol cyberspace. Obviously I am in no way condoning such actions by the malicious party involved here I will say that I know that some of Mr. Baron's friends do try to meet people they have mudded with. There is nothing wrong with that (I met my most wonderful girlfriend via a MUD) but one must be cautious of what they get from the internet.

Finally (it must be, as I'm running out of characters!) I will simply say that Mr. Baron's attempt to keep what he considers the worthwhile players and staff on the MUD doesn't work. By ripping into something that we put so much effort into (though I doubt I'm amongst the number Mr. Baron thinks shows good sense) you degrade us all.

Also, I will point out that Mr. Baron makes many references to Jayson's comment. Jayson has, in very good class that I applaud him for, retracted his argument.

As with many of the best lies, Mr. Baron's argument has within it a few grains of truth, blown and twisted far out of proportion and place. I have found the Gathering to be nothing short of wonderful and do encourage any reading this to join me there. :)

Comment posted on Wed Apr 29 18:41:16 2009 by Sheylynn:
     

You know, I've read, and re-read the reviews made by Jayson and Baronnere, and once the initial flare of protective anger died down, I began to pity them, to feel sorry for them.

Now I could attempt to defend the staff, but I've done that before and lets face it, a staff member attempting to rebuke claims about staff members only holds so much water, so I won't even try.

The drama that he refers to I won't get too far into, for it caused a great deal of headache when he and his girlfriend split for a brief period of time and both were attempting to get the other banned because that was all complete nonsense anyway. Though I suppose we were the big meanies by telling them to keep their personal lives off the mud and get along or don't log in because it was ruining the fun for a lot of people.

Are we perfect? Of course not. Every mud has its flaws, people are imperfect and everyone has bad days. This is why we allow several chances before we finally have to say enough's enough and slam the hammer down. When it was brought to vote that his girlfriend get banned, I abstained from voting because I did not feel I could do so and be impartial about it.

I suppose that Baronnere might say that was my god complex kicking in there as well, when in all actuality I thought of her as a friend and didn't really want to see her banned. However I did have to agree that she had just pushed things too far, and had been given more than her share of warnings in regards to how she treated and talked to other players. Amusingly enough, this was one of his complaints when he was attempting to get her banned.

Sour grapes, bad seeds, childish tantrum, however you wish to view it, this all boils down to people not getting their way, themselves or a buddy or girlfriend being banned and are now seeking to attack the mud, its staff and its players.

Could the mud be improved? Of course, all muds can. But the reality is, that muds, like the real world, are varied in culture and style and people, and like the real world, you'll get what you give. If you are cruel to others, if you treat them with hostility, you'll get like in return. If you treat someone with respect, you'll be given respect in return, and before the tired and overused retort 'I don't give respect to someone until it's earned' is uttered, that too, can go both ways.

I am amused that these reviews were not done until -after- the banning, and Jayson has since come back and asked that his ban be lifted so he could return to play, promising that we'll have no further trouble out of him.

If the mud was all that they claim, if the staff and players were as horrible as they'd like to make them out to be, then why on earth would they wish to come back? I don't think it takes a genius to see through the malarkey, and anyone with any amount of common sense would see these reviews for what they are.

I will however, go indepth on the one thing that got my ire raised to it's fullest, and had my protective claws coming out and that is their blatant slamming and attack of our players. Like Jayson and Baronnere, our players are not perfect either. But our players, to me at least, are gems. I could try to name them all, but I'd be afraid of forgetting someone and hurting their feelings, so I'll just touch on those who have given -countless- hours to other players and the mud itself, those like Mehmet, Iilvarra, Seneca, Reiki, Aedin, Suffir, Ketala, Lilly, Aiire, Yevenji, Shera, Halger, Mithos, Solrane, just, so many really great, really amazing people.

They do everything from build, to helping newbies, to writing up fantastic lines and creating mpogs, and they do this as players, not as staff, getting nothing in return other than our thanks. They, and those that go unmentioned but are no less valued or appreciated, are what makes TG great. It's not the staff, it's not the areas, it's the people there. And to say that they are nothing but a bunch of whores and perverts, that they are what Jayson and Baronnere say they are, is not only a fabrication, but an insult in the extreme that I personally, can not remain silent on. They are intelligent, caring individuals, who the mud would not be the same without.

They are more than players to me, TG is more than a mud, it's a place where we laugh together, cry together and fight together. It's as Ketala said, a community in itself. One that has grown and changed and evolved over the years. One that I personally, am very proud of and one they obviously miss being a part of. Attack the staff, we're used to it, attack the mud, it's expected, but to attack the players? They had nothing at all to do with any of it and should never have been pulled into their drama.

So before you give any credit to the words that have been posted in their reviews, I wish to extend an invite to you, so that you can see, and judge for yourself just what TG truly is.

Review posted by Jayson Sen'don
Posted on Wed Apr 29 22:05:26 2009 / 4 comments
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I would have to say that its only a Mud for those with sex in mind. Very few ever log onto this mud to Roleplay anything other than sex and sex based conversation.

The MUD is not newbie friendly and the Administration Staff holds a rude posture when a player creates roleplay intense enough to challenge a religion. Overall, the MUD itself would be worth enjoying, if they could remove the heavy sexual Content such as sex books, sexual objects, perverted gods, and the free range sex in general.

It is a rule not to hold sexual roleplays outside bedrooms; i.e. Sex in Public Places like beaches and social places where in character wise a child could wander into, except for Tulip Isle where it is allowed. However, this rule is broken on a daily occasion, even by some of the Staff who declared this rule law.

I would have to say, when I first started two years ago, I was informed that it was a pleasant place to hang out. Unfortunately, my thoughts of the place soon dwindled by such acts. I would advise anyone whom does not wish to infect their lives with such, do choose another MUD that isn't The Gathering.

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Comment posted on Thu Apr 2 01:08:24 2009 by Lilly:
     

As a very constant player on The Gathering since I created there ( You first created at Mon Nov 17 11:55:38 2008 Which was 4 months,2 weeks, 1 day, 10:34:20 ago. You have played approximately 1371.82 hours. Which is 42.203% of the time since you created. ) I must respectfully disagree with each of Mr. Jayson's above points.

* While it is true that SRP is allowed in the gathering (the tag in the MUD description 'Generally Adult-Oriented' is there for a reason) Mr. Sen'don has either forgotten when rules were in place or is simply believing what he wants to believe. On Feb. 26th of 2009, the restrictions outlined by Jayson above were put into effect. Since then, all explicit descriptions or references to sex have been removed from all but private areas of the mud and the city and island dedicated for such activities. And since those rules have gone into effect I have seen -no- instances of this rule being broken. Not one. And I generally see a lot of things. Sure, there are some suggestive things scattered who and there but there is nothing explicit that I have found -- and I also do explore a lot as I love seeing the many, many areas our wonderful Build team put out there for us.

* To refute the 'Very few ever log onto this mud too Roleplay anything other than sex and sex based conversation' point I will simply outline what all my character has done in those 4 months plus that I have been playing (although my character has been a bit fortunate in having some roleplay fall into my lap): - Joined the religion of the Goddess of Virtue and Magic because she wanted to help the realm and had an honest desire to become more virtuous. She quit, though, to help track down the murderer (or suspected murderer) of one of her friends. - Went on a quest to help calm primordial spirits of nature, a quest that Jayson was involved in, but failed because he wanted to play on a different alt of his when the Quest was going on. Because of this storyline my char joined the clan known as 'nature's warriors' which she is still in. - Is a main cog in an important storyline where a group of demons are trying to escape their ancient home of one of the four moons of the realm for .. some .. reason. (I don't know why yet!!) - Was part of a storyline where one of our imms came up with a very, very clever history of the game of chess. Players were pitted against other players an imm-run NPCs and the end result was a race change to a very unique and inventive race. - Has a major involvement in the politics of one of the main cities of the realm, where she befriended the two leaders and was offered a position as a mage within the government. - She is going on what is called a 'Spirit Quest' done by the Goddess of Nature where she will (hopefully) be given some direction and answers for some very important internal issues. Oh, and if she fails this quest, she dies.

That is only a summary of the storylines my character has been involved in, and in absolutely none of the was anybody sexual in any way (other than a -bit- of friendly flirting.) so I really just wonder what Jayson was looking at in the one or two hours he was online each day.

* Also, to say out Staff is anything but excellent is childish. The 'roleplay intense enough to challenge a religion.' he talks about was his main character trying to gather a following to create a completely new order in the realm. During this RP he did not talk to the RPC about his plans or what he was doing to make certain that it fit into the theme of the mud. And he wasn't broken down OOCly, the reason this thing of his was stopped was that he involved a daughter of the Goddess of Creation, who did not like the social order messing with her daughter.

As a contrast, I am actually running my own storyline (with the imm's approval) where a cult of vampires has taken an extreme disliking to Nature and is trying in various ways to see those that currently defend Nature destroyed. This cult is actively trying to eliminate not just one but two religions and the imms have been nothing but helpful in allowing me to run this storyline.

* And, as a final note to those reading this review, Jayson was banned 2 days before writing it because he wrote a note where he said he quit and attacked the imm staff in very unfair and untrue ways. The one imm he actually said was good was the one who made the decision to ban him -- though he had quit (again) so I don't understand why he is so bitter. The reasons he gave for quitting, by the way, had nothing to do with what SRP does go on in the gathering.

* All in all, my time here so far has been wonderful. When I created I knew zero people on the mud, I found it via this website. Now I'm engrossed in a creative and wonderful fantasy world where my character can effect history. And, to clear any confusion up, I've never played a mud with a better imm staff. These guys flat out work their tails off for the mud and it really shows. But don't take my word for it. Try us out yourself and see. Hope to see you there. :)

Comment posted on Sat Apr 11 19:00:14 2009 by Anon:
     

A MUD with sex in mind? I don't get that, plenty of people I know that don't bother with sex on the MUD.

Yes, sure, there are stuff like that on the MUD, a lot of it has been removed for particular purposes. Honestly I think the main reason you would actually write a review with misinformed information, well, you know the reason. A waste of time, if anything, Jayson.

Not newbie friendly? In every MUD there is the occasional jerk, we help newbies, not everyone, but most of us do.

'Very few ever log onto this mud to Role play anything other than sex and sex based conversation.' Very few? Every one is free to do what they want, but there are more than 'Very few.' There's plenty of perverts out there.

But you who has left the MUD several times just because of tiny problems 'I quit', then come back... Guess you couldn't stay away from it, odd how you so dislike it though, why did you bother? That's all I have to say.

Comment posted on Sun Apr 26 23:36:36 2009 by Jayson Sen'don:
     

It has come to my attention that I have placed false statement of the mud on the review board. That all issues pertaining to those I listed above have been taken care of. The Sexual Content has been strictly looked at and enforced to be placed in designated, 'private' area with the security of a locked door to allow no in appropriate issues from arising. My apologize to any who may of had a bit of trouble concerning my review of The Gathering and consider this a final and retracting statement as to my posts above.

Comment posted on Wed Apr 29 02:37:52 2009 by Kedanna:
     

First off lets point out he has been playing there for two years. So either he was a moron and enjoyed suffering for two years or he enjoyed the mud. With that out of the way lets address the rest of his review:

-(To his 1st paragraph)- We have quiet a few staff members that never do anything remortly sexual. Only a small part of the playerbase does fall into that grouping. It happens on any mud that allows sexual roleplay. Most of the mud however enjoys non-sexual hard-hitting fast pace roleplay.

-(To his 2nd paragraph)- Not newbie friendly? I'm always told we have the best newbie school that they've ever seen. I fired one of my most active immortals before for being rude to the players. We don't take such things on my mud. This player has been banned not once, not twice but three times. So yes, by the third time we may have been rude to him. We're humans, the nicer you are the nicer we'll be, if you're being a jerk well guess how you'll be treated. Like a jerk.

-(To his 3rd paragraph)- In a effort to cut back on the sexual acts on the mud, and to keep those that only login for srp, we created this island to keep them away from the main stream players. That rule is not overlooked, but is heavy enforced.

-(To his 4th paragraph)- I'll once more point out, he spent two years on this mud, was banned more than once and came back. He is mad because he requested roleplay items that are far from the mud time zone. He wanted bombs and machine-gun like items on a Medieval fantasy based mud. Rather than telling him no flat out, the roleplay staff was working hard to find a middle ground on it, to meet him half way... he just wasn't willing to wait.

Review posted by Seneca
Posted on Wed Oct 15 21:13:48 2008 / 0 comments
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Do I enjoy TG? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes. Do I agree with everything? No. Is it newbie friendly? Depends on what you call friendly.

Are there people that will help a newbie acclimate to TG? Yes. Can a newbie enter and be the greatest warrior of all? Not likely. With that said, here are my thoughts. You gain what you put into your rp. At first, it is slow going. But over time, your pc will grow and become powerful.

Will it always be to your liking? Most likely not. But that is the fun of the roleplaying. You can't expect to win everything.

So why recommend something that does not always come out in your favor? The joy of creating a pc and watching it grow.

If you enjoy using your imagination, then TG is a place for you.

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Review posted by A Player
Posted on Wed Sep 10 19:29:06 2008 / 2 comments
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I would not recommend this MUD to anyone at all. Now that that's off my chest, time to get to facts.

First off, this is a sex MUD, despite Daos coming in and speaking to the owners. It may be against what Garret had made the codebase for, but no matter how much they tell you otherwise, it is. There are multiple rooms and objects for it, one immortal suggests it, and only one enforces the 'No SRP in public' rule. -~- Second, the Law immortals dont know what they're doing most of the time. They've recently decided to become more strict than ever, claiming they will be working harder, and cracking down on 'issues' such as a player simply mentioning the owner's name in an unpleasant sentence. Though, it is perfectly alright to insult other players.

I feel so much safer that simple statements are now a bannable offense.

Aggravation or annoyance towards an Immortal's rudeness, however, is a bannable offense.

The standard Law Immortal response to questions or counterexamples: 'It's not up for debate, discussion, or argument.' This includes any and all variations of the statement. -~-

Thirdly, the Roleplay staff must approve any special or unique ability for your character. Character approval is required. You must send in a note or talk to them, both of which may lead you to nothing, or an argument about what is possible and what is not. Those who know Kedanna personally may bypass the last step, gaining immunity from the Roleplay Staff's comments. -~-

Most of the playerbase are returning players and their alts, and of the few newbies that have joined in the past week that I have witnessed, one had quit because of the MUD's lack of newbie help and another because of lewd Global Social harassment.

This combined with as much drama as an episode of General Hospital makes this a poor area to MUD.

The Staff members may reply to this requesting that players should send in notes, but seeing as how they are never responded to after a long period of time, it seems like a lost hope.

I've quit The Gathering... in search of a more mature MUD that does not seem like an interactive soap opera.

P.S.: The sources of my review have been fueled by many of the players and a former staff member. Any attempt to call my bluff will be denied.

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Comment posted on Wed Sep 3 04:36:38 2008 by Sheylynn:
     

An interesting review, and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I'd like to add my own, and perhaps enlighten in further detail what has been described in the previous without it, and is also lacking all of the information for one to make an informed, educated, and intelligent opinion where The Gathering is concerned.

Regarding the statements about this being a sex mud...

The Gathering Mud attempts to offer a freedom of choice. We do not snoop roleplay, we attempt to allow others creative freedom within a logical boundary that keeps with the world created for others to play in. We do not feel we have a right to 'lord' over a players, 'personal' and 'private' roleplay with another consenting adult. We do not allow private roleplay in public areas, so what others are doing in private, isn't seen, and shouldn't bother anyone. We do not allow harassment, and no means no.

Also, our amazing coder is working on an entirely new code, and given that this person was not privy to the conversation that was exchanged between the owner of the mud with myself present, then they can not honestly say what was and was not stated in said conversation, to which it was agreed upon that we view things differently. They wish to infringe of the freedom of creativity and imagination of a persons 'personal and private' roleplay, where we do not. It was not an angry discussion, it was civilized and well humored with an ending of agreeing to disagree, with giving our coder time to change everything over since we are the largest mud using the DoT codebase.

Regarding the second point of the Law Immortals not knowing what they are doing and the "bannable offense" remark...

Again, a lack of information here. The insulting statement made was against the owner of a mud in which it was broadcast over OOC that she was like a 13 year old boy. This came after repeated warnings too numerous to count, and several notes regarding the treatment of staff and fellow players. We care about peoples feelings, we want a place where others can go to enjoy themselves and forget about the stress of everyday life. A place that is fun, a place of laughter, a place of entertainment. Throwing insults at another person might amuse the person doing it, but it decreases the amount of fun, laughter, and entertainment for the majority of those who log in to play. Also, as was announced over open channel, but again omitted from the review, was that even after the hundreds of warnings and asking nicely for others to stop, that they are still given more chances before they are banned. First offense is to be nochanneled for two hours, which the person was, the next is to be jailed, then if they are still unable to grasp the concept that it's far better to be considerate and nice than it is to be cruel and inconsiderate of another’s feelings, then yes, they will be banned. Because frankly a person like that only tends to spread discord and pull people down and people don't want to be around that. Some get enough of it in their everyday life, they do not want it where they go to escape and unwind.

Also, the staff attempts to avoid calling someone out in public, most reprimands are done in private with just the offending party, so no one can honestly say that the LAW Immortal's do not know what they are doing, because they are not a witness or privy to what happens when. They can only make assumptions based on ignorance or gossip, which frankly don't count for much in my book.

Regarding the standard Law Immortal response...

No means no, stop means stop. When a player logs into the mud, it is their responsibility to read the rules and follow them. Staying and playing, means they accept those rules. The rules are in place to make it a better experience for everyone, and changing them to cater to those who don't want to follow them because it's too difficult, is illogical at best. I personally think that both Aerius and Kestia do a fantastic job on the LAW council.

Concerning the third point in the author's review...

Character approval is not required on all characters. Unlike other muds, as I stated above, The Gathering offers freedom of expression and a use of ones creativity and imagination. We do not 'force' others to conform to our ideas on how -their- character should be played so we go above and beyond to allow abilities that are not limited to a players spell or skill list. Those who wish an ability beyond their normal list do need to be granted approval, this is to make sure that the power is not so uber that the character is god like and goes around killing off other players with their uber need to be the biggest baddest thing in the realm. It simply a matter of logic. The only time a character is in need of sending in a character approval, is when they request to play a race that is not selectable at creation. Again, this is the staff going above and beyond to allow creativity and freedom of expression. We have players who are dragons, imps, selkies, ursa's, banshees, the list goes on and on.

Regarding the playerbase remarks...

Yes we have a loyal playerbase, we have players who have been here since the mud first opened years ago. We also do not have alt limits, but seeing how the person who posted this is not an Immortal and can not see others IP address then again they are relying on assumption and or gossip. I am and I do, and I can assure you that we have a steady flow of people mingled among our loyal players. As for newbie help, granted, we can not be in all places at once, but we do encourage our players to help the newbies also. I'm a bit perplexed that the person who posted this didn't offer their help to the person, since, of course, they knew they were a newbie and is far better informed than we are.

And the rest...

The drama is due to the insults that get slung, hence the crack down by the staff and the zero tolerance for it. Though oddly this is an anonymous posting, so I guess we'll never really be sure if this person has left our mud, or stayed. Should they stay, I would hope that they seek out both sides before passing judgment, and base their opinions on facts rather than assumption in the future. But, as I said, each is entitled to their own opinion, I grant them theirs. My retort is more to give all of the information, based on facts and truth.

Many thanks, Sheylynn - Goddess of Nature, RP Staff and Head Builder

Comment posted on Wed Sep 3 10:36:01 2008 by Kedanna:
     

Don't call your bluff? Says the person that refuses to even use a name? How very brave of you. You come to TMC, and spout so many awful things on a mud, that by the date on your own review you’ve spent two years on but you refuse to say who you are? Come on, if you’re going to say all those things, let us all know who you are so there can be songs about your bravely for dealing with those awful events for so long.

1st) The mud is –not- a sex mud. Yes Doas has come to our mud once, about it in the past, and we talked to him about it. TG is currently getting ready to chance code bases, but its not an over night change. I can think of a few objects on the game that are adult, but other than inn rooms I can’t think of any rooms for it and you’ll be hard pressed to find a mud without inns on it.

2nd) The law staff does a good job of handling problems, but they have the most hated job on the mud. Its not easy having to tell people to stop, or to give out punishments when people break the rules of the mud, I’ve even heard of people not wanting to play with their alts when people find out they’re a law immortal. The disrespect to both players and immortals was starting to get bad, so yes, they are getting a bit stricter about the rules; TG is not perfect no mud is. You get people from different parts of the world, and with different beliefs, the put them together they’ll be problems, we try our best to keep those down.

3rd) Character approval is not required if you want to use the skills and spells and such for your class and race. If you want to be a warrior with magic or healing powers, if its out side of your race/class combo so yes you need it approved. That’s or way of cutting down on god-moding. You just need to be able to explain why your warrior troll is also a powerful mage. Or why your elf would have wings. Yes, I have bypassed the roleplay staff a few times, mostly on small things, or things for short term roleplay.

4th) As far as the players go, no we don’t get as many newbies as I would like, but we only advertise for the mud maybe twice a year so its not like we’re the easiest mud to find. I think it says something when a mud is able to keep its players coming back, which must mean the mud is doing something right or everyone would leave and post bad reviews like you did. There’s another player review on here, by Amy, me and her butt heads a lot and most of the time don’t get along, but she still had mostly good things to say so the mud isn’t a big case of favoritism.

The drama on the mud is mostly from people we most likely should ban, but we know they have a lot of friends on the mud and we try to give everyone multi chances before we ban them. We’re mature enough to know people have bad days, and that sometimes someone just needs a little extra attention to turn them from a trouble maker into a well behaved member of the mud. I do however thank you for saying interactive, because a lot of the other muds I’ve been to haven’t seemed all that interactive to me.

~Bluff called.

Review posted by Bryn
Posted on Wed Sep 10 19:29:35 2008 / 1 comment
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I started playing The Gathering back in late 2005.. I remember almost clearly, because at the time I had extreme difficulty in finding my way around, and finding areas to fight mobs and gain levels in. The help offered to me was vague at best, 'go on the ships', people would tell me. As a new player, I hadn't the foggiest idea what they were talking about.

Over several months, I created and deleted several times, either out of boredom or frustration, sometimes both. However, I would always return, drawn by the lure of fascinating roleplay.

Overall, I would say The Gathering has a steep learning curve, but if people are willing to ask, currently there is a very willing and helpful playerbase and staff on hand to answer whatever questions new players may ask. The immortals are beyond fair when dealing with troublemakers, and incidents are generally kept on the down low - aside from the occasional troublemaker who is swiftly silenced - privacy is taken very seriously.

The roleplay atmosphere here is fantastic. Of course you will have your little handful of god-modders, but that is kept to a minimum, most everyone pitches in to see to that. However, roleplay is generally sensible and enjoyable, with lots of juicy background detail.

Please, stop in and find out for yourself why The Gathering is among the top 100 muds!

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Comment posted on Wed Sep 3 10:41:32 2008 by Kedanna:
     

Really? Thank you for pointing that out Bryn, I'll see to getting some more newbie helps, and maybe add a hint or two about the map shop. :)

Thank you for your kind words about my mud.

Review posted by Amy
Posted on Tue Aug 19 21:16:16 2008 / 0 comments
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New to doing reviews on TMC so I will try to stick to the facts and my own knowledge of the game. Firstly we will start off with the bad factors.

The negative factors being that a few on the immortal staff seem to get worried over mortals they can't directly control or like to rp mainly with other mortals and not the god chars at times, they also develop assumptions about players and sometimes use those ooc based assumptions to go against the players in ic settings. Sometimes resulting in such a mortal player being purposefully kept out of the storyline, which is supposed to be global for all that want to participate.

One of the main current flaws I've found in this game is there are no newbie helpers on a mortal level so no one has a direct job of assisting new players but the staff and all the mortals do try and be friendly for the most part.

There are some really good factors too though and they outshine the bad. All of the areas that I have viewed are well done and nicely made, the top builders of this mud are quite skilled and do have my favorite areas, they are mainly built by Trellan, Seir, Sheylynn, Ariana and Kestia, and a few of the mortal builders have contributed great areas.

The RP lines are overall very good and can even be written and done by mortals with limited help from the imms as is needed. If a player asks nicely they will act out the role of a mob in an area and bring it to life. You can create a solid line and if you don't wish gods to be there solving it, just ask them to stay out and help with npcs, for all the imms involved in such a line. Over all rp is pretty good and SRP is kept behind closed doors and limited to only certain groups and you will know the ones and when to avoid that type of rp if its not your thing or just set in the profile of the type of rps you like and dislike.

On a side the people in charge of the RP Council on the mud have given mortals hours of fun with their own lines for mortals to figure out, come together and solve.

The Coder Trellan has done alot of good work for the mud coding things like the cover command, which lets you cover objects with other items so you understand it isn't showing when someone looks at you. Just use the cover command to have your pants covered such things and so much more. The players are generally experienced roleplayers with many years in muds.

The who list is often holding about 20-30 names. There are a great many choices in races available and then more available via requests.

The RP and LAW councils does a great job of taking care of the players and their characters.

That sums up my review of things I could go on but it combines the good and the bad into a solid informed review, and I encourage others to write their own reviews as well, not big on telling people where to play but if you can deal with the main negative thing then feel free to join us.

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Review posted by Angelyna
Posted on Wed Sep 10 19:54:54 2008 / 2 comments
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I have to say, when I first joined the mud, I was rather excited. Lots of races, lots of options.

However, even though it says it is an rping enforced mud, it is not. Do not be fooled. Half of those people don't use emotes, for one. Says are the only thing they know how to do.

Also, when I asked someone to clarify, in an emote, instead of just posting '...' I was laughed and ridiculed out of the room. I asked the players about it, and the staff, why they let players get away with that when it clearly states in the rules that harassment is not welcome. Not only did -every- single one of them team up against me, they, the staff, -also- ridiculed me. Telling me that if I'm insulted by such a thing, then maybe the internet isn't for someone like me. That threw me over the edge. They told me, in a chiding way, that they would post in the rules not to laugh at Angelyna. The person who did it would be slapped on the hand, etc, etc.

They are very unhelpful, and will push on you to see things their way. If anyone is interest in contacting me on this, I have saved logs on my computer I will be happy to share with -anyone- who is considering joining this mud. Just post a comment on here, and I'll be back to you as soon as I get it. Happy roleplaying :)

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Comment posted on Thu Aug 7 13:55:46 2008 by Ariana:
     

I'm sorry to see that you were so horridly offended. You came onto our MUD and were expecting it to be something it was not. However we did try again and again to show you that the mud IS rp enforced, just not everyone rps the same way as you do.

All was fine and dandy right up until you told the entire staff, myself included, that we don't know how to do our job. At which point you began wondering why we were becoming rather aggressive with the continued string of insults towards our work?

Not to mention the chunk of the playerbase that took offense to your words towards how they rp. I understand that yes, it can be infuriating when someone slings a few heated words around and in all actuality, it shouldn't have happened... however in retrospect, your words were more than reason for not just myself, but a good deal of the entire playerbase to become offended.

Best of luck to you in the future with finding a MUD that fits your criteria.

Comment posted on Tue Aug 19 16:09:53 2008 by Kedanna:
     

As the owner of the mud, I would love to see those logs. The mud is very much roleplaying enforced, and we have a say mote thing, where if you're using say, and you put [ ] around your actions, it counts as both a tell and an emote. A lot of people seem to like that better than having to use a say on one line, then an action, then a say again, when you can do it all in the same line.

'Also, when I asked someone to clarify, in an emote, instead of just posting '...' I was laughed and ridiculed out of the room.'

What do you mean by posting '...' I'll like to clear this up, so please send over the logs and let me take a look and maybe change your mind about my little mud.

Review posted by Saev
Posted on Tue Aug 19 21:50:00 2008 / 1 comment
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I first created a kender on this MUD (Though the race was later restricted, and needed approval) and had a nice time. Then, I realized people used the OOC information from the who list (Which name class, gender, religion/clan, and a title that you made) to automatically know my race.

After a while, it wasnt a huge deal for me. So I made a giant and joined a clan. I discovered Roleplay Fighting wasn't good at all. People perform limb-snapping actions and back-breaking reflexes faster than a frenzied giant can swing an axe. So after being the victim of In Character rumours and made up events, an Immortal was easily convinced that my character had attempted to kill a large group of people, where I myself was convinced that I was done here.

On top of these small stories, I noticed there was one particular player who wanted to remain in the spotlight, and if she wasnt, she would make ridiculous claims that someone hated her, in which most of her friends would try and comfort her and proceed to attack the mentioned player through private tells. Since she is a friend of the owner of The Gathering...she hasn't been lectured by the Law immortals after attacking me and others through the OOC channel and RP.

If you do decide to play here, I would suggest to stay on everyone's good side, no matter how impossible it seems.

-Saev

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Comment posted on Tue Aug 19 16:24:48 2008 by Kedanna:
     

Hold on just one second. Regarding the 'On top of these small stories, I noticed there was one particular...' remarks:

Is hardly true, I've banned some of my best friends from the mud before, and if I'm right on who I think you're talking about, she's been in trouble a few times and is on a last chance stay right now.

As for the roleplay fighting, if you feel that you've been 'god-moded' on, we welcome complaints and 90% of the time if you ask an immortal to sit in and judge the fight, they'll do so and be as fair as they can be. We're humans, not machines or mobs, we're not perfect but if we don't know what's wrong we can't fix it.

In the future, whether you return to TG or find a different mud, please talk with the staff before posting a bad review.

Thank you and the best of luck to you in the future.

Review posted by Seraphine
Posted on Fri Nov 2 01:33:15 2007 / 0 comments
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I haven't been mudding for very long, just a few months actually, but I couldn't have asked for a better place to learn and grow from. Honestly, the reason why I first came here was cause of the auto-map thingie in the corner, which is really helpful, makes navigating easier. I've wandered around a bit and this was the first one I saw that had that kind of feature. What made me stick around though were the other things.

I've never been a fan of hack and slash, though there is plenty of that here. I love the fact that you could chose to not ever have to pick up a weapon and still grow and develop your character.

The people here are really friendly, and the warm welcome and willingness to help was really nice. I learned as much as I could from the MUD school, which was really useful to someone who's never played before. And even then, they answered all the questions I had, no matter how basic or silly it seemed.

The players are kind, and patient with the mistakes I made while learning about the proper ways to rp. I've met a few colorful characters and their willingness to include a new player into their storylines really made me feel welcome. It really made it easier for me to feel like part of the community.

As for the staff, I have no complaints there. They keep things professional from what I can tell, and try to keep things that are behind the scenes, behind the scenes. I like the fact that they try to filter out any ooc drama before it becomes an issue so that the players don't have to deal with it. There are hiccups here and there, but they are dealt with quickly and professionally.

RP is amazing. They have several things going on at once, and it makes things really interesting, and I'm wondering how they can keep track of everything at once. Big drama and things of an epic nature are fun, but I'm the one who notices and appreciates the little things too. Little things like having the normal, average NPCs suddenly interact with you like other characters adds a lot of color, and makes it feel like the towns and cities are actually populated by normal people and not just players. Can't stress how much I enjoy the little things like that.

Not sure about the people who code and program and all that... I don't know how they do things or what, but they're usually working hard, 'round the clock. That being said, the fact that they take my requests seriously and give it lots of consideration is really appreciated.

All in all, it's a good place, and I've met some good people I'm glad to call friends, and I'm really happy to call this place home.

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Review posted by Caius
Posted on Tue Apr 28 21:30:39 2009 / 4 comments
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I have played on the gathering for two and a half years. I was also on the immortal staff and one of two active newbie helpers. Needless to say, I know TG in and out. I had many disagreements with the owner and that led to my resignation of the imm staff. However, I remained a player. That was until the owner began to sabotage all of my RP’s by using her immortal character she began to threaten killing off my mortal for no other reason than the character being evil. Yes, that was the only reason I played a truly evil thief.

The immortal staff is utterly incompetent with dealing with people. In one instance, I personally witnessed the law council imm’s (Andora and Aerius) initiate arguments to justify banning mortals they did not like, such as characters like Tykune, Anastasia, Rikuzo, Arisa, and Lavina. Yes, I personally witnessed the law immortals sabotage mortals for personal reasons and enjoyment.

I personally was on the roleplay council until I saw the immortals Seir and Sheylynn show favoritism and grant overpowered anime styled powers to mortals that they RPed with. I can tell you from firsthand experience that if your mortal is not a demi god then expect to not live long with characters. Just ask anyone, it’s common knowledge to the TG veterans. Combine the RP and LAW council’s consistent inconsistencies with an owner that is more concerned with having cyber sex than running a mud and you have a recipe for failure. This is proved by typing score Kedanna and seeing all of her wives listed.

But I will say this TG has a lot of players with value and thought; Nighkali, Trellan, Halger, Lexi, Seir, and Asha just to name a few that I enjoyed RPing with. Those are your core RP people that you can RP anything with and watch it develop. These people will help you with anything and give you RP you’ll enjoy.

Oh, my last bit of advice is for you to not talk on the OOC channel. If you say anything that others disagree with you can expect to be nochanned and possibly banned. This is especially true if you believe in God and/or a republican. I could go on and on but I’ll end this way. I left TG after two and a half years of working hard and consistently for the better of TG and I tell you now to turn away from this MUD because it has lost it’s way because of poor leadership and less than par staff. If you do log in, listen to the pbase and stay as far away from the immortals as you can. Oh, and they will be watching everything you do thanks to the snoop command, being whoinvis, plogs, and goto while wizinvis.

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Comment posted on Fri Nov 2 01:15:08 2007 by Trellan:
     

Bad reviews that go unexplained, or at the very least unanswered tend to show agreement by anyone that reads them, so I thought I would respond to some of the things said in this review. I'll start with the last paragraph and work my way up.

We do have rules for our OOC channel, as does any mud, and if you break those rules on TG, or any other mud, there are always consequences. We do well with warning people usually several times to change the subject or take it to another channel or private tells, but in the end if you fail to listen, then yes, you will be nochanned and/or jailed, possibly banned if your conversation was directly disrespectful of staff and you have a history of that. Next, he says that he worked for the betterment of TG, though I can't for the life of me name a single thing he did staffwise. He did much more for TG as a player, but then, since he considers the staff sub-par, I suppose he was including himself and his wife who was also on our staff. However, to contradict himself in saying to stay away from the immortals, two of the six people he named in his list of excellence from the previous paragraph were immortals, including myself.

Will you be constantly watched during whatever you do with the commands he listed? Possibly, as much as you are on any other mud. Moreso if you are in public and known for harrassment of others. I believe in this aspect of his review Caius is misled in the reality of things. We have rules for the immortals about when it is or isn't appropriate to spy on players, as all muds do, but the reason I say he may be biased is because his wife broke most of these rules and checked player logs and snooped people quite often without regard for privacy and he saw her doing so and possibly did so himself, so assumed all the other immortals did so as well. I keep track constantly of where everyone is in the mud, possibly obsessively so and I can say without doubt that I've very rarely if ever seen immortals sitting in rooms spying on mortals while hidden unless there were some valid reason for the immortal to watch them.

Next I'll address the accusations of favoritism. Does it happen? Probably. Does it happen on other muds? Probably. I don't think it's purposeful though, and I don't think it's out of hand at all. Perhaps the reason stronger things are granted to certain people is because the immortals know those people and have gotten to know them through rp and trust them not to abuse such powers. If they aren't sure and don't trust you to know whether you'll abuse them or not, it might be denied. This isn't exactly favoritism, it's limited knowledge and lack of trust causing some to be turned down while others are accepted, though the denials usually are more in the form of asking for more detail, or for stronger negative effects to balance the good and other slight adjustments.

Now about the utterly unfair and incompetent law staff. I've never witnessed any of the so called instigating that he says took place, only one of the people that he listed is still banned, and any banning at all requires the deliberation of more than just the law council. Bans occur, but not just willy nilly and not because a person just isn't liked. Unless there's a valid reason, people aren't booted just for fun. And for the record, Caius and his wife were in on some of the votes for the bans he listed, and they voted yes to banning in at least three of them.

In conclusion, I would like to state that at no time during his play on TG did Caius ever approach me, to bring up any of these accusations, nor did he ever attempt to correct them, though since most of them are based in a skewed and bitter point of view and aren't really as bad as he saw them I can understand how he might have felt too overwhelmed to do so, or perhaps he just didn't care enough.

Comment posted on Wed Dec 12 19:28:34 2007 by Caius:
     

After reading Trellan's response and thinking on it, I do owe the imm staff an apology. The immortals are people and though I've had my share of disagreements and agreements with them I judged them under my bias of my wife. My wife a former immortal did indeed abuse the commands she was given and I hated the fact she was on staff. My complaint is the way she was removed from staff, after years of devotion she should have been treated with more professionalism in my opinion.

Hindsight is just that however and I again appologize for my blunt nature of disrespecting the staff which does work very hard to do what is right. Also for the record my wife has never been on staff with its rival MUDD and I'll make sure she never is on any staff from here on out.

As far as TG goes I'll say this; once you play TG you're hooked, it's easy to play and catch on to quickly. It is what you make of it. It's unfortunate things turned out as they did, which greatly is my fault for being biased to my wife and her enjoyment. I have had good times with TG and I know on several occasions while on staff the other members stood beside me in hard choices. The staff as a whole works hard and works for the betterment of everyone. Where as I doubt myself or my wife will ever play another MUDD, I'll recommend TG to anyone that may still enjoy text games. TG is a wonderful game despite the growing pains they experience at times.

So I appologize again to the staff and even though I've parted ways with them I feel they deserve a good review. Give TG a try and make it into something you enjoy and can continue to enjoy.

Thank you Trellan for your comments.

Comment posted on Mon Dec 24 10:05:26 2007 by Annonymous:
     

As a response to the review, I can agree with most of it.

The immortals(Purposely or not) have favoritism. Like it or not, it's there. The wizinvis command -is- abused, since Immortals pull information out of the air like someone told them.

If you disagree with a 'LAW' immortal, expect a long, drawn out argument about nothing resulting in a warning, jail time, or a ban, temporary or permanent. The immortals DO, in fact, plot against most mortals, making them either quit from frustration or threaten them with a ban.

If you ask for help from the Staff(Admins mostly), you most likely will be ignored if you havent done them an RP 'favor'. At the risk of having this comment removed, I'll spare the details.

Now, onto the good comment. Yes, the long roleplays are great(When you don't look at the large amount of SRPing), and last quite a long time. I admit, the war RP was detailed, and opened up spaces for lower leveled roleplayers, but the fact everyone and their alts could be there made it difficult to decide turns.

The darkling storyline was... Confusing to say the least, many thinking they were the center of it all, or supposed savior. Of course, I had quit from annoyance before it had finished, and didnt find out what had happened.

The maps were well made, except a few bland and unoriginal rooms here and there. The roleplay starts as oon as you finish your training, and hopefully you had read the rules and learned the commands before you get lectured by over half the playerbase and/or otell-happy Staff members.

But what am I saying, the Immortals are always right, eh?

-Annonymous

Comment posted on Mon Apr 6 18:09:30 2009 by Kedanna:
     

Anonymous is always right, I mean they're brave enough to give their real name and face up for that they said! If you can trust someone it has to be Anonymous. *lol*

Caius and his wife Cendria are both greatly missed and we wish them the best in whatever they're doing now.

Review posted by Fastdown
Posted on Sun Aug 12 20:35:26 2007 / 0 comments
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I have been into mudding since the age of 13, I am now 25 (today is my birthday yay!!) Anyway, I personally, am not a fan of hack and slash and mass spam leveling muds, which is what I came to find in god war type servers. This mud is a great haven for those who to roleplay and interact with different players from around the world. Yes, the pbase may not be overflowing, but its a lot easier to roleplay with other people if you can actually recognize and remember names. : D

This mud is very newbie friendly and things are constantly being added and updated daily. There are multiple 'faiths' or religious RP clans to suite almost every character type and/or alignment. Numerous rooms and even multiple continents within the realm to venture into and explore. Though I am no veteran to the mud, been playing for less than a year, I see more and more people creating characters an jumping into roleplay situations. Though there may be certain periods of time (when other players are sleeping, at work, etc,) there is an automated quest system to aid in the occupation of time between roleplays, IMM run quests and RP and more than enough mobs to battle should you be into that kind of thing.

So if you're looking for a mud filled with RP/Quests and a fun, friendly environment. Stop in and check out The Gathering.

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Review posted by Resi
Posted on Fri Dec 29 20:53:10 2006 / 0 comments
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Since I started playing on TG I've felt that I finally found a mud where I could easily get along with others again. With lots of places to roam and many great roleplayers, this mud in my opinion is definitely one of the best I've seen in years.

The immortals upon the mud are helpful, and get involved with the roleplays as they occur, which to me benefits the RPs - whether they are started by players or immortals. So all in all, this is definitely one of the best places I've seen in a long time.

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Review posted by John
Posted on Tue Jul 10 23:47:43 2007 / 2 comments
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I decided to come back and play on TG after almost a year of MUD retirement. I was more curious to see if anything has changed in the time since I have left. I have played only but a few hours and quickly realized there is squat that is different, as I will explain in my observations below. I am truly disappointed and regrettably I will not be returning, as you will see the reasons why in my arguments below.

What really leaves a poor taste is, the once medieval based DoT game has turned into an anime playground with toad demons, cat demons, and rattling, which you can see upon creation of characters. When I got out of the “newbie school” (which does look impressive) I was greeted by public sex at the recall point, when I asked in character for them to stop they took offense out of character calling me “a whiny bitch”. I also found that the who list is are bombarded with who owns who and who's having sex with whom is really annoying and takes away from people who are not sex addicts.

he immortal staff is larger than the playerbase (having 15 imms and approx 10 players on during daytime). They have no true defined roles, as an example one immortal is the Goddess of nature and then other Goddesses are rulers over “storms” and “fire” which are obviously nature based realms. The mud owner is Goddess of love while another Goddess is passion, again clearly a cross of realms. Then there is the God of magic which crosses into every immortal, in essence he is the most powerful immortal though it seems he'd rather make muffins for everyone rather than create entertainment.

In my opinion, the mud is highly disorganized and the staff lack understanding of each other and what is going on with the players. I had a question as to why the steal command was disabled and the seven visible immortals never gave me an answer, nor did the three mortals. It has been my observation that Grakor is the only person truly trying to do the right thing as he heads the “law council” and sadly, there is a rebellion between the playerbase, coding staff and him. It is my opinion that Kedanna whom clearly lacks a vision and management to take the mud, (unless she wants it to continue being the brothel it is) hand the game over to another person or close it down.

I stress that these are my views and observations from playing on the gathering over the past few days and compared to the reason I originally left about one year ago. I encourage you to visit The Gathering and change my mind that this has become the worst MUD for those that enjoy true original roleplaying. If your preference is sexual stimulation through slavery and bondage roleplaying then this is the MUD for you.

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Comment posted on Thu Jan 18 15:10:03 2007 by Tammy:
     

I fear I have to agree with this person on his review for this mud, in fact to a degree it's mostly worse than he says. TG lacks: storylines, and serious RP...in favor of sexual roleplay and immortals controlling the rp by making players approval all the little details about their character...

At least the areas look great and there are some bright sides among the roughness and crudeness of the mud.

Comment posted on Tue Jul 10 11:18:34 2007 by Annonymous:
     

It's still happening, sadly. But, SRP is now limited to places not in public(Yet they are in the open). Most of the Immortals have either stopped playing or had their Imm status revoked through choice or otherwise.

I've seen one thoughtful player make an overweight woman, yet get ignored by the playerbase and shunned by anyone who likes the 'slutty' women. I always try to stay away from Candle Keep... God knows that's a terribly made area. There are certain mobs with Mprogs that are sexual, and a pair of tentacle monsters who are, apparently, blocked off(Yet you can still portal to one).

It's a struggling MUD, since roleplay fighting can be stressful, you can rarely have a unique character, and women practically throw themselves at you. I have made a few alts of both male and female gender, and have been pursued within a day(An hour, one time) after creation. The Immortals have tried to keep SRP to a minimum, putting an age limit(Both IC and IRL, though it is hard to enforce) and in some rare cases, punishing those who sit around doing just that.

Playing a mrem is strange... To some, you are a cat that walks on 2 legs. To anime fans, you're a human with cat features(Ears, tails, etc.). A changeling is difficult to play as well, since they had originally planned it so you could only 'transform' into the races you could choose from, but give out special permission to some who have a mismatched creature of some sort.

It's hard being new here, as you are almost immediately dragged into roleplay when you go to the recall point, so I'd suggest you go through the newbie school so you can learn how to set up a short/long description.

Review posted by Tuki
Posted on Sun Aug 20 19:38:50 2006 / 0 comments
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What to say about The Gathering? Where to start? I guess I'll start off by saying the staff is downright amazing. I should know, I'm one of them. (Kidding) Staff that listen and work one on one with players is very rare indeed, and I am glad to say that the Gathering's Immortals do just that. If you don't understand a helpfile, you aren't told to re-read it, rather an Immortal will sit down with you and go over it.

Secondly, roleplay here is downright awesome. Hands down, this has to be the first mud that I have ever been apart of that has the element of RP I enjoy. I like to be able to take off from RP and go mob slashing, I can. The mobs here are challenging, but not overly so, and once I'm done I know I can jump right back into RP. Be it personal, political, partying or any other type of RP that crops up, it's so easy just to fall in here.

In short, if you're looking for a mud that has awesome hack and slash, and simply AMAZING roleplay, look no further. ( I will also add as a shameless plug that our Coders rock and there are MANY unique things never done before on ANY mud that we have on TG.)

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Review posted by Caius
Posted on Mon Sep 3 20:16:15 2007 / 1 comment
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The gathering is a nice place with lots to do. The RP here is great (you xp for RPing :D) and there are a lot of politics to get involved in. If you are more of an XP player there are tons of areas of fierce mobs with new areas coming in all the time.

Currently the game is going through a remort system which appears to be awesome as they will be adding new classes and even more areas. Out of character you are treated like family with people willing to go the extra mile for newbies and veterns alike.

There are thirty six races to choose from and nine classes to become (I'm biased to the thief and mage classes ;D). Check it out maybe you can call TG home just like I have.

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Comment posted on Mon Aug 13 16:00:42 2007 by Nighkali:
     

I love Caius! And he's right!

Review posted by Brogan
Posted on Sat Oct 15 21:33:46 2005 / 0 comments
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At first I never liked MUDs, but my wife had her whole life. My wife introduced me to the gathering because it is so newbie friendly. Now I knew absolutely nothing about movements or how to fight mobs but with the help of the staff and players I was able to grasp the concept now I'm hooked and can't imagine leaving.

I tried some 'popular MUDs' in the past but I never left The Gathering the others just don't compare. My favorite thing is that if you want to RP there are people ready to RP with you or if you prefer to fight mobs they are well structured and many characters will be more then happy to group with you. Plus I enjoy that as you grow in levels the areas you go to get more and more involved really sucking you into the storyline.

I can preach all day long about the differnt areas, people, classes, races, clans, mobs, and storylines but I ask you give The Gathering a few hours, meet some people, gain a few levels and you'll be hooked for life like I am.

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Review posted by Sheylynn
Posted on Wed Aug 24 22:15:44 2005 / 0 comments
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What can be said about The Gathering… There are just too many remarkable things to list, but I’ll mention a few that stand out the most.

There is the great staff, hard to come by on any MUD. They are supportive and friendly, and are willing to help anyone out whether they are a newbie or an old player. They are part of the driving force behind the rp.

There are more areas being added to the already extensively large world, as well as an auto map feature to help you get around. There is an outstanding coder who is implementing new things frequently, and for those of us who hate the mindless slaughter that you have to go through to level, this place is heaven. You get rp experience based on the amount you rp, and it’s coded that way. I have to say that is probably my favorite thing about this MUD, I can kick back and rp from level one, and not have to go mindlessly slaughtering anything.

The players there are friendly and welcoming, and have added even more appeal to the place if that’s possible. If you are looking for a MUD that has great rp, unique coding, an excellent staff, then you really need to check them out. They are by far the best place I have played at yet.

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Review posted by Nevaeh
Posted on Sat Jul 2 20:16:35 2005 / 0 comments
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When I first got to the Gathering, I was a little disappointed to find a stock mudschool. If the players and immortals weren't so newbie friendly I would have quit and go else where.

I was really impressed to see the rest of the mud, only the newbie school as far as I can tell is stock! 36 races to choose from, WOW! The areas are really nice, the people on the mud are really friendly, there's good roleplay there... anyone would be glad to join this mud!

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Review posted by Vranth
Posted on Thu May 5 21:24:54 2005 / 0 comments
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I first began to play The Gathering... just over one month ago and have been highly impressed by what I've seen during that time. I was drawn to The Gathering... because of RP. I liked what I read both here on TMC and on The Gathering...'s website and decided to try it out.

As soon as I logged on I was greeted warmly and found my questions answered quickly, laying to rest what concerns I had as to the quality of the MUD environment. I have nothing but praise for the staff, all of whom work toward the constant improvement of The Gathering... The same is true for the playerbase, all have been helpful in the extreme.

The Gathering... is RP focused, yet other aspects do not seem to be lacking. There is a very high degree of control when it comes to the creation of a character and it's development along with way OOCly. There are only two stock areas, one of which is the newbie school.

I have come to find this to be my new MUD home. All I can say in the end is to simply give The Gathering... a try to see if it's enjoyable. I certainly did.

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The Gathering... Stats
Raw Data Average Data
# Days Listed4875
Last Connection StatusConnected
# Days With Status208
Total Telnet Attempts19030.390
Total Website Attempts33930.696
Telnet Attempts This Month2548.194
Website Attempts This Month35111.323
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