Review Submitted By: Nissa
Author Status: Player
Started on A Merging of Fates: 12/01/2003
Submission Date: Jan 13, 2004
TMC Listing: A Merging of Fates
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Nissa]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
What to say about this MUD except that it had a very promising
flavor when I began to play it, ruined by one of the most ego-
inflated and unfriendly playerbase ever?
*sighs*
Let us try to make a useful review, and start with the beginning. In
my quest to find the perfect MUD, combining a decent touch of
original features, classes and areas, a good touch of roleplay and
hence PKing, and interesting people (not necessarily *all* friendly
to me in particular), I stumbled one morning on the description
of 'Merging of Fates'.
I dug into the list of features offered :
Min. # of Players Online: 10 - 24
Player-Kill: Restricted
Quests Available
Roleplaying Is Encouraged
Newbie friendly
Clans Offered
World is mostly original
Large World (8,000+ rooms)
Nifty! Past the very classical RoM character creation, I entered
the MUDschool, equipped with my mighy sword, ready to decimate some
meanies. Ooh wait, I am a cleric, why did I get a sword? Bugger. I
started to look around in town if I could find a weaponsmithy
selling maces. To no avail. When I asked in the newbie channel if
some player knew of a shop where I could buy a mace or give me one,
I heard crickets. The fact that the newbie school was poorly
designed didn't help me getting out of my first few levels either.
The first impression definitely wasn't particularly positive.
Learning more about the MUD though thanks to a handful of friendly
people and the head coder, RogueDragon, I decided to keep trying.
The rooms were descriptive enough to breathe live into the really
large world, as was advertised. Even for a MUD that exists since
1997, it is a good point.
Unfortunately, the rest just doesn't follow. When 10-24 players are
announced, the who list rarely exceeds 6 players, even at peak
times. Clans have been abandoned, and their halls remain desperately
empty. To my understanding, efforts were in progress to revive them,
but RogueDragon could only do so much alone. Finally, the quest
system is obscure, and incredibly hard even for someone who has
reached the maximum level of 207 as gating/fleeing/recalling are
restricted in most rooms. Maps don't exist, either in game, or on
the Website, and people 'who know' keep their little secrets to
themselves. You will not want to waste time on questing before you
remort a couple of times and learn where most areas are in the game.
What really killed all the fun for me was the presence of some ego-
inflated old time players pretending to roleplay 'punching you in
the jaw' when you raise an eyebrow at them, just because they have
about 300 hours played more than you. Raising an eyebrow at them was
reason enough for them to conclude that you lacked of respect, and
hence they could kill you to 'get your eyes'. The worst thing was an
Immortal supporting them in their action, as they probably don't
want loose more of their already skimpy playerbase.
In conclusion, this MUD is not for you if you :
- don't like be bullied around by some people who have 350 hours
played and who pretend roleplaying 'punching you in the jaw' to
teach you 'respect' (ROFL)
- like to group with people that take it easy sometimes, not always
powergaming to the next remort
- like to quest and explore as you most probably will get lost/die
before you get a chance to even find the areas
- are more or less starting in your MUD career, as you will just be
plain ignored by most players too busy to remort for the 55th time,
and be dazzled by the lack of help and friendliness.
