Review Submitted By: TPB Klude, Aeryn, Arkhas, Harkath, Slivlebuff
Author Status: Player
Started on Dark Risings: September 2000
Submission Date: Feb 21, 2006
TMC Listing: Dark Risings
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [TPB Klude, Aeryn, Arkhas, Harkath, Slivlebuff]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
We've all read the lines and reviews. Because if you haven't, what
the heck are you doing reading this?
Anyway, Darkrisings boasts the opportunity for everyone to become a
werecreature, vampire, or a hunter of these, and a great PK and RP
atmosphere. We can agree on that. Look at the webpages wherever
Darkrisings is mentioned.
Everyone can become a werecreature. There's a 5% chance upon
creation that YOU TOO can shift into something that goes bump in the
night once you reach level 30. Also, if you make being a werecreature
an integral part of your character, upon creating another character
under the same name as the one you already have, the immortals will
give you your weregene back (However, this has only happened for
mortal characters that Immortals play, so good luck).
If you're good at PK (Player killing for those non-muddified folk),
you can become a part of Covenance, a guild dedicated to hunting down
vampires and werecreature and lightening their burden. However,
getting in is hard, so if you're just starting, don't expect to get
in for at least a month without SERIOUS help learning the aspects of
the MUD.
But if your heart was set on becoming a vampire through extraordinary
PK or RP skills, you're probably out of luck. Darkrisings has usually
at most, eight vampires. Almost exclusively, these vampires are: A)
Mortal characters played by Immortals (i.e. IMM alts) B) Mortal
characters that have brown-nosed the staff into giving them a vampire
I can only think of two exceptions. I don't think that Darkrisings
should have more than that few vampires, don't get me wrong. It would
be boring if everyone that wasn't a werecreature was a vampire.
However, the way the vampires are given according to not skill, but
rather brown-nosing abilities is disgusting. When I saw Darkrisings
advertising that everyone can have a vampire, I laughed before I
realized that this was an affront to the way things were. This lie
alone brings down Darkrisings's status in my mind, as it is certainly
a heinous one.
Now, as for PK atmosphere, you win. Darkrisings staff loves PK, and
so they'll let most anything slide. Want some acceptable examples for
murdering someone and taking all their stuff? 1) Person A looks at
Person B and says, 'Greetings.' Person B watches for Person A to
leave a safe room, and then promptly slaughters them. 2) Person A
casts a beneficial spell on Person B that makes them take half damage
in a fight. Person B waits for Person A to leave safety, and then
slaughters them. 3) Person A worships a different god than Person B.
Person B has never spent any time in the same room as Person A nor
interacted with Person A. Person B slaughters Person A. 4) Person A is
part of a guild that Person B, two years ago, didn't like. Person B
hasn't logged in a year nor interacted with anyone for a year and a
half. Person A didn't even exist until 6 months ago. Person B
slaughters Person A. 5) Person A reports Person B for any of the
above. Person B finds out from his immortal friends and slaughters
Person A. The Immortals ignore anything said by Person A.
If the above is what you're looking for, look no further. But if
that isn't what you're looking for, Darkrisings isn't for you. Look
somewhere else.
Frankly, the RP environment consists of the Immortal's mortal
characters. That's all. If you aren't an immortal or an immortal's
mortal character, don't expect to have any RP with anyone. You can
try and make your own with other mortals, but it will be ignored by
immortals and any attempt to legitimize it in the overall scheme of
the MUD will be met with extreme resistance and ultimate failure. If
you're hoping that joining Arcaenum will help give you an edge in RP,
you're sadly mistaken. The immortal that has run Arcaenum exclusively
for months now has not interacted with her guild for ages, and will
hold up anyone that she dislikes and refuse them entry. Not that it
isn't her right to try and stop people entering her guild that will
be bad or against the guild's rules, but it isn't her right to
continue personal vendettas against seekers. This holding up has
unfortunately become a common practice, and the people she does admit
will ridicule anyone that she does not allow entry. Unfortunately, the
only people really getting into Arcaenum now are immortal alts.
So surely, you may think, Gypsy would be better? Yes, it is.
Unfortunately, not by much. The main reason for that is because the
immortals like roleplaying with themselves, not mortals. Therefore,
though it is touted that Gypsy is involved with the roleplay, the
little that is going on is completely driven and participated in by
Immortal alts. You can try and make up your own, but again remember,
it will be stifled when it is rooted out.
I had been with Darkrisings for over five years now, and it did have
its good times. Unfortunately, it no longer keeps to the things it had
going for it back then. No longer are mortals really involved in the
roleplaying. No longer are valid roleplaying reasons required for
PK'ing. Darkrisings has degraded into a hierarchal hack & slash fest.
If this is what you're looking for, again, look no further: You have
arrived.
But if you're looking for a place where the staff will acknowledge
you, roleplay with you, and try to help you have a good time, then go
somewhere else.
This is not to say all the immortals on Darkrisings are bad. There
are a few that still try to involve mortals, but this is not the norm.
Perhaps as many as a half are willing to involve mortals, but these
are not in positions of power and quickly are dismissed as crazy
immortals.
But keep in mind that these are just my personal experiences. While
others have had similar experiences, that doesn't mean you will. I
can only give a review on my own personal point of view and
experiences.
