Review Submitted By: Banjooie
Author Status: Player
Started on Firan: August 03/06
Submission Date: Aug 5, 2006
TMC Listing: Firan
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Banjooie]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
Maybe I didn't play long enough to check, but I had a pretty
terrible experience with Firan. Figuring that everyone who'd gone
'oh look it's staff favoritism city' might in fact be wrong, I
think 'hey, let's try it out'. You know. I never got into a single
scene, primarily because I was rather disgusted with it within 30
minutes.
When you choose from a list of pregenned characters (Which they
prefer you do,) you're given a general rundown of their personality.
This is fully reasonable. You look through their umpteen billion
chars, choose one that suits you. I'm rather impressed with the work
done to produce them. (The char I chose had...80k of relationship
backhistory, and he was a priest.)
Upon chargenning, I discovered @sheet/secrets. This is, of course,
the command that shows you your character's secrets to the world. I
figured it was reasonable enough that every character would have
these.
And I still do! However, they don't warn you exactly how serious
these secrets are. I chose a character who was generally outlined as
'pleasant overzealous-priest type fellow who has a heart of gold,
really.' My secrets...talked about his sadistic nature, and how he
liked to whip pagans in a very BDSM-like style, and how he had--get
this, abused his little sister for daring to marry a pagan priest. And
how guilty he felt about it, and how terrible he felt about it.
Oh, and he'd apparently secretly slept with almost /every single
whore in the game/. It was unbelievable.
So, naturally, I rather felt like a fellow who'd driven a car off
the lot only to find out that the salesman had swapped cars while I
was signing the contract. So I complained. What did a /wizard/ tell
me?
That it wasn't their fault I'd chosen that sort of character, and
how dare I talk about my IC secrets OOCly, and that if I continued in
this manner there would be repercussions.
Because I wanted to play a fairly pleasant, if overzealous, priest,
and was handed a sadistic abusive whoremonger.
Thanks, Firan!
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Submit Comments About this Review
Comment Submitted By: Bud
Author Status: Player
Started on Firan: 2002
Submission Date: Aug 12, 2006
(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author
[Bud] and in no way represents the opinions of this website
or its staff).
I'm afraid that I too, have to agree with Banjooie's criticisms.
While secrets are often the very stuff which drives potential tiny
plots, they quite frequently contrast the personality descriptions of
most characters on Firan. Furthermore, with their IC/OOC discussion
policies as stringent as they are, not to mention the draconian
attitudes of their admins, it makes rectifying a situation like this
almost impossible. To put in bluntly, the administration doesn’t give
a toot whether or not the unsuspecting player feels uncomfortable
playing a certain character. After all, it isn’t their fault you can’t
read the secrets initially.
Also, Banjooie’s concern regarding the clandestine sexual
proclivities of his chosen character is a common theme on Firan.
Sexuality, whoring, fornication, and wanton behavior are all quite
rampant on this game. After playing there over the years, I saw the
game turn from something vaguely reminiscent of a PG-13 experience to
something resembling else...
Another case which caused me to be concerned was staff’s deduction of
social points on male members of the nobility who “…didn’t frequent
brothels regularly enough.” Sexuality is taken so far that most of the
main characters on Firan are known for voracious sexual appetites. The
positive (XP rewards) and negative (XP loss) incentives given roleplay
scenes of a sexual nature only left me wondering why they take
their “no privacy policy” seriously. Could there be cybervoyeurs in
the midst of the FiranMUX administration?
As Huxley’s novel “Brave New World” states, “promiscuity is every
citizen’s duty.”
But I digress. Banjooie, I’m sorry that your experience with Firan
was a bad one and hopefully this doesn’t leave you completely
disenchanted with roleplaying altogether. Maybe Firan will change its
tune when it finds its playerbase dwindling, and the negative
comments on Mudconnector numerous. On the surface Firan might look
like a good game, but on the inside it is lacking. I often compare it
to being invited to a sumptuous banquet, only to walk in and discover
there really is no banquet at all.
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Comment Submitted By: Terris
Author Status: Player
Started on Firan: Off and on for awhile
Submission Date: Aug 12, 2006
(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author
[Terris] and in no way represents the opinions of this website
or its staff).
Okay, really, I just want to say: I'm glad I'm not the only one.
The @sheet/secrets thing didn't bother me so much, but, despite
the larger playerbase, this MUX is FULL of favoritism. Some people
are given free reign to do whatever they want, and others can't do a
damn thing without jumping through 9,000,000 hoops. And if you don't
play your character -just- how they say you should, you lose it.
Some people like it. I didn't. Like I said, glad it wasn't just me.
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