Review Submitted By: Sparton
Author Status: Player
Started on Seattle 2064: roughly 2 years ago
Submission Date: Jun 26, 2008
TMC Listing: Seattle 2064
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Sparton]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
I've played awake for several years now, and frankly, I've just
about had all I can take from the mud. The world is actually very
small, with many dead ends and areas/doors that no longer work. Almost
half the mud's spaces are just highways that go on for 50+ rooms,
with pretty much repeated descriptions and little else. Of all these
times I played, not one new zone have been added- just zones getting
closed down, a few equipment editings, etc.
The feeling I get from the game is that it can't make up its mind if
it's a chatroom or a mud, or something else altogether. There is no
'tell' command for you to talk to other mortal players with other
than using your phone, radio, or public channels. Other than using the
phone, your conversations have a large chance of being overheard by
others on the radio/channels, and even with the phone, it only allows
you to talk to one person during each call. This means that while
you're on the phone, no one else can reach you privately unless they
come to you physically. Most of the time, the only thing you'd hear
on the radio is people asking 'where is the party,' and the
gameplay is usually the same crowd of people standing around in the
same room fake drinking, talking about sex and trying to impress one
another with how much they know about the shadowrun rules. This brings
us to my next point...
When they say that the mud is 'RP-encouraged' and not 'enforced,'
that's not the truth. If a new player, who's not into shadowrun as
much as he's just in for a good mudding fun time, who has no idea
where to buy gear and what is good, asks on the radio/newbie channels
for help, the best he'd get is some obscure answers with thinly
covered threat like 'we don't talk about weapons here,' or 'watch
what you are saying,' and at the worst, a bunch of insults and bad
remarks about how stupid the person is to ask about 'what's the best
gun for my level?' After a long day at work, and all you feel like is
a bit of casual mudding and mindless killing, you better be sure that
no one catches you while you're at it. As soon as the other players
find out you've been killing mobs, it's like you have spoken up
against God himself on there. You'll be shouted at, threatened, and
pretty soon the admins flag you as a 'powergamer' and no one will
let you play with them. I have even heard people that say powergamers
are not allowed to talk on even the out-of-character channel just
because 'WE DON'T LIKE YOUR TYPE HERE.'
If you don't know shadowrun well, and don't own the books of game
rules, then awake can be a horrible place for you. No one is willing
to explain the way combat is roleplayed, most would just tell you to
go buy the books yourself. Also, when you don't know the rules and
dierols and other little things you'd not have to worry about on
other muds, you're constantly at a disadvantage when roleplaying
with other people on there. Most of the RP sessions I attended turned
out to be what you'd expect in a family court- everyone's saying
they're right, that their rules/abilities come from this and that
book, completed with page and line numbers to show that they just knew
that their 30d1 dierol is better than your 25d2. Moreover, things that
are not general knowledge, such as the distance one can snipe an enemy
with which particular type of rifle, how far can a Ruger Thunderbolt
shoot, etc, are not explained with grace- in another word, even if you
have the right equipment, but you happen to actually go to a real
university instead of a shadowrun college, you're condemned.
The game has a good restring policy and system for you to tailor your
equipments to the way you like them, but that again is tainted by the
way the policies are enforced. If an admin happens to like you or be
your friend, he/she can let slide all kind of things, but once you
displease them, they start purging your equipment. I personally had
this happen to me the time when I spoke up against the unfair
treatment towards casual mudders on the out-of-character channel. All
of a sudden this admin appeared and purged some of my equipment and
threatened me that if I didn't keep quiet, he/she'd purge my
character too. What was I to say? I couldn't even appeal to other
admins since said admin was invisible to me and I couldn't tell who
it was.
My conclusion is that if you're a shadowrun fanatic and just like to
emote and roll dice, awake is ok, but if you are looking for somewhere
you can settle down and play whatever way you see fit, it's not the
place for you. There are too many favoritisms and inconsistencies on
this mud, and if you don't 'please' to the right people or crowd, you
might as well move right along. The roleplaying sessions go up to 5
hours at a time, much longer than many people can stand sitting in
front of a keyboard, and if you're not on at the time the session's
announced, no one will tell you.
