TMC Player Reviews: The Gathering...

(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author [Sheylynn] and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff).

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

(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author [Kedanna] and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff).

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.