Review Submitted By: Sif
Author Status: Player
Started on Bedlam: 2009
Submission Date: Sep 17, 2012
TMC Listing: Bedlam
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Sif]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
(This is a continuation from my second post, respecting the max char
limit.)
As may be clearly seen from the emails reproduced above, the admin's
reasons for having banned me have nothing to do with my quality or
style of play (no cheating, no abuses of bugs, no botting or
multiplay) but everything to do with the fact that he cannot find it
in himself to accept that (a) people actually disagree with him, (b)
they have good reasons for so doing, (c) he has no logical answer to
those reasons and (d) it is a matter ultimately of pride.
I did not wish to say this in my original post as I thought that the
post might actually spur the admin in question into doing some serious
reflection about the shape the game was getting into, and start taking
constructive criticism positively. This did not happen. I have been in
contact with 4 players who, like me, were longtime players of Bedlam
and very committed at one point to the game and its interests. One of
us actually wrote an entire new zone for Bedlam, only to be told after
a lot of work had been put into it, that it was inappropriate and all
names in the zone had to be changed (the zone was based on Rome).
Quite why this could not have been said earlier, i.e. that 'no real
is allowed' mystifies me. The admin's excuse that 'people don't
usually finish whatever they start' also holds no water.
It's like saying that since 1/3 of all marriages are going to end in
divorce anyway, why bother telling your intended at the altar that in
fact, you really are gay and don't want to marry her??
Veda, the admin, has also apparently nerfed individual players that
he wanted out of game but could not find reason to ban. This is
pathetic and puerile. Fiddling with individual players' thac0 is
plainly an abuse of immo powers.
But then again, Veda's conduct for the past year has been an
increasingly lurid display of arrogance and an overweening sense of
self-superiority.
In case he is reading this, I have only one thing to say to him:
change that attitude, Veda. You are not always right. Accept that. It
is a fact of life that people who are genuine listeners, truly
interested in what others have to say, will always do better at
knowing what it is people want. Looking down your nose on the people
on whom your game depends and writing them all off collectively as you
did me (and others), as 'power players' who want their own way, when
all these people have ever done was provide feedback about how your
changes were negatively impacting the game and poorly thought through
- the game is starved of a pbase today because you have successfully
alienated every single person who actually CARED about it. You have a
serious attitude problem and a great deal of intellectual arrogance.
Get this: the fact that you have a PhD means *nothing* if all that
education has done for you is to cultivate in you a sense that you are
better than others. Don't deny this because it is written everywhere
in the Internet. I have seen how you conduct yourself on MUD builder/
admin forums, and it smacks of self-satisfaction. Pretty much how you
always dealt with others.
Finally, banning me was your choice. I frankly do not care that you
did, since it more or less confirmed my evaluation of you as a person.
Dictators always silence the voices of opposition that make the most
sense.
