This game is a code-supported MOO, with lots of very interesting features to experience and explore.
But every coded feature in the game is there for a reason: To support the most outstanding roleplay experience ever.
I came to the M** world because my tabletop PNP RPG groups couldn't stay together or meet regularly enough, so I sought to fill the void, seeing if there was an online thing which would suit. So many so-called Role Playing Games aren't about roleplaying in the least, while on the opposite iend of he spectrum there are role playing M**'s which aren't at all about playing a game. Sindome is a really excellent balance.
So, I started a character. I read helpfiles. I ran around chasing the automated income. I roleplayed a little, chitchatting in bars. I was learning the Sindome world and the conventions of text gaming, so, I might have taken a little longer than some players do, to have my in-character life 'take off'. But it did, and, I've had almost a year of the best roleplaying experiences I've ever had. Memorable Sindome sessions have completely blown away the most thrilling PNP sessions I ever had.
I always liked a PNP system which stayed out of the way enough to let the RP flow, yet was present enough to give structure and, yes, impetus to the RP. Sindome feels like the best of those tabletop campaigns, where creative plots and adventures were revealed and driven by the moment to moment choices of the players and the thoughtful, if sometimes Machiavellian, interventions of the game masters.
I'll take a minute to address complaints I've seen in other reviews of this game, to the effect that admins or GMs don't help. They do. They help to the extent that what you want them to do is themely, and was justified and earned by you based on your roleplay. If I ask for a handout, then, no, I don't get any response at all, not even a 'come off it, dude'. But if I roleplay my way into a situation where all the actions and choices were justified in-character, and now I need a GM to do something the code can't do all by itself, they can see my roleplaying history and the @notes I left, describing my character's motivations and thought processes, and they *will* respond and bring something to the in-character world for me.
For better or for worse! Just because my character has worked to make something happen, it's like real life - it might go my way, or, there may be unseen forces at work which make the result go some other direction. But it's not arbitrary, and it's not power-tripping on the GMs' part. It's themely in-character results - often revealing matters my character wasn't aware of, and which other characters influenced.
I'm sympathetic toward reviewers who have expressed frustration over not being able to get GMs to do things their way. For anyone who's considering giving Sindome a try, I'll say, do expect GMs to be responsive, but don't expect them to hand out things which your character's actions have not justified. For better or for worse. Your character isn't going to get hassled for no reason, but they're not going to be given that sweet job with the flashy hardware perks for no reason either. It's a gritty world where roleplaying the hardship is almost always more rewarding than roleplaying an indifferent or even positive situation.
Well, I for one love it. Who knows what? Why do they know it? Will I be hunted if I reveal it? Who knows MY secrets? What tools do I have to protect my ass, teach some other character a lesson, move my character into or out of positions of conflict or resolution? And along the way, what game features will I get exposed to, and marvel at the coolness of the world which has been created and refined over more than fifteen years of Sindome's existence? It's a thrill. Especially those moments when something is revealed which makes me, the player, stop breathing and think 'OMYGAWW OMYGAWW! I can't believe *that* happened, What do I do *now*???' After which, I find myself grinning ear to ear and plotting out how I'm going to have my character respond to some new obstacle or opportunity, parlay the paydata into a payday, or plant the data which will bring that other m'er f'er down.
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