I've experienced DS as both a player and a staff member. As a player, I found the world to be quite involving, with a wide diversity of areas. These areas were created in such a way that it actually felt like a coherent realm, they moved fairly seamlessly into each other and it was very easy to imagine yourself travelling along from the city of Tyr along the wide farmlands and eventually moving through some forests to the cliffs near Graye.

As in any mud, you will have strong roleplayers and those who simply aren't, but for the most part at least an attempt is made. The guilds have strong definitions to them, and players do their best to enforce those ideologies. Overall, it's generally been a good well- rounded experience for me.

As a player, I generally found the staff to be quite prompt and reasonable with the requests presented to them, and overall of an affable nature. Now that I have joined them, I can truly appreciate the massive amount of work that has gone into this mud, and the plans that are yet in store. We take all ideas and suggestions into consideration, and try to make the player experience as enjoyable as possible, sometimes going so far as to revamp areas at player requests to make them more newbie friendly. Code improvements and implementations are continuous now that we're in p-testing phase after a total game revamp, although most skills and the like are firmly in place.

Newbies may find it a bit challenging at first, but there are usually players who are willing to take newbies under their wings and show them the ropes, and efforts are always made to ease their introduction into this somewhat roleplay-complex world. These efforts range from enhancing help files to building more areas that will be of use to new players.

I've found this place to be well rounded and thoroughly enjoyable, and look forward to doing my part to make it even better in the days to come.