We've all read the lines and reviews. Because if you haven't, what the heck are you doing reading this?

Anyway, Darkrisings boasts the opportunity for everyone to become a werecreature, vampire, or a hunter of these, and a great PK and RP atmosphere. We can agree on that. Look at the webpages wherever Darkrisings is mentioned.

Everyone can become a werecreature. There's a 5% chance upon creation that YOU TOO can shift into something that goes bump in the night once you reach level 30. Also, if you make being a werecreature an integral part of your character, upon creating another character under the same name as the one you already have, the immortals will give you your weregene back (However, this has only happened for mortal characters that Immortals play, so good luck).

If you're good at PK (Player killing for those non-muddified folk), you can become a part of Covenance, a guild dedicated to hunting down vampires and werecreature and lightening their burden. However, getting in is hard, so if you're just starting, don't expect to get in for at least a month without SERIOUS help learning the aspects of the MUD.

But if your heart was set on becoming a vampire through extraordinary PK or RP skills, you're probably out of luck. Darkrisings has usually at most, eight vampires. Almost exclusively, these vampires are: A) Mortal characters played by Immortals (i.e. IMM alts) B) Mortal characters that have brown-nosed the staff into giving them a vampire

I can only think of two exceptions. I don't think that Darkrisings should have more than that few vampires, don't get me wrong. It would be boring if everyone that wasn't a werecreature was a vampire. However, the way the vampires are given according to not skill, but rather brown-nosing abilities is disgusting. When I saw Darkrisings advertising that everyone can have a vampire, I laughed before I realized that this was an affront to the way things were. This lie alone brings down Darkrisings's status in my mind, as it is certainly a heinous one.

Now, as for PK atmosphere, you win. Darkrisings staff loves PK, and so they'll let most anything slide. Want some acceptable examples for murdering someone and taking all their stuff? 1) Person A looks at Person B and says, 'Greetings.' Person B watches for Person A to leave a safe room, and then promptly slaughters them. 2) Person A casts a beneficial spell on Person B that makes them take half damage in a fight. Person B waits for Person A to leave safety, and then slaughters them. 3) Person A worships a different god than Person B. Person B has never spent any time in the same room as Person A nor interacted with Person A. Person B slaughters Person A. 4) Person A is part of a guild that Person B, two years ago, didn't like. Person B hasn't logged in a year nor interacted with anyone for a year and a half. Person A didn't even exist until 6 months ago. Person B slaughters Person A. 5) Person A reports Person B for any of the above. Person B finds out from his immortal friends and slaughters Person A. The Immortals ignore anything said by Person A.

If the above is what you're looking for, look no further. But if that isn't what you're looking for, Darkrisings isn't for you. Look somewhere else.

Frankly, the RP environment consists of the Immortal's mortal characters. That's all. If you aren't an immortal or an immortal's mortal character, don't expect to have any RP with anyone. You can try and make your own with other mortals, but it will be ignored by immortals and any attempt to legitimize it in the overall scheme of the MUD will be met with extreme resistance and ultimate failure. If you're hoping that joining Arcaenum will help give you an edge in RP, you're sadly mistaken. The immortal that has run Arcaenum exclusively for months now has not interacted with her guild for ages, and will hold up anyone that she dislikes and refuse them entry. Not that it isn't her right to try and stop people entering her guild that will be bad or against the guild's rules, but it isn't her right to continue personal vendettas against seekers. This holding up has unfortunately become a common practice, and the people she does admit will ridicule anyone that she does not allow entry. Unfortunately, the only people really getting into Arcaenum now are immortal alts.

So surely, you may think, Gypsy would be better? Yes, it is. Unfortunately, not by much. The main reason for that is because the immortals like roleplaying with themselves, not mortals. Therefore, though it is touted that Gypsy is involved with the roleplay, the little that is going on is completely driven and participated in by Immortal alts. You can try and make up your own, but again remember, it will be stifled when it is rooted out.

I had been with Darkrisings for over five years now, and it did have its good times. Unfortunately, it no longer keeps to the things it had going for it back then. No longer are mortals really involved in the roleplaying. No longer are valid roleplaying reasons required for PK'ing. Darkrisings has degraded into a hierarchal hack & slash fest. If this is what you're looking for, again, look no further: You have arrived.

But if you're looking for a place where the staff will acknowledge you, roleplay with you, and try to help you have a good time, then go somewhere else.

This is not to say all the immortals on Darkrisings are bad. There are a few that still try to involve mortals, but this is not the norm. Perhaps as many as a half are willing to involve mortals, but these are not in positions of power and quickly are dismissed as crazy immortals.

But keep in mind that these are just my personal experiences. While others have had similar experiences, that doesn't mean you will. I can only give a review on my own personal point of view and experiences.