Evolution of Esos draws you in through the gritty, harsh, and unforgiving atmosphere that only an RPI can produce. Here you will find inequality and corruption, yet a chance to leave your mark on the game world as well. The staff are constantly adding lore, items, rooms, code, and fixing bugs. I've reported bugs and seen them vanish just minutes later. Most of the players are also focused, talented, and committed to filling the niche their concept has been developed for.

I've honestly never seen an RPI approve/disapprove of characters so fast. Some of my characters were approved within 10 minutes, and the slowest it has been around six hours tops. They're on top of their game with getting your new character in quick, and if you die by bug or have your character altered by a bug, they do everything in their power to make things right by you, too.

The society of the game can be infuriating. It might initially come off as a cheap rip-off of the Armageddon noble/merchant system. Enclaves, the nobles of Esos, get many coded and social benefits while those on the outskirts get to peer in the windows of the Noble life with envy while trying to get their share on some of the upper-castes riches.

Sometimes the documents are or parts of the documents are ignored in favor of doing whatever fits the whims of players and staff. It gets ridiculous, like when slaves are made into Barons and the typically nature-loving, peaceful, and monogamous Sundown are represented by the lewdest, animal-slaughting group in town. Currently, the active members of Enclaves outnumber the unaffiliated as well. Offending an Enclave member as a nobody is a crime, and this is part of the game world. Since this is a staple of the roleplay intensive world of Esos, no one is going to listen to your complaints about unfairness either, both in game and on the boards.

I do realize that there is opportunity for even the unaffliated to have great connections without a big family name. The more I played, it became increasingly obvious this wasn't ripoff of another RPI mud. There are rich documentations for most of the walks of life in the city that most people make an coherent effort to follow. In actuality, there aren't glass ceilings, and you can even be invited into a family if you do well enough for them and yourself.

There still are some aspects of the game that leave you sour and disgruntled. The out of character circles exists, and certain staff played avatars have enormous social power and skill buffs. Players who are louder on the boards have been rewarded with more benefits and rolecalls for more players in their area while other parts and clans of the game are overlooked. Staff have asked for what changes to implement to only ignore all the suggestions from players then list their own that they will be working on.

At times, the administration has seemed abrasive to the community. With only three staff working on an ever expanding world, the workload is large and appreciation minimal, but this should never be an excuse to be impolite and uncordial. Perhaps because of the small number of staff, there are some PMs and emails that never get responses, and sometimes wishes, the command used to communicate with staff, will somtimes go unheard or just simply ignored...

Staff also aren't shy of slaughtering their players here. If they've perceived a mistake, they will let loose the hounds, super deer, or malevolent monster to butcher players. One such instance lead to most of the playerbase dying all at once.

Even with the loss of our beloved characters in a permanet death, the majority of us returned because there is a lot of fun to be had in the game world full of confict and strife. The mud seems to be suffering from growing pains and could use more players who are vocal about what needs to be fixed and some who aren't shy about calling shenanigans when they see them. The ultimate impression I get from the game however is that there is the same sense of inequality in its community that there is in its from its gameworld. If you aren't able to handle this, I'd personally suggest going to another mud to roleplay in. If you can stomach occassional pitfalls and really love the roleplay intensive genre, then Evolution of Esos could be for you and worth trying.