The Neutral

Staff are hands off until they don't want to be. This can be good or bad. I don't like invisible forces involved in my RP. Some people do.

The plot system generates a lot of RP. That RP is usually focused around a small group of two or three guildleaders who keep the content under wraps. Your average Joe can still RP the effects.

There is a huge amount of turn-over in certain guildleader roles. You might be able to snag one for yourself. You also might have a hell of a time getting anything done if you need one of them. For the opportunistic this is great. For anyone else it's challenging.

You will need a certain amount of coded votes to get into a guild. It keeps guilds exclusive and thematic. It also provides a sometimes impossible hurdle to getting guilded at no fault of the guildleaders. A guildleader cannot codedly admit you into the guild without your having acquired X amount of votes from other members. This ensures guildleaders aren't just guilding their friends on a whim, but it also makes appealing to the guildleader useless when you can't find members who will RP with you.

The theme is good but rigid. Your RP will not be affecting the world and may be discounted if it leads in that direction. Administration seems almost afraid of allowing far-reaching effects. Denying players the opportunity to change the world keeps TI as TI, but it can at times be frustrating.

The Good

You will find RP to suit any style. Some people have Armageddon style one-liners. Some people write beautifully detailed prose. Most fall somewhere in the middle. People are accommodating of other styles and usually keep to a loosely turn based format. You don't come across very many people who incessantly chatter over osay and a polite request that they cease is accepted without drama.

I have encountered very little ooc drama on TI. Even the bad eggs are treated fairly by other players until bad egg behavior resurfaces.

Lots and lots of coded goodies. Crafting is the tip of the iceberg. If you decide to make a character you'll be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of activities you can participate in with or without other people. TI does a good job of keeping the game interesting without depending solely upon active RP. You have a reason to sign in and stay signed in even while the game is empty.

Kinaed is a reasonable administrator. You won't find many of those. So long as you can express yourself in a non-combative manner she's highly likely to take your concerns into consideration.

The Bad

Cliques. Don't get me wrong, people will be plenty friendly, but don't try and get involved in their roleplay past a certain point. Most of the older players should be wearing shirts reading 'I have enough friends.' Even if you manage to develop an organic relationship with an older player, their friends will ensure you're cut out and construed as insignificant in the end. Cliques aren't a problem until they become exclusive of others. Cliques on TI can be extremely exclusive of others.

The smallest of the unhealthy style of clique you'll run into are noble characters. To that end alone, the impression I'm often left with are a preferred few dominating roleplay through exclusive, IC noble rights. Having noble characters around is refreshing, but the selection process isn't great. I would humbly suggest that staff alts not be permitted to have exclusive, ultimate IC powers over the game without giving up their staff role, especially not when that kind of IC power is limited BY staff to a scarce few. Staff members holding very limited nobility slots leaves a foul taste when the nobility have a huge IC advantage over others.