I have been a avid mud player since my teenage years in the mid 90's. I have played many muds over the years, some for over a decade. A couple of years ago, after taking a break (as we all need to do sometimes) I thought I would try a new mud to mix things up. This is when I started playing Armageddon.

When first starting to play I really enjoyed myself. The game seem to hit all of the things I liked in a mud. Role-playing enforced, permanent death, a survival aspect that seems real if you are not part of a clan, a rich history with a large enough world to start new characters in different places and experience different play styles.

After loosing my first few characters to silly mistakes while learning the game, I finally settled into a character and joined a clan. I joined a Greater Merchant House as a hunter. It was my job to go out and collect supplies for the crafters. It was a great position and I made some in game friends (and enemies) and the role-play was rich and fun.

As the months went by we were told by the staff that the hunter groups in the Greater Merchant Houses were being removed to improve role-play. The general thought was that the independent players that are not part of a clan would get more opportunity to sell their supplies to the houses, instead of the hunters just going out to get them.

On the surface this seemed like a reasonable thing and everyone role-played out our characters and moved on. I don't want to speak for the other players but this was the first real sour taste of the game I got. A great group of players who all role-played well were forced apart by a staff change that in the end didn't even work out.

The already established independent groups just picked up most of the slack and the mercenary group called the T'zai Byn picked up the rest. My next character ended up playing in the Byn and we were sent to chop down piles of trees for the Greater Merchant House I was just forced to leave (a job the hunters use to do but the now independent players were “suppose” to be doing).

This is an example of how the game seems to run. Instead of staff running the game as Game Masters or Dungeon Masters, they make sweeping changes to mix things up. In the end it usually puts a bad taste in the players mouth and creates animosity between staff and players.

On that note, the staff and player relationship is incredibly toxic (a word used often about this game). To put it simply they hate each other. The forums are full of hateful posts and arguments that seem to go in circles. It is not uncommon for a thread to be locked because the conversation degraded into petty bickering. I rarely post on the forum and never played the game enough to draw the attention of staff in game.

That is until I sent in an application to play a race I have never played before (a half-giant). I read the available lore on the website and put together a character application I thought was fun and enjoyable. The response was that they wanted me to play my character in the main city called Allanak and not anywhere else. I didn't understand why so I asked and the response was that “I only hear what I want to hear” and to re-read their previous post.

I decided that the game was not for me at this point. I replied that I felt their response was rude and I would not return to play. They did respond by saying they were surprised that I would leave because this was the FIRST time I had an incident with them.

I play games to enjoy myself as I'm sure the rest of us do. What I don't need is drama outside of the role-playing. I'm sure my examples seem tame to what others may have experienced but I left before the nonsense could escalate to anything more. The FIRST time was enough for me. I'm sure some players live in a constant drama filled relationship with the staff but this is what turned me away from the game.

I suggest leaving this game alone.

You may enjoy it for the first few months like I did, but once you start getting involved in heavier role-play it comes with more baggage than it's worth. Hopefully staff or players reading this will understand where a new player is coming from and take a step back and look at how they act and how ridiculous it seems from an outsiders perspective.