Ateraan is a love/hate MUD/TORG. You love it. You hate it. Sometimes both at the exact same time. Years later, after four years here (roughly), I'm still here. My fair share of complaints have been heard by a lot of staff members. Many know me and how vocal I can be OOCly when there isn't something I like. Many times staff has helped me out and remained understanding when they really didn't have a reason. It's for these reasons that I'm still around, despite taking a few breaks here and there.

As I said before:It's a love/hate relationship, but that's why I think that I enjoy it. No game is fun if you win all the time. Especially if you lose all the time. Many people will point out the negatives, but seldom do you hear the positives. There's many adages about this sort of behavior, too.

In the end, love it or hate it, I still play. The combat is fluid and grand. The players can be fun and unique. The roleplay can be different if you make it that way, and there's usually an open-end that allows creativity to some pretty vast extents.

There are some downs however, and some 'ehs' that could go either way. Some of the downs I would say are... things can get pretty stagnant. Sometimes an INPC has to be involved to get world roleplay moving. Usually the INPCs can halt that roleplay if it changes things a little too much. This, I fear, is a complaint of many.

At the same time... I do understand why it is the way it is. People can simply be... cruel! They want their buddies to win and their group. The INPCs have to make the mud fair to everyone, so it isn't justice to say that this is completely wrong of staff to do. In essences... It's sort of needed.

Another complaint is new areas. It's been a while. Much has been promised on that and... we're still (mostly) waiting. Some things have been added, but it's slow. Is this a big negative? Not really. There's a lot of places to explore and you can usually find something to do. They will come (probably) in time. It doesn't really affect gameplay anyways. It's more a gripe for some older players that have seen the vast expanses of the current in-game world that is 'visible'.

Another fuss is higher-level powers. This is sort of an understandable thing to note and Andrew DOES fix them. Let me stress this: HE DOES FIX THEM. It may take a week, or a month, but they do get fixed. All my powers thus far, save for the recently acquired ones... have been fixed and made operational. This is also an understandable reason. There is only one coder (to my knowledge.) That being Andrew. Between dealing with complaints, making new areas, and people getting into the higher levels slowly, it takes time to go down the 'to do list'.

Let's be honest, you're probably not going to prioritize something that affects one person compared to something that is affecting multiple. Priorities.

The game has its ups and downs. I certainly still play despite it all. If you positively want an experience that is very life-like, then this is the mud for you. If you want a mud that rewards you with a huge power-gap if you actually spend the time and effort? This is the mud for you.

If you're wanting a mud that bends to your demands all the time? You might want to keep looking, but I mean... good luck with that!