It's been three years since I started playing Armageddon. I started as a near complete newbie to MUDs, my only experience prior being a few hours spent running around SlothMUD, trying to level up and rapidly growing bored of the repetition. It was in no way SlothMUD's fault, though. I was never one for hack and slash games.

The idea of roleplay was intimidating to me. The closest I'd ever gone to roleplay, before then, was a small forum roleplay based on Hunger Games my schoolmate had made back in grade school. We 'roleplayed' as ourselves (being badass), in truth, so I'm not sure it even counts. Nevertheless, I waded into these strange waters, hoping for the best.

On my first few characters, I treated Armageddon as if it were just another hack and slash game. I came across these 'scrabs' and -- yes -- I imagined they were scarabs. My first character died because this mistake.

'No biggie,' I had thought, and I rolled up a new character. This time, I started attacking an NPC on the road, in broad daylight, because I somehow thought that was the way to skill up and because my character was in 'desperate' need for coin. My character was promptly taken to a dark cell that stunk of death. Both she and I anxiously waited in the gloom.

It was only a few minutes later when a templar came in, bathing the cell with light. Cockroaches littered the floor. I found that fascinating and the descriptions so utterly atmospheric. The echoes were my favorite part. At the time, I hadn't realized echoes were automatic, shot every few minutes. When a scream filtered through the door and was suddenly cut off, I was terrified.

As I was saying, the templar entered this filthy cell. He came with an offer: for my character to fight it out in the arena or for her to pay a substantial amount of coin by the end of the month. She went for the coin, of course. The templar was visibly disappointed.

That same day, she died in her attempts to hunt. I was hooked by that point. My next character joined the T'zai Byn. It was there that I began to grasp the game.

Armageddon has its weaknesses. There are voices in its community (and outside) who are incredibly toxic. Its hack and slash roots are glaringly obvious at times, one main example being the fixed skillsets.

I shouldn't be speaking generally, because in the midst of this toxicity, I've seen wonderful players in Armageddon. The roleplay I've come to learn and experience is some of the best I've ever been involved in. I've played different roleplay MUDs and have joined few roleplay forums since I started in Armageddon. These include Evolution of Esos, TI Legacy, and Arx, to name a few. No matter what, the level of detail in Armageddon, the quality of roleplay, and the plethora of lore I've yet to discover always bring me back.