Shattered Kingdoms

Right. So if you've been playing the game for as long as it sounds like you have, then your own post should seem awfully familiar. How many times have we seen it? RP is dead. No one respects OOC/IC. The game is dying. Dulrik is blind. SK used to be great, but now it blows.

I don't mean to belittle your frustration, but you'll excuse me if I reply with a healthy dose of skepticism. All I can draw on is my experience, my perspective, which goes something like this:

* The demise of SK has been predicted over and over again since at least 1998, if not earlier. Players have moved on. The game, amazingly, lives on. The playerbase may be somewhat smaller than back in the mid-90's, but it seems pretty stable to me, having popped in and out of retirement over the last few years and using the "count" command. I think it's surprising that we can still find enough players with attention spans to play antiquated text games in this age of internet-enabled graphical everything.

* I roll each new char anonymously, and it's usually not until I join an organization and my forum ID pops up on some group forum that word gets out. I use IM only sparingly, and never for hookups, only for very occasional chit-chat with some old-timer. Despite this "head-down" approach, I've found tons of great RP, and I've never had trouble gaining status for my chars, in factions, in faiths, whatever it is I'm trying to achieve.

* There are only a couple players I ever try to get to roll specific chars so I can play with them. And they're so rarely around that it almost never works out. No biggie. I play SK to escape into a char, so I like to approach the game from inside that char. Most of the other chars I've enjoyed interacting with over the last couple of mine have seemingly shared that same trait. I know chars way better than players.

* I've led a few factions and faiths over the years. I've never rejected a single char based on knowing who was playing it. I've never recruited a char based on who was playing it, alone, though it may be true that I've been drawn to the RP that's typical of certain players. I let my chars do the recruiting, in char. In other words, no chars of mine will keep your chars down simply because you're playing them.

* I have no issue with using OOC communication to plan mass logins for certain events requiring lots of players online all at the same time. Simply put, there are limitations on when and for how long players can keep their chars active and online. A little coordination can go a long way. It's my opinion that OOC scheduling has not eroded SK at all over the years.

* I choose to play with RP-philic chars who don't pester me OOCly. I find them every time I roll a char, without fail. Sometimes, they'll be players, like "head-down" Fayne, whose chars I've played with before. Serendipity. If anything, I'm surprised at how much more RP is to be found, per capita, these days. Maybe with everything competing with muds, it's the more RP-centric folk who are more inclined to stick around and enjoy antiquated text-based games, on average? The frag-minded have an abundance of other options, don't they?

This has been my experience. I don't discount yours, but perhaps it's more informed by frustration than anything else?

Peace,
Bux

I found myself smiling and thinking, that's why Bux's opinion means a great deal.

The only limititation you have in SK is that which you impose on yourself. I had no OOC hookups with my character and I did more that I thought I would be able to.

Tinder. I find your words a little annoying owing largely to the fact you got plenty of RP in the Truth faith and then deleted almost immediately, due to some unspoken IC event. Them's the breaks I guess.

lol. Bux coined a new phrase. RP-philia.

Lol. But it's true you do not need OOC hook ups to make a good character, or at least a sucessful one. I also see it is also true that every thread Sinnoch happens to reply concerns OOC hook ups, If it is something people choose to do let them I guess it is just less fun than finding things and getting them yourself.

I am a veteran of this game since about 99', eight years and running. I have had OOC hookups and I have rolled chars by my lonesome and I feel sinnoch's post is mostly frustration. My last few chars have been anonymous and my current now leads a faction. I've also had characters half a decade ago who lead factions and they were anonymous. I agree with almost all of what was said by Bux, hell I've even RPed with Bux and our interactions were almost always enjoyable and -never- OOC motivated. SK is not dying and it is what you make of it. Hell I have even run into PK hungry-no RP lewt characters who open up unexpectedly when you feed them some decent RP. Its all up to you and with the negative outlooks and opinions I've read it's no wonder your getting negative results.

<FLAME REMOVED>

SK is dying, but not because of the OOC factor, as Sinnoch believes. It is dying because MMOs, like World of Warcraft, lure away players that might otherwise have played a MUD. Then you have to factor in the veteran players, like myself and Chemhound, that stopped playing MUDs in favor of MMOs.

OOC connections/communication has always existed on SK, even during the so-called glory days, and as far back as the beta. Even if there was no OOC influences on SK, I still don't think the player base would increase much. MUDs are a dying breed.

I think a good MUD will has plenty of life left in it. I am hesitant to say always, but MUDs will be around for a wee while I am sure. Sure, there might be fewer players, but there will likely be fewer MUDs, so those that survive will still have players attracted to them, helping them maintain a (reasonably) healthy pbase.

I think it will be a long time before an MMO will provide the depth, scope and flexibility I seek in an online RPG.

It is also worth noting that for all the millions of players playing WOW, let's wait 10 years before deciding whether it has the longevity of a MUD.

Whether any individual MMO, such as World of Warcraft, has the longevity of a MUD is irrelevant. In fact, the typical MMO usually only maintains its popularity for a few years. However, the "next" MMO is always around the corner. Case in point: Warhammer Online and Age of Conan are both scheduled to release first quarter of next year. The collective popularity of MMOs is what has killed the player base of MUDs. It's the genre that has done the damage, not one specific title or game.

Players that would have chosen a MUD, like Shattered Kingdoms, five or six years ago pick MMOs today. That trend isn't going to reverse itself or decline. The player base on SK has declined as a direct result of MMOs, and I think that will continue to be the case. However, my post was not about whether MMOs were better than MUDs, but whether OOC factors were "killing" SK. It's not OOC influences, since they have always been part and parcel of the game, but rather MMOs.