I am brand new to the MUD world and my first try ever was with Iron Realm's Achaea. First of all, you can not advance your charachter or gain levels without purchasing credits. They imply that it is free but in order to advance you will likely have to shellout at a minnimum $200.

Secondly, after I spent my money, I was effectivley blocked by the administration from accessing my charachter.

Thirdly, even though you purchase credits, other people in the game have the power to take them away from you if they do not like you. This results in you spending a lot of your time kissing peoples butts and doing things like writing essays about respect, not exploring.

Fourthly, your advancement is largely dependant on what a small group of elder players think. They are not welcomming towards new people and are very power hungry and eltetist.

Fifthly, once you dont fit in with one guild, or if you make the wrong guild choice, you will not be able to join another guild. This kind of behavior (guild switching) is totally prevented by the other players.

And lastly, after spending 200$ + here and haveing 50% + of that "taken away" by elder players who wanted me to write essays about respect, the admin refused to reinstate my charachter or refund my lessons. To qoute Mr. Mihlay, the CEO .. "You are not getting your money back, I will ban and delete you, you can go...****...yoursefl."

A warning to all those out there who are considering spending money with Iron Realms Entertainment...DO NOT DO IT. They are highly unethical people who will scam you. You buy credits, you switch guilds and loose 50%...forcing you to buy more. BEWARE OF UNETHICAL COMPANIES PREYING ON PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT EXPERIENCED MUDDERS!!!

[Enola_Phoenix]

Kimberly, I sympathise with you and now how stupid people can be, but don't be like them, the only thing you're going to do by spamming the forums is have all your post deleted, don't do that, if you feel people should know this post one forum and keep it alive. I'm sorry if you were screwed over by Achea, live and learn, and seek legal action , possibly call anyone of the Woccha internet help groups and they will do their very best to help you in anyway.

Thanks for the tip, I will contact them. Right now I just want to spread the wrod. When a company is run by bad people and encourages illegal and unethical behavior...word will get around. If I have to spam this baord every day so that every enw mudder goes in with a heads up I will. I will also contact, the BBB and various other consumer rights organizations. My goal is to do everything I can to put the word out there about my experience and hopefully loose Iron Realms a lot of buisness. Maybe they will learn that no matter what your field...customer service should always be a top priority.

[the_logos]

Chuckle. Of course, what you leave out is that you spent your time in Achaea demanding that the world conform to your expectations rather than playing the game as it is, threatening me repeatedly over the space of a dozen emails, complaining of OOC harrassment anytime another player did anything you didn't like, and so on.

And, of course, you were refunded your money, just to get you to go away.

Anyway, your psychotic behavior is underlined by your need to make so many different forum posts. Being "Kimberly'd" is now our code word for dealing with an insanely irrational player.

I'm not going to waste any more time replying to you.
--matt

[Angie]

By spamming the forum you are certainly not making yourself many friends around here - and you are putting yourself and your complaint into a bad light. Excessive spam is a banishable offence on all decent muds, so if it was this kind of attitude that got you banned, no wonder.

I expected no less of a reply from these people. Dont be concerned about their response, they just want people to pay and go to the site so they wills say whatever they need to. Truth of the matter is I am a hardworking educated and produtive member of society with many firends and a large family. As a consumer, I just want others who may be in shoes similar to mine: new to MUDS, have some cahs to spare and considering investing etc... to be aware that there is the potential here for you to be robbed.

[Hephos]

Sounds like you were refunded. Whats the fuss about... Most games don't refund you after buying their box and finding out you didnt like the game.

[imported_Synozeer]

Goodbye Kimberly.

Duplicate posts deleted, member deleted.

-Synozeer

[Amnon]

Don't go so Kimberly on her... she was just trying to get a point across (Had to find a reason to use that expression)

[Hardestadt]

I'm going to rebutt these points, as I expect sooner or later if someone doesn't some troll will dredge them up and quote them.

Preamble: I'm not an Achaean anymore, but I play Imperian quite a bit.

Originally Posted by First of all, you can not advance your charachter or gain levels without purchasing credits. They imply that it is free but in order to advance you will likely have to shellout at a minnimum $200.

This is a direct lie. You can gain levels quite merrily without buying a single credit and subsisting off the lessons you gain as you level. This is a rather elementary facet of the game. Achaea is free, and its pay-for-perks if you so desire.

Originally Posted by Secondly, after I spent my money, I was effectivley blocked by the administration from accessing my charachter.

I'm not familiar with the case in question, but I suspect this was due to you breaking the rules of the game. I'm sure the person in question knows precisely what happened. As their money was refunded, I don't believe they have grounds for complaint.

Originally Posted by Thirdly, even though you purchase credits, other people in the game have the power to take them away from you if they do not like you. This results in you spending a lot of your time kissing peoples butts and doing things like writing essays about respect, not exploring.

Noone other than Sarapis and Clementius have the power to take credits away from you. If you invest those credits in lessons, learn skills and then be an arse and get kicked out of the guild you are subject to lesson loss when you forget the guildskills in question.

Given that you were made to write an essay about respect, I'd assume you were extremely insulting to a guildhead or similar figure. And then you went and got kicked out? Go figure.

Originally Posted by Fourthly, your advancement is largely dependant on what a small group of elder players think. They are not welcomming towards new people and are very power hungry and eltetist.

Such is politics. If you want to be in an organisation, you have to follow their rules. You aren't required to join a guild in Achaea.

Originally Posted by Fifthly, once you dont fit in with one guild, or if you make the wrong guild choice, you will not be able to join another guild. This kind of behavior (guild switching) is totally prevented by the other players.

Another direct lie. Players can switch guilds whenever they choose. If they have passed novicehood they are subject to some lessons loss when they forget their skills, but everyone is 100% able to quit their current guild and join another.

Being a murdering Infernal and switching straight to being a saintly priest might be a bit out of role. Its hard to do, but its still very possible. Not everything in life is a walk in the park.

Originally Posted by And lastly, after spending 200$ + here and haveing 50% + of that "taken away" by elder players who wanted me to write essays about respect, the admin refused to reinstate my charachter or refund my lessons.

You are responsible for the consequences of your actions.

Originally Posted by To qoute Mr. Mihlay, the CEO .. "You are not getting your money back, I will ban and delete you, you can go...****...yoursefl."

I speak to Matt quite a bit, and that doesn't sound like him. He doesn't typo and is rather grammatically correct.

Originally Posted by A warning to all those out there who are considering spending money with Iron Realms Entertainment...DO NOT DO IT. They are highly unethical people who will scam you. You buy credits, you switch guilds and loose 50%...forcing you to buy more. BEWARE OF UNETHICAL COMPANIES PREYING ON PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT EXPERIENCED MUDDERS!!!

As a counterpoint, I've been an IRE customer for 5 years without a single unresolved problem in all that time. I'd consider that to be a good record for any game, especially one in a niche market.

Leigh
CTO
Persistent Realms LLC

[Dask]

I have been a player of IRE muds for 5 years (or more, it gets blurry when your oldest (existing) char is pushing 150 and you know there's another 20 years hidden hidden in other chars before him.

I didn't spend money for quite afew years and was quite happy. I have since spent money on not only Achaea, but also on Aetolia. I have been watching this Kimberly person from afar, seeing her first rant on the Achaea Forums, trying to gain sympathy, seen another long time player and well respected IG leader almost go crazy dealing with this person. Kimberly's first post basically went something to the effect of "I'm an Accountant, I'm better then you, bend over backwards and do as I commandeth, for I'm a graduate from college who paid you money" - if I were Matt, I wouldn't of even refunded her, considering that under the EULA they don't have to. She broke the rules. She HARASSED the Admin and other players. She acted like a spoiled brat and got a proverbial spanking for it, i.e., loss of character.

Kimberly'd....I like that one.

-Chris, one of those guys who loves IRE

[Kalt]

I have to echo the sentiments of Hardestadt and Dask. After more than a year of playing all three IRE games, I've never encountered anything at all like what Kimberly describes.

Her comments are so off base that I felt compelled to post just in case some new mudder passed by one of those excellent games based on the misguided rantings of one person.

[Kenjar]

I find it difficult to think this is anything more than a joke post, or simply someone who hates Achaea and made a bunch of things up to slander it. So, I won't bother doing any Rebutting, no matter how gratifying it would be, for the same reason that you shouldn't attack the Mist Dragon in Final Fantasy II until he solidifies. But this guy- he'll never solidify.

[Jaewyn]

I think Kalt has hit the nail on the head, this looks like "the misguided rantings of one person". You'll notice IRE staff are not concerned by the post, this is no doubt because they are confident the type of player that can't see this as a rant is the type of player they don't want. So in fact, the post is probably doing them a favour by "pre qualifying" their new players in a fashion. If things are as bad as they are described in the post, IRE would have gone out of business a long time ago due to lack of players.

Just for the record, I have never played an IRE mud or have anything to do with their admin.

[Brody]

Heh. Earlier today, this "misguided ranting" was being spammed on every single forum available on TMS - repeatedly, even after being removed, until Synozeer dealt with the spammer.

So, it's understandable to see some defensive posting going on, I think.

[Jazuela]

I'm just waiting for Molly O'Hara to chime in and claim that this Kimberly is actually an alt of IRE admin, intentionally spamming and getting the alt booted just to get a bunch of people to defend IRE and tell everyone how great the game is.

C'mon Molly - don't disappoint us - you KNOW you wanna!


Caveat: Whatever Achaea is doing, charging, not charging, charging double, stealing peoples' credit cards, sending their cousin Guido to their house making them an offer they can't refuse..whatever.. it's working. So good for them and STFU about it for everyone else.

[Yui Unifex]

Originally Posted by (Hardestadt @ Aug. 17 2004,20:17) Given that you were made to write an essay about respect, I'd assume you were extremely insulting to a guildhead or similar figure.

What I find the most amusing is 'guildheads or similar figures' making people write essays about respect. Do they also have to type their names on a board 200 times without triggers, or stand still outside the recall point holding buckets of water?

<span style='color:black'>I bet this is just a publicity stunt like that Aardwolf chat room, and this so-called 'Kimberly' is really an alt of an Achaea admin!</span>

<!--QuoteBegin--Hardestadt]
Given that you were made to write an essay about respect+I'd assume you were extremely insulting to a guildhead or similar figure.
[/quote-->[quote= (Hardestadt]
Given that you were made to write an essay about respect @ I'd assume you were extremely insulting to a guildhead or similar figure.
[/quote)]

Originally Posted by Yui Unifex   What I find the most amusing is 'guildheads or similar figures' making people write essays about respect.  Do they also have to type their names on a board 200 times without triggers, or stand still outside the recall point holding buckets of water?

I thought she made that up.  That's bizarre.  Writing essays?!!  Is this IC or OOC stuff?

[Valaria]

[quote= (Tyche @ Aug. 18 2004,02:40)]<!--QuoteBegin--Hardestadt]
Given that you were made to write an essay about respect+I'd assume you were extremely insulting to a guildhead or similar figure.
[/quote-->

Originally Posted by (Hardestadt Given that you were made to write an essay about respect @ I'd assume you were extremely insulting to a guildhead or similar figure. [/quote)] Originally Posted by Yui Unifex What I find the most amusing is 'guildheads or similar figures' making people write essays about respect. Do they also have to type their names on a board 200 times without triggers, or stand still outside the recall point holding buckets of water? I thought she made that up. That's bizarre. Writing essays?!! Is this IC or OOC stuff?

indeed. if i recall correctly, in few guild in achaea require essay. *shudder*