[Terloch]

Normally I just let reviews go, but I felt the need to post this up here and make comments towards it, anyone else who wants to say anything, by all means, please do.  So "Mudder" at im_bored2death@hotmail.com, this is for you...

Originally Posted by When I logged onto Feudal Realms I had a really ahrd time deciding what class to be.. too many is too many, having variety is fine, but that much variety? Makes for hard playing.. Barely got past character creation, had no idea what classes were best with what races, and ended up with a really horrible class/race combo...

Now, I guess it's just me, but I don't think that 9 classes is too much variety, especially when they are set up as they are on Feudal, with very little if any overlap, and all explained in character creation as to what they are and do.

Is our character creation long, yes.  Does it explain each selection of race and class, yes.  Does it warn people if they are choosing one of the difficult classes or races, YES.  Are there a couple of races which are difficult even for established players, most definitely, which is why it tells you that right off the bat in character creation.

Originally Posted by It was quite confusing for me, but it wasnt so bad. They're cities are very unbalanced, and little help was given to me on the forums from experienced players, rather i would call their version of help flaming...

My guess if you more than likely picked a saurial as your race, and ended up in Kisah, the elven city, which is confusing, but it also prompts you several times when you take this option that it is difficult and not advised for new players.

I have scoured the forums in search of any posts from anyone looking for newbie assistance, and I see nothing on there except for a new login from someone and one post which consists of the following...

Originally Posted by How do you join Fuedal realms? After that, How do you PLAY fuedal realms...like how do you log in and begin playing.

Which was responded to by one of my staff with the following..

Originally Posted by First of all, I would recommend visiting http://feudal.betterbox.net/downloads/ and downloading gmud, a free mud client. Just click on the link that says gmd3219b.zip. Once you have that, click on the little button in the upper left corner that looks like a light socket and says 'connect'. You'll need to 'add' Feudal Realms to the list. For the host name, put: feudal.betterbox.net and for the port put: 4242. Then click connect and it will connect you to the game. You'll need to choose a name and make a character. I would recommend starting in Stonegate as it's the most populated city at the moment. When you finish with the creation process, you'll arrive in the common room which is your recall point. From there, you can go two west and north to enter the newbie school. If you have any questions, feel free to use the question or query channels or send a tell to one of the guides. 'Help' will show a list of basic commands, and you can ask for help on anything in particular.

Now, last time I checked, that's relatively helpful, fairly straight-forward, and from a veteran player.  And I don't even see how Dulan or anyone else who loves to gnaw on those who flame people could find an issue there...



My great apologies to anyone who wants Midgaard as their starting city and New Thalos as a secondary.  My great apologies to those who want warrior, mage, cleric, and thief as the four classes who essentially share all skills and spells.

Personally, I think there should be a way to directly refute a review, and/or have a plyer review system to take shots right back at people who can't seem to read when they create a character and then have problems, even when they are warned.

I'd bet the name chosen by this player didn't meet the naming policies in place and listed in creation either, because you'd actually have to read them to know what they were.

- Terloch

[Treestump]

I have to agree with you. Necromium has gotten some trollish reviews as well.

Originally Posted by Necromium by Gollumbane This mud sucks. The people are jerks. It still crashes CONSTANTLY. There are no more than 20 people actually on at a given time. There are only 4 classes to choose from! That is pathetic. Don't waste your time.

I wonder sometimes if people are posting their reviews under the wrong MUDs name or something. Maybe there is another MUD out there named Necromium.

But our game has restarted (whether crash or otherwise) 3 times in the last 6 days. We have from 30-80 people online depending on the time of day and we offer 16 total classes. We do only offer 4 classes to choose when starting, but we have an extensive multi-classing system.

Anyways, I dont mind any negative reviews that we rightfully earn, but this trollish nonsense is annoying.

[OnyxFlame]

DM's been getting a lot of crap reviews from newbies lately too. I have to wonder why everyone seems to think some new mud they start playing should be exactly like their old mud, because if they're sick enough of their old mud to try a new one, why would they want another one just like it anyway?

[the_logos]

That kind of juvenile review is why none of our games have reviews turned on.

--matt

[Delerak]

Originally Posted by (OnyxFlame @ Sep. 30 2003,10:25) DM's been getting a lot of crap reviews from newbies lately too. I have to wonder why everyone seems to think some new mud they start playing should be exactly like their old mud, because if they're sick enough of their old mud to try a new one, why would they want another one just like it anyway?

The staff of their old mud.

[WarHound]

Originally Posted by (the_logos @ Sep. 30 2003,15:17) That kind of juvenile review is why none of our games have reviews turned on. --matt

I've noticed that more often than not, reviews have substance to them, rather than some moron venting steam because he got banned. Even when someone puts up a childish, flaming review most people discard idiots like that anyway.

I think it's kind of stupid to take away everyone's chance to put forth a valid opinion about your mud, even if you don't agree with it.

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (WarHound @ Sep. 30 2003,17:26) I've noticed that more often than not, reviews have substance to them, rather than some moron venting steam because he got banned. Even when someone puts up a childish, flaming review most people discard idiots like that anyway.

If the reviews were decent say, 90% of the time, I'd turn them on. Most have very little substance, are poorly written, etc. I can't take them seriously.

--matt

[nass]

I'm not so sure most are really "reviews" anyway. Usually they fall into one of 3 categories: <ul>[*]Propaganda from existing players[*]Vents from disheartened players[*]Slams from rival-mud players[/list]. Virtually none of them are devoid of some sort of mud politics, be they 'internal or 'external'.

Heck, I recently asked the administrator to delete a so-called review about a rival mud to mine, which slammed that rival mud and told them to come to our one. It isn't a problem unique to here by any means though, and at least the admin here is flexible about deleting obvious absurdities, which is good. Sometimes you do get a good, thorough, impartial review, but it's a rare thing .

Personally I think TMC do do it *slightly* better, linking responses to reviews. At the end of the day I wonder how much it really matters - there's an old saying that "all publicity is good publicity" and there is some truth in it. And taking a few things on the chin periodically doesn't feel so bad.

Wow!

People actually pay attention to the reviews?! You people must have allot of free time and allot of cropped up frustrations by now... The reviews are generally more bitter and hate-filled then I am, and that says quite a bit!

[Mia]

Just a quick note of support for Terloch and the staff of Feudal Realms.

I wouldn't worry too much about that review. In my experience on Feudal Realms, I found quite the opposite. The staff is quite knowledgeable and willing to help if they are around, especially to newbies who ask questions and really show the desire to learn and succeed there.

Hope things are still going well there, without this one time bunny hugging hippie druid playing...keep up the good work.

[markizs]

a bit offtopic about reviews.
when you list reviews for parituclar mud why u dont get review topics or author names, instead of that you get repeating name of mud. isnt that kind of silly? :)

btw maybe you have any idea how to encourage players to write reviews? :)

[Treestump]

We get our players to write reviews by asking them to. I know, I know, we do some pretty unorthodox things at times.

[nass]

Ah well, I changed my mind and decided to terminate reviews, can't be bothered with the one-dimensional "issue" posts disguised as reviews.

You know, it'd be how trivial it would be for the site admin to force some sort of "all roundedness" regarding reviews if he actually wanted to?

Rather than the reviews just being one formfield, split it up into 10 or so, each of which covers a specific area of gameplay, ie size/code/world/rp/pk/atmosphere or whatever. Even get some concencus from people here what the 10 important areas should be (and also allow one for "any other issues", so that people whgo want to get things off their chest still can). Then, in order to have a review accepted, add simple javascript validation to the form, so that each of the 10 areas has to have minimum content (ie 100 characters or something?) - and when published, publish the review with the area headings.

So reviews would be broad reviews giving an indication of all areas, rather than just issue posts focussing on one specific thing, which are a waste of time and just make it so that the admin of the top topmudsites muds, like mine and the other posters in this thread, don't want to participate, which can't be what the site admin here wants .

[Fifi]

I'm pleased to read newbie reviews. If I come to your (this is an editorial your, I'm not directing this at any specific mud)mud I am, after all, coming as a newbie. If newbies are treated poorly, if your game is hard to transition into I'm glad to know that ahead of time.

I recently read a negative review of a popular rp mud. The review was well written and informed me that the rp enviroment boasted was not as pervasive as advertised. I'm not surprised that the mud was displeased with the review, but I found it useful.

[Treestump]

Originally Posted by (nass @ Oct. 03 2003,10:27) Rather than the reviews just being one formfield, split it up into 10 or so, each of which covers a specific area of gameplay, ie size/code/world/rp/pk/atmosphere or whatever.

That is an excellent idea. You get still get trollish reviews with bogus information (like the one I mentioned before) but atleast the valid reviews would have more content to them.

[Jaenelle]

It is nice also to know that existing players like a mud enough to take the time to write out a review... even if it is just propaganda. :) If existing players write reviews, admin can look them over and see what features players liek the most. Also, it should be a nice ego trip... people who run muds so rarely get anything but bitter remarks on things people don't like... rather than compliments on things they do like. People whine about changes and new features that make the mud a better place... or fix a current problem... but players don't always like them because they liked the strange bug that let you instantkill a mob and get exp. *grin* Always nice to have a place where people can make compliments and say good things without getting branded a suck up.


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Jaenelle.
www.aardmud.org (long time, free mud, with over 300 players online at any time)