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-   -   ACHAEA RIPP OFF WARNING (http://www.topmudsites.com/forums/showthread.php?t=903)

08-17-2004 04:55 PM

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 08-17-2004 05:01 PM


08-17-2004 05:15 PM

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 08-17-2004 05:21 PM

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 08-17-2004 05:22 PM

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.

08-17-2004 05:24 PM

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 08-17-2004 05:32 PM

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 08-17-2004 05:50 PM

Goodbye Kimberly.

Duplicate posts deleted, member deleted.

-Synozeer

Amnon 08-17-2004 06:31 PM


Hardestadt 08-17-2004 08:17 PM


Dask 08-17-2004 08:59 PM

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 08-17-2004 09:12 PM

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 08-17-2004 09:17 PM

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 08-17-2004 09:35 PM

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 08-17-2004 09:50 PM

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 08-17-2004 10:09 PM

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 08-17-2004 10:52 PM

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>

08-18-2004 02:40 AM

<!--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)]

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

Valaria 08-18-2004 04:51 AM

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

the_logos 08-18-2004 05:40 AM

I wish she was kidding. I'm going to talk about Achaea here, as of our games, it's the one I am by far the most familiar with (being lead designer on it).

One of the upsides of our game systems that in some areas of the game, most notably actually being able to learn skills, player organizations are extremely powerful. They serve to weed out twinks in that they enforce certain basic roleplay standards and simply deny a class to players who aren't fit to play that class. For example, the Druids guild may decide that a particular novice player doesn't have an understanding of what it means to serve and protect nature in Achaea, and so may require that said player go learn and then write a paper on the topic. Being kicked out of the guild before you've progressed to a certain point means you will simply lose your Druid skills entirely. This kind of real, tangible influence in the game is fantastic for immersion because it really does give players significant control, and I believe that the more control you can give players, the more tied into your world they're going to be. City of Heroes, for instance, is the antithesis of this idea. It's a great game, but a poor world. One feels no responsibility towards it in-game, because there's nothing you can actually affect.

On the other hand, this kind of real, tangible influence sucks sometimes. Once you hand significant control to a playerbase it's hard to take it back. They will resent it immensely. So, we've ended up with a situation where some of our guilds (guilds control access to classes) are extremely restrictive, requiring quite a lot of time and effort to get admitted. It does legitimately serve to cull out the people who want a standard hack & slash mud, but there's no doubt it drives away a significant number of players as well. Although 10 years ago when I was in college I would have eaten it up, now, with less free time on my hands, there's no way I'd be writing essays to play a mud, whether that's to create a character or to please a guild leader.

Anyway, we're just very reluctant to mess with the structures players have created and empowered. They're important parts of the world and it's hard to know how radical changes to their level of power will cascade down to the rest of the world. We did reduce the loss you can suffer from being kicked out of a guild at the apprentice stage (Kimberly's situation) from 50% to 10%, but that was because her situation was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, not because of her specifically.

Really, the fear is that by making life too easy and reducing the consequences for your actions vis a vis other players we might end up robbing Achaea of its soul. You can lose your niche by trying to appeal to too broad an audience outside that niche.
--matt
P.S. I only mention this because it's a potentially very interesting discussion that I'd like to participate in. I (and a good portion of the Achaea team) will be in Vegas the next few days on a team vacation. So, can't reply until I'm back on Sunday or Monday!


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