A Review of castle Marrach by a long time (and fromer) player
 

Forgive me, I didn't know anywhere else to put this...So if it's in the wrong place, please direct me where to go...Thank you.


After playing Castle Marrach for almost ten years, I have come to bare witness of the fact that the Game itself is in serious decline.

Its hardly surprising. Back when I started, Staff was more than willing to bend over backwards (but with limits) to help players deal with issues and complaints in Game. Now, they're more than willing to banish players who complain about the overall quality of the Game or upset those players Staff 'favors'.
One such person, who no longer speaks to me, even gave me 'special information' reguarding the Prince over Yahoo Chat as a means of disusadsion. I've handed this information over to Staff, but they've done nothing at all to punish her--either as a player or In Character.
Considering that Staff IS made up of active players that latter isn't surprising, such corruption has lead to frustration amongst other players, who have left this Game in disgust--many of whom were very dynamic and motivational (Peter Corrless' Ser Gareth comes strongly to mind in this case) due to often delaies in getting Coders to do nessicarry work as they were diverted away by Staff to areas where 'their friends' were that really didn't warrent that much attention.
We had people who wanted to establish a Brewery, a Glass Blowing craft, a Circus--people who wanted to explore the Underreaches of the Castle, people who wanted to go outside the Castle (which after nine years of waiting finally happened), and those who tried to explore the mysteries of the Castle itself.
They were all delayed, stymied, and blocked. And even worse was how those who wanted to play their characters 'different' from all the rest were treated. Putting it bluntly, its either play along with the rest or find yourself on outs--so much for colorful characters.

But tipping factor for me was how a player with Attention Deficit Disorder, whom I was helping to enjoy the Game, was quite soundly run out of her position in Carpentry by the efforts of favored players (one of whom I used to chat with over Yahoo Chat now no longer speaks to me because I complained bitterly about it) in whose lies to Staff removed me from my position as Carpentry lead--and eventually from Carpentry itself--and now the Game.
When I complained, I was told by both Staff and various Favored Players that the whole matter was 'my fault', that I was 'delusional' and should seek out new opertunities for my character to 'expand and grow' Exspeand and grow? All I was able to find were doors slammed in my face before gaining membership in a do nothing group of clerks, which made all the favored players very happy indeed to see.
This isn't such an unusual occurance, it's happened to other players as well in the past. One player this has happened to is starting her own version of Marrach, and I hope it succees.
Its also easy to see why Castle Marrach's player population has dwindled from nearly One-Hundred to now an average of Fourteen (that's if you don't count the Alts being run on Flash), why should anyone have to deal with such frustration or aggravation?

But of course, Staff claims that they don't have enought coders or players to fill and exspand the Game, leaving many areas neglected for very long periods of time since their focus is more upon providing 'treats' and tired out 'doomsday plots' for the players to deal with than actively trying to make the game better. With current Staff's ineptitude towards handling problems, its easy to see why they can't--who would work for such an inept and totalitarian bunch?
One former coder (Namida) left when the aggravation became so overwhelming she removed all of her coding work she made for the Game before leaving without notice.
(I tried brining her back, to help with the other player's version of Marrach, but she refused to have anything to do with RPG's because of her exsperiences at Marrach--now that's aggravation!)


In short, Castle Marrach is a place that should be avoided. There are other, much more better, and freer games out there where with the same general theme and layout that you can enjoy without all of the frustration and aggravation found at Marrach.
Pass on this place, and let it die.


Darren Brimhall

Re: A Review of castle Marrach by a long time (and fromer) player
 

1 pt - miscelleneous bogus capitalization and quoting
3 pts - bad formatting, typos, and grammar
1 pt - claimed lead position in anything
1 pt - removed from position of power by the admin
1 pt - called delusional by admin

Total - 7

Reasonable probability of troll, but definitely not the worst I've seen.

Re: A Review of castle Marrach by a long time (and fromer) player
 

So you'd give it, what, four stars?

Re: A Review of castle Marrach by a long time (and fromer) player
 

I think 3 stars. It looks to me like he's really serious about it and means well, but just doesn't realize that it trips a lot of 'troll' warnings. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by inexperience?

Re: A Review of castle Marrach by a long time (and fromer) player
 

Knowing the situation, the player certainly has real bitter feelings, and is not making this post just to troll.

Whether those feelings are justified or not I will leave to someone else to judge.

It's also worth mentioning that he did play CM for many years, so presumably it wasn't all bad all the time, and just ended with a bitter taste in his mouth.

It is somewhat sad that his feelings are strong enough that he'd want to warn people away, and try to reduce the playerbase of a very roleplay-heavy game that has (in my opinion) a high quality of roleplaying from the players.

To everyone, I'd see a better solution: Find good games, and recommend those, rather than finding games you had a problem with, and demoting those. That way you still direct new players to the worthy games, without running the risk of being seen as a troll.

Re: A Review of castle Marrach by a long time (and fromer) player
 

I can also post my logs.

Lots of OOC comments that would shatter a lot of illusions about players and how they're covered by the current Administration, and how it caters to them in a very exclusive way at the expence of the rest of the Castle.

Castle Marrach used to be a fun game, a very engaging game. But, if you ever find yourself in the position I was in, you'll find that fun seriously taxed to the point of asking yourself "Why am I here?", because all those other players whom you were once close to simply don't want to help you or simply shuffle you off into a position where you'll be stuck for next to forever--simply because they don't want their characters suffering the same fate as you.

I don't want that to happen to any other would-be players, they don'y deserve that kind of rude surprise.

Its not worth it.

I'm simply disgusted by it.

And besides, Ironclaw has much better opertunities not only for advancement but to also earn your way through the game. Try it instead.
Puttin' on the fur suit isn't all that bad.

Darren Brimhall