Empire of the Iguanadons

After 11 long years of running, Alsherok is closing its doors to the public. There are many reasons for this, but for the most part they all point back to simply having no further desire to run an active game. Our playerbase more or less evaporated six years ago at the onset of the MMORPG age and has never recovered. The staff has all moved on to other things that actually have meaning. I have effectively been running a ghost ship for the last three years. The steady decline of the MUD community has also played a role in why this is being done now. It's no longer what it once was. There's no spark left. It's all about bickering, backbiting, infighting, and who's epeen is bigger than the other guy.

As of now, Alsherok is only available to her remaining staff. A glorified chat room if you will. No further work will be done on the areas, code, or anything else relating to it. That includes the still broken sections of the website, which I am going to unlink as they no longer serve a purpose. I will also not be renewing the domain, which expires in July of 2009. Any areas still held here that have not been finished will be provided to the staff members who still want them. If you wait too long though I may simply discard them. The two development ports have been decommissioned and will not be restarted. Everything has been moved to port 5500. If you have an email address or subdomain being provided through the alsherok.net domain, you need to get in touch with me ASAP as I am going to shut down email service to the domain as well as terminating any subdomains which are unaccounted for by the end of May. That will include deletion of any web apps or other materials UNLESS YOU SPEAK UP AND SAY SOMETHING!

For those of you who still hold fond memories of the game, I bid you farewell. At one time it was pretty cool and I even once enjoyed it. If you need to get ahold of me for something, contact me through the comment form here. Should an existing or former staff member wish to assume control and continue development, contact me privately and we'll discuss it. If anyone else has the same idea, don't waste your time. We will not hand over our work to just anyone.
.........................
"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.

So, will that also mean that we'll no longer be seeing you on IMC either?

I'll be on there from time to time, but it would be best to get used to not seeing me there regularly anymore. Cratylus and his ilk are some of the main causes of the change in the MUD community and as long as he's there I have no desire to hang around for very long. Lately IMC has turned into another one of those places where the whole "lulz" thing has become popular. People are free to pursue that, and behave that way if they want, but it's just not what I care for so I'm free to step back and go do something else.

Frankly I don't see the MUD community ever recovering from its downward spiral. I'd be amazed to see it go another 10 years but I'm seriously doubting it even has another 5 left before the trolls and code thieves have totally overrun it. It's already so fractured it's worthless now. Only small pockets of people are left who genuinely care. The rest just want them to do all the work for them and get their instant gratification out of it. Those pockets will continue to be more and more isolated as time goes on and you'll reach a point where people in those communities will come to think they're the only ones out there.

You'll end up with lone beacon games out there trying to compete against the big commercial machines that have finally driven the stake into the heart of what the hobby once was. We're just waiting for the corpse to disintegrate.

The expiration deadline on the alsherok.net domain has been extended to 2010 because of registrar changes. The company it was with had no means to disable the auto-renew, so I moved it. I'd rather spend another $9 getting it somewhere I can block auto-renewal than leave it somewhere that gives you no choice in the matter. I guess that's a lesson learned. Don't use foreign registrars.

Wow, Samson, that's a rather morbid outlook... on the other hand, I've seen more than I care to of what you're talking about lately (in growing proportions) myself too. Do a favor to those of us who do still care, particularily among those of us who count ourselves your friend, and find the motivation from time to time to at least stay in touch if not outright drop by now and then, eh?

If it's morbid to see the truth and report on it, then so be it. You know exactly the kind of thing that's been going on lately and you should know I'm not exaggerating my assessment of things. Maybe it was fate that the registrar snafu I just undid myself from happened when it did, because if by some miracle the MUD community does finally rise up and get rid of the trolls then who knows what could happen. But as long as major community leaders ( and no, I never considered myself among them ) continue to tolerate that sort of thing, it'll only get worse.

*sighs & nods*

Btw, I did get that email and will take care of that request as quickly as I can once I get back home (presumably tomorrow), but I hate to try to do anything too administrative in nature while on motel internet connections. *shrug*

Well that sucks. Alsherok was a fine game even if it had no players.

You should see what Cratylus has been saying lately in the most unlikely place: http://www.justrage.com/article.php/cratylus_dead_souls_mudlib

It hardly surprises me when he does stuff like that. I wouldn't doubt it if he's already spread the link to everyone he knows in some kind of silly attempt to goad me back into a fight with him. That's about what I'd expect of him though. He's never been able to let go of the fact that he's been banned from multiple sites because he can't admit that his own antagonistic behavior is what caused it to begin with. He also doesn't like being reminded of it because the more people who bring it up, the more people realize what a manipulative jackass he is and how willing he is to lie to people knowing most won't bother to verify his story first.

If I had to choose any one person to represent everything that's wrong with MUDs today, it would without a doubt have to be him. We'd all be far better off if he'd just stayed on I3 and stuck to antagonizing Rust endlessly all day long instead of bringing his vile attitude to the rest of us.

Oh lord, that set of comments back and forth is just entirely too long to even consider spending my time reading... On the other hand, it does look like the whole thing begins with someone else attacking him for, of all things, releasing updates to his codebase too frequently ??? : presumably that gives even Cratylus a little leeway in his responses.

Grow up already you arrogant fucktard. The world doesn't revolve around you.

Well that was mature. But not at all unexpected from you. In case you hadn't noticed, I don't like you. Please leave before I throw you out.

"Grow up already you arrogant fucktard. The world doesn't revolve around you."

Heh, for the record, that wasn't me. You should know better. That kind
of post isn't my style.

Funny part of that justrage thread is that they actually deleted some 80%
of what I wrote. I never got around to asking why tho. No point. It's a joke
site. I wouldn't take it too seriously if I were you, Samson.

-Crat

Funny how the IP matched up anyway. Banned, as you didn't take the hint the first time.

Proxy ftw. You don't play this game well boy.

Banned? Epic fail. You have to be the most paranoid
egomaniac on the face of the earth. Seek help. For the
love of God, seek help. You surely need it.

-Crat
http://lpmuds.net

Ok, so. Someone felt it necessary to send this stuff to Conner, who sent it to me. It's out of context to some extent, and seems to have a few missing bits. But lets analyze what we have anyway.

Ignorant people who enjoy being angry. Well. Ok. If that's all you took away from your trollfest thread then that's just sad. I suppose I shouldn't have expected a mature attitude from anyone there, much less from Drizzt. I'm assuming the Cratylus posts are the ones right above this. I don't claim they're him. His IP claims they're him. All of them. Including the one where he tried to impersonate Manna_MRE. But you know what? I don't care. I banned him and that's the end of it. Because obviously *HE* still holds the grudge and is *STILL* trying to get me to fight. If Drizzt thinks Cratylus can't fake a posting style for his own purpose, he's wrong. And I'm not sure what past actions I'm supposed to be trying to feel better about. If he's referring to having banned Cratylus, I have no regrets at having done it the first time. I'd do it again if he pulled the same crap he did back then. Just like I did here.

Now the second bit. Since when are 10 trolls with nothing better to do than to savage me on a forum thread considered 80% of anything? TMC had at last check something on the order of 70,000 registered members. Let's see. 10/70,000 = 0.0001% of the membership. So I don't think I'm the delusional one here since Drizzt apparently believes himself and 9 other people to be the majority when the numbers don't add up. Perhaps he hasn't noticed that the vast majority of MUD operators don't frequent TMC, don't associate with other MUD operators, and don't participate in the "community" that exists on the various forum sites. My supporters as he puts it number well past 10, so in point of fact, we are the majority if you take just the small group from that thread and combined them with those people who have expressed their support for me both publicly and privately. Of course he wouldn't know that since his narrow minded view of things only extends to TMC and if it's not there it doesn't exist. Also, I don't see imposters. I see Cratylus' IP posting 4 times using various names and styles in an obvious attempt to cover his tracks. He just didn't remember to use a proxy or his ruse might have worked.

I have no idea WTF his problem is, why he continues to harass me, and why he's now taking to harassing friends of mine to make his point. See the next comment for more.

Ok. On this I hardly know where to begin. Cratylus thinks I'm going to kill myself. I'm not sure whether to laugh, cry, call the police, or call the hotline for him instead. I'm closing down some internet projects, dufus. Not my life as a whole. Maybe for you the internet is all there is. Maybe for you you would in fact seek death rather than close Dead Souls or lpmuds.net ( Dead Souls? Uh, yah, obsessed with death much? ). Me, I've got a life. I know that all of this is just a bunch of silly online games with no real meaning. I know it's all supposed to be for fun and enjoyment. Guess what? I don't find it fun and enjoyable anymore thanks to you and folks just like you. The kind of attitude of total superiority you project is nothing short of absolute madness. Your ego must be the size of the moon or something to think you know me well enough to try and predict my demise over a pile of code bits on some server somewhere.

Cratylus, I know you won't see this but I'm sure someone will tell you anyway. It is I who am concerned for your well being. You won't let this go. You've pursued me beyond the norm in your desperate attempt to engage me. Your actions are that of a self-destructive delusional narcissist. If anyone needs to go get help before it's too late, it's you.

So I don't think I'm the delusional one here since Drizzt apparently believes himself and 9

Where do you get 9 from? Good convenient number to pull from your ass? You should know better than that. Also TMC has several hundred active posters, not, 15 which is right around what you're claiming it to be.

I really, really, really doubt all those posts came from the same IP. I do think you'd claim they do though so you can make your point valid and continue to nurse an imaginary grudge.

PS: cratylus@comcast.net is the type of email address I could make in 5 minutes, it proves nothing, until its sent from cratylus@lpmuds.net you'd be best off assuming it's solely a third party trying to get you two at each others throats for the enjoyment they obtain from you doing so.

If I'm pulling the number 9 from my ass, then you're pulling the 80% majority thing from your ass. Your claim has no basis. You have nothing with which to back it up. If they have several hundred active posters, why is it only 9 of you piled on to me for whatever sick reasons you did? Again, you're not the majority of anything except perhaps the trolls.

Those posts all cam from the same IP. I don't care if you believe me or not, the issue isn't up for debate. He came, he posted, he tried to start shit, he got banned. End of story. You people are all sucking up to him so badly you refuse to accept he'd be capable of any of this.

As far as the email, again, step back and be objective. Your viewpoint is so biased in favor of Cratylus you simply can't accept that he might have done it. The email is neither here nor there. He's delusional if he thinks I'm going to off myself because of a bunch of playground bullies.

Just for clarification, that's the email Crat has been using as long as I've known how to contact him and I don't believe that he's running his own mail server so you're going to be holding your breath a rather long time waiting for an email from lpmuds.net. As for a comcast email being so easy to fake, good luck, last I checked you had to have comcast internet service to use one of their addresses and then you couldn't get an email address (screen hname) from them that was already in use.

Strangely enough some people think you can generate Comcast addresses at the drop of a hat. I've never used them before but I know plenty of people who do, and none of them have ever been able to just generate random addresses on the comcast.net servers for any reason. They all get the one they signed up for when they activated the service.

RE: Drizzt,

Excuse me. I was off. It was 8. You got credit for one that wasn't even part of your imagined site majority for free. I saw the latest round of BS at the justrage site and buried in there was a post from someone who apparently did his homework and caught you in your delusion. 8 people does not constitute a majority among thousands. Further, it looks like a total of 12 people in that thread had a clear opinion. That sounds about right to me. As I recall it was a very small but very vocal minority of people who came at me there. In the end it doesn't matter. You all got what you wanted, I'm bailing out, and you should be planning the celebration or something. You and your group of troll buddies have been after getting me out of the "community" for months now. There's only so much abuse I'm willing to take and I've reached that point. The thickest of thick skinned people isn't going to stand around taking shit from a roving gang of asshats forever you know.

For all of you who have sent me messages of support in the last few days, I thank you for that. It does mean a lot to know there are people who still care, but there comes a time when you just have to get away and go do something else.

I appreciate truly that this is your own blog, own website, and your place to feel, do and see things as you like. I am in no way trying to challenge, argue, or commend anything on either side of this discussion. I am not as familiar with your work as others may be, but I am honestly sad to hear you feel like it is time for you to step away from some aspect of the mudding community and that I may be, in some strange way, affiliated.

I think if you looked at the posts again, and tried to read them in an objective manner, you might find that I only posted one comment directed towards you on the most recent thread at TMC that seems to have caused you such distress. You have the right, if you choose, to count me in as one of your "eight", but I do respectfully decline the invitation on my side of the computer. All I feel I asked of you was to think about where things were going and to be logical in your arguments. While it may have been annoying and presumptuous, it was not an attempt to alienate you.

I do wish you the best in your endeavors and hope you will find whatever peace you are looking for.

There's more to it than just the TMC thread, that was just the final trigger point that drilled it into my thick skull that the MUD community is no longer deserving of the title "MUD community". It's more accurate now to call it "fractured collection of niches that rarely interact except to flame each other".

If as you say your specific post wasn't intended as support for Cratylus it only goes to show that Drizzt is even more delusional since that drops things to at least 7-4 now. I suppose in that light I could have overreacted, but you may not have looked into the deeper problem at hand. That being that ever since assuming an administrative role at MudBytes when it opened, I've been the target of merciless attacks, called a Nazi, a fascist, racist, sexist, and pretty much everything else in the book when all I did was what any reasonable forum admin does. Enforce rules.

Cratylus is the polar opposite. He's a "defy authority at any cost" type and it has gotten him banned from several places. Not just from MM, TMS, MB, and my blog. It's not because he disagrees with the admins. Proof of that is everywhere. Tyche, Drizzt, Hades Kane, and many other predominant people have all had disagreements of one kind or another with site administrators. Myself included. None of them have been banned. It's not the disagreement that's at issue, despite what the trolls claim. It's the manner in which Cratylus goes about voicing that disagreement that irritates so many people to the point of action. He goes out of his way to attempt to start a revolution over actions consistent with site rules. He sews hatred against those admins with anyone who will listen. He's not the only one who buys into that either.

I've visited a number of other forums relating to gaming, web development, politics, and other issues where the type of behavior seen in mudding is simply not tolerated. There's no illusion of entitlement. Trolls get canned quickly. Personal attacks happen, but are dealt with quickly. In no other hobby have I ever seen the kind of anarchist attitude I see with mudders on general mudding sites. Many of the most vocal have this twisted view that freedom of speech grants them the right to be abusive pricks and any action taken to stop it is oppression. That's why TMC is a joke, because Icculus won't step in to do anything about it. And it's why the very same trolls worship him as a god, because in their minds he's simply free speech friendly when in reality I think it's just that he doesn't give a shit anymore and has allowed things to decay to this level through apathy. He only steps in when it could mean financial consequences in the form of lawsuits for libel and defamation. There have been numerous rules violations he's willfully ignored knowing the victims won't press the issue in court. Violations of his own posted terms of service, and in some cases violations of the law.

That's why I've had it. This whole general attitude is sickening. I see very little hope in the hobby surviving for very long if something isn't done to clean it up. Who knows, perhaps you'll be the one to do it? It won't be me, I've tried and have been branded as Satan for bothering.

I appreciate that the problems you see with the community and the ability to communicate effectively with each other is far beyond repair. I don't know your history, I don't know Cratylus' much, though we do talk and he has explained to me some of his side of the topic. I won't bother you anymore on your own personal blog, and I do, truly, wish you the very best. Thank you for helping me by sharing a bit of your opinions, and what has troubled you enough to spend your har worked hours elsewhere. I will be honest and say that there were points Cratylus made during that thread, and has made over the years on various threads, that I have agreed with. I consider him someone in the community that I can learn from, and I am sure I would say the same for you given different circumstances. I don't really have a tendency to perceive what happened (from my side only and perception is always limited) as something where I need to strongly stand on either side of a chasm; your side, or an attacking side. I appreciate your contributions, I am thankful you have shared so much in a professional and personal manner, and I hope you know I've heard your words and will think on them carefully. Good luck and I do hope you find something that sparks your creative nature again in a positive environment.

HAH! I knew it! Samson is Untitled. Way to go dickless wonder.

Is that the best you can do is come here and raise an old post from the dead with nonsensical remarks that make no sense? I fail to see how my leaving a community full of trolls makes me "Untitiled". I never had a title. It's not a kingdom, though I guess some treat it as one.

I didn't even think "untitiled" was a word. *shrug*
Google doesn't apear to think that it is one either...
Seems to me to be most likely that one of the aforementioned trolls simply found his/her way here and had nothing to actually troll with so they attempted to proclaim you dethroned or some such and couldn't even come up with the proper word or manage to type the word they did choose correctly. Rather pathetic.

Quite possible. Whichever one of the trolls it was the attempt was pathetic indeed. Even if it was supposed to be "Untitled" I don't know what title I'm supposed to have lost, or how I was supposed to have been dethroned from something I was never king/dictator/lord/president/whatever over. If it meant something else, then we'll probably never know since they didn't bother to explain themselves properly.