questions, questions

[Ruan]

Here are a few questions for you guys:

Where did you first hear of LoS?
What made you start playing it?
What made you stay?
What do you enjoy/dislike most about LoS?
If you play less lately, then what is the reason?

[Scorpion]

Where did i hear of LoS? Well, Ghandi showed me the game once, and we (with ghandi's help, but we both didn't knew that much) created a character, without knowing what strenght intelligent does: Scorpion.

Back then i had a large land full of unexplored area's, creatures and spell to find. So i started to play, get some lvls up, trying to keep up with Ghandi a bit.

What made me enjoy. At first it was all the new area's I (we) found. But that has to stop one time, when it was too hard to find new area's. So now i just enjoy training others characters and Roleplay a bit, well i'll try to.

If i play less lately... Yes. Why? That i don't have much spare time isn't the real point. First of all i don't find new things, don't find new clues to new things, and searching alone isn't that fun after all. Second, i lost my proficient title, and i can't get it back, allthough i think i tried at some points. But that's something out of reach, i don't decide wether i get a RP award or not. Third, also that some players are using triggers to kill other people, i'm talking about an Assassins that's hunting a target. I know triggers shouldn't be used.. but i especially don't like those offensive triggers, cause they effect other people.

But this all doesn't mean i don't like the game anymore.. just some points. training other chars is also fun.

[Ghandi]

I introduced the game to Scorpion as Valiant did with me. At first his stories about the game didn't interest me much. He told me to check the site. After a while I did that, read the whole story, but still I wasn"t convinced that I should play the game. Valiant kept on pushing me to give it a try at least. I agreed, on the condition that Valiant should help me a bit since I never played such a rpg and really didn't knew anything about stats and classes and such.

He told me to make a paladin and when I asked why, he just said: "it's fun to rp with".

What made me stay?

I got help from Valiant and Orodrim at my lower levels. Being a newbie, I really had no idea how to play it and in that position, the lower levels are as tough as killing a rhino with a spoon. But I grew under their supervision and they showed me the value of the game and because of them I met Erynn, who was a great guidess as well. I told some friends to give the game a try as well and one is still playing: Scorpion. We both got quite addicted due to the large amount of treasures that are hidden in the lands. I got a habit to search all in games and it's the same in this game. Erynn told me the value of roleplaying and that my searching abilities offered a lot of rp oppertunities. So, rp and searching made a great combo and the rewards were great. Especially the searching rewards were a satisfaction each time something new was found. So as long as there a things to be found that are in reach for my paladin, I will keep on playing. RP awards are a nice side-effect, but it's not the main reason I play for.

Like and dislike about the game?

As I already mentioned, rp and the loads of hidden stuff across the lands are two things I really like about the game. Also interaction with players and occasionally with the staff is something I appreciate.

What I dislike are spoilers and 'm happy to see that those are rare in LoS. Another thing I 'dislike' are my own English capabilities. Because I'm limited in that, some hints are not obvious for me and therefore I will never find some hints. But I know and understand that those things can't be changed, since changing would probably make finding treasures too easy. So I'm waiting for the game to be expanded. Until then I will try to find something....anything.

Why I play less lately?

Simple! My internship cost me a lot of time and besides that I also have another job, since my internship doesn't pay me that much. I also have a girlfriend, so in the weekend I don't have much 'free' time either .

But I really like the game and all I can say is: Keep it up, we appreciate the work you guys already did!

[erynn]

I first heard about LOS from Zen (now Kylan) who kept talking about the adventures he and his friends had had, but I never played computer games so didn't really think I would start.

I only logged in to chat to Zen when ICQ died, but was fascinated by the atmosphere: the strangely named and titled dwarves and necromancers coming and going, the rain and the earthquakes. It was immediately a world which appealed.

I wanted to be a bard from the beginning but Zen recommended I start with something easier. So I began with Perival, my slightly nutty paladin who mostly wielded a shovel. It felt like a world right away but it was all unknown. I remember thinking something might pounce on me and attack me if I stepped out of the chapel. Exciting
I soon switched to Corien, who I still miss. I grouped mostly with a cleric, Evergreen (now Duel) and another person. Eve is nuts and great company and we had some really cool adventures. It was just simply fun, escapism. Eve is insane but there's no-one with whom I'd rather walk into a den of werewolves! I soloed plenty but that was just to keep up with him and search for stuff, it wasn't fun like the grouped adventures where you didn't know what would happen next and there were other people to share it with.

After the wipe, I started Erynn and really discovered roleplay. The actual playing became extremely repetitive and boring, although competition and the concept of proving myself made me work hard at it. Zen kindly created Kylan to group with me, but mostly that didn't work. I enjoyed what Eve called "showing off" - doing tough quests solo to prove I could, but realised there's not much skill involved really. Preparing and then hitting keys at appropriate times... it's not particularly creative or varied. I love the player interactions, hence Erynn's book. After a stressful day it's sometimes nice to just pick up an alternative character and have a completely irrelevant conversation or argument with someone. It's fun to group with newbies and run them round the land and show them some fun too, occasionally.

I play less partly due to severe lag on my phoneline but also because it stopped being fun for me. Serious characters aren't so much fun to play because getting experience becomes tediously repetitive; if you make a mistake (or lag) so much "work" is lost; and worse than that, there is not much to gain past a certain point. No new skills or things to aim for other than killing yet more monsters *yawn* and although I like to collect spells it's not really engaging. I play for fun, I love being part of the world that is LOS and the RP scope, and still often play small chars just for that, but the actual mechanics of "playing" (kill 300 million things), I find boring.

[jagg]

I wanted to give MUD playing a go having enjoyed RPGs for many years, and a Google search led me to the Mud Connector and thence to LOS.

I decided on this MUD rather than any other because of its location. I didn't want to play one based outside the UK because of potential lag problems and time zone complictions - the idea being that you're more likely to find people to adventure with if you're not playing at an odd time for the majority of players.

Why did I stay? I think it's the discovery element. You play for a bit and start to make some sense of things, and it leads you on to work more out.

I enjoy most having quests or tasks to do, like the tasks for levelling. It gives a goal that you prepare for, and when you achieve your goal, you have a feeling of having succeeded. Yes, yes, I know it's just a game

There are a few things I dislike, I guess. I'll just get them all off my chest, but they aren't a huge deal - I'm still playing and enjoying the game, after all!
At lower levels you can wander into deadly situations without warning. I'd prefer it if you could have a steadily increasing threat that will scare you off if you're not ready for it yet, rather than just making one false step and rapidly thereafter finding yourself in limbo, with all the loss that entails. Level locking areas would work, but it's a blunt tool, it doesn't really contribute to the atmosphere.
It's hard to find new things. Let me take the example of spells: Unless you know where to get them, and are prepared to fight the hard fights often many times, you aren't likely to stumble across them. You know what I mean? There's no reason to go back and fight the hard things over and over unless you know what you're going to get. I don't know, maybe I'm overlooking the clues on where to find them?
The last thing is that the game is often a bit on the quiet side. There aren't many opportunities for teaming up to tackle tougher things. Also, with having a core membership of a few "veteran" players who know a lot about the game already, they aren't likely to be interested in exploring areas that are new to me, but they've been through dozens of times already. It would be better if there were more players, providing a range of levels of knowledge, because then you could find people comparable to yourself. I have no idea how you can achieve this though!

I am playing less lately, I guess for the reasons I've mentioned. I've got to level 18, I don't have much idea where to look for new stuff to do, and the opportunities for teaming up to do the stuff that I do know about are rare.

I think it might sound like I really dislike the game, but that's not the case. I think you've got an interesting and diverse world to explore, with a level of depth that I don't know if anyone has fully plumbed (Erynn?). I like the way that the game is alive and continually improved, like tinkering with the weather over the winter months and organising tourneys and the like - it's not just a static game. Keep up the good work!

[Kampfer]

Oh well, long story.. lets start.

First maybe at the same time as LOS creation (or maybe few months later) I've heard about MUD game.. dungeons in text mode, i said WOW (cuz I am a dungeons and dragons player (a freak one, i live for dungeons)) so I search through Yahoo for some MUD and I just felt in zuggsoft.com and I downloaded the program ZMud (which I finally stopped hacking it and bought it last year ). So after downloading it, I just get the first MUD in the list and was too complex and I was more interested in 3D games like diablo (still remember, wow that was revolutionnary that game... but its an other long story), then I just uninstall ZMud and installed Diablo. One year later (maybe two) I checked a old backup cd with ZMud on it and i was bored of diablo.. so I give a try and it goes like that... I just entered in ZMud mudlist, and I was looking for a name which givin me the feeling "I want to be there, I want to live on that MUD, I must be in that family!". Then I listed 3-4 names with that feeling and the winner was... LOS!

I just logged on and I was like "how the hell its working?!?!?" Like every newbie, a good Help command learn me alot. I wandered in Amethist for the first week, trying to understand how worked the map maker of ZMud, to make my little mind remember things. In this week I met few people who gaves me some cheap weapons and armors (better than nothing ). After few weeks I was overconfidant, so I just met the famous "Pothole", asking advice from broadcast and each time that kind of situation happens, Mustang(Rock) and Chelsea(Ryzek) were the saviors (I think its them now).

After few months of playing I was going to the White Castle when Newbie(banned player now) just strike me for nothing, and get all my stuff (old engine, the point was simple... if you die, your stock is now to the killer, so, if u had good stuff you are now more nude as a worm can be) so I just said "goodbye", closed ZMud.. uninstall.. and reinstall Diablo. 1-2 years later I restart a Paladin (turn to DK) known as Elnor the Suicidal

For the "what made you play" was like previous, and as a Dark Knight (Elnor), I've started a war vs Valiant... which was transform to "vs Valiant, Ghandi and Scorpion" , meanwhile, i met Antitheus, another great Dark Knight, with who I grow strong and team alot. The RP with all them was so great, around same levels, helping each other (teammate), chasing others plus the storyline, short but structured, well alot of fun.


"What made you stay", well I quit LOS often, not proud of it cuz everytime I was pretty angry on engine, each time I quit DMs fix something else, and I know it from Ghandi, Scorpion, Blaze (god bless him ) and some other, so I coming back. I stay too because I have a dream I want to realize in, but with all my suicides, for many reason like, bad mood (I'm a depress person), job stress (could be entered in bad mood), bad stats (cuz i'm alone often, need to be more than efficient, so I finally got those perfect stats, but losing 4 levels in a row in 2 days make me sick and I just asked to be removed from possible name, so I had to make something new , and else. All those suicides just make me a low level forever, each time losing my RP Exp, my money, my items and more, then I never saw my dream come true.


"like and dislike" oh well too many things, like all others, don't think I hate LOS, I like to be there, I feel like home (cuz even at home I hate when bad stuff happen, like washing dishes, changing cat litter, and stuff). First thing is... Everything in that MUD is against DK... was trying to play the most Evil thing in that land (after vampire, morlock, and werewolves) and I can't even attack a bandit for his money without my aura is affected by that actions. in game:"I must talk to Kron and and ask him why he want things that way?".

The "like" part is just like everyone else, that place is too awesome, not too much people, DMs are mature so no kiddy stuff like "ok everybody, heres free money or free weapons for all of you and don,t move I will cast all my blessing spells on you every time you want it" (sometimes its fun to be protected from poison/magic/... like the one before the great move to another server last year )
The titles we can have with enough RP and level is a nice reward for playing. The tourney was really cool, but its beginning to be bored, not because the system, nor the rules, but because always the same who wins and this player just don't play anymore, he shows up for the tourney and gain the prize and just come back a month later for the tourney, so we fight for nothing, not even to help a player to gain extra good stuff.


"Play less lately" nah, since the last update, relevel just cost less and its a good point (that will definitly keep me online and ALIVE, believe it or not ). Plus this time, I will rock this place, the new evil revolution will come soon!

P.S.: like Ghandi

Another thing I 'dislike' are my own English capabilities. Because I'm limited in that,

I could try to find a French MUD but french just erritate me and I'm trying to perfecting my own english... without any success

enough talk... sorry I have to LOS now

[Keezheekoni]

First of all I do not believe we have met Ruan, so good day

Where did I hear of los? My friends were playing it one day before I knew muds existed and they kept talking about it. So I started playing and conveniently they quit. This was right around the player wipe and no one was a great level and I decided to continue and give it a try. Antitheus was my first real character. I travelled a lot in those days with Dare, who helped me out a lot, and good old Elnor. We had many adventures and good times roleplaying with Scorpion and Ghandi who were also new at the time.

Then Blaze came. I made him mainly to travel with Ghandi and Scorpion, but I soon started to explore the world with him. This is when I discovered what los really had to offer. Carefully destroying every perm and searching every end of the map, I really enjoyed those days. Eventually however I realized that this was really distracting me from completing hw. Partially because of this and because I was frustrated from not being able to find a bow *cursed cursed bow* I decided to suicide. I wish I could have attained a few more things first, the title of proficient for one thing but the time for that is gone.

I still play occasionally with a new DK (Lokern) travelling with Kampfer like we did in the elder days. I do miss playing Blaze though, wandering in the forest from ent to ent trying to find new treasure. Another thing of note, I think that Blaze has been killed by every DM and liaison (except for you Ruan ). It was the elf spirit, I couldn't help but cause trouble.

Pleasant travels to you all *wave*

[Valiant]

Where did you first hear of LoS?
What made you start playing it?

The actual begin of all this was at home. My parents had one pc (which was usually rather occupied by me) and my brother (one of the first players in the lands, one name I know is Charon, but he never actually made really high levels) had another one. A network cable was between the two pc's and at some point my brother asked me to try a text game with him through the network. This was the basic Mordor game I believe (it was called Mordor :p). We then just walked a bit, and killed lots of creatures he spawned (and he regularly reset the auras or things got messy). This all didn't last very long and I had no internet to go online, but it never really left my mind. At college there was internet, and at some point I decided to have a look, searching in some search engine for the word 'mordor'. One of the first hits was the Lands of Stone site and I decided to have a look (I did not know yet that this was the exact game my brother had been playing). I created my first character (an assassin) and started looking around a bit. This character never made it past level 4 and even deleveled then and I abandoned him. In time I finally got internet at home, and it was cable, so I could enjoy as much of LoS as I wanted . First there was a barbarian (reaching level 7 or 8 ) and then I decided to create another character; Valiant was born (still pre-pwipe). Eventually he reached level 10, after which the invasion (best LoS experience ever by the way) took his life and all was restarted again.

What made you stay?

Hard to say what did it. It's just so incredibly addictive, constantly trying to improve your skills. The characters aren't just bits of statistics, they are more than that. More like alter-ego's. Perhaps it's a bit of an escape from the real world. Or perhaps it's just the lack of good games being published in recent years

What do you enjoy/dislike most about LoS?

Enjoy:
Roleplay has to be the most fun thing to do, although of course everyone has periods where he's just not in the mood. Rewarding good roleplay is an excellent thing to do as well in my opinion . Exploring new areas is also a great thing, but it quickly gets boring to be honest, if nothing is found after extensive searching. There's also usually a good atmosphere with players among eachother, but no less the staff members, who can add just that little bit of flavour to the game. Tourneys were a good invention, especially the new rules. And if I'm not in the mood for playing paladin one day, I just pick another character and the experience can be totally different (the power of rp ).

Dislike:
This game has been bad for my real life school performance! I still made it though... And the quickly boring exploration also. But I don't think of myself as the best of searchers...

If you play less lately, then what is the reason?

The reason is very simple, and not really LoS related: X² - The Threat is claiming most of my spare time at the moment. Should this game's fun more or less end (and it's keeping up pretty long, and probably will for some time) I'm likely to return to LoS But it won't be 24/7, I also have a job

[Kampfer]

Valiant... they are more than that. More like alter-ego's.

so true, people thinks I'm a total psycho (in real life) but I just don't kill housewives, I would too but its illegal (joking ) all this RP Text Game just help each of us to do secret toughts and do unusual things, like committing murders, casting spells, poking a sword through someone else.

[Darkmage]

Where did you first hear of LoS?
Searching on the oh so world wide web. Actually came upon it by accident.

What made you start playing it?
Had no idea what the heck it was, but seemed interesting.

What made you stay?
The fact that when I picked a darkknight, I knew absolutely nothing about the game and paladins were taunting me. Wanted to get powerful..

What do you enjoy/dislike most about LoS?
I like the fact that it takes up free time but it's not fun when there's noone around.

If you play less lately, then what is the reason?
The fact that sometimes a person's gotta lead a normal life outside of LOS.

Shortest entry, but still answers the questions

[Zen]

Much as I normally hate posting to forums I simply couldn't resist answering these questions...

Sorry about how long it is

I started mudding quite a long time ago, around 6 years ago. The first MUD I played was a starwars MUD which got tedious very very fast as you had to eat to stay alive and had to rent a hotel-room whenever you wanted to logout, otherwise you lost all your stuff. A friend of mine had started playing Isengard, so I decided to give that a go. I played there till I was about level 7-9 with a few characters but I kept hitting huge lag pockets which slowly drove me crazy. With lag as the main reason for leaving and knowing it used the mordor engine I threw a search for a european mordor into an search site and haven't really left LoS since.

When I was playing Isen I got helped a lot and shown the best places to camp for exp and gold for my low levels, so I'd never really learned to play. When I came to LoS it was very different. The title for highest player at the time was a contest between two dark-knights, Slay and Kane, and they were just level 3 or 4. It forced me to learn how to play off my own back, without anybody to bail me out of a sticky situation or get any items or spells from. The world was tiny back then but very immersive and before I knew it I was hooked. When the level 7 cap was lifted (No, I'm not joking.. there was seriously a level 7 cap on all classes, in fact some classes were capped to level 5 because gnoll bandits didn't spawn anywhere) I had enough exp for around level 9 and had long since learned to flee, thus becoming increasingly succesful at annoying Shihan by refusing to get killed and go backwards

When I started I mostly enjoyed learning how to play and exploring, but there came a point where fighting became trivial and formulaic. There was no real diference between any of the creatures, weapons or spells and exploring just became boring. There are only so many times you can type 'search' before you question why you're still looking. I'd roleplayed paper & dice games for years so started doing more of that, but there was no real reward or feedback from it and very few other RP players to mess about with, so I simply started playing less and less.

After the pwipe I seriously couldn't be bothered playing anymore and didn't think I'd ever actually play LoS again, it was too much like hard work and I didn't find it very much fun anymore. I played anyway and made Kylan to group with Erynn. It didn't work very well because 1) Druids are rubbish 2) I was far too used to solo fighting and 3) I found combat so unthrilling I had a tendancy to drift off into little day-dreams whilst we were running about - which incidently led to Kylan's early 'dreamy druid' character.

I've got a lot of personalities in my head IRL and it's always felt natural to give each personality a life of it's own. Roleplaying is a great outlet for this and even when I'm not on LoS my characters continue their adventures and interactions offline in my head! I'd say it's the roleplay which keeps me on LoS these days, producing a steady stream of lowbies to roleplay with. Most of these characters never level very far as I simply can't be bothered with the grind of levelling A couple of my characters have reached 'higher' levels but I seriously doubt that they'll get much higher.

Erm.. I think I'll shut up now

[Rygar]

Where did you first hear of LoS?

Well, in boredom time, i were looking for some infos on mordor (from Tolkien) and ended on muds, from there, pretty fast on los, wich i decided to give it a go.

What made you start playing it?

It were in p-wipe period, and it were a pretty fun time for a people having no clue on how commands works neither mud clients
It were as if i were in one of the books i readed some years ago, quite strange but big fun.

What made you stay?

Well, having no clue at start it ended been quite frustrating at times. Not to say about my english. I remember having passed almost a day trying to find the boreworm lair for my mage quest. Lucky Corien were around.
Well, i learned and finally found mud clients so stopped dying and began to remember the map. Then i were addicted...

What do you enjoy/dislike most about LoS?

Well, i have more fun playing low levels char than big guns, probably due to game mechanic, but anyway. Some of the best experiences i had in los are the epic quests we made. Example, when we raised a group to prepare and fight Dragon, Galvaug. The honor clan quest to find and slay Seven fits in it too. Thoses onces created atmosphere on themselves.

What i dislike most playing los is quite simple. My english capabilities. It limit me pretty much on rp and searching, and it's very frustrating at times.

[crow]

I had already been playing Isen and its sister mud Chaos for several years but they had gone stale and at the time were dying, no new stuff for ages.... So alongs come LoS and RoH and I'm happy, I remember the RoH staff spamming Isen and annoying many while LoS simply opened its doors and got down to business.

I like the mordor style, played a large number of muds and the aber and diku muds annoyed me massively. Mordor style is quite simple but relatively DnD'ish. First I looked out of curiosity noticing differences straight away.

Why did I stay? The differences were of a type that appealled to me, more depth to the world itself rather than give class X superpower Y. Exit descriptions, clever puzzles in the map design (now where did that cash drop to?) made it enjoyable, along with the people playing it. In the earliest days there was quite a big team spirit which has never really left though it gets thin at times.

Most like/dislike? For dislike I'd guess that finding all the targets I wanted to check out were permamently dead, that and the world has not enough variety for me yet. Oh year, loads of spells are missing and there are help pages for new spells I've never seen..... Agony!!

What I like is that the world is consistent, it doesn't chop and change and bite with nasty surprises where yesterday it was safe (unlike some muds). Its continually if slowly growing and some excellent new features turn up every few months or so. You also have to THINK sometimes, creatures are not easy but can be beat and some of the areas are very nice, I especially like the cavetrolls.

If I don't play as much as I'd like then its that most common of reasons, real life has to be visited now and again plus sometimes the job keeps me away too.

[Happy]

This is Duel and happy new year everybody!

Well I started play back in 2001, end of High School, summer time, no need to prepare for SATs (evil standard testing) no more, with nothing to do, a friend (Mage) told me to play this game. At first, like many people, I did not expect that I would enjoy a game with no pictures! At the beginning, I merely just logged out and see if Mage is online and tell him to go play basketball or something. and along the way, I will make some trouble, like cursing at players randomly and do annoying things, which I am not proud of now ^^. Ya, I was banned for awhile I think, so I didn't bother to play again. Then after a while, I got bored and checked back and found out I wasn't banned no more! So I decided to try to play seriously and gradually become addicted!

My first character was Evergreen, knowing nothing about stats, I just took them from www.isenhelp.com, in which it turned out pretty good later. I grouped mainly with Corien, Turkish, Kechara/Yuri, doing runs on Mayor/Earl and exploring areas. Like Erynn said, that was the time I actually enjoyed the mud most, knowing nothing and exploring, new stuff everyday! I achieved quite high levels near the pwipe.

After the pwipe, almost all the players from the previous did not come back. The only familiar face was Erynn. Then I started to do some bad things again: like creating tons of level 1s to get fireball ^^, which I am now not proud of either! Ya, then my characters was jailed and dusted etc, so I quitted for awhile again! Then of course later I came back to play seriously, a lot of people were pretty high already so I did some major catch up and here we are with Duel. Met some new people, nice people and enjoyed it while it lasted. It was a totally different experience because this time around, I was one of the very few that known most of the 'secrets'. Elnor and Blade made good fighting partners and the Dutches were fun to RP with.

Oops, this is getting too long, didn't mean to be a autobiography! Anyways, I stayed because it was fun exploring stuff, my first DnD experience. I stayed because the people, made some good friends from both generations, and kept in contact! Elnors give me good downloads, w00t!

I haven't been playing for the past half to 1 year because first Erynn told me she was playing RoH for a bit, so I went to check it out. Then somehow I just kept on playing and wasted a lot of time and reached level 26^^. And recently, been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XI which is an online MMORPG, ya, mud with pictures! Gotta pay tho... :/

The only thing I do not like this mud is the population is so small. I am like the only one from the U.S, though English is my second language as well but after 6 years, I guess I am OK with it. But ya, sometimes only me on, not good, before mostly is me and Elnor and Blaze. If I stay late, which I usually does, I would see Erynn wake up really early...and talk to her for awhile. Basically not enough people, which is nobody's fault. Secondly, I hate the permed everything, Permed perms, permed mobs, permed everything.

But between muds, I would pick LoS as my favorite still. My plan is to take a long break from LoS and hopefully some major update would have me enuff interest to begin adventure again!

This is officially the longest post ever, so aye, I will shut up....

[Ruan]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, it has been useful and interesting reading. Please encourage new players to post here too, the more answers and opinions here, the better.