Turmoil

[Dorn]

So. I'm not sure if anyone else is thinking it, or wondering, but it seems as of late there is almost... a revolving door in terms of what is going on with staff and stances on things.

Is this done with, or can we expect more.

[Rias]

Having just been dragged from the depths of the real world to do some stuff for CLOK again due to the recent staff vacuum, I can't say a whole lot on the subject, but I do know that I'm here to help: not to start changing and retconning. I plan to provide (hopefully) fun things for PCs to get involved in that are independent of any politics or stances outside town jurisdictions. I hope any turmoil-fraught and conflict-riddled IC events will be seen as IC, and not be viewed as reflections of staff conflict or arguments over "stances" or anything.

[Dorn]

Honestly Rias, I wasn't touching IC at all. IC is just that, IC. Staff are having trouble deciding what is what every other week however is concerning for me as a player, and the overall stability of the game.

[Jirato]

It's never really a fun thing when a GM leaves the team. But that doesn't mean we're having huge turmoil and internal conflict and trouble deciding what is what. I'm not really sure where you're getting that from. All it really comes down to is Zoiya is no longer GMing and Vinz needs a break.

[Dorn]

Rias. Come. Go.
Zoiya. Go.
Vinz. Go.
Emraef. GM. Not a GM.

And then there is your back and forth on your handling of things J.

I know the mud is going through a period of transition, and you're finding your feet, I'm just wondering when it is going to stop.

[Jirato]

I'm not going to go into the details, but I'm concerned about what sort of wild speculations and assumptions there will be, so I will just come out and say now that no GM has ever been removed in the past three years for anything short of cheating. These aren't from player complaints, they are from command logs and careful observation. We have strict guidelines, and when people don't adhere to them, they are gone. It sucks for everyone involved, but that's the type of world CLOK is, which is why we have far less complaints about abuse of power and such than some of those other top MUDs out there.

Vinz isn't gone, he's on break. There's a big difference there.

Emraef was never a GM. There's a difference between JGM and GM. Frankly, I was pressured to bring him on by Vinz and Zoiya. I wasn't exactly ever looking to bring on another coder, but they pretty much arranged for it to happen. I spoke to him about how he wants to proceed with Zoiya gone and Vinz on break, and he specifically stated he was planning on finishing up his AI work and then going back to doing his own stuff, but would be available if any particularly challenging code problems needed addressed. He's a really nice guy, but he's mostly here as a good friend of Vinz's than anything else. He's got a pretty demanding full time job and a newborn on top of all that. I can't really see him being on board as a full time coder anyway. CLOK is a pretty demanding commitment.

CLOK is Rias' baby. Up until yesterday when I finally sent Selene a message asking what the deal was, it was looking like the only ones working on CLOK would be Noctere and I. And that's just not enough, it's not a two person show. He's stepped in to help alleviate some of the workload, but purely in an event/lore capacity, which is pretty much what was always planned when we had him dubbed our "Lore Hermit" anyway. He's stepped down as the lead developer, but he's still very much a valuable member of this team. We've both agreed, at his request, to keep him in the shallow end of things so CLOK doesn't turn into a second full time job for him. He'll be focusing on the things he loves doing without any of the stress of being the lead administrator and developer. It's a good place for him to continue to enjoy the project without any of the stress or commitment that comes with being DEV.

It kind of seems to me that you're just rabble-rousing here. I can't really recall any major "back and forth" handling of things, you're free to email me with any issues you may have that you'd like addressed though.

[Jirato]

I'll add that CLOK isn't going anywhere. Sure there's some issues we're going through and it's a bit of a painful and stressful situation, but we're going to continue through this and continue to be around for players to enjoy for the years to come.