You shouldn't put stock in what ThugHeaven is saying, it's a bunch of flimflam.
He's a staff boot kisser and a karma farmer from their discord and gets away with discussing things there that would get someone else banned. The same thing happens on the GDB - he trolls, baits, snubs and belittles people there, but the administration turns a blind eye. They're quick to punish people for dishing it back at him, though.
The game is fun enough if you keep under the radar, but the moment you say the wrong thing in a request, or on the forums, or upset one of the preppy staff fan crew in their discord - and you will upset someone the second you break from the hive mind of endless staff praise - you're on the shitlist and you will never get off it.
You'll get karma blacklisted, staff will reject special requests for inane reasons (you used the wrong adjective in this description, resubmit please, etc.), block you from sponsored roles and the game world WILL suddenly start "coming to life" to "better reflect the harsh realities of Zalanthas", usually in the form of them animating God-like NPCs to kick your PC around, or otherwise make sure you're on the losing end of things.
Because of this long-standing behavior that has existed for at least the last 10~ years (they now hide EVERYTHING behind the request system, refuse to discuss anything they do with anyone and ban/censor the forums when people go public with abuses, so it looks "better than it used to be"), most players with any time under their belt will throw you under the bus the moment one of these animations happen. This is both because people who back up shunned players become shunned players themselves (people who supported redranger and other old school vets who left the game due to staff abuses, sexual harassment and other such behavior have been banned, or otherwise punished with karma removal, character storage or other petty punishments) and because mindlessly supporting staff is the fastest track to karma.
Karma is the measure that decides how powerful your character can become - skill increases out of chargen, magic, mastercrafting subs (to make custom items for people) and advanced subs (VASTLY superior subguilds that give game-changing skill gains; your ranger can become a ranger burglar with one subguild, making you basically capable of doing everything with decent proficiency), all of which are huge factors in who eats and who gets eaten. Karma = staff favor = who wins, who loses.
Or to use their "trust" line, it's a measure of how much staff trusts you... to lay back, think of England, and let it happen.
I played the game for over ten years and my refusal to continue running leadership roles back to back (due to no support for my own plot ideas, constant staff ultimatums ex; do this this way or you're stored, constant nitpicking about how I handled their plot directives, etc) caused me to be talked down to more and more, followed by karma removal, followed by accusations of "meta-conspiracy" against the staff, whatever that even means.
They're desperate for people who can lead clans, run plots and do so consistently, but they abuse, punish and bully those same people the second they stop enabling staff meddling. Staff like Sedhir are a good example of staff who use IC/OOC methods to meddle, to get the PCs and players he favors on the winning track and the others on the losing track. He's also getting to be well-known for his sexual/emotional attachment to a certain female player, who basically leads the game around with her sexual antics.
You can see him on the forums, talking about how he doesn't get to spend time with his wife because of all the time he spends working on the game, while he's mud-stalking some player with jealous abandon. It's nuts. Literally.
This game is toxic, unfriendly and highly punishing to anyone who shows anything approaching a backbone, or is unwilling to be slapped around and talked down to like a gimp.
They've tried to push their "friendly to newbies, all are welcome" bullshit on a few different sites over the last few years, as the revolving door that props up their "stable numbers" slows down. They like to talk about all these new players who joined this quarter, compared to last quarter, like it's a boardroom, but the fact of the matter is those new players they insist are here to stay are actually up and leaving within a week of play.
Why? Because it's the culture of Arm for old players to abuse the ever loving shit out of new players, as if it was some kind of collage hazing ritual. You don't have to take my word for it, go check their forums and search some of their threads about newbies. You'll see lots of people bragging about how they tricked a new player into going into a dark alley and basically stealing their money, boots, or other things that make recovering and pushing on almost impossible for a new player, who has no idea how to even find a bank to store their money before this happens.
Check the games reviews on other sites, where people talk about their first experiences and the rotten treatment they receive. And yes, the "piss" thing actually happened and has happened several times, by the same player, who always seems to get away with it. He does scat, too, if you're wondering. A real charmer. Friendly to newbies, welcoming to all.
This is also about the last RPI in existence that supports and enables pedophilia. You don't have to take my word for it, you can find the rules on this on their website, or check reviews on other sites. One of my last PCs was involved in a plot with a Borsail, who's big thing was he liked little boys, both for sexual encounters and to torture. He actively sought out PCs that were aged 13-14 with "little boy" style descriptions, to basically have sex with, torture and then PK, in graphic details. Not sure if I'm more worried he was doing it, or that there were a few people willing to play it all out with him, considering the content of the scenes.
Amusingly, when I stored that PC because I found the players zeal for boy-love RP unsettling. I was told that was completely within the scope of the game and that I should review the documentation. I argued there is a big difference between keeping to the harshness of the docs and spending all of your game time pursuing and engaging in questionable sexual exploits, while my PC handled all the running of the clan and doing all the OOC work that was supposed to be pedoman's responsibility.
There was no discussion of my view, I was simply "asked" not to play PCs in Borsail in the future.
The game always had it's problems, but the last few years have been the worst by far. I'll never go back.
Keep your distance, it's a nut house.
