I have played on A Merging of Fates for 8 years now. The reasons I have played and stayed around for so long is because of the people and the environment. There are tons of origonal areas. All the stock ones are being phased out. There are modifications that many MUDs don't boast, like your character can dream.... they do on Merging. You character can die of thirst and starvation (takes an extreamly long time). There are nights and days. Insects that can fly by, some cast spells... such as the ladybug blesses you. The players are nice and do roleplay.... that means a merc might charge you for directions, a thief might steal from you, a bloodlord might punch you for looking at them wrong, a cleric might heal you, a sage may teach you or give you a spell up, a warrior might defend you. I have made a few lifelong friends on Merging of Fates and I encourage you to come join the family and watch the changes happen. Stena

MoF was the first mud I ever played and it attracted me to the world of MUDding. Unfortunately, the only reason I played beyond a week in MoF was because I was ignorant to all the other available muds out there. Compared to other muds, MoF has a very abusive and unhelpful staff. The players, often staff themselves, are very unfriendly and would mock or demand money in return for help. The first instance started the day I started playing. I asked how to get to a place in the mud. The responses were: "Give me 50 diamonds and I'll show you". When I asked how to get to the trainer. The response was "Give me 20 diamonds and I'll show you." No one else offered help. I just started playing and I didn't have 100 silver, but I stuck to it anyway and found out myself. During a pvp fight in the "arena". I fought someone who used an item that was purportedly removed. Not just an item that wasn't spawned anymore, but an item that was removed from every character I know by force. I called foul. My response from the mods: "Stop whining." I said that the mods should do something about it since everyone else had their's removed, but not this one. The result : I got "vaped" and sent to the "vortex"(the temporary ban zone) for "whining". The vaping incidence happens quite frequently in this MUD (I would say at once a day) not just to me but to other players and is publicly announced to the whole mud. My involvement finally ended when I questioned why a particular character (not me or related to me) was "vaped" repeatedly. The mods response was that they were being "rude and impolite by not addressing the mods properly". I stated that was over the line to expect the players to always speak to mods like they were royalty and get punished if not. Quite abruptly I had that character deleted for "questioning their decision". This was by one of the new mods that I've never seen before, but it showed me something about the staff when they get mods like that. I returned to the mud a while back to just peek and see if things had changed, but I heard it turned worse. A whole 'clan' of players were deleted for supposedly challenging a mod led clan. From my experience, the only way to play this mud was to stick to yourself and play it like a 1 person game.

What to say about this MUD except that it had a very promising flavor when I began to play it, ruined by one of the most ego- inflated and unfriendly playerbase ever? *sighs* Let us try to make a useful review, and start with the beginning. In my quest to find the perfect MUD, combining a decent touch of original features, classes and areas, a good touch of roleplay and hence PKing, and interesting people (not necessarily *all* friendly to me in particular), I stumbled one morning on the description of 'Merging of Fates'. I dug into the list of features offered : Min. # of Players Online: 10 - 24 Player-Kill: Restricted Quests Available Roleplaying Is Encouraged Newbie friendly Clans Offered World is mostly original Large World (8,000+ rooms) Nifty! Past the very classical RoM character creation, I entered the MUDschool, equipped with my mighy sword, ready to decimate some meanies. Ooh wait, I am a cleric, why did I get a sword? Bugger. I started to look around in town if I could find a weaponsmithy selling maces. To no avail. When I asked in the newbie channel if some player knew of a shop where I could buy a mace or give me one, I heard crickets. The fact that the newbie school was poorly designed didn't help me getting out of my first few levels either. The first impression definitely wasn't particularly positive. Learning more about the MUD though thanks to a handful of friendly people and the head coder, RogueDragon, I decided to keep trying. The rooms were descriptive enough to breathe live into the really large world, as was advertised. Even for a MUD that exists since 1997, it is a good point. Unfortunately, the rest just doesn't follow. When 10-24 players are announced, the who list rarely exceeds 6 players, even at peak times. Clans have been abandoned, and their halls remain desperately empty. To my understanding, efforts were in progress to revive them, but RogueDragon could only do so much alone. Finally, the quest system is obscure, and incredibly hard even for someone who has reached the maximum level of 207 as gating/fleeing/recalling are restricted in most rooms. Maps don't exist, either in game, or on the Website, and people 'who know' keep their little secrets to themselves. You will not want to waste time on questing before you remort a couple of times and learn where most areas are in the game. What really killed all the fun for me was the presence of some ego- inflated old time players pretending to roleplay 'punching you in the jaw' when you raise an eyebrow at them, just because they have about 300 hours played more than you. Raising an eyebrow at them was reason enough for them to conclude that you lacked of respect, and hence they could kill you to 'get your eyes'. The worst thing was an Immortal supporting them in their action, as they probably don't want loose more of their already skimpy playerbase. In conclusion, this MUD is not for you if you : - don't like be bullied around by some people who have 350 hours played and who pretend roleplaying 'punching you in the jaw' to teach you 'respect' (ROFL) - like to group with people that take it easy sometimes, not always powergaming to the next remort - like to quest and explore as you most probably will get lost/die before you get a chance to even find the areas - are more or less starting in your MUD career, as you will just be plain ignored by most players too busy to remort for the 55th time, and be dazzled by the lack of help and friendliness.