I was going to post this on the game ...

But instead I decided to post it here. Any who read this are welcomed and encouraged to respond, either for or against, but, while I will not edit posts for opinions that disagree with mine, I do reserve the right to edit posts that are abusive or which flame other people in the AotC community or their families.

Hatfield: My only response to this issue (at least in open forum)
To: all
Long and short of it, if we are not the ones directly involved, its NOYDBB (none of your dad-blamed business). So far, all I have is "this person said this" or "that person did thus-and-so." I'm not going to get into the details of what I may or may not know, because depending on who you're talking to, not all of it is relevant anyway!

My brother-in-Christ, Cyto expressed the opinion that Paul was admonishing the church to deal collectively with the sins of the body, and he made reference to 2nd Corinthians chapters 12 and 13. Having taken some time to prayerfully consider Paul's words there, I don't think this quite fits our present situation.
In those chapters, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. Near the end of chapter 12 (at verse 21) Paul states "I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged." Paul continues (chapter 13)"This will be my third visit to you. 'Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 2 I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, ... 5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test? ... 10 "This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority--the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down."

Here I think Paul is speaking to the body collectively, what we are dealing with is an issue between individuals. If Cyto felt that AotC as a whole was in a sinful nature, these verses might prove relevant, but I don't think it is.
(and yes, I prefer the clarity if the NIV, you are welcomed to read 2Cor 12:21, 2cor 13:1-2, 5 and 10 here)

In the Gospel of Matthew 18:15-17, we read:

15 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

If we have a problem with our brother or sister, to go to them privately, and seek an end to your conflict. If you are able to resolve your issue this way, you have gained a soul for the Kingdom!
But, if you cannot resolve it this way, bring along a witness or two, someone to not only assist, but to be able to attest that you have indeed tried. Just my opinion THIS is about where Kal and the parties involved had been when others started creating the larger mess.

This is just my personal observation, but I feel that anyone OTHER than Kal, Gen, Quiran (and others directly involved ... meaning not ME) should let them work this whole thing out for themselves, because we are NOT involved.

We, being imperfect humans, are not qualified to pass judgement on the actions of others. And that is what is being done here. People are judging the actions of others without having the entire story of everything involved. Even if you had all the relevant information, if it is not happening to YOU, you still don't have the right to judge others.

Why is this bothering me so? I'll tell you why.
The witness that we are supposed to give those outside of the church is more than just coming up to them to tell them about Jesus. You can gladhand people all day and tell them about God's great and wonderful love and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross ... But if you then turn around and start squabbling with your 'brothers' and 'sisters' and backbiting them about this or that matter, those outside the church who see this will think to themselves, "Who do those Christians think they are? They're no different than we are!"

You want proof of what I say? (sorry for using you as an example Molly) Molly has been around here in one form or another all the way back to when my wife and I first started playing here. "Miri" as she was known then, would take the two of us through Underdark leveling. Molly has not kept any secrets about her beliefs. She is not a Christian. Plainly, our actions of late haven't given her any reason to consider our message to be any better or different than any secular belief others may have. The result? A woman that I consider a close friend (as does my wife "Scarlett"), is deciding that maybe she doesn't need to be spending as much time here. How's that for a witness?

I close asking everyone who's not involved to BUTT OUT, and let Kal and the others work this issue out for themselves.

I support the decision Kal has made, because I don't know all that's involved and it is not my place to gainsay the choices that he has made. I do however also love my sister-in-Christ, Geneva and her family and it is my hope that she and Kal are able to work through their differences.

In Christ's blessing,
Ron

Mass exodus from AotC's staff

I still as yet have found the cause of dispute, but recently there has been a disagreement between members of AotC's staff. Whatever the disagreement was about, it was so strongly felt by some as to stop being members of the game's staff.

Saddened does not even begin to cover how I'm feeling about this. These are people who have been putting good portions of their lives into this ministry, and for all intents and purposes are now just throwing it away. I've tried to find out, to at least have some idea what to pray about, but the most anyone is saying about any of it is just that there was an argument between the founder of the game and one of the top admins. The admin was released from their post, and a number of other staff have left supporting their side of the issue.

I'd write more, but now I'm just rambling and there's not much else to write.

Tell me more about this "MUD" thing ...

Here's how the typical mud opening screen might look:

Welcome to:
                     --"Ark of the Covenant" Beta 2.6l -

                      Based on ROM Version 2.4b4a Beta
           Original DikuMUD by Hans Staerfeldt, Katja Nyboe,
.========. Tom Madsen, Michael Seifert, and Sebastian Hammer. .========.
//  ,".`'  \       Based on MERC 2.1 code by Hatchet,         //  '.`".  \
||         |                Furey, and Kahn                   ||         |
|| I .'..' |        Quest Code (c) 1996 Ryan Addams           || VI.'.,".|
|| II .'..'|     Quest Code (c)  re-written by Intense        || VII..'..|
|| III`.'."|   ROM 2.4 copyright (c) 1993-1996 Russ Taylor    || VIII,'.'|
|| IV ,','.|      AotC MUD (c) 1998-2006 AotC Ministries.     || IX.'".'.|
|| V '..'.'|   AotC is a creative co-operative ministry of    || X .'..',|
.\_________/             Intense, Kal, and Nyxll.             .\_________/

By what name do you wish to be known?

(had to do a little html edit and use preformating tags so that would look right...)

This is the screen that you would sign in on from AotC. The two drawings of the tablets of the 10 Commandments is what is called an ascii drawing. The gobbledy-gook in the middle is information on what particular kind of mud AotC is and credits for the people who worked toward making it what it is today, including AotC's founders, Intense, Kal, and Nyxll.

Once you create a character (pretty much like logging in for the first time onto a chat site, except you get to choose things like a weapon and what race you are.

Here's an example of a "room" you would find on AotC:

A Beautiful Sanctuary
  There are no windows inside, but a lamp on a table on the eastern wall
lights the temple. A strong aura of protective power and holiness permeates
the air of this holy place.  The flames from a roaring fire send shadows
flickering over the priest and the golden carvings in the walls.  The quiet
movements of the priest echo around the space, mingling with the low murmur
of his constant prayer.  In the middle of the room there is a donation pit
for the needy, and halfway along the length of the temple is a golden
curtain rail with a rich, purple curtain hanging from each side.  It looks
as if the two curtains were once one, and were ripped apart. At the far end
of the room, there is an altar made of twelve stones.

[Exits: north south west up]

   A pit for donations is in front of the altar.
(Golden Aura) (White Aura) A priest stands here praying for the recovery of Old Zion.

If you type LOOK CURTAIN, you will see a seperate description of what the "curtain" in the room looks like. The screen also shows your directions you can move in the bracketed box labeled "Exits". The priest that you see is what is called a mob, it is a program representing a part of the game that you can interact with. In this case, if you've been running around fighting nasty critters (other mobs), the priest will heal your wounds. Sadly, there are no "HMOs"...so you'll have to pay him for his services.

I could fill pages with what you could do with even just a few flicks of your fingers, but I would much rather just invite you to come join me some time and let you experience it for yourself.

Who is Hatfield?

For those that know me from MUDding, the primary name I use for my character is Hatfield.

Hatfield is a character from a short story by Fr. Martin Bell, an Episcopal priest and friend of our family. Fr. Bell's first collection of short stories, The Way of the Wolf is available at his personal webpage, www.barringtonbunny.com. Hatfield was taken from his third collection, Return of the Wolf, which is out of print, but can still be found through sources such as used book stores or Amazon or Books-a-million.

Reader's digest version of the story: Hatfield is a metaphor for every man's journey in search of God. He is a blind dhariki master (sort of a martial arts thing) in search of the lair of the Wolf. In his journey, his arch nemisis Jennings (along with his henchmen Nefid, Drow and Tolak), attempts on several occasions to turn Hatfield asside from his path. By the end of the story, Hatfield realizes that the end destination is not what's important, it is the journey. He won't find the Wolf's lair, the Wolf will find him.

If you don't know my by the name Hatfield, you might know me as either Jamie or Murta(u)gh. These are characters taken from a series of novels by author Diana Gabaldon called the Outlander Series; including Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Drums of Autumn, Fiery Cross, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Fair warning, some points in the stories in these books are a bit more mature in subject matter. There is moderately explicit descriptions of relationships between the two main characters, but as the characters are married, I only offer warning because it might be a bit shocking if you're not expecting it.

What exactly is a MUD anyway?

Many of you whom I will invite here already know the answer to this question. But for those of you maybe that do not, a "MUD" is a Multiple User Device, or a Multiple User Dungeon. In a nutshell, its a Role Playing Game (RPG), played online.

Many of you might be familiar with online games like World of Warcraft or Doom. MUDs are similar, except they don't have all the gee-wizzy graphics. You are reading text on a screen and interacting with other people online and mobile programs (commonly called mobs). You are fighting dragons, solving puzzles, doing what are often called "quests" or "adventures".

For the most part, MUDs have a bad reputation in the Christian community, and for the most part, I hate to admit it, but that reputation is pretty much earned. The website The Mud Connector lists several thousand of these games in their database, and of these, an extremely dismal one claims to be a Christian game. (see previous post about Ark of the Covenant)


At the time I started the Fellowship Hall here, there had actually been four Christian MUDs. Ark of the Covenant was in the company of Lion of Judah, Jacob's Ladder, and Judgement MUD. It is my hope that in the future, I shall have the chance to tell you about other Christian MUDs. But until then, I shall share more of what I know about this slightly quirky game that I have come to know and really enjoy.

Long time no post ...

Well friends, it has been a while since I've been able to log onto here. Partly it was life doing what life does, partly it was the fact that well ... I'd forgotten that I even had this account set up! But now I find out that blogspot (now blogger.com) is affiliated with Gmail, and I can access my account through my email (cool beans for me!).

Sadly during my abscence, I've discovered that just restricting posts to registered members hasn't really helped the issue of eliminating unwanted comment posts. Because of this, I have needed to enable comment moderation as well as word verification. This means that not only will I have to approve comments, but the poster will need to enter a word they see on their screen onto a line. For those whom are my friends, I will ask your forgiveness. However, for the spammers and automated random posters ... too bad.

I started this blog, not only to have a place to discuss mud gaming (a fun hobby of mine) but as a ministry resource for those who mud.

Sad news to report since last I posted. Lion of Judah is now defunct. Lance, the host, tried to convert the game over to a MUSH based gaming system, but after attendance dropped to ~0~ for several months, the game was allowed to die a quiet death. So, to my knowledge, at the present time Ark of the Covenant (AotC) is the only Christian MUD game.

On other bad news, several members of AotC's staff have decided to retire their positions with that game, some at least in part because of disagreements with the host of the game, Kal. While I have been made aware of some of the issues, in respect for those involved I will only state that it is a disagreement in part over theological differences (and how one views others in light of those differences).

I am given to understand by one of the recent "retirees" that there is possibly another MUD in the planning stages, more on that as I find out information!