Endless Round MUCK

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Endless Round MUCK was a role-playing MUCK based on the The Lion King, with feature characters as well as numerous original characters. It opened in November 2005. When it was closed by the head wizard in October 2006, the playerbase created a new MUCK, Kings and Vagabonds MUCK.


 * Addresses:
 * MUCK server: endlessround.wolfpaw.net, port 1994
 * Website: http://www.tlkmuck.com/ (defunct)
 * Forum: http://321prometheus.proboards49.com/ (defunct)
 * Ran from/to: November 2005 - October 2006

Wizards

 * Ed - Head Wizard
 * Amikia (from June 2006)
 * Asrohc - Programmer
 * Bahiyah (from September 2006)
 * Chisulo (from May 2006)
 * Chukizo (from May 2006)
 * Khal (from May 2006)
 * Timon - Programmer
 * Zazu

Former wizards

 * Sarafina (November 2005 - April 2006)
 * Zira (November 2005 - May 2006)

Basic info and rules
Endless Round was based on The Lion King movies, but did not follow the same plots. Original characters were intended have just as much say (both IC and OOC) as feature characters, and could sway a plot in any direction through their IC actions.

Players could have up to two feature characters (FCs) from the film. Feature characters also had understudies that roleplayed them when the main FC player was not available.

Other than the feature character limit, players could have as many characters as they could roleplay. Adult male lions were not limited to a number, but a player had to have one non-leonine species character for every male lion character.

No TinySex was allowed. Graphic sexual roleplay (or solicitations for such roleplay) resulted in the banning of the offending account(s).

Unlike the rule on at least one other The Lion King multiplayer world, shamans, mystics and such characters were not limited to primates or those with full thumbs.

Feature Characters
Endless Round opened with all the feature characters exactly as they were in the first weeks before Simba's presentation, and then allowed the storyline to progress naturally as affected by the intervention of player-characters and merging with new plots. While the characters remained true to the personalities of their film counterparts, the playerbase was free to affect the course of the adventure in any fashion they could manage ICly. Early examples of such changes include the ambushing by hyenas of Mufasa's subjects during Simba's presentation, and the annexation by the allied hyenas and Outlanders of a section of the Pridelands when a later battle was lost.

The MUCK also had a parallel FC plotline, with the Simba's Pride FCs, such as Zira, growing up alongside the original TLK FCs.

The head wizard, Ed, desired to keep the FCs around for as long as possible in order to maintain an atmosphere true to The Lion King. However, some felt the characters were aging too slowly. For example, Simba remained a cub for a year while other characters grew up.

Groups
Group - Type - Alignment - Leader(s)


 * Ahli Chyad - Motley Mafia - Evil - Raiban
 * Bongo'Koka - Mouse Tribe - Good - Fu'ada
 * Graveyard - Hyena Clan - Evil - Shenzi, Rehani
 * Kani'na'Afia - Hyena Clan - Neutral - Shajiru
 * Kilimanjaro - Panther Cult - Evil - Boo'katili
 * Kwasi - Lion Pride - Neutral - Razu, Razo, Dosari
 * Majizi - Lion Pride - Evil - Mafusho
 * Makundiza-Kabaila - Herbivore Herd - Neutral - Somoe
 * Min'Men - Meerkat Colony - Good - Timon, Max
 * Nyamwezi - Lion Pride - Good - Adili
 * Outlands - Lion Pride - Evil - Zira
 * Pridelands - Lion Pride - Good - Mufasa, Sarabi
 * Sheetswa - Cheetah Tribe - Neutral - Shaleesa
 * Tii'mkebe - Wild Dog Pack - Neutral - Chukizo, Kongoro
 * Warugaruga - Militia - Neutral - Shetani

Controversy
The website address of Endless Round MUCK (tlkmuck.com) was unrelated to the MUCK's name, but was very similar to that of The Lion King MUCK (tlkmuck.org), where Ed (as Boo'katili) had had issues with the wizards, inciting him to create a new TLK-based MUCK. A Februrary 2006 thread on the Endless Round MUCK's forum includes a mention of someone finding Endless Round through mistyping the address for The Lion King MUCK. Other ways people found or were told about Endless Round are also noted there.

Advertising for Endless Round MUCK has included sending unsoliciated e-mails to members of The Lion King Fan-Art Archive.

The MUCK's rules regarding sexual roleplay have resulted in discussion, particularly as compared to policies regarding violence.

May 2006
In May 2006, following a debate on whether or not Mufasa should be monogamous, the headwizard stated that Mufasa could not be polygamous, claiming as his justification for the ruling his perceived lack of any logic or example of evidence in the film indicating that Mufasa would act in such a fashion. This was done despite the desire for a public vote by a number of the players and statements from both Mufasa and Sarabi's then-current players that Mufasa should be able to have cubs with other lionesses. Following this event, those players who opposed the ruling and lack of a vote (including one of the wizards, Zira) left their characters and roleplay scenes on Endless Round, opting to play instead on Sunrise MUCK, which accommodated by allowing them to play their feature characters there. Several weeks after their leaving, claiming to have heard or witnessed evidence that some of the players who had left Endless Round intended to disrupt its normal operation, Ed banned several of those individuals he suspected (and their close associates) from the forums, and @toaded their characters, stating that "not everyone has the right to use Endless Round."

In the aftermath of the departure of several players and their friends on the basis of this dispute, a realm within the IC world of the MUCK was abandoned by its creators. The former owners, having left Endless Round, requested that Ed delete their lands. Their request was denied by Ed, according to him, on the basis of other players having expressed interest in those areas and wishing to continue pre-existing roleplayers there and to begin new ones. In this way a precedent was set that the original creators of lands on Endless Round lose their total control of said lands in the event that the lands become important to players other than the creators themselves.

October 2006
In early October 2006, Ed accused Timon, the programming wizard (who had been involved from the beginning and had assisted with starting the server) of attempting to take Endless Round away from him, first by turning the players against Ed, then by plotting to move the MUCK's server files to a new computer. In a private conversation which was then forced to be a public conversation over the matter, Ed stated that "nothing is to be made private on our MUCK". He instigated a paged conversation with Timon over the matter of miscommunications. Timon posted this conversation on the public portion of the forums, under the belief that "nothing is to be made private on our MUCK".

From there, Ed searched through the MUCK's primary log file, seeking out all paged conversations involving Timon, and using those conversations to suggest that Timon was plotting to take Endless Round away from him by moving it to a new computer yet again. He then banned Timon and the wizards Timon was talking to in the pages, Chukizo and Khal, removing their wizbits as well and @chowning all of their belongings. At this point a four-hour argument ensued, involving the majority of the connected players, and the wizards who were still left, where they all accused Ed of being paranoid and senseless in his accusations toward Timon and the other wizards. Ed finally agreed to reinstate their characters and wizbits.

Ed subsequently left the MUCK following these issues and the ensuing backlash by the players.

On October 9, Ed disconnected the MUCK and deleted the forums, closing the MUCK with a final @wall announcement:
 * "[!]What's here was made under my direction. If others should want something all to themselves, let what they have be the product of their own efforts wholly.  Endless Round will remain Endless Round and whatever they might start will be whatever it will be.  I do wonder if anyone apart from myself will understand the philosophical irony of the game "Endless Round" falling prey to the conflict between what I have sought to represent and what is represented by those who will raise the next MU*.  Our detractors are overjoyed."

The remaining wizards and playerbase immediately began working together to create a new TLK-themed MUCK, Kings and Vagabonds MUCK.