The vast majority of us have been here for a while and know about the admins' uhhh... 'checkered past' let's say.

We have had instances where admins have cheated for others.

We have had instances where admins cheated for themselves.

We have had many, many interferences in between.

Squishy has publicly admitted to a lot of these on IRC before, so it's not like i'm making this shit up.

This instance wasn't the worst of scenario's we've had down the years of .org/MR by a long way, however I have finally come to realise that it's just not possible for Squishy to not become 'involved' in the game. I can see why... it's effectively his baby. Sure, there are different owners now and have been in the past, but we all know who's been there pushing the game along for the vast majority of time we've been connected to this world.... it was Izzy.

But this creates a problem, he can't take a step back and leave the game to play out. When he sees something wrong in his eyes, it has to be 'fixed' at any cost.

I am therefore removing myself from the circus... I wish no ill will on the game, it's owners, admins or users. I sincerely hope you flourish because this world and a few of it's people will always have a special place in my heart. Unfortunately, I just know that this wont be the last time the admins 'step in'.

It's not this incident that has made me react this way, it's the constant interferences down the years and the many more that I expect to come in the future

As soon as Subtle sets up someone in my place, I shall retire.

Heartbreaking. </3

=(

To alleviate any confusion Squishy = Izzy = IzzyCreamcheese

NOOOOOOOOO ORRRRRRYYYTHIIIAAAAAAA

YOU BASTARDS, YOU MADE HIM RETIRE!

Orithyia :(

I'm not sure how to feel about this.. You brought me onto Mafia in January 2012.. Its coming up on my second year and now you're leaving again :/

Its truly heart breaking, the one who taught me and brought me here, the reason I'm even here, leaving for good.

I'll miss you Richard <3

And it's that self-righteous attitude that is making people turn their back on you Squishy.

"I know you would much rather have checkboxes in your HQ settings page so you can individually disable large chunks of the game for your crew members."

You know full well that is not true, don't outright lie to gain favour Squishy, that's lower than a fucking rat.

On first sight I honestly don´t ksee anything wrong with admin interfering and pushing the game into a direction, especially when it comes to keeping things in character, where the PP/Mug thingy seems quite a tough one all in all...

I think is a strange time for this to happen and how it was done was not the best, but these things can't be altered now.  I believe many people have an opinion and like always not everyone will be pleased no matter what.  I would always love to see less admin interference but not to the point like some other games that share the jaundies irc server, which either are in danger or already have dissapeared.  I think a more diplomatic approach by many on both sides is needed, but sometimes thats asking too much.

I wish no ill will on the game, it's owners, admins or users.

i can only see ill will in my eyes here but thats just my point of view.

to touch on squishys point also i played a mafia game a few years back before i landed here and a friend i made online ran himself into the ground so bad playing it 24/7 his health and sanity was greatly effected to the point where an admin intervened for the guys own sake i see no reason why that shouldnt happen after all its a game not your life.

also i would like to point out the fact that try stepping into squishys shoes running a game its userbase and future, sure its easy to sit and criticize but this game is only growing and respect for that

For this game to progress beyond someone's baby and into a genuine product, it would need to become a lot more professional. Squishy muted around putting a buffer between himself and the users like it was a bad thing, but it was absolutely the best solution he could have come up with. You don't have a direct line to Blizzard to bitch about Warcraft, you have to go through various levels of customer support. Obviously this isn't on the same scale, but the principle is what is important. There is a reason you can't go straight to the source and this game would benefit significantly from a similar sort of operation, where the attention of the coders wasn't on dealing with user bullshit and could be spent objectively looking at the development of the game. 

The difficulty is in giving up control and letting people play with and in some cases I'm sure, trample all over your hard work. Speaking as someone who has undoubtedly trampled on that hard work in the past, I am sure it is absolutely enraging to witness. However, the appeal of the game has always been the choice afforded to the players and the pursuit of getting to the top of pyramid and being able to piss off the edge onto everyone else who doesn't like how you do things. Well, it has been for me anyway. 

Regardless, retiring a Don CL account over this sort of drama that has existed for virtually as long as the game itself seems ridiculously childish. I'm sure it will change absolutely nothing.