No matter how anyone feels about the MD removal, I think it’s really sad that such a small change (relatively speaking! the skill pool change had much larger gameplay implications) has created so much division in the community and that most of it was directed at dpeg.

I’m sad to hear about dpeg’s decision to step down and hope that in the future the community will learn to treat the people that develop DCSS on their free time (!!!) with more courtesy and respect.

I could understand why some might prefer exorcising Tolkien. But the orc is still straight up Tolkien (even more than dwarves IMO).

At the end of the day it’s mostly just a flavor choice. But Street Fighter II had both Ken and Ryu, and I think most people liked that. Crawl had elves, dwarves, hobbits, and orcs for a long time, vanilla as they might be. They give people a familiar starting point.

(In the end I don’t actually care too much.)

@Gimli: didn’t you get the memo?

it was not just dpeg that wanted your short butt kicked out of the dungeon, but support from the dev team and a horde of players.