I remember...

Tenshyo

I remember when getting level fifty was impressive and 99 was unheard of.

I remember a time when I was bashing in Azdun (just at the fork before the forge with the little red mallet was) during a holy war and someone came to kill me. Back when @Tylera was briefly #1 rated combatant, she came to save me (because aint no one killin her man besides her)

I remember Talonnb.
I remember him saving my unicorns from @Desian and Company - yet again, jumping me because reasons.

I remember the first time @Kylan failed Tens on an interview and just how crushed I felt that.

I remember the first time @Auresae showed up in front of Tens almost a decade ago when I started playing. Tens was saying goodbye to his first friend -ever- (Shiloh) who went undead. Auresae showed up and chastised Shiloh, and scorned Tens for just wanting to say goodbye.

Zsadist

Oh the good ol' days, back when all the gods were actually more active and people looked forward to interactions with their chosen divine. Back when being in an Order meant something and when Holy Wars existed.

Yes, I know that gods are still played, but let's be real here. There's only a few who ever show up anymore and of those few, do they ever actually do anything besides hide in god-phase.

Teani

I remember my first character standing in the presence of a Divine for the first time. My hands were shaking as I was typing, because it was such a momentous thing for her to go through.

I also remember the first time my character was duped into doing "evil" by a Divine, how devastated my character was by it and how AWESOME I felt because of the character-building aspects of it all.

I remember passing my first interview ever in the game. That's the one that got me hooked, over a decade ago.

I remember getting compliments on never backing out from a fight, even if I knew it would kill me, because I stuck to my character and how she should react. And I remember winning my first 1v1 duel, the pride I felt knowing it was all me and my macros and aliases.

I remember getting lost in Ashtan and being unable to figure out which island held what.

I remember watching someone getting knocked back to Novicehood for having wronged more than half the game at the same time and getting hunted down for it simultaneously. And it was not considered grief, but consequence of one's actions.

Draiman

Zsadist said:

Yes, I know that gods are still played, but let's be real here. There's only a few who ever show up anymore and of those few, do they ever actually do anything besides hide in god-phase.

Iosyne does a lot actually. Maybe if you'd quit being a negative nancy about literally everything and bend your RP a bit you'd get to see that? You're a self proclaimed heathen or w/e, it's not exactly a mystery why a god wouldn't interact with you.

I even had interactions with Damariel on Viho before I turned him into a pk bot/retired him, so I chalk the lack of interaction up there to me and not them.

Tedrunai

Here's my 2 cents on Pools interaction:

I personally dislike using the zap button, that's not fun for me or anyone else, and if interactions inevitably boil down to someone saying "zap me I dare u" every time I'm obviously going to end up avoiding those interactions. We have a character to play and those characters are, well, Gods who have the power to wipe a player off the face of Sapience. However, as said, throwing around mechanical power like that isn't fun for anyone involved so situations where someone openly and ICly mocks a God's OOC hesitance for ruining your game experience are the actual worst things someone in the Pools can experience.

Do you see the dilemma? Either we take it and diminish the God's IC persona and reputation or we zap/punish offenders repeatedly. Both outcomes suck, so the only winning move is not to play.

So anyway, if I'm actively trying to avoid interactions it's for the above reasons.

DISCLAIMER: This is just my personal outlook, I don't speak for everyone in the Pools.

All that said @Zsadist maybe we're just subtly enhancing your RP experience, bringing realism to a self-described heathen. Full immersion!

Zsadist

@Tedrunai, @Draiman. I don't get upset one way or the other if an admin God interacts with me, considering I've had great interactions with a few and weren't always negative. I had a great RP conversation with Slyphe, in which no death occured, and that was fun. He came to Bloodloch Pylon and we spoke about the god shells (or something) and then he left. Even Haern's hounds were a blast as they murdered me randomly. I play a heathen for a reason because of what happened in Imperian (the gods were all murdered in case you didn't know) and we all know IRE has a pension to follow similar storylines throughout their games. So in my mind, its just a matter of time until the Aetolian gods are all murdered. So why should bother?

But what I'm talking about is how half the God-mins aren't even heard from/of anymore... ie Chakrasul, Ethne, Avareti, Maghak, Severn, Ivoln, Damariel. Hell, I can't remember the last time I heard of someone interacting with one of the above, reading an rp from one of the above, or even SEEING one of the above recently. And by recently, I mean within the last 4 months.

Now I could be wrong, but I'm about 50% sure I'm not.

Drestyn

Ivoln and Damariel were active until a month or so ago. I'm gonna guess either they had OOC things to deal with that correlate with the seasons or they're taking a little bit of a vacation. Either way, if there was ever a Celani call, I'd be going for it because I'd rather the playerbase have an active set of Gods than being able to play Drestyn.

Teani

True, I've been frustrated with the lack of visibility and activity from some Divine too, but it's never easy for the Admins. One moment people are complaining that there aren't enough new areas, the next they're piping up about too many bugs not getting fixed or there being an imbalance in combat that has to be fixed yesterday or demanding revamps that have been promised soon (tm) or there are not enough events going on.

Aside from three people in Pools, the rest are volunteers and they have to deal with all these things on their own free time. It's not easy juggling all that, especially when the playerbase can be mean as unicorns with their comments on performance. It takes energy to step into a role and know that everything you do is going to be scrutinized and you might end up getting blasted in some way for it, no matter what you do.

Diogen

I remember my first mobpossession, ages ago. It was an Enorianite guard. Someone got mad at him idly complaining that his post was boring, so they repositioned him in front of the sewers.

I remember the first time I crashed the game.

I remember messing up my first big event massively and the first thing I said as my godshell having a typo. D'oh.

Haven

Diogen said:

I remember my first mobpossession, ages ago. It was an Enorianite guard. Someone got mad at him idly complaining that his post was boring, so they repositioned him in front of the sewers.

I remember the first time I crashed the game.

I remember messing up my first big event massively and the first thing I said as my godshell having a typo. D'oh.

-peer- I might have the wrong person but I'mma just leave this here.

https://www.aetolia.com/node/61352