I'm your assistant producer. Ask me (almost) anything.

Sollace

Out of all these questions I am to tired to read is there one that remains unsaid, that you wish someone would ask already?

Oleis

"Where can we mail a check?"

(just kidding)

Sollace

nice. Goes along with do you want to split this lottery ticket I just scored huge on with me. hehe

....on another note, I've a massive collection of four-leaf clovers, how many have you found?

Infin

If there was one thing in Aetolian Lore you could go back and write different what would it be?

Oleis

I wish we had spent more time explaining things like vampirism, the origin of the gods, etc. The fundamentals of Aetolia were set in place before the high standards of role play had crept into IRE consciousness. Anything we do now is effective and helpful, but still revisionist history. 

Neithan

GUIDELINES
----------
* Sorry, but no more dragon pets are being considered for approval.

What do you guys have against dragons?

Trager

I think its about time, to be honest. Wasn't there that Undead House where everyone was riding dragons?

>_>

Areka

I think it was one of those 'early Aetolia' things that also had looser name constraints and so on. From my understanding, dragons are pretty epic things and really wouldn't be the pets of mortals.

Trigru

Basically that. Without saying too much, they're pretty lore-significant, and it was a mistake to allow them as pets.

Moirean

It's kinda like closing the barn door after the cows have gotten out, though. Since *some* are allowed as pets, it makes them all kinda seem eh, whatever, dragons are derpy ...and makes everyone else go man, that sucks, I can't get a dragon but John and Bob have dragons. I can honestly say that between Yuddhi being 1-shottable and all the ambient emote spam from Resiak and Riluo's dragons, my mental view of them is like Mushu from Mulan or the troublemaking clueless dragon from "The Dragon That Wasn't" or Gleep from the M.Y.T.H. series. Ie, dragons in Aet haven't been impressive for a while, and as long as there are pets of them sitting around chatting with people walking by, they won't be.

Serrice

Shoot the cows. Shoot all of them.

Gwenith

It's better to keep a few cows in then lose them all. To be honest I've yet to encounter any dragon in game but I've read some of the lore. I've been playing.. 6 months now? They aren't going to be awesome (in the true sense of the word since we frequently party with gods nothing is really awe inspiring in that sorta level) by the still seem to be pretty rare. Better to keep them rare then slowly trickle them in.

Or you know, delete the previously made dragon pets from the players. But while they are taking better delete all the other things that have slipped past.

Ishin

I'd trade my dragon in on Resiak if I could get the refund in unbound credits.

Moirean

Or they could just be creative. Instead of arbitrarily stopping something, which will just leave things eh and wonky, just be like YO WE CREATE THE LORE HERE AND WE HEREBY DECLARE THAT DRAGONS ARE LITTLE PIPSQUEAKS. I mean Achaeans become dragons, how great can they be amirite? And then be like BUT THE DRAGON RELATIVE - THE ULTRAMEGADOOMASAURUSREX - IS PRETTY GREAT AND TERRIFYING.

Or something.

Oleis

I honestly don't know what you're going with here. Dragons will have significance in future plans, so we're not introducing any more of them. Not sure if we'd take @Ishin's offer but it's appreciated. 

Moirean

I'm just saying that since the public perception is that dragons aren't that intimidating and world-threatening, you could always create an alternative beast. Sorry that was unclear.

Trigru

Is that the public perception, or the Moirean perception?

Obyn

Regarding dragons as pets, I can understand the appeal from a general fantasy point of view but man...there are so many cool mythological creatures out there that you could use as a pet/mount that would make your purchase truly unique. Heck, there are even a few really neat examples of creatures from Aetolia's game lore that make awesome pets. Don't limit yourself to the stereotypical.

Sibatti

I originally came from Achaea, where all endgamers are dragons, and then people can have dragon pets, and Yudhi is pretty weak, etc. Combine that with dragons being somewhat of an overused ploy in numerous other mediums, and they seem about as impressive as housecats, honestly.

It's a sense of the word/term 'dragon' lowering in value because of all of these factors, that would be difficult to erase now that they're somewhat established as creatures that aren't all that scary or awe-inspiring. It's like once the brand name loses its prestige, there's a very real struggle to bring it back to a respectable level. Which is why you'll see products/companies separate themselves from the stigma of a brand that has an undesirable reputation, and release something under a new name.

Moirean

Trigru said:

Is that the public perception, or the Moirean perception?

Trigru said:

Basically that. Without saying too much, they're pretty lore-significant, and it was a mistake to allow them as pets.

You yourself kinda implied that it's public perception....

ETA: Sibatti said it was better than I did. I'm not saying that *I* want a dragon, I'm just saying I don't think many of us are gonna find dragons a super terrifying/threatening monster. Creating something new would let people keep their dragon pets while also give us something omghalp like the Kerrithrim.

Ishin

The dragons the Dreikathi brought were pretty tough, but I definitely wasn't like 'eek' about them.

Eleanor

I think the point is that the administration want to be able to bring in dragons like with the dreikathi, where they were significant because oh man dragon riders and these things are pretty beastly quick call alexina, and have people go 'eek' not 'oh hey did resiak's mistake have kittens'. The fewer dragons that are allowed to be around, the more they're going to be able to pull that off, even if yes we have some already and people are meh about them.

Oleis

I just don't even understand why this is an argument. Discussion is important, but it's really not important to play devil's advocate for every topic. If would-be dragon owners want to send me a message, that's awesome. I'd be happy to talk to them about it. But considering the fact that at most 2 people have had anything to say on the topic since we announced that, it sure seems like we're spinning our wheels here for no real reason.

Moirean

I wasn't trying to play devil's advocate. I was trying to be helpful and offer an alternative. My apologies for offending.

Lim

Whether dragons are scary or not depends on how much they hurt when they hit you. I know I'm sure as heck afraid of that dragon in the arena Survivor game. Riluo's dragon, in contrast, is a sweetie. (:p) 

Gwenith

On the Achaea thing. That's Achaea. Dragons are common place but if most of the vampires like Big Z and Belladonna are impressive. It's kinda like a switch around here. Vamps are common place and crawling all over the cities and the admin want dragons not to be.

In the end it's what the admin want and think will make a better narrative now or in the future.

Elie

Oleis said:

I just don't even understand why this is an argument. Discussion is important, but it's really not important to play devil's advocate for every topic. If would-be dragon owners want to send me a message, that's awesome. I'd be happy to talk to them about it. But considering the fact that at most 2 people have had anything to say on the topic since we announced that, it sure seems like we're spinning our wheels here for no real reason.

Wait... are we concluding that dragons continue to be scary because only two people on the forums have said that they're not? This seems an absurd standpoint from which to make lore judgments.

If that's how we're drawing conclusions, though, I'll throw my weight in with those who pretty much understood dragons in Aetolia to be underfed mutants of the lizard lineage. And honestly - to reiterate what's been stated above - this is an opportunity for Aetolia to divorce itself from every other fantasy setting ever. It would be entirely reasonable, lore-wise, for dragons to be AT MAXIMUM as powerful as any player-created character, considering that this world is a spun-off universe from one where players themselves BECOME dragons. "Dragon" as a word is not especially scary around here. We don't have any lore reason for it to be. Why create one now? Why take steps to circumvent player actions in order to adhere to a lore that we don't have, and that would make our world more generic? Why not allow that dragons in Aetolia are just naturally occurring threats - like a particularly nasty grizzly bear, or a large, uncontrolled wolf pack, or a lion that acquired a taste for human blood - a creature that exists in the world and has become a significant threat to the local population. Not something touched by the gods, not something divorced from the world we live in, just a beast that got out of control. That seems to be entirely in line with the dragons we HAVE already, and also with our world's lineage.

I know Aetolia has this huge thing about "WE NEED TO NOT BE ACHAEA", but it's not unreasonable to acknowledge your antecedents, especially when half of us were awkwardly working from that framework before any of the current crop of admin even started playing the game.

We've already got the vampire thing shoving us into a pop-culture corner populated by stinky, offensive neighbors like Twilight. I would think that we'd want to diverge a LITTLE bit from every other setting on this one (honestly pretty insignificant) issue.

Rashar

Why're we fighting about dragons, I don't get it.

There are so many bigger things to grump about. *so confused*

Aarbrok

....I came in here for question and answers.

All I got was this lousy dragon plush.

I dont have an official font to say it though, but I mean HONESTLY.

Gwenith

@Aarbrok when fonts fail, do a gif.