Tone of Aetolia

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Comments

  • BenedictoBenedicto Tentacles Errywhere!
    edited May 2017
    I'm an absolute RP hoor though, so nobody trust my judgement.

    On a more serious note, cutting oneself off from interacting with, what amounts to roughly half of the playerbase means, to me at least, you're potentially limiting yourself to having half of the fun and the game will only ever achieve half of it's potential for you.

    That's not to say that every interaction should be butt-slaps and good times. Just...leave yourself open to the possibilities.
    image
    Vyxsis
  • AnteheAntehe Immortal
    For those of you that initiate/partake in cross-tether roleplay, what advice would you give others to help them in this pursuit? In particular, fostering interactions that befit the politics of the realm, in regards of both the extremes this can run (griefing/antagonism that is not rewarding to engage with, or utilizing Aetolia as a chatroom and watering down the very tone that is sought after)?

    Some tips or tricks for this might be helpful for others, though maybe that kind of advice would be good to centralize in its own thread, since it comes up often in newbie questions as well!
    Zaila
  • ZailaZaila Pacific Time
    I think the main excuse for first time branches out "to the other side" is curiosity. To avoid watering down the tone there, your character can behave appropriately like a fish out of water, have them actually look around and react to the sights and sounds. But that excuse doesn't last long. While there, try to find things that would encourage your character to return - maybe you are a vampire and now you've got a taste for those natural duiranites and so now you'll want to return to try and seduce a meal, or you are a luminary and see so much corruption in spines that you want to save their souls and preach on the street corner. Whatever floats your character's boat.
  • AishiaAishia Queen Bee
    Just rip your scarves off really aggressively in front of someone who is also wearing a scarf, or drink drinks really aggressively while glaring at them.
    LinIrae
  • Aishia said:

    Just rip your scarves off really aggressively in front of someone who is also wearing a scarf, or drink drinks really aggressively while glaring at them.

    I do that everyday at Burly Chest Tavern while glaring at @Rasani and her hound Cahir. RIP my gold reserves spent on new drinks!
    Rasani
  • So I didn't read all of this, just had my name mentioned so I glanced over it a bit. I read a decent amount though and just had a few comments.

    First off, roving player-ran death cults would be awesome. Srsly, make one, then just forum post 'looking for sacrificial lambs', mention you won't use everyone who volunteers and some people will be more RP torture and fun and others will likely just be ganked. Let people volunteer and sweat it out, wondering if and when the reaper comes for them. I bet you'd get a few people, and when they talk about how awesome of a time it was or post the logs, I bet you'd get more and more people. Give it a shot. Hell, have it be from the spirit side so it's even more messed up. Watch it all unfold. It may not last a full year RL, but I bet you'd get a few months of fun from it and really ratchet up the suspense in the game.

    Second, I love playing with the other side. I started out in the Reach, then went Duiran and Enorian. Getting to play with the other side is amazing. Even if it's just sitting down and talking or getting tours of places or meeting someone on a river and looking at each other's pets. What's more fun is when your side notices and either asks you to use them or comes to 'rescue' you. It's led to some of my best times when those have happened.

    Third, >_< I like to think I changed plans on the bloom by pushing back how long it took before we got spores. :P Course, then I did, yes, speed it up by infecting the alchemists... I suck.

    Zaila
  • HavenHaven World Burner Flight School
    A good tactic for cross-faction RP I liked to utilize was coming up with tasks or missions for my character or another player's character to fulfill and then scan the who list for potential candidates that could complement and complete said task. Try to think outside the box but mundane tasks can work.

    An example of what I mean would be like when I gave darkie Haven a sudden urge to try to corrupt someone. I had no idea who @Phoenecia was at the time beyond that she was a Paladin and saw her questing in Attica on the who list. If I recall correctly, one of their first interactions was of Haven asking about the history of Attica's denizens and what they represented. She ended up checking up on what Haven was doing in Attica and found him murdering people. I recall her being horrified that Haven was killing people based off a twist of her own words. Pretty sure @Benedicto eventually came to help her defend the area from me and my shenanigans.

    Another example: My shapeshifter wanted a book or treasure or something from a Vampire castle. He ended up enlisting one of @Lin's characters to help him get into Ve'Kahi's castle in the Morgun? I think we ended up using one of @Erzsebet's childer or something like that to get access.

    Another example: Lighter Haven felt even @Ezalor was worthy of redemption. Shouted some stuff to get his attention, ended up in Iosyne's temple of doom.

    Another time - Haven wanted @Emelle in Enorian but didn't think he had the pull to take her from Duiran considering his poor standing with the forestals. So he recruited @Rashar to try and do it.

    Most of this stuff I did on the fly and just went with the flow of where ever the other players were willing to take it with me. Ultimately, you want a simple vision or task people can follow along on and still be able to make their own. That's where I've had the most success.
    ¤ Si vis pacem, para bellum. ¤
    Someone powerful says, "We're going to have to delete you."
    havenbanner2
    KelliaraZaila
  • Jaymi said:


    Third, >_< I like to think I changed plans on the bloom by pushing back how long it took before we got spores. :P Course, then I did, yes, speed it up by infecting the alchemists... I suck.

    That wasn't a jab, @Jaymi. Honestly, I kinda love that the people meant to cure us ended up getting sick.

    It was more to point out that unexpected things happen when people participate, and that's awesome.
    Now with 253% more Madness.
    Cute-Kelli by @Sessizlik.
  • Kelliara said:

    Jaymi said:


    Third, >_< I like to think I changed plans on the bloom by pushing back how long it took before we got spores. :P Course, then I did, yes, speed it up by infecting the alchemists... I suck.

    That wasn't a jab, @Jaymi. Honestly, I kinda love that the people meant to cure us ended up getting sick.

    It was more to point out that unexpected things happen when people participate, and that's awesome.
    Oh no! I totes got that. I was playing, really. ^_^ <3

  • SibattiSibatti Mamba dur Naya Amidst vibrant flora and trees
    What Haven and a few other people have said in this thread brings me to an interesting thought: is there a feeling that recruitment/conversion RP is the only real way to "win" at the game? Since there are no lasting effects to the orgs beyond temporary setbacks, and the onus on orgs to be wealthy has been nerfed considerably, is the true game then an accumulation of talent and manpower?

    Obviously, there are a finite number of players, and an even smaller number of superstars out there, and we could poach each other ad infinitum, but to what end? It feels like nothing would ever be lasting, if that were the case. Investing in someone's future within an org carries such a high risk vs reward. If you're going to eventually lose that person due to fickleness, or boredom, or the grass-is-greener effect, it becomes tough to put forward the effort.

    I'm saying this as someone who's both lost people and poached people (mostly the latter). But attracting the best people to your org out of sheer force of personality, and collecting them like Pokemon, isn't a healthy state for the overall game, I feel.

    I would like to see more lasting consequences. I think people are too desperate to "win" the manpower game and subsequently, forgiveness comes super easy.

    I don't really know how to change it, though.
    HavenLin
  • KerrynKerryn The Black Flagon Inn
    @Sibatti I think you hit the nail on the head in what you said. The lifers are essentially told, turn the undead or kill them. We all know that neither side is going to rid the world of the other. So we're left with 'saving' them. We're also told by admin that we can't make jumping back and forth from sides difficult. It's a game so we HAVE to allow them to join, provided they've not done something extreme to the org they're looking to join. IE: Robbing it. Or be @Haven. XD. We can make them jump through hoops. But often that only upsets players and then, they turn around and go back to their sandbox, with the 'lifers suck and are unwelcoming' attitude that we're known for. So to fix that, we just let them join without any accountability for their constant back and forth. Which further waters down the 'why should I care?' attitude.

    So, we're left with poaching people, it's our only way of 'winning' against our enemies. Doing so gives us a sense of moving forward and not remaining stagnant. I feel side hopping is more a 'I'm bored.' than anything else.

    Personally, I think the best time in Aetolia, was when the Dreikathian armies invaded. There was a real sense of fear and being forced to work with our enemy was incredibly fun. Were we going to be enslaved? Was our home going to be destroyed? Was a dragon going to eat us? Sure, we worked with our enemies, but there was still a lot of side-eyeing and mistrust between all orgs. We were in no way suddenly BFF's.

    I know during that event there was rumors we could be forced to move to Delve due to the Dreikathian's antics. I sorta wish that had happened. Everyone being forced to live in a foreign city, where we were not wanted, and having to live side by side by our sworn enemies.

    SibattiHaven
  • HavenHaven World Burner Flight School
    @Sibatti: Yeah, it certainly felt like one of the few avenues available to the players that felt as if it had any sort of meaning. But then again that lasted really only as long as your investment decided to play ball - which is their right.

    I'm of a similar mindset to Phoe where I think that the tone hasn't really changed much for the game and that Aetolia is what you decide to make it. Maybe community mindset has changed but not so much the tone of the game. That said, I also believe a lot more could be introduced or in some cases, like War, fixed and reintroduced to great benefit to the game.

    The majority of players have long since said that they crave meaning and I believe meaning stems from mechanical backing to a large degree. It would be refreshing if a new meaningful conflict system were introduced that could not be solved solely if at all by violence. There's a lot of untapped potential between treaties, politics, environments, territory, war and all that it encompasses etc. that the game does not recognize at all in any meaningful way.


    ¤ Si vis pacem, para bellum. ¤
    Someone powerful says, "We're going to have to delete you."
    havenbanner2
  • Kalak said:

    Aishia said:

    Just rip your scarves off really aggressively in front of someone who is also wearing a scarf, or drink drinks really aggressively while glaring at them.

    I do that everyday at Burly Chest Tavern while glaring at @Rasani and her hound Cahir. RIP my gold reserves spent on new drinks!
    I'm sorry I keep making new drinks, I just love brewing.
    KalakLin
  • Cross tether rp can be fun, and I've had a lot of great ones. I'm really glad for what @Tiur said on the pyrrhic victory front. I've not been part of the game long, so I can't speak to old Aetolia, but one of the first ever events I was part of was based in Enorian and like, an Enorian event, but somehow won by another faction. That always felt a little weird to me. Not that cross tether isn't awesome, it just felt very weird because no real RP was involved with it.

    Some of my favorite RP scenes were ones I've had with @Xenia when she lead the Fex. Tense, semi-political conversations between leaders and MAN would I love some of those. I don't remember who, but someone once said they used to have really tense dinners to dicuss political matters and my GOD would I love that. It sounds like fun and also hilarious.
  • SeirSeir Seein' All the Things Getting high off your emotion
    Cross-tether RP can be fun, and I don't believe in creating barriers.

    I confess that my interest in Aetolia is waning a lot lately, and I'm experiencing burnout just as I became guildmaster. I see players seldom interacting with one another, but isolating themselves into pockets. Conflict has been reduced to a single, repetitive, and I use this term loosely: "pointless" back and forth. Conflict, if it is to succeed, requires the players to have a tangible, noticeable impact on the world around them. War, for all its flaws, did that. Lessers do not. The Orrery does, to a small degree, but it's repetitive and happens too often, thus watering down its significance.
    Teani
  • The character development, overall, from the current RP conflicts has been very compelling from my point of view. Yes, it can be tedious and requires a lot of dialogue and diplomacy that goes on between lulls of PK (which is annoying to deal with and find compromise), but because of it, Xenia has been exposed to more characters than she had before. The result budding relationships cross-tether that feel complex and intriguing. I like the direction things are heading; I'll take the good with the bad and enjoy whatever develops.

  • SessizlikSessizlik Muffin Mage
    I have bad experiences with cross-tether rp. When Sessi was a novice, she managed to get a whole lot of information about stuff like the Abyss and the Shadowbound from Moiran, but was later kicked out of the Ascendrils, because the leadership didn't like that she talked to darkies. Sessi was doing everything an Ascendril was supposed to do, gather information, learn, expand on our enlightenment, and also did it to help Enorian at large, and she was kicked from the guild for it. Yes, I am still bitter about that.

    As for how things are now, I really can't say. I've been so bored with the game since before the whole Bloom-deal, I have barely logged in. I find that, on all of my chars, things are at a standstill. I can't even find enough energy to make an alt. I look at the list of guilds in the game and I can't find a single one that seems exciting. Spinesreach can be fun at times, but there's still a problem with cliques everywhere. It's difficult getting into the already set groups of rp and if you manage to get into group A, you are basically stuck there and can't rp with people in group B.

    Perhaps this is just me having this problem, perhaps noone else sees it... I am still hoping to find the joy of the game again, cause I love Aetolia and I at least love some of the people in this game.
    image
    RhoynnKarhast
  • Sessizlik said:

    I have bad experiences with cross-tether rp. When Sessi was a novice, she managed to get a whole lot of information about stuff like the Abyss and the Shadowbound from Moiran, but was later kicked out of the Ascendrils, because the leadership didn't like that she talked to darkies. Sessi was doing everything an Ascendril was supposed to do, gather information, learn, expand on our enlightenment, and also did it to help Enorian at large, and she was kicked from the guild for it. Yes, I am still bitter about that.

    As for how things are now, I really can't say. I've been so bored with the game since before the whole Bloom-deal, I have barely logged in. I find that, on all of my chars, things are at a standstill. I can't even find enough energy to make an alt. I look at the list of guilds in the game and I can't find a single one that seems exciting. Spinesreach can be fun at times, but there's still a problem with cliques everywhere. It's difficult getting into the already set groups of rp and if you manage to get into group A, you are basically stuck there and can't rp with people in group B.

    Perhaps this is just me having this problem, perhaps noone else sees it... I am still hoping to find the joy of the game again, cause I love Aetolia and I at least love some of the people in this game.

    That is why I do not prefer to enter in any clique of RP in isolationist sense. There are many groups, families, established RP arcs etc. floating across the game and many people are craving for acknowledgement. My method is not asking for any acknowledgement or membership in a clique from one group or two but busting my way into people's perception with tools at my disposal. People may accept my character's backstory and aspirations, refuse them, ridicule them or be amazed by them. Weakly or strongly, my character will try to bust through the walls of cliques, always.

    Now there are tools provided by the developers but also you can create your own devices which allows you to be at several places for many different reasons. Though, content and conflict creation has its own risks because the established people can take it wrong, try to stifle it or even take action against your style. But I find that as the beauty of the action-reaction dynamic rather then something displeasant. Of course, if "You spoke to other side, now you are out!" kind of thing were to happen to me, I would consider a fitting punishment for that kind of act and further my RP towards that way. In my opinion, since no one has any right to PKx1000 people, no one has right to kick people at their whim with minimal reasons. The show must go on, regardless.

    And personally speaking, I do not know which side of the Spinesreach you are exposed to but I do agree the place can appear silent at times. But if you decide to stick around once again, watch out for a scarred bald mage!
    Sessizlik
  • BenedictoBenedicto Tentacles Errywhere!
    edited June 2017
    Sessizlik said:

    I have bad experiences with cross-tether rp. When Sessi was a novice, she managed to get a whole lot of information about stuff like the Abyss and the Shadowbound from Moiran, but was later kicked out of the Ascendrils, because the leadership didn't like that she talked to darkies. Sessi was doing everything an Ascendril was supposed to do, gather information, learn, expand on our enlightenment, and also did it to help Enorian at large, and she was kicked from the guild for it. Yes, I am still bitter about that.

    As for how things are now, I really can't say. I've been so bored with the game since before the whole Bloom-deal, I have barely logged in. I find that, on all of my chars, things are at a standstill. I can't even find enough energy to make an alt. I look at the list of guilds in the game and I can't find a single one that seems exciting. Spinesreach can be fun at times, but there's still a problem with cliques everywhere. It's difficult getting into the already set groups of rp and if you manage to get into group A, you are basically stuck there and can't rp with people in group B.

    Perhaps this is just me having this problem, perhaps noone else sees it... I am still hoping to find the joy of the game again, cause I love Aetolia and I at least love some of the people in this game.

    That's a real shame to hear @Sessizlik. I remember that whole debacle as Bene was also involved with gathering information (primarily from Moirean - make of that what you will). Fortunately, the Daru were a bit more understanding.

    But, as a player who frequently has spells away from the game and returns to find the personnel completely changed, it can be surprising who you end up getting involved with.

    I'm extremely lucky that @Rasani and @Dzekk have been very encouraging of Bene's cross-tether RP and have placed him in a role as a representative of the Templar that requires interaction with people from every area of the game. Personally it is something that I am a huge advocate of.

    Anyway, my point being, that despite previous bad experiences, there are also a lot of positive things occurring in the game. If all else fails, you can always come and let Bene embarrass you by acting like a fool in the middle of Enorian all over again!
    image
    DzekkHavenSessizlik
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