Best Of

The thing I did

Hey so this is kinda weird and I'm not sure if it's even against the rules or not, but there's probably a log of my floating around with me saying something insensitive. Heck, I'll just post it here in its full context: https://ada-young.com/pastebin/ImPWKZ05

Given I've made posts about talking about how we treat each other in the community before, I feel like I should probably put my money where my mouth is. The final reaction of mine was an uncool response brought about by frustration given the entire previous conversation. I'm sorry, @Oriana.

I shoulda just left web but I instead went with a stress response.

That's it.

Tetchta

2

Re: Your Favorite Event

With the discussions about lore and missing or drawn out events going on, I am a bit curious about what your favorite events from the past has been. Perhaps, if we can recall and explain why these events were fun/successful, it could give the Admins and volunteers an idea of what might work for the future? I will go first!

Back when I started playing in 2007 or so, when I was still very much a newb, there was an event involving the Gates on Mostyn (there's a book about it, I believe, but I will explain from my own memory, since that's my impression). A large gate with two doors was breached on Mostyn and leaked out very aggressive shadows. Since it was Lord Arion's island, He was in the middle of it all, as was Enorian. Arion ordered people to gather amethysts (which could be found all over Sapience) and give them to a certain someone (I think). Once enough amethysts were gathered, a Luminary, Armin, would forge a chain to keep the gate locked, because only a Luminary was able to handle fire that hot. This is, of course, a very brief explanation and one straight from memory, so it might not be 100% accurate, or I could be missing details.

Despite it being aimed towards Lord Arion and Enorian, Spines, Loch and Duiran was still very much involved. The Darkies could steal and hide the amethysts, or try to open the gates to let out shadows. There was fighting for those who enjoyed pk and tasks, like gathering gems, for those who were not. It stretched out over the course of several weeks, I think, or at least more than a couple of days. Everyone could be involved in one way or another, despite being a combatant or not, despite where in the world you lived.

So, what is your favorite event of the past? And why? Remember to point out the good stuff and keep negativity to a minimum!

I remember this event! Very fun

Ayastia

1

Re: What do you think would improve the game?

That's what feels like it's missing from Aetolia. As for Rhyot saying this is, uh, "punishment" I guess? For harsh customer feedback, problem is that wasn't what killed narrative events, the removal of a permanent lore head did that.

I don't think "punishment" was an accurate word for him to use. However, I think the point is well made. Any suggestion of a paid Lore Head has to answer two very important questions: how does what happened with the Curse event not happen with whatever event a Lore Head would come up with; and how does what happened with the Combat Lead (or Bamathis; or others) not happen with the Lore Head? It's not that the playerbase was bad and now this is being done to us out of spite or as means of correction. It is that whatever solution is attempted has to contend with a long, storied history of "harsh customer feedback" (i.e. often outright abuse).

EDIT: It galls me that "harsh customer feedback" is how the playerbase's actions are described. I just wanna say, in no uncertain terms, that some of what Tiur and other game runners have allegedly had to deal with has not been okay. No amount of money changing hands would make it okay. Any who feel their purchases should justify abusing another person should reevaluate their worldview.

Seurimas

2

Re: The thing I did

Considering I've been pasted a handful of Shadow web logs where people are shit talking me and other Spirit players, this isn't really an isolated incident, but rather seems to be the narrative.

I've taken a big step back from Aetolia in terms of how active and engaged I am, partly due to the lack of global events and RP, but also due to the continued smack that's talked about me in OOC webs for IC actions my character does (looking at you Chassity, Didi, Mileta, Rhyot, etc). But apparently you can't call players out for being toxic like this, lest you catch a 3 week forum warning, as per my last post about this in the Pet Peeves thread.

What an absolute joke, because you have people like Elene, Alela, Mjoll (I may have missed others as well!) who try to rein in this behavior but largely go ignored. It's discouraging because some of these people are LEADERS on their tether and are trying to set the tone and make things less shitty, but seem to be spinning their wheels in the mud.

Sryaen

7

Re: What do you think would improve the game?

Why are promos the only content we get about 90% of the time in a given a year?

This actually made me wonder: what HAS happened in the past year? Has it really been 90% promos? Let's check the news. Starting with events:

~~258 Anonymous Of blood, shadow, and Ayukazi: 10/18/2020~~
259 Anonymous The price of freedom 11/7/2020
~~260 Anonymous The Adherent of Malevolence 12/7/2020~~
261 Anonymous The return of Varach Scolrys 2/3/2021 a
~~262 Anonymous The Revenants and the Wardens 4/6/2021 a~~
263 Anonymous The Den of Shadows 7/11/2021

Discounting the mirror classes and level 200 events, that's still 3 Events, one of them rather big. For all the people who note that other IRE games get at least one big event every year, that quota has been filled. It just so happens that our big event was lambasted by the playerbase for (imo) no good reason, and had to end early. None of that would change with a paid Lore head, either.

Moving on to Announce, we actually just recently passed a somber milestone: Keroc stepped down as Combat Lead just over one year ago. Rhyot already made the relevant points about that. Anyhow, here's the Announces:

3130 Administrator Alecto Automation reminder 8/24/2020
3131 Tiur, the Gnosis Year 490 of the Midnight Age! 8/24/2020
3132 Tiur, the Gnosis Year 490 Rescheduling 8/26/2020
~~3133 Tiur, the Gnosis September 2020 9/1/2020 a~~
3134 Tiur, the Gnosis Idea Day P1 9/16/2020
3135 'Mutineer' Tiur, the Gnosi Fine, I'll do it! 9/19/2020
3136 Tiur, the Gnosis Question Thread 9/23/2020
3137 Tiur, the Gnosis Delayed Promo 9/30/2020
3138 Tiur, the Gnosis October Promotion P1 10/2/2020
3139 Ere, the Celebrant Storytelling y490! 10/11/2020
3140 Chef Elaheh Adan y490 Iron Epicurean Winners 10/17/2020
3141 Ere, the Celebrant City Champs 10/17/2020
~~3142 Tiur, the Gnosis November 2020 11/1/2020~~
3143 Tiur, the Gnosis Cursed Event 11/25/2020
3144 Tiur, the Gnosis Thanksgiving! 11/26/2020
~~3145 Keroc, the Starborn Cyber Monday Sale! 11/30/2020~~
~~3146 Tiur, the Gnosis Diciembre 2020 12/1/2020~~
3147 Keroc, the Starborn War Ministry and Troops 12/2/2020
3148 Ere, the Celebrant Storytelling crystals/Epicurea 12/8/2020
3149 Keroc, the Starborn Djeirani race 12/13/2020
3150 Tiur, the Gnosis Celesmas 2020 12/16/2020
3151 Keroc, the Starborn Tsinkin outcast village 12/17/2020
3152 Tiur, the Gnosis Classlead Changes 12/18/2020
3153 Keroc, the Starborn Celesmas Games 12/19/2020
3154 Tedrunai Anonymous Encounters 12/19/2020
~~3155 Tiur, the Gnosis January 2021 1/1/2021 a~~
3156 Tiur, the Gnosis Classleads January 2021 1/1/2021 a
3157 Razmael, the Synthesist Clawhook Range & surrounding a 1/2/2021 a
3158 Tiur, the Gnosis End of Year 2020 1/4/2021 a
3159 Tiur, the Gnosis Multiple Artifacts 1/10/2021
3160 Tiur, the Gnosis Classleads Submissions Closed 1/14/2021
3161 Tiur, the Gnosis Celebrating January 20th 1/20/2021
3162 Ceraen Interactive timeline of Aetoli 1/24/2021
3163 Razmael, the Synthesist Banned player 1/30/2021
~~3164 Tiur, the Gnosis February 2021 2/1/2021 a~~
3165 Razmael, the Synthesist Command rate limit 2/3/2021 a
3166 Nalus the Liaison Classleads January 2021 - part 2/6/2021 a
3167 Nalus the Liaison Classleads January 2021 - part 2/9/2021 a
3168 Keroc, the Starborn The Duel 2/10/2021
~~3169 Tiur, the Gnosis March 2021 3/1/2021 a~~
3170 Tiur, the Gnosis Credit Loans 3/7/2021 a
3171 Tiur, the Gnosis Where's Mining and Mirrors? 3/11/2021
~~3172 Tiur, the Gnosis April! 4/1/2021 a~~
3173 Tiur, the Gnosis Revenants 4/3/2021 a
3174 Razmael, the Synthesist Wardens release! 4/4/2021 a
3175 Tiur, the Gnosis Artifacts! 4/9/2021 a
3176 Tiur, the Gnosis Aegis and PK 4/9/2021 a
3177 Tiur, the Gnosis 2021 Celani Call! 4/9/2021 a
3178 Keroc, the Starborn The Duel 4/13/2021
3179 Keroc, the Starborn The Duel 4/14/2021
~~3180 Tiur, the Gnosis April Refresh 4/16/2021~~
3181 Keroc, the Starborn Class tweaks 4/21/2021
3182 Keroc, the Starborn Shamans 4/28/2021
~~3183 Tiur, the Gnosis May 2021 4/30/2021~~
3184 Keroc, the Starborn Back from the dead? 5/4/2021 a
3185 Tiur, the Gnosis What's Aetolia Doing Ep 2 5/8/2021 a
3186 Tiur, the Gnosis Mother's Day 2021 5/9/2021 a
3187 Tiur, the Gnosis New Server Test 5/25/2021
3188 Tiur, the Gnosis June Promotion 5/31/2021
3189 Tiur, the Gnosis June Promotion Try #3 6/1/2021 a
~~3190 Tiur, the Gnosis Niuri Stones 6/1/2021 a~~
3191 Keroc, the Starborn The Duel 6/12/2021
~~3192 Tiur, the Gnosis Father's Day 6/20/2021~~
3193 Tiur, the Gnosis Guild Rankset 6/28/2021
~~3194 Tiur, the Gnosis July Promotion 7/1/2021 a~~
3195 Tiur, the Gnosis Classleads Jun...JULY 2021 7/13/2021
3196 Tiur, the Gnosis Room Credits 7/14/2021
3197 Keroc, the Starborn Treaties and relations 7/16/2021
~~3198 Tiur, the Gnosis 2021 Auction 7/20/2021~~
3199 Keroc, the Starborn More treaty terms! 7/27/2021
3200 Tiur, the Gnosis Classleads Closed 7/28/2021
3201 Keroc, the Starborn More treaty terms 7/28/2021
~~3202 Tiur, the Gnosis Auction II 7/28/2021~~
3203 Razmael, the Synthesist Minotaur playable race 7/29/2021
~~3204 Tiur, the Gnosis August Promo 8/1/2021 a~~

Now I feel bad about asking for quarterly checkins, because that's also a quota that's all but been filled, with 3 bolded checkins in the past year. I think some consistency would do a lot for community trust. In other words, if we can't do classleads at the start of every quarter, maybe we can get a checkin. That said, it's not actually been that bad.

As for "90% promos", I actually see a lot more than just promos. There's a smattering of events (ma490, CTF, Duels, seasonal freebies), a decent amount of combat balancing despite not having a Combat Lead any more, and a whole host of new features. Most notable among the new features are a lot of things that help the players tell stories in unique ways (Anonymous Encounters, Treaty changes, troop movements).

Seurimas

1

Your Favorite Event

With the discussions about lore and missing or drawn out events going on, I am a bit curious about what your favorite events from the past has been. Perhaps, if we can recall and explain why these events were fun/successful, it could give the Admins and volunteers an idea of what might work for the future? I will go first!

Back when I started playing in 2007 or so, when I was still very much a newb, there was an event involving the Gates on Mostyn (there's a book about it, I believe, but I will explain from my own memory, since that's my impression). A large gate with two doors was breached on Mostyn and leaked out very aggressive shadows. Since it was Lord Arion's island, He was in the middle of it all, as was Enorian. Arion ordered people to gather amethysts (which could be found all over Sapience) and give them to a certain someone (I think). Once enough amethysts were gathered, a Luminary, Armin, would forge a chain to keep the gate locked, because only a Luminary was able to handle fire that hot. This is, of course, a very brief explanation and one straight from memory, so it might not be 100% accurate, or I could be missing details.

Despite it being aimed towards Lord Arion and Enorian, Spines, Loch and Duiran was still very much involved. The Darkies could steal and hide the amethysts, or try to open the gates to let out shadows. There was fighting for those who enjoyed pk and tasks, like gathering gems, for those who were not. It stretched out over the course of several weeks, I think, or at least more than a couple of days. Everyone could be involved in one way or another, despite being a combatant or not, despite where in the world you lived.

So, what is your favorite event of the past? And why? Remember to point out the good stuff and keep negativity to a minimum!

Oba

2

Re: Drawings of Aetolia

Oh, been bad about putting these in my character's thread. Here's a new art of Rihrin done by the wonderful Blackbirdink: https://www.deviantart.com/blackbirdink