Current State of Affairs

[trousers]

OOC:

I'm beginning to the get the feeling that we're very much alone on the world of Rubi-Ka. Has the ARK Events team totally given up on the players?

Over the course of the past few weeks my expectations have been dashed several times; each with little to no explanation as to the reason why things are being done. My reasoning stems from three accounts which I will lay out:

1) E-mail support. I have to commend Pheats here, because he seems to be the only one on the team answering e-mails who makes any sense. In the past, both recent and not, the Events Team seems to have a disconnect from what is actually going on. Problems range from getting answers to questions not asked, while having the questions asked ignored, to denial of events that took place by players who were in attendance.

2) LTC Support. It was stated by the game director that Devdas made the decision to kill the LTC Program on Rimor. I for one cannot figure out why he would do such a thing when at the OOC Player meeting eveyone said how it was the best thing to happen to RP. His answer is 'restructuring,' and the request for additional information was met with a post lock. Why the Iron Curtain?

3) The Guarantee of Legacy Support. Devdas said in his postnthat while LTCs will be off the table, Legacy Leaders will still show up to meeting. This past weekend at the NLCC meeting we had a player run event planned for the end of the meeting. As a courtesy the Newland General was given an OOC Heads up. The ARK's Reaction? Bail on the meeting before it begins.

My question to the community is this; has the ARK Events Team given up on us?

Discuss.

[Towerblock]

Have they ever been so forthcoming? I am not in the know of whats been going on lately. What I have learned, is largely second hand.
What I do not appreciate is vagary. This is pretty much a shame, because the past year has really turned around ( positively and in a big way) for RP on RK2. I was getting to the point where interaction with the day to day LTC's was quite a joy, and they were the glue that kept people together, in many respects.

I have never been privy to the ARK's motives, so I cannot say for sure why the move to Dim1 was so necessary. But, from the standpoint of a gamer whos seen the in's and out's of many long standing campaigns, this decision will shatter a good portion of what's been built up. Collectively, the stories we have all enjoyed 'around the fire' as it were, have been wonderful. When you have long standing interaction between PC's and NPC's its a chemical mixture that you should not upset. Even if you change the person playing it, its basically a hand me down role. The person filling the shoes will more than likely not be able to give it the same level of attention that the previous person had. Plot people that I have known, have found it nearly disastrous to tip the scales this way. Even if they leave for a month or two, or a year, whatever, you still have a huge hole and you can't explain it all with a simple suspension of disbelief. I have noticed in the past month or so, that several of the legacy LTC's also acting somewhat differently than before. Not in the big things, but in the small ones. I am not the only one to notice it either.

I am quite sure that more than one or two of the ARK's whom are involved more than likely know this, but went with it anyway. This tells me that there is an unavoidable or critical error in the way things have gone, if not a personal level, then easily on a professional one. If the problem isn't on your end, it must be on ours, or vice versa.

If there were problems with specific people, this would be acceptable. I could even agree on it, so long as a viable reason was given that would allow us to either correct our behaviour or at least recover whats left of it. Even if the goal was to fix another problem, leaving people blowing in the wind is a terrible way to handle it.

When the time comes around to have another RP session with Devdas and company, I suggest that vagaries are set aside. I am a grown man, trust me, I can take it. The best way to make a plot shine, is cooperation.

[Dagget]

"It was stated by the game director that Devdas made the decision to kill the LTC Program on Rimor"

link please.

[trousers]

Gladly

And Just to expand. Between Ninanna and Sil are only Pheats and Devdas. And even if this was Pheats' doing (Which i don't think it was) Devdas is ultimately responsible for the decisions and actions of his members.

[Nulion]

Oh c'mon, Sotto...Ya know I love ya, but nowhere in that post does Sil say that ARK is removing all LTC's from Rimor.

Not only that, but Devdas himself posted on this very forum just recently saying "Do not worry", essentially. The LTC's aren't being pulled, they still exist, they aren't going anywhere, there's just some restructuring being done over at Events.

I imagine those guys up at events enjoy their time with us, else they wouldn't spend so much of that time on Rimor to begin with; we haven't done anything wrong, as far as I know.

They know we love 'em, and hopefully they like us too, hehe.

Just chin up and be optimistic on this!

They'll be back, I know it.

[FoosballX]

Well I can't say that Events has killed the LTC program on Rimor, I was told by Ninanna that the LTCs would be back, however she couldn't really say when. And according to Devdas' post it would be, and I quote, “slight short term decrease in the overal LTC activity”; however, the phrase 'short term' could be open to interpretation. Now I'm not going to say that I'm not upset by all of this; however, I do have still have some faith in the events team, even if this is a little unsettling.

I have no issues with there being a hold on the LTC program. I fully understand these people are volunteers and don't have to be on a LTCs in the first place. The fact these people come out and take time out of their day to entertain people that play this game, gives them my utmost respect and praise. And if there are some issues that need to be taken care of, or even if a lot of the LTCs just wanted to take a break, I can understand these things. My main issue with whatever is going on, is Rimor is only being affected. If this was effecting both dims I would be bummed out, but I wouldn't be sitting around thinking “wtf”. I would honestly find this to be disturbing if it was only Atlantean being affected and not Rimor. Singling out one side for an undisclosed period of time just doesn't seem right. Well at least for any length of time over a few days.

Another issues with the LTCs hold on Rimor is so many of the event story lines revolve around the LTCs, that this move would seem to put a halt on all Event activity on Rimor. So not only has the social RP been cut out, but also the story lines that players have been involved with and/or are following.

Bottom line, this is upsetting to a lot of the Rpers on RK2, and may cause some players to lose faith or interest in the Events team.

[Keely]

Oh c'mon, Sotto...Ya know I love ya, but nowhere in that post does Sil say that ARK is removing all LTC's from Rimor.

No Hes not saying Sil said it. But it was said and it was said to a player.

[trousers]

Not only that, but Devdas himself posted on this very forum just recently saying "Do not worry", essentially. The LTC's aren't being pulled, they still exist, they aren't going anywhere, there's just some restructuring being done over at Events.

I wish I knew where your optimism comes from Nuli, because if it's from a food of some type you need to let us know where to get some.

you may or may not notice a slight short term decrease in the overal LTC activity

What he said is a generalization, and unfortunately generalizations are turned into facts based off what happens, and at this point all I can do it look at the reality of the situation.

That reality is starting from the last day where Rimor had LTC activity (28 April) moving forward on a 30 day time table the results look like this (Assuming LTC activity resumes tomorrow the we have LTC activity for day for the rest of the 30 days)

Week of 28 April Thru 04 May: 85.71% Drop in LTC Activity.
Week of 05 May Thru 10 May: 14.29% Drop in LTC Activity(Assuming LTCs Resume tomorrow)

At this moment, if LTC activity resumes tomorrow we're still at a 20% drop in activity, and every day this continues that number will grow.

I'm unnerved because words like 'slight' and 'short term' are completely relative to the person using them.

[Cyberleet]

Maybe they assign the players that gonna play the charracters for a specific dimension.
That way the LTC's are played by same player that only play Rimor

[FoosballX]

Maybe they assign the players that gonna play the charracters for a specific dimension.
That way the LTC's are played by same player that only play Rimor

Well from what we know, other then Legacy, all the ltcs including the Rimor only ones are on hold from being on Rimor.
There are 1 dim only LTCs; however, most are listed as both dims.

So what's going on now is a LTC such as Joseph Hadrensen can now only be on RK1 for the time being. At least this is how it was explained to me.

[Nulion]

Cookies, Sotto. Eat cookies.

They are optimism incarnate! Mmm...

[Pheats]

Hello,

I think some things need to be cleared up here.

First of all, the events team is not removing the LTC program from Rimor, nor where we ever going to.

What is happening is that, for internal reasons that I cannot go into, certain LTC's are currently unable to appear on Rimor, however, there are still plenty that should be around.

While I cannot tell you all the details into why this is happening, I can say that its part of plan to try and organize events for the benefit of all players on all dimensions.

And of course, this is entirely temporary and should have no effect on anything like storyline progression or event numbers.

Also in response to one other point brought up, LTC legacy support, while we try to have them appear as frequently as possible to atleast meetings, we cannot always deliver due to real life situations such as illness or holidays.

We do try even during these situations but when certain things come up we feel its best to remove our selfs from the situation rather then cause a poor in character situation, I hope you all understand this as we are after all, still human.

-Assistant Director Pheats

[trousers]

I want to start by thanking you, Pheats. This is one of the best answers Events has given.

Hello,

I think some things need to be cleared up here.

First of all, the events team is not removing the LTC program from Rimor, nor where we ever going to.

What is happening is that, for internal reasons that I cannot go into, certain LTC's are currently unable to appear on Rimor, however, there are still plenty that should be around.

Would it be possible to get a list of those LTCs impacted? Several players stories are impacted by this and I think it would be benificial if we know which LTCs were currently suspended and which we can expect to see shortly.

While I cannot tell you all the details into why this is happening, I can say that its part of plan to try and organize events for the benefit of all players on all dimensions.

Details as to why aside, can you elaborate on the benefits you expect to gain? If it's going to be beneficial to the you, and the community there is a chance we may actually rally behind you if we have additional information, especially before hand.

And of course, this is entirely temporary and should have no effect on anything like storyline progression or event numbers.

Also in response to one other point brought up, LTC legacy support, while we try to have them appear as frequently as possible to atleast meetings, we cannot always deliver due to real life situations such as illness or holidays.

We do try even during these situations but when certain things come up we feel its best to remove our selfs from the situation rather then cause a poor in character situation, ...

We understand that. Just at last Saturday's NLCC meeting it appeared as though the ARK used OOC information to make an IC decision which, if not breaking the rules, clearly violates standards - hence the concern.

...I hope you all understand this as we are after all, still human.

-Assistant Director Pheats

I assure you we do understand. Just before Devdas took the wheel of the events department we had a massive sundering of the community and the relationship between Players and ARKs because of extremely poor communication between the community and ARK Events. I for one do not wish to see this happen again.

As Bubba said, the majority of us are educated adults, and if you approach us and level with us, we're exremely understanding - However if situations appear grim, and communication is scarce, we assume something is amiss.

Thank you again, Pheats. I, and I'm sure many others, appreciate the time and effort you put into your post.

[Feyde]

You've heard my opinions before. Some of you don't really care about my opinions, and that's fine too. I'll just Cliff-Notes it for you: If all ARK/LTCs left the game entirely on both dimensions never to return, there would still be RP on AO as long as AO was still functional or until the players themselves decided to stop.

You're gonna see some hiccups. You're gonna see some major shifts. Welcome to life as we know it. Do the ARK/LTC crew add to the RP community? Absolutely. Will it die without them? Not unless you let it, or AO officially turns off the game servers.

RPers degree of RP has evolved over the past several years, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Some believe you can encompass all aspects of AO game into RP. At least one person has said "RP is created so you don't have to play the game." Whether my definition coincides with yours or vice versa is irrelevant. The RP still exists.

Pass me another cookie, Nulion.

[Nulion]

*gives Feyde a cookie*



hehe, thanks for the reassuring comments, Pheats....Always extremely appreciated. We love you guys, and it always concerns us when something happens on your end.

*munches on another cookie....and passes one to Pheats too*

[Devdas]

The restructuring has been completed.
There are no more effects on the LTC program to be expected.
Apologies for any possible inconveniences.

[FoosballX]

Thank you for the update Devdas.

[Towerblock]

sigh.

[Nulion]

*cookies for everybody!*

That's good news, I say

[Kalezian]

Yea, we do need a "somewhat" list of LTC's that wont be appearing [i know that ARK's, even in their great wisdom, are indeed still human, even if it doesn't seem like it], but i guess going through and adding all the LTC's as your friends could help aswell to see when they are online. as for RK1 being the role play server now, that might be because its the first server that appears when you download the client [was for me], so knowing human laziness, or just wanting to hurry up and play, that could be one reason of it. Still, RK2 has a more broader, and maybe accepting Role Player base [just look at Nulion ].


also, if the re-structuring also means replacing some of the old LTC players with new ones, could the old player leave notes on how the character was. mainly so we wont notice a change?