A Message to Fellow Veterans

[___________Sepentura]

Hello fellow veterans,

It's been a long while since I have posted on these forums, though I do play, though not as much as I once did, back in the old days.

AO is a year old now, and we've been around since the beginning, we've seen it all, the bad, the worse, and the somewhat better. It seems things are still evolving, though ever so slowly. Radiman is back in town, if only in spirit. I can see the boards are a bit more lively since his return, and hopefully with that will come the story we have all hoped for for quite some time.

There was a vision in the beginning...though it is fading fast, I can still remember it. In this vision we were all one personality in a great big world of unlimited possibilities. I can remember logging in and feeling totally overwhelmed, feeling like the decisions I made that day in-game could have effect on the Clans, or Omni-Tek, the missions I took helped my faction. I remember seeking out ways to affect the wonderful world I was a part of.

Do any of you still remember logging on and feeling like I did? Can you remember back when everything was so unpredictable, and the possiblilities for our character's journeys were unlimited?

Where do you think we are headed? Will things grow to be better or will our twinkling flame of hope and possibility be smoldered by business, marketing, and the competition?

I not sure if any of you know or care about this, but for a long time I have been fighting to bring some of the storyline to Rubi-Ka 2, and myself and my guild have bent over backwards to try and provide some roleplaying and events for our fellow Rubi-Ka 2 citizens. Sadly, it seems nothing has made much impact from where I stand, though the fight is worthy, and my friends are wonderful, I cannot keep from feeling our light is being smoldered. I do not want to believe that this could be happening, and I will stick around until the very end, trying my very best to do what I can, I still fear the worst.

My fellow veterans, I beg of you, help me continue to believe. Post your opinions & experiences of where you have been, and where you think the game is headed. I WANT to breathe new life into this game, this world...if only I knew how...

[Dabblez]

Hi Sepentura,

I am sory to hear things have taken a turn for the worse for you and your group. I recall when we met you had a really good thing going.

I think the key the South Rubi-Ka Society's success, if success is the right term, has been the fact that we are not a story-based guild and that we look at small local stories rather than large, Earth-shattering ones.

There is a real problem in mmorpg in that, try as you may, you cannot really affect the world, and many would argue that given all player pay the same subscription fee, that is exactly how it should be.

Find a niche which is your own, which you can control and one which you are not waiting on FC or other guilds to progess your stories. Rubi-Ka is a big world, there must be a lot goign on besides the war.

To make a perhaps frivolous example. Remember Ghostbusters? There was even an rpg on it which I enjoyed running very much.
Who is to say you could not transfer the Ghostbuster concept to Rubi-Ka, perhaps givning it a notum/metaphysicist twist?

One thing we found that works well is we have one fixed session per week (Tuesday) for a table top roleplaying session for which one of us will prepare an adventure to run ( or continue on an existing campaign). This does mean that things can get very quiet during the rest of the week, but many of us have been playing for a year nowand there is more to life than AO. But even when it gets quite, our members know that come Tuesday, the old magic will return.

Anyway I hope this helps. At the end of the day it is hard and you most also accept that at some point we will all leave AO. But a year on, I am still loving every minute.

[Dabblez]

Actually, hold on the Ghosbusters idea... I really like it and I think I will use it myself! :-)

[____________Travesty]

{I can remember logging in and feeling totally overwhelmed, feeling like the decisions I made that day in-game could have effect on the Clans, or Omni-Tek, the missions I took helped my faction. I remember seeking out ways to affect the wonderful world I was a part of. }

Goddess, I miss that feeling. I really hope the story is starting.

[Jynne]

After playing any game for a while, there's a fall-off in the 'wonder' you feel from it.

When you're new... you're new. Everything you find is a new discovery. Every place you go is uncharted territory. Every battle is an epic struggle. Every item you find is an incredible treasure. New spells/nanos are awesome powers.

I remember being excited the first time I could cast Adrenaline Pump +20 runspeed. I was so enthused.

Now, I'm not super-high level, and I don't have a ton of alts. But I know the game.

So unfortunately... I know that Sub-Atomic Memory Storage Units don't do anything, that there's no way to decode them and get at the secrets inside.

[____________Travesty]

But Jynne, that is only part of the feeling described. The other part CAN come back with Rubi-ka turning back into an evolving wartorn world and not the sitzkrieg stasis that it is now. Wouldnt you feel it if there was actually a possibility for berserk mutants to flood into West Athen late one sunday night? Wouldnt you?

[Bionitrous]

Savoy has it right. His group can adventure and affect their worlds without trying to force it on everyone else. The sense of wonder is in full force in his group as they log on in anticipation of seeing what will happen next and how their actions will affect the outcome.

It's just that some people are insistent upon pushing their input on to other players who want no part of their mechanations. That's where the disillusionment comes in. When players try to take over the Plot (with 'P' and not a 'p'). You end up either disillusioned as stated or you anger other players if you try to force your desires on other players.

I am 100% sure that Savoy's gang has a all-out great times. They work within the context of the backdrop that FunCom has provided them and are writing their own history. Now, FunCom is adding some ****e to the mix. They are altering the climate and providing new fodder for Savoy's people. This is what I thought it was going to be all about. A higher story that would shift the mood of the planet and alter game mechanics on occasion that we could all react to and discuss and roleplay a part of.

Every post that bemoans the fact that you can't kill Phillip Ross or change the government of the Clans saddens me. You get enough of that in real life. I'm here to play a game and actually watch a Story unfold while making my own stories based on alterations in The Big Picture. I won't impose on others and would ask that others don't impose on me as I watch what Ragnar has in store for all our favorite characters.

The only time I'm disillusioned then, is when absolutely nothing happens to alter the fabric of the backdrop I'm playing in. This was the case for 7 months or so and I let 'em know of my dissatisfaction. It was the stagnancy of FunCom's creative input that inspired many angry posts.

The fact that Henry Radiman simply appeared gave me and my guildmates something to discuss to the point where we forgot we were supposed to be pulling missions. If it were simply some player making a speech in the CoT building, we as a group would have ignored it. And did.

[Jynne]

Yes Bionitrous more or less hit the nail on the head. It's not about big things, it's about little details. I don't want to replace the COT. I don't want to have hordes of mutants popping up once a week. Those kinds of events are too often GM uberkill-fests or lag-fests where you can't do anything even if you can stay connected.

What I want is to be able to use a hacker tool on a sub-atomic memory storage unit or a mainframe-human interface, and access a data file with story background info in it. A chunk of some scientist's notes, an explorer's journal, something. I want to use a lockpick on a nanobots container and get a random nano buff, debuff, explosion, heal, or nothing. I want to go to a 'library terminal' and be able to do research on names, places, creatures, and items in the game. I want to be able to talk to an NPC wandering the desert in Broken Shores and find things out from them, like how a Quake Lizard gets up on its hind legs and does the macarena to attract its mate. At the very absolute least, I'd like a few more descriptions of mission messages and extra mission types, and lots of unique from-scratch tradeskill-only items.

I want the world to be an immersive and colorful backdrop for my character to come to life in... not primarily through big one-time events, but through rich, varied, and useful information that I can seek out and explore to find.

[____________Travesty]

I want all those things, but primarily I want a large over arching story as was advertised. That very thing was what made me order the shiny Anarchy Online box last year rather than the shiny Dark Age of Camelot box.

Sure I want ineractive npc's, nice little tid bits of info and all the 'fixins'. Though I consider plot to be the main course and right now my tummy is grumbling.

[Jynne]

The problem with plot is that it has a tendency to overrun character.

A mutant attack would be great... if it were more than just a mutant attack. Just fighting off a mutant attack would be a very laggy, slightly harder exp group - unless it was intended for the mutants to win, in which case it would be a very laggy, impossible exp group. Defeating a mutant attack is plot... but has no real point.

Now, fighting off a mutant attack, then having teams dispatched on missions to find their lair and/or creator, with background on where they came from and why and such - information that tied in to the overall backstory of colonizing Rubi-Ka, OT and the Clans, etc - that would be a story.

Just killin' fleshy headed muties isn't enough. It's the fixin's that make the meal.

[____________Travesty]

umm...ok

[RandaZ]

Originally posted by Jynne
Just killin' fleshy headed muties isn't enough. It's the fixin's that make the meal.

Does anyone else here have the distinct feeling that Jynne eats the mutants? ;P

Anyway, I haven't been playing with any regularity lately so my POV is a bit stale. But I think part of the disillusionment people may be feeling is that they've grown to "know" the system. Like Jynne said, you even know that Sub-Atomic Memory Storage Units are paper-props (they don't do anything nor even have a visual model). There's no more exploration (not just in the geographical sense of the word).

What the over-arching story gave us, was some new avenues to explore, whether it be the peace accords or some new mutant scare. But I don't think it really need to be big things either. They could be small things, like those held by the SRS and other RP groups. Leet fights for instance, while not earth shattering, lets use explore our own sense of morality (or cruelty).

A lot of people have exhausted all avenues of exploration that they can see. That does not mean that all avenues have been exhausted though, as there are many things that are just over the horizon. The official events are just the ones that are easily seen and the first to be noticed and many people just get hung up on this. The trick is to expand our horizon and find out events out there that satisfy our particular niche in interests.

The way things are structured right now, with little orgs here and there each doing their own thing, it's hard to figure out what events are going on. While not trying to be exclusive or anything, the SRS, like many other RP orgs have kept their events locally within the group. This is just a matter of not having the time nor inclination to do a massive public promotion. I'm hoping on working this part out soon (shameless, yet mysterious teaser).

In the meantime, Bonefish is collecting a listing of RP orgs which would hopefully allow some round-about way to figure out where the events are. If you're looking to have some impact (not necessarily on the big 'P'lot - as Bio puts it) then contact these orgs.

You don't need to join as I'm sure most of the people in those orgs won't mind letting external RPers participate somewhere in their events.


Tap


Final Appendum (and disclaimer): Now if all this is just a issue of lime-light, then don't bother with the above. Fame in Rubi-Ka works just the same way it does in real-life. You earn it, not participate in it.

[____________Keaorata]

I agree totally with Jynne ...

Story importance only goes so far .... I want background on everything

There is so many unanswered questions that im sure could be easily answered with a bit of imagination.

When ya young and exploring everywhere possible, ya finding new things and places ... And at that time ya thinking "Wow i wondered what happened here?" or "Whats the story behind the Brain Dogs?" etc etc ... And when ya young you still have hope you'll find the answers....

But now ... Ya realise you arent ever gonna find out the little back-stories behind areas, deserted Outposts, types of creature....

Its dawned on me that there probably isnt any back stories. The fantastic creatures on Rubi Ka are just there ... thats it. No history. No natural habits. No real life cycle.... Also the deserted buildings and outposts are just there for cosmetics ... a relic of a previous war ... You arent ever gonna find out exactly what happened at that place.

And etc etc. Kinda depressing now i think of it

Also to Bionitrous - I have a feeling ya comments about the Plot is something to do with CoA and its members?

Speaking OOC - There is no anger or terrorism in the founders of the CoA. It is nothing to do with megalomania or nasty stuff

Its a simple case of roleplayers trying to make things happen. Yes you may feel that the CoA isnt for you and it shouldnt be forced on others ... but at least its giving people something to talk and think about. Something interesting is happening at last. Surely thats a good thing right?

As far as IC opposition goes, im happy to see it. Would be less fun if everyone agreed ... But OOC i cant see why people have problems with it, and why clans such as CAS and MD are being attacked OOCly is beyond me. The CoA was created by roleplayers, for roleplayers, in an attempt to liven things up

As it stands FC have worked Radiman's return around the appearance of the CoA and its all fit together nicely ... so things are looking up in that respect