EveriineWise Old Swordsbird / BrontaurIndianapolis, IN, USA
Lillie come baaaaaaaaack!
Everiine is a man, and is very manly. This MAN before you is so manly you might as well just gender bend right now, cause he's the manliest man that you ever did see. His manly shape has spurned many women and girlyer men to boughs of fainting. He stands before you in a manly manerific typical man-like outfit which is covered in his manly motto: "I am a man!"
Daraius said: You gotta risk it for the biscuit.
Pony power all the way, yo. The more Brontaurs the better.
It's a testament to your work @Estarra and the work of the rest of your team that even now I still log on sporadically to Lusternia just to read through the news, or cast my eye over the forum.
Sad it is that Lusternia presently is a paler reflection of that thriving community that pulled me in shortly after its release all those years ago. Like others I was pulled in by the mystique of a new IRE game that was completely difficult to Achaea that I had started on, and offered more of a chance to make my mark than I could have done otherwise.
I am not a gifted coder and never had the time or money to be excellent at combat (as much as I may have perhaps liked), what really got me logging back in night after night was the excellent story, and the community - the friends. The politics and intrigue.
Now, so much has changed that I simply can't play - Emar at least. A game like Lusternia with the breadth of history and lore requires a professional attention which has meant the long periods I went without stretched my ability to grasp what is going on, where to go and what to do. Now I could start a new character but with games like this you can built an emotional attachment and a starry-eyed view of the past; all the effort that went into playing Emar isn't something I could do again I think.
I hope that you find a solution because this game had a big impact on me growing and others no doubt too; it was a community I didn't have available to me in the real world.
Hi. My name is Edward, and I'm a habitual leaver and returner.
I return because I crave so many of the good things I've experienced in this game. I leave because there's not enough of it. In the first couple of years, I'm not sure I could have left if I wanted to. But things have changed. Real life has required me to leave, but to be honest, the game could have kept me here and involved if it had retained it's original energy.
So here are my thoughts on what has been lost.
I used to care more. My character's home was in constant danger. Resources were hard to come by. Everyone put in effort - not to say everyone devoted all of their time to org/guild/whatnot, but commerce/conflict/roleplay/identity all tied together. When one suffers, the others do as well.
When armor/weapons/supplies required expenditure of limited resources, when having that one transed-craft capstone item was your personal lure, when your novices were struggling to acquire basic supplies, it made every lost village a personal tragedy. They were meaningful. Influencers were valued for the benefit they brought in villages. Combatants were valued for protecting/distracting enemies. Killing and defending supermobs was almost like work and had to be toned down, but it gave people so much purpose. There was a much stronger sense of Us vs Them which incited much conflict, but also made players seek out and share org- and guild-based roleplay. We valued each other more.
When comms became plentiful, I honestly believe that was the first step toward where we are now. It wasn't obvious back then. I think we all craved some respite, to a degree or another. The first few months and years were intense.
We lost too much of that intensity.
Multiple tradeskills (something I greatly desired, I admit) was another nail in the coffin. It's annoying in the face of the current limited population to try to get some tradeskill products filled but I honestly believe we needed more of this, not less. It was a point of interaction, opportunity for tradesfolk, and source of potential conflict. Interdependence is a good thing.
Now we have items that produce more items. It has eroded one of our most basic conflict and RP drivers - scarcity. I remember when it was an outright astounding boon to be able to gift someone a set of enchanted greatrobes, or a knight's first master weapons. I used to spend hours looking at patterns, trying to figure out what would best fit my character's theme or mood, then spend hours trying to acquire the comms. Much of this was a motivator for me to buy artis and customize, sure, but that's also a good thing for the company. We just needed to give every trade viable repeat business options. We didn't.
For me, personally, losing Isune (The Wings of Hope version) from Celest was another nail. Like so many others, Order RP was one of my draws. But most of the Divine options Celest has had did not fit Eldanien. I'm not sure there is a ready solution for that. Perhaps have Divine multiplay? Give a Divine the option of multiple gods to portray? Do they do that now? It need not even be within the same org.
Comments
Sad it is that Lusternia presently is a paler reflection of that thriving community that pulled me in shortly after its release all those years ago. Like others I was pulled in by the mystique of a new IRE game that was completely difficult to Achaea that I had started on, and offered more of a chance to make my mark than I could have done otherwise.
I am not a gifted coder and never had the time or money to be excellent at combat (as much as I may have perhaps liked), what really got me logging back in night after night was the excellent story, and the community - the friends. The politics and intrigue.
Now, so much has changed that I simply can't play - Emar at least. A game like Lusternia with the breadth of history and lore requires a professional attention which has meant the long periods I went without stretched my ability to grasp what is going on, where to go and what to do. Now I could start a new character but with games like this you can built an emotional attachment and a starry-eyed view of the past; all the effort that went into playing Emar isn't something I could do again I think.
I hope that you find a solution because this game had a big impact on me growing and others no doubt too; it was a community I didn't have available to me in the real world.
I return because I crave so many of the good things I've experienced in this game. I leave because there's not enough of it. In the first couple of years, I'm not sure I could have left if I wanted to. But things have changed. Real life has required me to leave, but to be honest, the game could have kept me here and involved if it had retained it's original energy.
So here are my thoughts on what has been lost.
I used to care more. My character's home was in constant danger. Resources were hard to come by. Everyone put in effort - not to say everyone devoted all of their time to org/guild/whatnot, but commerce/conflict/roleplay/identity all tied together. When one suffers, the others do as well.
When armor/weapons/supplies required expenditure of limited resources, when having that one transed-craft capstone item was your personal lure, when your novices were struggling to acquire basic supplies, it made every lost village a personal tragedy. They were meaningful. Influencers were valued for the benefit they brought in villages. Combatants were valued for protecting/distracting enemies. Killing and defending supermobs was almost like work and had to be toned down, but it gave people so much purpose. There was a much stronger sense of Us vs Them which incited much conflict, but also made players seek out and share org- and guild-based roleplay. We valued each other more.
When comms became plentiful, I honestly believe that was the first step toward where we are now. It wasn't obvious back then. I think we all craved some respite, to a degree or another. The first few months and years were intense.
We lost too much of that intensity.
Multiple tradeskills (something I greatly desired, I admit) was another nail in the coffin. It's annoying in the face of the current limited population to try to get some tradeskill products filled but I honestly believe we needed more of this, not less. It was a point of interaction, opportunity for tradesfolk, and source of potential conflict. Interdependence is a good thing.
Now we have items that produce more items. It has eroded one of our most basic conflict and RP drivers - scarcity. I remember when it was an outright astounding boon to be able to gift someone a set of enchanted greatrobes, or a knight's first master weapons. I used to spend hours looking at patterns, trying to figure out what would best fit my character's theme or mood, then spend hours trying to acquire the comms. Much of this was a motivator for me to buy artis and customize, sure, but that's also a good thing for the company. We just needed to give every trade viable repeat business options. We didn't.
For me, personally, losing Isune (The Wings of Hope version) from Celest was another nail. Like so many others, Order RP was one of my draws. But most of the Divine options Celest has had did not fit Eldanien. I'm not sure there is a ready solution for that. Perhaps have Divine multiplay? Give a Divine the option of multiple gods to portray? Do they do that now? It need not even be within the same org.