Announce Post #2962: Introducing Aonia

Autoposter

Hello, Lusternia.

I want to begin by saying that I am deeply honoured by the trust that has been placed in me by Ianir and Orael. But most of all, I am honoured to stand beside the heart of Havens - its incredible volunteers - as we begin to lead Estarra's great legacy onwards into the future.

I joined Lusternia as a player in 2007, and as many of us do, quickly fell head over heels in love. Here was a world that was deep, and beautiful, and full of people who wanted to tell stories within it. I couldn't get enough - but not only that, Lusternia truly changed my life by providing me a safe place to love and laugh and dream.

This year - in fact, this very week! - marks my fifth year as a member of the Havens team. In those years I have served in two different Divine roles, and built several quests both major and minor. One of my greatest loves has been running events, and I have been lucky enough to get the opportunity to help create everything from small releases to many Ascension-causing catastrophes.

I have also served as the co-lead of several volunteer departments, including (but not limited to) helping to oversee Ephemeral development, helping manage customer service, and reviewing volunteer progs and creations. Outside of Lusternia I am a published author and poet, currently studying for a MA in Creative Writing with the intention to pursue a PhD in the same field.

My purpose and duties are mostly things that you will not see directly - but in essence, I oversee anything that falls into the remit of story and lore. This can be anything from events, to building project proposals, to supporting new Gods in taking up their roles. I consider my primary role to be that of a facilitator - I am here to help our volunteers do what they do best. That said, if you ever have any concerns regarding Lusternia's story or lore, you are welcome to email me at aonia@lusternia.com.

Aonia

Xenthos

I do have a question for you!

Something that has been a common problem with Lusternia is periods of divine drought in specific organizations (long times where, due to various reasons, the orgs just end up not seeing much attention).  Gaudiguch recently raised this and they've been getting some much-needed response.

Does your role also include monitoring this issue and helping make sure that there aren't segments of the population being "left out," or is it more of facilitating what already exists?

Divine interaction/events are one of the big appeals of Lusternia imo, so if there is a plan to help make sure that all parties see something, I think that would be great.

I have no doubts as to your ability whatsoever, this seems like a good call.  But, as you know, I tend to focus on details!

Aonia

In general - yes, ensuring that everyone in the game gets to engage in events (of any kind) is very much something I'm concerned by.

To be more specific, I see two main sides to orgs getting divine interaction. One of these is the obvious one, which is volunteers taking up patron roles in those orgs. I strongly believe that volunteers should, above all else, go to the role and organisation that they will love deepest and stay with in the long term. Asking them to consider an unsupported org is totally fine - people have found their true homes that way! - but I don't think forcing people there is the answer. Quite often, if led to somewhere that doesn't feel right, people burn out. That's awful both for all of you and for all of us. Of course, this doesn't solve the problem.

And once there, these gaps can lead to orgs being without an active divine, which means they not only don't have active divine, they don't get as much 'other' divine attention. Things like NPCs turning up to your events, patron requests going through, and other general support separate to the divine roles themselves. This is the second side of divine interaction, and will also need tackling as part of solving the issue. This one is likely easier to solve.

In terms of how I'm approaching these problems: one of the very first things I am doing is meeting with all of our volunteers to find out what is presently preventing them from interacting with people more, in both ways. I want to identify what those blocks are and help clear them.

At that point we can then get a much better understanding of where the gaps are - which will allow us to develop an actual answer to the problem, in finding how we make sure those gaps are filled.

Xenthos

I totally and absolutely agree with not forcing people to play a God they don't feel happy with.  My general thought for a long time has been related to the "second side" as you put it; being encouraged to reach out and make the game more lively for everyone benefits everyone imo.

I appreciate your already thinking of these and reaching out, because it has been something running around in my mind for a while.

Parhelion

First off, congratulations on your new position! I can't think of anyone more suited for the role, and I look forward to seeing (more of) your work in the future.

The shoes you're filling are pretty big ones. Do you forsee any particular difficulties ahead in trying to keep future events...for lack of a better term,  interesting? What sort of plans do you presently have to keep us hooked? 

Aonia

Thank you!

Keeping events interesting is always difficult, because a lot of the time it involves thinking outside of the box - and that box is all of our experience and training. With fifteen years of legacy, finding ways to be new and original whilst remaining true to Lusternia is probably one of the hardest things about guiding its story. Event item that you have to put 1000 essence in, anyone?

I know this is a bit of a non-answer, but I can't go into the specifics of actual event plans for obvious reasons. What I'll say is that there are definitely a lot of loose ends out there just waiting to be tugged upon. I'm excited to get to yank them into existence!

Ayisdra

While I don't debate the quality of lore itself, there have always been a few things that I personally have disliked. While more comment than question, if you did have any plans on addressing these things, I would like to hear it.:

1) Various stories of areas seem to be mostly isolated.  They might have some connection to some other place (like these people traveled from X org), but often times this is just some backend note that you can easily overlook.

2) A lot of areas just pop up. There doesn't really have much in way of explaining why these areas haven't been found before. With various methods of flying and exploring, there shouldn't be a reason how these areas hide.

3) Similarly, a lot of areas have these over the top stories. I guess this is a byproduct of areas always having a quest in them. Things I have always wanted to see are new areas that just exist. No dark plots to summon evil gods. No one trying to poison someone. Just some area that doesn't have problems only us players have to fix.

Aonia

Any comments are really useful, even if they don't have questions - this is the sort of feedback we don't often receive, and it's good to bear in mind. We obviously do not see our work from your point of view, so having insight into how people feel about the presentation/realisation of the gameworld is invaluable.

This is the sort of thing that people are always welcome to email me. I won't always be able to give an answer in instances like this where there's not so much of a question, but it is a means by which to ensure your perspective is heard.

Thank you!

Xenthos

How do I go about getting Jairkak permanently obliterated?

Aonia

*spits*