[Important] Two Returns!

[GrizzlyWes 127]

why VAT no pls

[Muse of Heart 16]

*Stares at the ENTIRE structure of one of my more violent characters* Welp I guess I have to get judged on my character or change it completely.

[Fuego 45]

I have been awaiting their return ever since they were removed.

Squeal at me all you want.

[Sovereign_of_Solaris 39]

Yay, we get to once again have to go through all this bull.

 

I want to say, Applications are beyond pointless

 

I like many others I am sure who are good Roleplayers suck at writing applications. OH COOL I AM GOOD AT WRITING FANCY STUFF TO MAKE MYSELF LOOK GOOD, but in reality I SUCK at RP. Thats how i see these things.

 

We shouldn't have to log on and write a god damn essay just to be able to roleplay.

[Gnomistry 1115]

Where is the love ? <3

[Rassidic 470]

I'm glad I downloaded War Thunder. I can fly my biplane the **** outta' here!

[Ragadorus 113]

The community has made it vocally clear that the majority is in opposition to this change. It's all about adding additional OOC restrictions onto our roleplay, with our character's interactions being interrupted with 'hey you got a VA for this'.  If you have an issue with how somebody is improperly roleplaying a villain or magic user in such a way that it violates the rules, that's why you can modreq a GM to try to resolve the issue, or, if it's all that bad, file a BR.

 

Also we should free Fizldank.

[Sneaky 189]

Yet again doing what a majority of the community doesn't want! 10/10 would recommend for all administration jobs.

[Bircalin 332]

 

 

Can you guys for once, think before you propose dumb **** like this?

 

I couldn't help myself.

[leave me alone 995]

"dont worry we'll listen to the community guys"

 

shame on me for trusting lotc admins

[Roxforbraynz 251]

This is the exact opposite of helping. 

 

Listen to the community and remove this decision. 

 

Stop putting ooc barriers around rp and thinking it will magically fix things. It doesn't. Accept that. 

 

If someone is rping poorly teach them. That's literally the only fix.

I second this.

 

I don't normally post around the forums anymore, but I'd like to throw my hat into the ring here, having been around since mid-Asulon and I have a story to tell, having danced with both MAs and VAs in the past. I'll spoiler this since it's REALLY long, with a TL;DR at the end.

 

<Rose Tinted Goggles of Nostalgia equipped>

When I first got on the server, I have to say I was pretty excited. It was a new experience and I had loads of fun running around exploring such a wide open world. Magic was rare and mystical, villany was curbed so everything seemed peaceful and nice. It was a great experience, especially for a new player such as myself. I hit some brick walls developing my character though when it came to VAs and MAs. At the time, I thought it was fine. I had some frustrations writing my first few MAs. It felt like hitting my head against a brick wall and I was disheartened for the first time, but I didn't give up and eventually got accepted with a very euphoric feeling. It felt great and I loved magic, and felt like I brought something special to the server. I wanted to get in touch with other magic users. I took a look around and decided to see what other magic users there were. Then it dawned on me. A good deal of magic users were divided into a few cliques...

<Rose Tinted Goggles of Nostalgia removed>

I chose to not be part of a clique, straying away from them when I could. I grew to be one of the players that preferred a character independent of a faction. I was also a person who loved to play various interesting characters. I was discouraged from making more than one or two of my characters into spellcasters, let alone villains due to the way that I develop a character. I create the framework for the character, list highlights of their backstory and personality quirks, and then I play them for a while. As I play them, I make stuff up on the spot and get a feel for how I want this character to work. I then align everything after a month or two of play and then form a short, but cohesive backstory and then flesh it out from there. Elwen and Aelys were my only two characters to have a fully thought-out backstory from day 1, and it's said that my best character is Kefi. For me, MAs and VAs felt like bars when it came to my favored method of character creation. Kefi only got her Druid magic long after her creation due to this (Created the same time as Elwen, got her magic about half a year later).

 

After a while, I decided to get a Teacher Application and I said to myself that I'd teach anyone who was willing to learn, with slight requirements in character. A few people that I taught even went on to provide amazing RP in their time. As magic began getting more common, it felt good. LotC began to feel like more than just a second world to live in. The day that MAs were removed was amazing for me, it felt like the angels came down from heaven and started singing hallelujah. No, I didn't go crazy and give all my characters magic. Though I did watch those who took it up, I gave people who were struggling or doing things inaccurately pointers, citing my magical characters as proof of experience. Yeah, there were a few problems, but over time things settled down and magic was for the better, revived and refreshed, no longer bound to cliques or old players slowly quitting and taking Magic with them.

 

With magic free, I was able to do a few things that I had always wanted to do, but couldn't due to the time involved, like make a ghost. This made me get into LotC so much more, opening up new possibilities to me. And I'll skip ahead here, since the lull of the MA/VA void has no relevance here.

 

Now to today. The focus here will be my character, Elwen. She's been around for a very, VERY long time now. Needing a new MA for her will be daunting, if not near impossible. Her story is long, and that's putting it extremely lightly. Excuse my french, but I could write a ******* novel, or even a trilogy about her if I put enough effort into it. For me, this is the bane of her. There is so much about her to explain, so many intricacies, and research partners/teacher citations that have long since been banned or left the server. This is the death of her as a character. This will gut her like a fish. Just when I was starting to come back too, thanks to the giant step forward that updating to 1.8 did.

 

I feel that everything is fine. The most that would be needed is a blacklist and abuse reports. This is taking it way, way too far. As the post I quoted at the beginning of all this stated, OOC barriers like this will just cause problems and mass disruption to legitimate RP. Bringing back VAs and MAs wont magically fix everything. If anything, you're gutting a good portion of the player-base. The guild-based groups like the Druids and Clerics thrived without MAs. New and clever uses for existing magic came about like Arcane Puppetry. I remember how much the staff had emphasized that you guys didn't want to bring this back... and then you turn around and do this? Excuse my language again, but seriously... what the ****? I expect such things from Congress, but not you guys.

 

Yes, there are problems, I will admit that, but they can be addressed in a much more simpler and less daunting system like magic/villainy abuse reports with a blacklist and a strike system. First legitimate abuse report, you're blacklisted, continue to abuse magic/villainy, temp ban. Behavior continues? Longer or even permanent ban. The abuse reports could even be intertwined with the player reports. That would not disrupt legitimate RP with OOC complications and would be a much easier system to manage. Use a scapel, not a ******* chainsaw.

 

And now the shorter version for those of you who can't be asked to read a wall of text;

I'm a very old player (Almost 3 years now.) and been through this whole song and dance before. And even with my Rose Tinted Goggles of Nostalgia, I still strongly believe that MAs and VAs are not the answer. OOC barriers like these will rip apart legitimate RP and make us descend back into the days of magic/villain cliques and elitism. I held a lot of MAs before, and I absolutely ******* loved the removal of them due to the stigma of the aforementioned elitism. We do not need this again. A simpler system would suffice. To get rid of the minor problems that there are now, the staff needs to use a scapel, not a ******* chainsaw.

 

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Edit: Adding on quotes I strongly agree with here.

 

Yay, we get to once again have to go through all this bull.

I want to say, Applications are beyond pointless

I like many others I am sure who are good Roleplayers suck at writing applications. OH COOL I AM GOOD AT WRITING FANCY STUFF TO MAKE MYSELF LOOK GOOD, but in reality I SUCK at RP. Thats how i see these things.

We shouldn't have to log on and write a god damn essay just to be able to roleplay.

I do agree in theory, but it is unacceptable that the staff have done this without a public discussion. As EX VAT, I liked the system, and think it can do the community well if tuned properly. I liked MATs as well.

HOWEVER, these changes should NOT have been impliminted without a communal discussion. The staff do hold the power to do this, but I disagree whole-heartedly in the way this was approached. This change is controversial because the community in large part disagrees- that's what matters, not what the staff team alone thinks.

Seriously, what are you thinking pulling this kind of thing out of the blue? It's the worst way you could possibly approach it.

P.S. Why you gotta do these things as soon as I'm out of town?

[monkeypoacher 8055]

No. That's completely ******* unacceptable. You guys need to stop crying like this is the end of the world and have the sense and maturity to not pretend like your "struggles" on some vidya game are actual problems. Please.

It's a joke

[Kalehart 1096]

I do agree in theory, but it is unacceptable that the staff have done this without a public discussion. As EX VAT, I liked the system, and think it can do the community well if tuned properly. I liked MATs as well.

 

HOWEVER, these changes should NOT have been impliminted without a communal discussion. The staff do hold the power to do this, but I disagree whole-heartedly in the way this was approached. This change is controversial because the community in large part disagrees- that's what matters, not what the staff team alone thinks.

 

Seriously, what are you thinking pulling this kind of thing out of the blue? It's the worst way you could possibly approach it.

 

P.S. Why you gotta do these things as soon as I'm out of town?

 

[Old-Rattlesnake 1534]

[~ Fiend ~ 611]

I dislike these changes.