Zarsies 6025 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2021 I'll spare my sappy monologuing for my own thread but this anniversary is significant; we've survived numerous trials and tribulations and have come out stronger in all regards since 2011. It's been an absolutely wild ride full of surprises and to commemorate it I reached out to someone who sculpted our early years and personally led the server, someone I've admired for their design philosophy and unyielding cheerful disposition since day 1 of joining the server (because of course I played an elf and Shift actively led Malinor to dramatic effect). He pioneered our story, brought us to Minecon, elevated our standards and image, helped rescue us from an exploitative owner and technician and then built us up to be bigger and better, and set the tone on communal discussion and interpersonal relationships. Shiftnative has been one of our most influential and formative admins to date and a source of inspiration for many staff and players over the years. My friendly little interview with Shiftnative went as follows: Zarsies: Howdy my dude! I'll start off by saying thank you, we really appreciate your time and on a more intimate level we are grateful for your involvement in LotC. Your creative direction inspired many staff and players to strive for improvement for the server and ourselves; not to be dramatic but you're somewhat of a mythological hero and widely respected for how you helped shape us. The very unique ecosystem that is LotC's platform as a creative outlet has grown in many ways and you trailblazed the path we're still on after 10 years and that's nothing to sneeze at. Shiftnative: I really appreciate that, thank you so much. I learned A LOT from LoTC too. Yeah a decade of storytelling, that's insane! Zarsies: Our pleasure! Did you foresee LotC's longevity at any point in the early years? To this day there's doomsayers who anticipate LotC's death for one reason or another, did you ever think certain issues would be insurmountable problems or alternatively matters that you thought would be essential to LotC prospering? Shiftnative: Really it was a culmination of things that made LoTC was something truly special not only in minecraft but in gaming entirely. People stood in line to trade their goods for coin at my shop. Different settlements had "ambassadors" that traveled around and brought back news from around. Some players wrote their own language and there were/are some characters that are basically celebrities. My main hurdle when watching over the server was removing players' need for GM's, I really just wanted the game to run without interruption or people pulling out huge rulebooks. For me LoTC's success lies in all of those who log-in and stay on. I love telling people about LoTC not because of anything I did but because of the cool stuff other people did. Players who wrote their own languages, races with family trees spanning a decade. Artists who made hand-drawn maps of the world. Some players even got married having met on LoTC! Zarsies: It truly is a communal passion project from so much input from all angles at this point. All of my favorite parts of LotC have been the deeds of others or the product of group projects, old ones especially. Veteran players have a diverse spread of eras and events that they're nostalgic for, some highly influential server events and others just casual RP with old friends. What times on LotC are you nostalgic about? Shiftnative: Early Aegis before we had any rules against "no-rp" killing. Back then, killing someone was like putting a bounty on your own head as your name would spread far and wide as that of a bandit. If your name was soiled, you wouldn't be allowed in certain cities etc. I also really loved the "Gauntlet" which was an obstacle course in the elf city where players could try and win coin and their name on the wall. Tons of people would come just to watch and heckle. Last but not least, the end Event for Aegis was an absolute blast. The players who entered the nether did so under the pretense that if they died it was a perma-death, there was over 400 people on livestream - great times! Zarsies: The end of Aegis was absolutely fantastic, I can vividly remember events from the livestream and from my in-game perspective like it was yesterday. My friends and I gawked and screamed at the dramatic beats. That said, typically hand in hand with "the good ol' days" as mentioned above, LotC is first a community where people fall into groups and factions and make connections that go beyond the LotC experience, friendships we carry into other communities or even real life. Who are some of the people you met through LotC and remain close with to this day? What do they mean to you? Shiftnative: Great question, I still talk often with the old Alras group. I haven't talked with Alectriciti as much I'd like lately but I feel like he's someone I feel closest to from the community. His video about going to Asulon back in the day still gives me goosebumps. Zarsies: The most based coder, truly. I have to ask though, when you took the role of spearheading the server's wider story during the development and lifetime of Asulon what was going through your mind when planning out your events? What are your favorite tidbits of lore, story beats in an event, or builds? (Personally I LOVED your Asulon Cloud Temple) Shiftnative: During Aegis, the patch came out that brought villagers into minecraft. At some point we updated the server and when someone went to /reload a chunk for refreshing a mine it brought in a villager outpost up above on land. Of course it was looted and destroyed immediately so I thought how funny would it be to use that as a plot point for the villagers. We tried the player-ran bad guys in Aegis and many people were ready to get past that. Long story short the villagers followed the players to Asulon and uncovered dark magic and did bad things with it. This is also the point where I got to fool around with Mob Disguise and fly around as dragons and whatnot, what's not to like? Asulon’s Cloud Temple was indeed fantastic. My favorite bit of lore would probably be "Lady Eldecia," the best kept secret of the Triumvirate. She was responsible for finding Anthos and leaving the breadcrumb trail for the players to follow. After the players sieged the villager city a public mine was opened up there and deep within was a ruin with information about her and her whereabouts. Zarsies: It's been quite a few years since you've been active on LotC so I have to ask the burning question for those out of the loop, what have you been up to? I've seen you post screenshots of crazy detailed, super small Minecraft builds in the Alras Discord that looks sick. Do you still have a passion for building? Shiftnative: Yeah, it's been a long time for sure. I always need to have some kind of build going on that I can jump onto whenever I feel like, pretty much always single player creative and made just for fun. I was messing around with Conquest Reforged and Cocricot mods too, those are definitely worth looking at. Been doing a lot of IRL crafting as my wife and I got a house and I got a job as a florist too! I got into making little tabletop buildings made of XPS foam, check out Black Magic Craft on youtube and how he makes little structures and things out of cheap insulation foam. All that said, the big project I'm working on is making a costume where I'm a 10ft tall treant on stilts with a staff for the renaissance fair but that's for another time! (Some of Shift's worldpainting, builds, and Cocricot builds) Spoiler Zarsies: Hells yeah! My annual renaissance trip is the peak of every year. Lastly - short and sweet - how do you feel knowing a passion project of yours has grown to be self-sustaining and lived through every trial and tribulation after 10 years and has been touched, influenced by, and engaged with by thousands of people? LotC is a pretty wild concept to most and it’s unique for having endured. Shiftnative: I am immensely proud, I feel really fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time. There's a reason why you don't see concepts like LoTC anywhere else. It's really difficult to pull off because of all the reliance it has with so many people working together to tell a story. I always thought of LoTC as a cooperative storytelling experience and I feel like the more that’s embraced the more people will enjoy the game. Do things to make something awesome for someone, it's usually really easy. I feel like LoTC has only become richer with time as ancient history is basically what happened 10 years ago. So most of the bulk of the world's lore is what actually happened in-game with real people and their decisions, now that is cool. Zarsies: Agreed, and it’s an essential virtue we need to continue to reach for to grow and better the experience. Thank you so much my dude, this is dearly appreciated. It’s refreshing to hear from you! Shiftnative: Of course! Thanks for letting me remember all dem times! Cheers, Native. If we're lucky we might even catch him on stream! 51 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
excited 10833 Share Posted June 25, 2021 Miss his roads to this day 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryloth 4312 Share Posted June 25, 2021 damn. man has some serious build talent tho. hard to believe that house in the screenshots is even minecraft, looks like 2007 runescape modeling graphics using shaders but with greater detail haha 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonEbs 1224 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Did not always agree with you Shift but glad to hear you are doing well and that today's LotC is truly a monument to your vision. Cheers! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Respiren 523 Share Posted June 26, 2021 (edited) On 6/25/2021 at 11:57 AM, Zarsies said: I always thought of LoTC as a cooperative storytelling experience and I feel like the more that’s embraced the more people will enjoy the game. Do things to make something awesome for someone, it's usually really easy. I feel like LoTC has only become richer with time as ancient history is basically what happened 10 years ago. So most of the bulk of the world's lore is what actually happened in-game with real people and their decisions, now that is cool. Pondering the exact same thing the other day, Lord of the Craft's history is now beyond stories and metaphors we were writing and is now a recounting of the stories we created and enacted together, it's sort of magical how through those cooperative stories LotC grew and became a living thing. Also, remembering how sad the enormous mallet shaped moot chamber looming over Laurelin made Native until it was regrown to be more aesthetically pleasing, 😅 lots of happy memories. Thankyou for gifting us the forest of Laurelin, where our dreams could take root and our imaginations run wild Native. You'll always be the first Druid to me Edited June 26, 2021 by Respiren 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladuos 857 Share Posted June 26, 2021 God bless the first bearded elf. We've been through a lot in the past decade, and while most of the oldies have gone away, I'm glad people still enjoy telling stories together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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