A Decade's Reflection: AndrewTech's 10 Year Message & AMA

[AndrewTech 2815]

A DECADE’S REFLECTION

Me in Kalos, LotC 2.5

(c. 2012)

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Today marks 10 years to the day since I joined the Lord of the Craft. As such, I find myself deep in reflection regarding the last decade that I have spent on this server.

 

I’ve had the privilege to have been able to do a lot here. I’ve had the opportunity to leave an impact on an amazingly dynamic world and to have woven a lasting narrative, serving as both a human NL and an ST. I’ve played a lot of different characters, from peasants, scholars, and nobles to doctors, mages, and royals.

 

I first joined this server when I was 14 years old. It seems like a lifetime ago when I first read about all the excitement behind 2.0 on the forums as a kid. When I first joined up as a human in Arethor, the very first iteration of the Holy Orenian Empire was just coming into being in Asulon. It makes me feel old just to think about it.

 

And then later, when I somehow ended up in the lobby of the VonSchlichten research facility in Kalos (2.5) after getting randomly pugsied, it started me down a road that kept me from quitting the server as a newer player 9 years early. I’m glad that I didn’t, as the writing skills alone that I accumulated from this server have greatly altered the course of my life for the better…

 

…But things have changed. And before I open this thread up to an AMA, I’d like to use this platform to say a few words about the state of the server and how I think it can best be fixed and preserved for those yet to find their adventures on the Lord of the Craft.

 

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Things used to be very RP centric back in the day, the server being driven by a compelling narrative and web of interactions. Now, the OOC politics of discords and friend cliques determine almost everything.

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We all enjoy hanging out with our friends. Heck, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve got tons of friends and friend groups that I love to hang out with to reminisce about the olden days, server happens, and even real life.

 

The out-of-character connections we make on the Craft are important, and I treasure the many lasting friendships that I have made through this server. But over the last several years, this platform, meant for roleplaying, has become more and more OOC oriented. Almost ridiculously so, in fact.

 

When a newer player joins, they do so hoping to find compelling roleplay. They want to interact in a rich world full of interesting characters and dynamic relationships. But more often than not, they walk into nation capitals full of people VCing in their discords as they hop around. It’s nearly impossible for a newer player to have a good time with someone who they don’t already know after joining, which is key to the server’s low retention rate for newer players.

 

Furthermore, they find themselves petitioned through discord by NLs and their lieutenants to partake in activities OOCly. Whether it be joining the military to partake in PvP training through the use of VCs or filling out spreadsheets and crunching numbers, the activities presented to the people who want to write a compelling narrative just aren’t what they used to be.

 

Worse yet is the fact that many groups almost never willingly interact with one another RP wise. The OOC slant towards viewing the server encourages toxicity rather than a healthy narrative, souring the potential for any meaningful IRP conflict to transpire at any level, from the smallest stick up to the largest invasion, without the letting of blood, the shedding of tears, or the permanent ruination of one’s very reputation.

 

The fact is, RP is no longer dominant. OOC is. And the issue is cultural. It isn’t a problem within any one nation or group, it’s server wide. And sadly, as a result, the experiences that I once had are growing harder and harder for the players who want to join to find any longer.

 

This used to be a really fun place. And now, we have people committing the most vile acts against their fellow players, such as doxxing. Horrific acts by any measure done out of pure hatred, over Minecraft.

 

Think about that for a moment.

 

This server isn’t what it used to be, but I think it can be fixed. I have to believe that. The solution is very simple, and it requires adherence to a timeless phrase known to many as “The Golden Rule.”

 

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Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

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These eleven simple words have always been my guiding light. It can be difficult to consider how others feel when cliques enter into competition with one another. Indeed, I myself am guilty of forming friend groups and cliques on this server which I have grown close to. 

 

However, when we take a moment to think about how people outside of our cliques may feel about something, things can be so much better for everyone. Even the slightest bit of empathy and respect can help to encourage good vibes and lay the foundation for a fun, enjoyable environment. It’s important to remember that for every truly despicable individual on this server, there are 9 others who, although flawed human beings, have decent hearts and intentions.

 

I acknowledge that it is wishful thinking to expect this. The server has never truly been this way, after all. Even during the “good old days,” problems of this nature persisted across LotC. In fact, back then, the situation was arguably even worse. This degeneration has been happening as far back as Anthos (3.0) at least. But a few good people change the tide? Can a few good hearts make this community a better place?

 

I would urge everyone who may have taken the time to read this post to think about doing the following.

 

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• Try to see others as projects to be built upon, rather than seeking to build upon the backs of others.
  
  
  • The thing that I’ve always been proudest about doing on LotC is lifting lesser known people up, and giving them a chance to find their own RP niche and grow. Don’t look at people as assets, treat them as you would have wanted to be treated in their shoes.
     
• Don’t be so quick to judge others due to their past. Newer or rising players coming into their own may make mistakes, but can also change.
  
  
  • Back in the day, it used to be easier for people in leadership positions to forgive others because we were all just kids. To be clear, I’m talking about kiddos who may have done something IRP with a character of theirs and been judged unfairly for it in an OOC way. We have to be more understanding to players coming into their own who are just trying to weave an RP narrative and not judge them for going against what nation leadership groups may want.
     
  • Of course, disgusting violations of server rules are another matter entirely. Those cannot be tolerated. But if something is purely RP, or if it’s a minor OOC screw up that didn’t break any rule, the player shouldn’t have to suffer for it for all eternity.
     
• When you say that you'll do something, follow through with what you promise and practice what you preach. When people do judge you, they judge you by your word, and by the way you treat others.
  
  
  • While we shouldn't judge other people for the mistakes that they make, we should strive to hold ourselves to a higher standard in terms of keeping promises and promoting trust. It can be very hurtful when someone close to you breaks their word, or turns out to have been illegitimate. Don't be fake, be as legitimate and honest as you can be. People will respect you for it all the more.
     
• Show love toward others, not hatred. Forgive those you can bear to forgive. Don’t stew over negative vibes that, at the end of the day, don’t really have any meaning.
  
  
  • There’s an old phrase floating around out there: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” I’ve certainly suffered great pain on this server before. But following the Golden Rule stipulates that we treat others with the same respect and dignity we would want to be treated. A little love, shown even toward those who may not deserve it, can go a long way.
     

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And that’s my 10 year message, guys. A bit long winded, and maybe even cheesy and overly wishful. But if it got even one person out there thinking, then it was worth it to use this platform to do this. 

 

In short, just try to be kind and understanding to other people. Don’t be quick to judge others. And at the risk of sounding really corny, love will always triumph over hate.

 

And now, for the fun part!

 

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My name’s AndrewTech, and I’m getting waaaay too old for this server. This is a rare opportunity that may not come again to ask me anything about myself or the last 10 YEARS I’ve spent on it, and I WILL ANSWER!

 

But please, no arguing, toxicity, or mockery on this thread or I will either ignore your post or have it deleted. Only good vibes in this place, people.

 

Also, no overly vulgar questions or requests for personal information please.

[Malins Welcome 739]

Congratulations on a decade of great accomplishments

 

What were some of LOTC's best communities that you weren't a part of?

[argonian 12837]

discord and its consequences have been a disaster for minecraft roleplay

[KaiserJacobII 1048]

Which of your characters has been your favourite?

 

What rp moment has been the most impactful on you, in a good or bad way?

 

How are you so cool?

[yopplwasupxxx 5665]

Do you believe that the gradual shift towards OOC politics was inevitable or do you think it could have been prevented?

 

I am in the former camp- with the advent of communication mediums like Discord and an aging playerbase, it seems to me the evolution from the innocent days of 2012 LotC to present day was going to happen regardless.

 

Also, side note: doxxing and other heinous acts were very common back in the day and are not necessarily products of the times. It seems to me actually these deeds are done less frequently than in the past, though that might be because I don’t hang around the playerbases that are inclined to doxx/ddos/etc as I used to in my younger years.

[AndrewTech 2815]

2 minutes ago, Wholesome_Thomas said:

Congratulations on a decade of great accomplishments

 

What were some of LOTC's best communities that you weren't a part of?

 

Oh man... I wish I could've been a part of the Teutonic Order formally. That would've been awesome. But at the time my parents were really strict about me not using Teamspeak or Skype (being 14 and all) so I didn't get involved in any of the major Anthosian military orders. :/

The White Rose would definitely also be a contender, as well as Kralta. Basically all the old groups back in Anthos I interacted with but was never formally a part of.

But I've been a part of of some REALLY great and fun communities, so I can't complain!

 

4 minutes ago, KaiserJacobII said:

Which of your characters has been your favourite?

 

What rp moment has been the most impactful on you, in a good or bad way?

 

How are you so cool?

 

1.) Celestine Herbert, Konrad Stafyr, and Elizabeth Brae-Wittenbach are my favorites. I've played a lot of characters, but these are probably my top three because of the rich narratives and impacts that they've left.

 

This is because all three of them developed really naturally. They came into their own, rising from nothing into being figures that gained strong legacies in their own right. All three were, and in Eliza's case are, very special.

 

But as a special honorable mention, my elf that I've had for 9 years, Pandora, is also really special to me. I'd say she's probably my favorite just because she means so much to me and I've had so many lasting memories from my childhood on her.

2.) That's a good question... Honestly, I'd say it was the moment I walked into the VonSchlichten engineering facility in Kalos and got pugsied by some random dude there. If not for that pugsy and the VonSchlichtens coming to check on me thereafter, I would have probably quit the server and my life would be a lot different, no cap.

 

 

3.) Because I follow the Golden Rule, my dude!! Treat others as you'd like to be treated and everything else falls into place. :) 

[Asutto 1988]

What was your least favorite LoTC conflict and how did it impact your view point on LoTC?

 

Also favorite JNC conversation?

[Mr. Etan 2841]

What is your favorite lore piece on the server and why do you like it so much?

 

Have you heard of the High Elves?

[AndrewTech 2815]

8 minutes ago, yopplwasupxxx said:

Do you believe that the gradual shift towards OOC politics was inevitable or do you think it could have been prevented?

 

I am in the former camp- with the advent of communication mediums like Discord and an aging playerbase, it seems to me the evolution from the innocent days of 2012 LotC to present day was going to happen regardless.

 

Also, side note: doxxing and other heinous acts were very common back in the day and are not necessarily products of the times. It seems to me actually these deeds are done less frequently than in the past, though that might be because I don’t hang around the playerbases that are inclined to doxx/ddos/etc as I did in my younger years.

 

1.) I think it was honestly always inevitable. As the years went by and we all formed our very tightly knit and separate cliques, the logical conclusion was that a situation like this would manifest.

 

As we all continued to tribalize, it became more difficult to conduct politics IRP because the stakes shifted to being very OOC based. It became a competition between competing friend groups, a similar phenomenon to opposing football teams or high school cliques trying to get one up on the "other guys" because it meant a lot to their prestige.

 

I can remember people complaining about this as far back as Anthos. But uh...
 

20 minutes ago, argonian said:

discord and its consequences have been a disaster for minecraft roleplay

 

Literally this. I know you're meming @argonian, but it's very true. I think Discord has forever changed the sort of roleplaying environment we used to enjoy, and it's gonna be really hard to restore it without a mass movement. I think things would be better if we didn't invest in Discord so much to govern things, which of course we have to do to get ahead of the "other guys" all the time."

 

In short, I'd say that I'm also in the former camp. I think there are things that could have been done, but this was always going to eventually be the way that things went.

 

 

2.) You may very well be right. I didn't use Teamspeak and I only started using Skype sparingly during 4.0, so I likely wasn't privy to a lot of that stuff. I'm glad it's been reduced, but I would still hope that we could strive to eliminate it in its entirety.

[Fie 2520]

31 minutes ago, AndrewTech said:

Also, no overly vulgar questions or requests for personal information please.

damn there go my plans.
ANYWAY: favourite memory in oren/haense? funniest RP you remember? what was it like to see the server de/evolve in a decade? what was your favourite and what was your least favourite map and why?

[PerfectlyPeachy 1344]

What is something you haven't yet done/pursued on the server that's always been a goal of yours in mind?

What is your earliest rp memory of lotc?

[Elfen_ 232]

Do you ever find yourself feeling old because someone in ooc said something about having to go t school or something school related to just straight up their parents telling them to do something?

What do you think the ratio of old to young people is?

 

When will Glee and Pandora finally reunit after 9 or years?

 

Good to see you around buddy and caring about the community. I find that myself, still care which is why even after a breaks even if they exist multiple years, I end up back to check stuff out. LOTC has definitely been a huge part of my childhood.

 

[SortedJarhead 811]

are adunians the servers protagonist or antagonist?

[warlord of filth 7714]

did tyrug really, y'know, eliza?

[AndrewTech 2815]

3 hours ago, Asutto said:

What was your least favorite LoTC conflict and how did it impact your view point on LoTC?

 

Also favorite JNC conversation?

 

1.) My absolute least favorite conflict was during 4.0, near the very end of @ChumpChump's time playing Emperor Tuvya.

 

It was my first real chance at working in human government, but the people at the top decided to work with my IRP brother to ruin my reputation, sabotage my political career, and force me into a corner where I had to PK my character. As my character, Nicholas Blackwell the Baron of Ager, was a supporter of the Carrions, the Storm King and his followers wanted to eliminate me and install someone more sympathetic at the top of our house.

 

Frankly, I couldn't maneuver like they could because I didn't use Teamspeak. It sucked, terribly. And for a while, it drove me away from humanity. Missed the Duke's War because of it and left the server for like 2 years until 5.0 rolled around, at which point @cruzazul gave me a second chance to prove myself and I created a really successful boom town!

 

 

2.) The one where Jake famously said "i'm glad we groomed you for leadership and not molestation" 👀

 

 

2 hours ago, Fie said:

damn there go my plans.
ANYWAY: favourite memory in oren/haense? funniest RP you remember? what was it like to see the server de/evolve in a decade? what was your favourite and what was your least favourite map and why?

 

1.) O-Oh my... 😳 

 

.........

 

.................

 

ANYWAYS!

 

 

2.) I have a lot of great memories in Oren. It's where I spent the first 7 years of my time on the server.

 

But when it comes to the most recent Oren, it would probably be when Eliza brokered the Wittenbach Accords between two countries she loved dearly. It was very dynamic, and watching the two monarchs play chess to determine the treaty's fate was really awesome.

 

It was the culmination of like 3-4 different IRP meetings and at the time, neither side thought it was going to be possible. And for her triumphs, Eliza was made a Petrine knight and declared a hero of the Empire. A great way to end her political career as a populist champion!

 

Honestly thought? Beyond the most recent version of Oren, I also remember re-enacting Half Life 1 in 3.0 at the VonSchlichten research facility in @Mirtok's Hanseti where the Teutonic Order got called in to fight off interdimensional invaders (endermen). And in 5.0, the townsfolk of Chambery made a HUGE deal over @cruzazul's visit. It meant so much to have the Emperor pay homage to your town back then and I loved the vibe of the whole occasion we threw for it.

 

My favorite memory in Haense is probably the Athera Expedition. That whole event line was really fun and dynamic, and it felt super driven by roleplay. It was awesome to go on the expedition with all the buddies I’d made and explore a compelling Haense narrative. 

 

 

3.) Okay so! When I was a nooblet in 2.5, Saul VonSchlichten had this obstacle course at his engineering company. He wanted to test human reflexes, so he'd contently hire people from the mainland to come back to the island and run it as "test subjects."

 

Well back then, brothels were still allowed under server rules........ So one day, he went over to the one on the human island and asked all the ladies there to participate "in a job" he had "back at the facility."

 

They got sooooooo mad IRP when they learned the truth of what they had actually been hired to do! 😂

 

In the end, the red haired one amongst them broke our highest score, and I remember laughing so, so hard.

 

 

4.) Thankfully, I've taken two extended breaks. Once after early 4.0 for about 2 years, and then another after early 5.0 for about 3. So I haven't been around the whole way through.

 

But I've seen enough. It's sad, really. It's very discouraging to think that all the fun that I had as a teenager may not be something that the newer players of this generation will be able to experience. This place was my childhood, it did a lot for me during some really difficult times in my life where I was awkward, socially anxious, and going through some weird middle school / high school transitions.

 

But I hope that through my actions, and the actions of others, we can help to bring at least a little bit of that back. It all starts with setting a good example, and with people that others look up to taking the initiative to make the world dynamic and create fun for others.

 

The Lectors of Owyn are probably the closest thing to the old days still around today, and they're a blast. I legitimately believe that emulating their approach to getting people engaged in RP would be excellent for the server as a whole.

 

 

5.) Most favorite? Well, my most favorite was Kalos, though I'm probably in the extreme minority there. I loved all the times I had with the VonSchlichtens on their little island, and sailing from place to place to each racial island in boats was kinda cool.

 

But Anthos was probably my favorite mainstream map. 3.0 was the best map, in my opinion, that LotC has ever spawned. It was honestly perfect and though we were all stupid kids back then, those were some of my favorite times. Axios too is a decent honorable mention after that.

 

The Fringe is also worth an honorable mention, where the Chivay Empire came into its own and the Orcs were strong, which was fun. That's where I did my first actual human nobility RP too with House Blackwell.

 

As for my least favorite? Athera. Man I hated Athera, and not just because I got screwed over politically at the time. It was way too small and I plainly just didn't like the vibe. Maps have to have a certain vibe and layout to be good, but Athera just didn't have it. Everything was too close together and it sucked, though I enjoyed the event in which we went back there for nostalgia's sake.