Spoiler for... Blasphemy, I suppose:
During our bouts of drama, and even in general, the discussion tends to focus on the negative. What are the PROBLEMS facing the community? What ISSUES are people having? What's WRONG with RP, people, policies, staff, etc... Well, I propose a different outlook. A more positive outlook. One where we focus on all the positives in the server. One where we stop taking everything do we have here for granted. One where we stop talking about what needs to be changed and start talking about all the cool stuff we can and should be doing with the resources available to us.
I made this statement in the "Restricting RP! Rawr!" thread, and I stand by it 115%. I will start by making a list of pros and cons.
Pro:
-We have the computers, the internet, and World of Warcraft. These things are miracles compared to what existed not all that long ago. It is best not to take them for granted!
-We have a perfectly stable private server, and our own perfectly stable website and forums, just for our own common interest. Many private servers get shut down for copyright infringement. We are lucky that there is no foolproof workaround to destroy private servers yet.
-We have an awesome community full of great and talented people with similar interests, and dedicated staff who have kept CotH running for several years now without complaint. How many other private RP servers have lasted as long as Conquest of the Horde?
-We are allowed to make characters, plots, events, storylines, etc. without being criticized much for our choices. On another server, I have seen arguments over the plausibility of a character's last name. At least we're not that silly. (Though we do enjoy being silly from time to time, which is yet another privilege we have!)
-We have pretty good staff-player relations and communication. It may not always seem this way, but compared to other online communities we really do. The admins, GMs, and Forum Helpers are just like the rest of us: awesome people who love RPing. Unlike the folks at Blizzard, our staff members really do care that each and every person who chooses to RP here has a good time. They really are dedicated to making CotH fun for all of us. And yes, that includes themselves. They have the privilege of being here just as we all do. That is what motivates them to do the work of *deep breath* intros, profiles, wiki management, enforcement, discussion on systems like prestige, events, spawning of massive towns and tons of NPCs, puppeting of NPCs, moderating of forums, and everything else!
-We have a list of rules and policies that work well. There are people who are not right for the community, and our rules, policies, and enforcement make sure they will never ruin anything for us. Unlike retail WoW, we have no griefers or lollers. We have no people who run and jump around naked during roleplay events shouting "lol rp suks u guys r stupid lolol." We have no flamers or trolls on our forums. This is simply incredible.
Con:
-The prestige system is being shut down. Yes, this has regrettably made a lot of people angry. I cannot say whether this is the best option or not, but I do know that it has caused negative feelings, therefore whether it works out for the best or not, it is a con right now owing to its effect on the community. Prestige classes are pretty cool. Hopefully we'll have some kind of open class/variant class thing in the future. That, in my opinion, would be even cooler.
-Conquest RP and World-changing events are not allowed. I love these things. RP on CotH, as I've said before, has never been as fun for me as it was when we did have them. Perhaps they will be allowed again someday in some capacity. I understand that they often feel like too much to deal with when RP can be created in much easier ways, though.
-We don't follow the RPG books-- I'm going to go ahead and skip this one. From what I've seen, this is not an issue people care about. Those who want to use stuff from it don't seem to be restricted as long as they don't try to tout it as lore that everyone must follow.
-We have restarts and lore/character wipes. It's never fun losing something you're proud of and that you worked hard for. There are those (myself included) who are fine with it because we have already gotten so much out of our characters, but not everyone feels the same. It's completely understandable to still have things you want to do, storylines you want to finish... And it's perfectly acceptable to feel robbed of that when you're told it's all restarting and none of what happened will have actually happened.
-We have a lot of drama. I and most older members of the community have seen it over and over and over and over again. Restart 1, Northrend Exploitation, Valen's "ban-list" screenshots, Secrettom and Lucelia's staff-bashing revealing real names and personal secrets, Restart 2, Prestiges being shut down... And these are just the big, public dramas. There has also been drama every time something changes. Even things that were changed for the almost entirely better and easier, such as getting rid of Vouches and switching from Silver Tokens to our RPitem commands. There are tons of behind-the-scenes dramas on CotH all the time. There are people who break the rules, and these incidents occur fairly often, or else we wouldn't need enforcement. Whether it's by abusing the prestige bonus system or by any other means of godmoding, metagaming, disrespect, etc... People cause drama. It's going to happen.
Read the list. Read it again. Read it a third time. Okay, just kidding. You really only had to read it once to get the picture. There are bad things, yes, but A) The pros seem to far outweigh the cons, and B) Even the cons aren't all bad. To prove this, I shall make all of this relevant to the theme of the post and make yet another list: Silver lining for each con!
Silver Lining:
-I'm not sure of this, but the general consensus seems to be that there will be variant/open classes available in the future. This is a good thing! It might be better than prestiges! We won't know until we try it! In addition, the prestige system does have its flaws. Regardless of whether the benefits outweigh them or not, changing to open/variant classes will get rid of those problems. The bright side of prestige removal? We'll still get to develop our characters in awesome and unique ways, but with fewer restrictions and no hassle, however we want!
-Conquest RP and World-changing events lead to custom lore which, once it piles up, can be confusing for new people to learn. Though I would like to have these things, not everyone would. Perhaps this is a case of us not using the resources available to us as much as we can, but it's just one thing. The bright side of no conquest RP? Less confusion and fewer headaches for the staff who are forced to be involved in conquest projects that they don't want to be involved in so that they can focus on other methods of RP creation.
-Restarts give all of us a chance to start over. Believe it or not, a clean slate is really really fun. It also allows us to rewrite/edit profiles for existing characters which helps because many characters change over time. They also remove clutter from the wiki! Inactive members, deleted characters, etc. Right after a restart, it becomes easier to make new characters and get into really good RP on them as well because all the guilds and storylines are brand new. The bright side of server restarts? A clean slate and a chance to clean things up!
-Drama... Some would say it's hard to find a silver lining for drama, but this is actually an easy task. Drama means we care. We care about ourselves, we care about each other, we care about the server. Nobody would bother posting anything here if they didn't care at all. The staff wouldn't bother making unpopular decisions if they didn't really think they were for the best. It would be so much easier to just sit back and let the players have everything and not enforce any of the rules... But things would be so much worse then. Many of the incidents of major drama that I listed had positive outcomes. The first restart gave us Wrath of the Lich King. Northrend Exploitation gave us an OOC area, Dungeon/Tier set vendors, and Silver Tokens to get items. Getting rid of prestiges will lead to easier and less restricted ways to develop our characters into non-standard classes. The bright side of drama? Involvement, caring, and a constant march into a bright future for CotH.
In the end, things will change both for better and for worse. Life (and CotH) is a roller coaster; enjoy the ride.
I hope I was able to drop some wisdom on everyone with this.
Always remember the good, and always see the good in the bad. And of course... ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE!
Spoiler:
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and CotH!
A Helpful Piece of Advice for the People I Love. ~Terant
A Helpful Piece of Advice for the People I Love. ~Terant
During our bouts of drama, and even in general, the discussion tends to focus on the negative. What are the PROBLEMS facing the community? What ISSUES are people having? What's WRONG with RP, people, policies, staff, etc... Well, I propose a different outlook. A more positive outlook. One where we focus on all the positives in the server. One where we stop taking everything do we have here for granted. One where we stop talking about what needs to be changed and start talking about all the cool stuff we can and should be doing with the resources available to us.
(08-15-2011, 09:10 PM)Terant Wrote: P.S. Oh, and let's all agree one more time that the end of the server isn't coming because of any of these things. No matter how much we all may seem to care about these issues, they're all minor as long as we still have awesome admins and awesome GMs keeping CotH up and running, enforcing the rules, and doing the best they can to make sure everyone here has a good time.
I made this statement in the "Restricting RP! Rawr!" thread, and I stand by it 115%. I will start by making a list of pros and cons.
Pro:
-We have the computers, the internet, and World of Warcraft. These things are miracles compared to what existed not all that long ago. It is best not to take them for granted!
-We have a perfectly stable private server, and our own perfectly stable website and forums, just for our own common interest. Many private servers get shut down for copyright infringement. We are lucky that there is no foolproof workaround to destroy private servers yet.
-We have an awesome community full of great and talented people with similar interests, and dedicated staff who have kept CotH running for several years now without complaint. How many other private RP servers have lasted as long as Conquest of the Horde?
-We are allowed to make characters, plots, events, storylines, etc. without being criticized much for our choices. On another server, I have seen arguments over the plausibility of a character's last name. At least we're not that silly. (Though we do enjoy being silly from time to time, which is yet another privilege we have!)
-We have pretty good staff-player relations and communication. It may not always seem this way, but compared to other online communities we really do. The admins, GMs, and Forum Helpers are just like the rest of us: awesome people who love RPing. Unlike the folks at Blizzard, our staff members really do care that each and every person who chooses to RP here has a good time. They really are dedicated to making CotH fun for all of us. And yes, that includes themselves. They have the privilege of being here just as we all do. That is what motivates them to do the work of *deep breath* intros, profiles, wiki management, enforcement, discussion on systems like prestige, events, spawning of massive towns and tons of NPCs, puppeting of NPCs, moderating of forums, and everything else!
-We have a list of rules and policies that work well. There are people who are not right for the community, and our rules, policies, and enforcement make sure they will never ruin anything for us. Unlike retail WoW, we have no griefers or lollers. We have no people who run and jump around naked during roleplay events shouting "lol rp suks u guys r stupid lolol." We have no flamers or trolls on our forums. This is simply incredible.
Con:
-The prestige system is being shut down. Yes, this has regrettably made a lot of people angry. I cannot say whether this is the best option or not, but I do know that it has caused negative feelings, therefore whether it works out for the best or not, it is a con right now owing to its effect on the community. Prestige classes are pretty cool. Hopefully we'll have some kind of open class/variant class thing in the future. That, in my opinion, would be even cooler.
-Conquest RP and World-changing events are not allowed. I love these things. RP on CotH, as I've said before, has never been as fun for me as it was when we did have them. Perhaps they will be allowed again someday in some capacity. I understand that they often feel like too much to deal with when RP can be created in much easier ways, though.
-We don't follow the RPG books-- I'm going to go ahead and skip this one. From what I've seen, this is not an issue people care about. Those who want to use stuff from it don't seem to be restricted as long as they don't try to tout it as lore that everyone must follow.
-We have restarts and lore/character wipes. It's never fun losing something you're proud of and that you worked hard for. There are those (myself included) who are fine with it because we have already gotten so much out of our characters, but not everyone feels the same. It's completely understandable to still have things you want to do, storylines you want to finish... And it's perfectly acceptable to feel robbed of that when you're told it's all restarting and none of what happened will have actually happened.
-We have a lot of drama. I and most older members of the community have seen it over and over and over and over again. Restart 1, Northrend Exploitation, Valen's "ban-list" screenshots, Secrettom and Lucelia's staff-bashing revealing real names and personal secrets, Restart 2, Prestiges being shut down... And these are just the big, public dramas. There has also been drama every time something changes. Even things that were changed for the almost entirely better and easier, such as getting rid of Vouches and switching from Silver Tokens to our RPitem commands. There are tons of behind-the-scenes dramas on CotH all the time. There are people who break the rules, and these incidents occur fairly often, or else we wouldn't need enforcement. Whether it's by abusing the prestige bonus system or by any other means of godmoding, metagaming, disrespect, etc... People cause drama. It's going to happen.
Read the list. Read it again. Read it a third time. Okay, just kidding. You really only had to read it once to get the picture. There are bad things, yes, but A) The pros seem to far outweigh the cons, and B) Even the cons aren't all bad. To prove this, I shall make all of this relevant to the theme of the post and make yet another list: Silver lining for each con!
Silver Lining:
-I'm not sure of this, but the general consensus seems to be that there will be variant/open classes available in the future. This is a good thing! It might be better than prestiges! We won't know until we try it! In addition, the prestige system does have its flaws. Regardless of whether the benefits outweigh them or not, changing to open/variant classes will get rid of those problems. The bright side of prestige removal? We'll still get to develop our characters in awesome and unique ways, but with fewer restrictions and no hassle, however we want!
-Conquest RP and World-changing events lead to custom lore which, once it piles up, can be confusing for new people to learn. Though I would like to have these things, not everyone would. Perhaps this is a case of us not using the resources available to us as much as we can, but it's just one thing. The bright side of no conquest RP? Less confusion and fewer headaches for the staff who are forced to be involved in conquest projects that they don't want to be involved in so that they can focus on other methods of RP creation.
-Restarts give all of us a chance to start over. Believe it or not, a clean slate is really really fun. It also allows us to rewrite/edit profiles for existing characters which helps because many characters change over time. They also remove clutter from the wiki! Inactive members, deleted characters, etc. Right after a restart, it becomes easier to make new characters and get into really good RP on them as well because all the guilds and storylines are brand new. The bright side of server restarts? A clean slate and a chance to clean things up!
-Drama... Some would say it's hard to find a silver lining for drama, but this is actually an easy task. Drama means we care. We care about ourselves, we care about each other, we care about the server. Nobody would bother posting anything here if they didn't care at all. The staff wouldn't bother making unpopular decisions if they didn't really think they were for the best. It would be so much easier to just sit back and let the players have everything and not enforce any of the rules... But things would be so much worse then. Many of the incidents of major drama that I listed had positive outcomes. The first restart gave us Wrath of the Lich King. Northrend Exploitation gave us an OOC area, Dungeon/Tier set vendors, and Silver Tokens to get items. Getting rid of prestiges will lead to easier and less restricted ways to develop our characters into non-standard classes. The bright side of drama? Involvement, caring, and a constant march into a bright future for CotH.
In the end, things will change both for better and for worse. Life (and CotH) is a roller coaster; enjoy the ride.
I hope I was able to drop some wisdom on everyone with this.
Always remember the good, and always see the good in the bad. And of course... ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE!
![[Image: lich_king_signature_by_wyrx-d3jo9rm.png]](http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/173/0/b/lich_king_signature_by_wyrx-d3jo9rm.png)
