Hey everyone, whilst I was working, a memory randomly seeped back into my mind. A memory of a time and age long, long gone. It felt normal and seamless at the time, but now that I think of it, it's a great miss.
So, it started with my first ever roleplay experience, it was a forum roleplay, it even had a fee, it wasn't much, but my brother was kind enough to pay it for me! What this fee got you, other than access to the forums and moderation etc, was little events. Now at the time, I thought, yea, this is how they keep the RP going, it's completely normal.
When I finally made the switch to MMO's proper I had my eyes on a game called Ragnarok Online. The game itself was rather simple, to the point where you might even call it boring. It's VERY grindy. I was on what's called a private server. As, at the time, there were no EU servers for the game. And this is where things got awesome.
I joined a guild, as you generally do in MMOS. You tackle the hard stuff together, do some PvP if you feel like it, it being free and technically illegal made it a passion project, the server grew rapidly and then amazing things happened, the GameMasters started creating events, they had some custom made maps in some cases, they "took over" some boss monsters or did "hide and seek" or riddles to find them so you'd get prizes. It was very engaging, and incredibly fun. Especially in a game like that which is very focused on grinding, it can get tough. Our guild organized guild events too. These were basic things, for example we'd roll and the highest roller would go "I want this item or card" and so everyone hunted the creature that drops it for one hour. (We always got what we wanted, and was very popular) Or we did things like Dead Branch farming. Dead Branch was an item that, when used, spawned a random creature, this included bosses. It was always really fun, as some of the monsters we had never seen (the world was big and dungeons were complex)
WoW came out several years later, and some of my guild decided to go to WoW and we never saw them again, and others, myself included, wanted to try it out first, so we went to a private WoW server (early days they were not as good or true to the real thing, but a good approximation) Obviously I was in awe the first time by the graphics and it being 3D the combat was amazing, I and the others who tried got hooked instantly, we stayed in the private server for a while, that server also had GMs do stuff, events and the like, taking over faction leaders and walking through the city, with small battalion of guards. They'd visit stores and talk to random players. It was incredible. I decided to play WoW for real, at this time I had my own income. The original servers were incredible, I found a guild, we made WoW videos, some very well known ones too
I contacted GM's for things be they bugs or otherwise. And never had to wait long. But GM's no longer really did events, it was alright though, our guild did, and a lot of it. They made sporadic appearances in cities to clean up the advertisements with dead bodies, or dungeon/raid loot. I remember all these things very fondly. And these little mysteries of a GM island, or getting to places where you should not have been able to go yet (like mount Hyjal at the time) these are all such awesome and fond memories.
Now, we're at modern WoW, a lot of lay-offs (but record revenues) They had been cutting back on Customer Support (and thus GMs) for years now. A ticket which used to take upwards to an hour to get an answer, now takes several business days. I don't even know if GMs are a thing anymore. They are certainly never seen again. None of the things that were always unique and very engaging happen anymore.
Alright, so the question I would like to ask is. Does Embers plan on having the content and be hands off, which is fine, of course. Or will the CS team, be able to host and do stuff within the game, to the delight of many (or well, at least me)
So, it started with my first ever roleplay experience, it was a forum roleplay, it even had a fee, it wasn't much, but my brother was kind enough to pay it for me! What this fee got you, other than access to the forums and moderation etc, was little events. Now at the time, I thought, yea, this is how they keep the RP going, it's completely normal.
When I finally made the switch to MMO's proper I had my eyes on a game called Ragnarok Online. The game itself was rather simple, to the point where you might even call it boring. It's VERY grindy. I was on what's called a private server. As, at the time, there were no EU servers for the game. And this is where things got awesome.
I joined a guild, as you generally do in MMOS. You tackle the hard stuff together, do some PvP if you feel like it, it being free and technically illegal made it a passion project, the server grew rapidly and then amazing things happened, the GameMasters started creating events, they had some custom made maps in some cases, they "took over" some boss monsters or did "hide and seek" or riddles to find them so you'd get prizes. It was very engaging, and incredibly fun. Especially in a game like that which is very focused on grinding, it can get tough. Our guild organized guild events too. These were basic things, for example we'd roll and the highest roller would go "I want this item or card" and so everyone hunted the creature that drops it for one hour. (We always got what we wanted, and was very popular) Or we did things like Dead Branch farming. Dead Branch was an item that, when used, spawned a random creature, this included bosses. It was always really fun, as some of the monsters we had never seen (the world was big and dungeons were complex)
WoW came out several years later, and some of my guild decided to go to WoW and we never saw them again, and others, myself included, wanted to try it out first, so we went to a private WoW server (early days they were not as good or true to the real thing, but a good approximation) Obviously I was in awe the first time by the graphics and it being 3D the combat was amazing, I and the others who tried got hooked instantly, we stayed in the private server for a while, that server also had GMs do stuff, events and the like, taking over faction leaders and walking through the city, with small battalion of guards. They'd visit stores and talk to random players. It was incredible. I decided to play WoW for real, at this time I had my own income. The original servers were incredible, I found a guild, we made WoW videos, some very well known ones too
I contacted GM's for things be they bugs or otherwise. And never had to wait long. But GM's no longer really did events, it was alright though, our guild did, and a lot of it. They made sporadic appearances in cities to clean up the advertisements with dead bodies, or dungeon/raid loot. I remember all these things very fondly. And these little mysteries of a GM island, or getting to places where you should not have been able to go yet (like mount Hyjal at the time) these are all such awesome and fond memories.Now, we're at modern WoW, a lot of lay-offs (but record revenues) They had been cutting back on Customer Support (and thus GMs) for years now. A ticket which used to take upwards to an hour to get an answer, now takes several business days. I don't even know if GMs are a thing anymore. They are certainly never seen again. None of the things that were always unique and very engaging happen anymore.
Alright, so the question I would like to ask is. Does Embers plan on having the content and be hands off, which is fine, of course. Or will the CS team, be able to host and do stuff within the game, to the delight of many (or well, at least me)
