GGRO Closed

[King Alex]

Hold on a second here.

Don't you think it's a little ridiculous to outright discount a server because one or two of the admin may have previously worked with the infamous Cookie? For all you know, they may have worked with and disagreed with said Cookie's actions while running the server. Judging the admin team simply based on who they have worked with (once) in the past is rather unfair.

I think it would be much more reasonable to avoid servers which GM team Cookie is currently part of. Employing Cookie indicates that to a certain extent, he will be part of the decision making process which determines the future of the server. And seeing that some of you find him utterly untrustworthy, avoiding such servers would be the logical thing to do.

In comparison, if a server actively refuses to be affiliated with Cookie, the fact that some of the admin team may have worked with Cookie in the past can most likely be disregarded.

After all, Cookie is not being employed by these servers, is he?

The thing is the staff straight up denied ALL involvement with Cookie on SanctityRO.
Right now, you have the same guy on a server denying all involvement once more.

Maybe VividRO cut all ties with Cookie maybe not. I am merely saying players should be aware of this.
Obviously we can give people "chances", but that same mentality made people give Cookie chances and how did that end up?

[MiyumiChan]

I wonder where all ggRO members are going to now?

[Bue]

addendum: the altercation happened after hotshot had his f*** woe guilds" breakdown, so this is most likely what it was about. whether hotshot kept sending money in after he bailed is also unknown at this time. if no money was being sent anymore, then it's possible that cookie's "siphoning" was just him getting his salary/salary for his developers from donations since hotshot wasn't paying anymore. hotshot could have possibly killed the server there by banning "toxic" (awful word) players, but it was his decision to make, not cookie's. cookie took over the server at this point.

also cookie taking a salary for the s*** his dev team was is a complete joke. nothing ever went right development wise on that server.

If Hotshot doesn't have his name on the finance account for the donations, then it isn't his money.

If their isn't a legitimate business name on the finance account, then it isn't the server's money.

Whoever's name is on the finance account owns the money and does the taxes on it. (And probably handles the distribution.)

If Hotshot actually employs his developers or maintain the finances, then Cawl has done fucked up.

If not, then Hotshot can just fuck off.

The real issue is that the people managing the server's finance and development isn't transparent with whats is going on. And it is definitely Hotshot's fault for not closing the server when he should have.

[Rider]

I don't understand why there is so much speculation and need to figure out who is to be blamed here. HotshotGG messed up bigtime and he came out and admitted it. His lack of experience in managing a RO server is also a factor which cookie took full advantage of. I don't think there is anyone who ran a server successfully in their first attempt, so there is no point in bashing at him when it is something most first-time server owners go through.

Just look at things as they are now. There is one guy who came out and said something and I don't think someone would make stuff up at this point. On the other hand, there's cookie who has absconded without a word and given his past, even considering that he might not be in the wrong is downright imprudent.

[Ewol]

While the server in the end became a failure thanks to Cookie and his GM team, which I have to say were the most incompetent GMs I've ever had to deal with.

What hotshot did for the server should not be so easily ignored. ggRO peaked at 2.4k players. NA server. 2.4k players in 2015. That's impressive. It was not Cookie who attracted the players,it was Hotshot with a very small window of advertising. Imagine if Hotshot had managed to get a competent GM team together? It really could have been a great server.

It's really unfortunate.

[Celeste Chan]

That's not really fair, it was Hotshot that had a completely moronic attitude towards the community and literally ragequit the server when things blew up in his face. Then he has the audacity to call the community immature/toxic. Yeah yeah, f*** outta here you piece of s***.
He definitely had his part to play in the downfall of the server. Everyone warned him about Cookie, many people instantly bailed etc. and he chose him anyways, and in fact made it a point to defend him like a good goy. And I'm not sure I believe the "there was nobody else guise really I swear" part.
That's like buying a rabid dog and then blaming the dog for biting you.
And as far as Hotshot "admitting his part" goes, all he did was blame everything on Cookie and say "If I could turn back time I would have never chosen him blabla", sure it's not like people warned you right? Seemed more like damage control to get himself out of the blame game to me.

The process of how ggro died has been detailed on the reddit anyway.
I'm sure people were able to have fun on the server regardless of its death, I don't think any rational and non-ignorant person would have expected this thing to last for very long ever since Hotshot bailed and Cookie took over (which became pretty obvious among the community even though they kept it a "secret").

He knew damn well what type of person Cookie is. He laughed when Cookie linked all of the HoS threads in skype call. To blame everything on him when he was the one that f*** up @alootid and mvp's within the first month is hilarious. Anything community wanted that he didn't, he'd veto. Even if there was no reasoning behind it, so yw community. He even banned someone from forums for talking about him and another for talking about Lily. But yes, blame Cookie for trying to make that craphole last. Zinnia tried as much as he could, along with Carrier, but at that point it was downhill. The only money ever taken out was salaries for dev's but after the first month, there was hardly any money coming in. ((Gee, I wonder why??? Couldn't be because this server was made solely for someone who was bored.)) Everyone made mistakes but it just feels like Cookie is the scapegoat for a majority of things.

Someone that mentioned VividRO: I don't think Cookie even knows about VividRO let alone is tied to it. If it's a good server, go play it. I wish the team good luck.
Ps: If anyone wants to take over ggRO, ask hsgg for account info and have at it. Had lots of potential, just didn't play out.
Pss: All this drama does is keep Cookie alive. Idk what ya'll are trying to achieve other than entertain.

[Hyperactive]

Pss: All this drama does is keep Cookie alive. Idk what ya'll are trying to achieve other than entertain.

I don't know about anyone else but I find it pretty entertaining. It's going pretty much how I expected it.

>HotshotGG wants to start a server but is clueless
>HotshotGG hires Cookie and loses interest in server
>Cookie destroys server
>Another Cookie thread starts on RMS
>Upset players
>Screenshots of Skype convos
>Bue stands up for his bf Cookie
>Rambling about who is in the wrong

Now we just need Cookie to come into the thread and say he's innocent. Then wait for everyone to start posting Skype screenshots until he admits to not being innocent 9 pages later and it's a wrap.

What hotshot did for the server should not be so easily ignored. ggRO peaked at 2.4k players. NA server. 2.4k players in 2015. That's impressive. It was not Cookie who attracted the players,it was Hotshot with a very small window of advertising. Imagine if Hotshot had managed to get a competent GM team together? It really could have been a great server.

I totally agree with you. 2.4k players is pretty impressive and it only makes me wonder what it would have been like if not for the terrible staffing decisions. The community was pretty toxic overall, but the first few weeks were pretty fun and nostalgic with the massive numbers of players.

[ro sucks]

Zinnia tried as much as he could, along with Carrier, but at that point it was downhill.

here's what carrier had to say about that

For what it's worth, my approach to the community and the ideal I tried to pass onto everyone as much as I could was that inherently, there are no "bad seeds" when it comes to people. The most frustrating trolls in the world tend to just be people who feel like they're not being heard, or like their concerns or feelings are being undervalued or dismissed.

There were a number of people who were either troublemakers, or hated the staff and myself when I first showed up, and most of those people I worked to foster relationships with and ended up on good terms with. I believe that when it comes to rule-breaking and trouble-makers that the first, second, and third acts of interacting with them should be to attempt to find out why they acted the way they did, and seek to rectify the base issue instead of just handing out punishments because rules were broken.

As well, I was of the mind that we needed to show respect to the community instead of isolating ourselves from them and treating them as a problem; the community is an asset, not a liability.

In the end, it didn't really catch on, but I did my best to instill those ideas in others.

I ended up leaving because I work in game design, and my boss felt I wasn't "fully committing" myself to my work, so he invoked the non-compete and non-interfere clause in my contract and told me I wasn't to be working on other projects. A bit stingy of him, but for what he pays me, he has every right

Thanks for a fun ride, guys. At some point in the future if my schedule allows, I will probably start up a project of my own, but who knows when that might be.

The only money ever taken out was salaries for dev's but after the first month, there was hardly any money coming in. ((Gee, I wonder why??? Couldn't be because this server was made solely for someone who was bored.)) Everyone made mistakes but it just feels like Cookie is the scapegoat for a majority of things.

cookie took over. hotshot didn't bail because he got tired of it, he left because it wasn't his server anymore. cookie had full access to everything and simply overruled hotshot. he had no reason to stay and keep feeding money into the server.

cookie isn't the scapegoat, he f*** destroyed the server, the end.

Ps: If anyone wants to take over ggRO, ask hsgg for account info and have at it. Had lots of potential, just didn't play out.

The only problem now is [...] Cookie is stopping us from backing up the server.

Even in the end when there is almost nothing left, someone is trying to force it to burn to the ground.

[Doozy]

Regardless of what everyone says, even if Cookie/Cawli tried to defend himself, would you actually believe the guy?

You teenagers need to stop relying on scamming poor RO players and find a better way to increase your earnability. ;/

[exii]

>good looking and promising server
>cookie leads
>end up with big drama
>everyone: "oh, how could that happen?"

This is why I think that 95% of this comunity is stupid as f***

[Playtester]

HotshotGG is just another one of the many server admins that open a server just to realize that having a server is a lot of work and they don't actually have enough free time to do it properly. But honestly, everyone who actually has a real job doesn't have time to admin a RO server properly.

So now that ggRO closed suddenly (but not surprisingly) with the forums gone with it, what's everyone up to now? I wonder if making a new topic would have been better.

I kind of stopped visiting ggRO forums when the bug reports and suggestions stopped.

(The whole current RO private server system is just ridiculous. You have two emulators or even more than all fix some things but not others. Then you have servers fixing things just for their server. So it ends up being always the same complaints, bug reports and suggestions every single time.)

There don't actually seem to be many big close-to-official servers I could follow at the moment. I'm on OnlyRO forums and I see that the new LifeRO has a nice setup but not sure if I'll register there. I also heard Aurela wants to reopen ElariaRO.

[Yuzo]

If this dude is the AIDS of RO, how many times has he f*** people in the donkey?


Seriously, the guy is a serial offender, yet people keep putting faith in him. I'm yet to play a server of his, and I'm glad I haven't.

[Neffletics]

HotshotGG is just another one of the many server admins that open a server just to realize that having a server is a lot of work and they don't actually have enough free time to do it properly. But honestly, everyone who actually has a real job doesn't have time to admin a RO server properly.
I kind of stopped visiting ggRO forums when the bug reports and suggestions stopped.

(The whole current RO private server system is just ridiculous. You have two emulators or even more than all fix some things but not others. Then you have servers fixing things just for their server. So it ends up being always the same complaints, bug reports and suggestions every single time.)

There don't actually seem to be many big close-to-official servers I could follow at the moment. I'm on OnlyRO forums and I see that the new LifeRO has a nice setup but not sure if I'll register there. I also heard Aurela wants to reopen ElariaRO.

Yea, you can't admin a server when you have work irl but if you have someone trustworthy whom you can trust during work hours.
^ That was Hotshots' logic lol so he hired cookie.

Anyway, as an ex player of LifeRO, I would suggest you to try that. It is really balanced and the staffs are really doing something about players who violate their rules. That server inspired me to create my own.

OnlyRO is also good but I can't vouche for OnceRO since it is a dual log paradise, didn't get any serious party on my 2-day stay there.
(Since I saw some people from ggRO are going there)

[Reality]

Not a secret? Maybe not now, but at the time. I sure didn't see reality stepping up and telling players that Yata was an image used by Cookie.
That already lowers ones credibility.

Because it was obvious as all hell to begin with..? Nobody cared anyways, except for apparently you guys.

I didn't join SanctityRO's team to "cover anything up". I just wanted an outlet for development planning, and I got it. My goal was and is to create an awesome, unique midrate server and I don't think I should apologize for that. It was never my responsibility nor my place to out Cookie as Yata. Still not sure why you're angry at me for doing my job and not wanting to get myself involved in petty drama.

And seriously. It's been almost two years since Sanctity, hasn't it? Cookie and I are completely different people now. We don't even talk anymore.

rly tho Alex pls. I don't get why you've got bad blood with me when I was never a bad admin to you guys to begin with as Crimson (and by "you guys" I mean Voltes V). You're carrying around this two-year-old drama with you for, well, no good reason at all.

-Reality

P.S. And to stay on topic of ggRO closing, I don't know why this wasn't foreseen months ago. I never got the sense of any emotional investment from any of the staff there. A server will only last as long as its staff cares about it. And you know what? That's fine. I think the main reason for most rage on RMS is because MMO players are convinced that hunting and leveling is "work", and it's "wasted" with a closure. It's not work. It's a damn game. Did you enjoy your time there? No? Then why were you even playing there? Yes? Great! Then it was worth it! Move on and find another server to enjoy.

Edit:

Oh a drama thread? Better advertise my s*** server!

ok! :D

[TabooRo]

I had a feeling it wasn't going to last long but wow..they went from 2,000 to 0 real quick.