AeonRO: A Guide to the Unspoken Caste System

Started by TheBTG, Jun 12, 2011, 01:28 PM

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Raven776

When you say that Kado is wrong simply because she was banned and hasn't played for a long time, you're right and wrong yourself. She was banned, and she hasn't played a long time, but everything else seems pretty much right in her posts. Calling it a "caste" system is kinda paranoid, I'll admit, but it doesn't sound any better the other ways you can explain it. I was in favor for "a large group of friends who will blatantly disregard anyone else's problems and do each other favors not available to people outside their group" system, but I don't think anyone else would accept that. I give everything second chances, and Aeon hasn't been struck by a fairy godmother and turned a princess yet... or lost its warts... or improved in any way possible.

Rebirth: Rebirth costumes seem to be limited to people who get the class as opposed to just GMs, their friends, and anyone in the "a large group of friends who blatantly disregard anyone else's problems and do each other favors not available to people outside their group" group. To get to the level, you need a good deal of farming. Now, getting to level 99 on an improved rate server isn't even near impossible, but when you look at the skill list you have to take into account that every monster has those bonuses to them as well. Bash? Reflect shield? Take a look at the mobs you'll meet down in Thor's dungeon and match their skills with the ones buffed. To put it one way, you Star Gladiators won't be farming there anymore... ever... the game was redesigned to fit a large party, and to get a large party you have to be part of the "a large group of friends who blatantly disregard anyone else's problems and do each other favors not availabe to people outside their group" group.

Their "celestial" amulets are pretty much the same way. Custom items that fit snugly in your lower headgear slot give better bonuses than you'll find pretty much anywhere else, and to get them you need to be rebirth and have items available only in one of the custom dungeons. If you've read anything about the custom dungeons before, you'll know you aren't soloing them.

As far as the economy goes? One person owns most of the good items, and his personal philosophy is, "If I'm the only one with white potions and people are desperate enough to buy them at 1 million zeny a piece, then they're worth 1 million zeny a piece." Don't feel like you're going to be able to farm money to get your equipment...

Aeon tokens, you can get them once a week unless you go to a custom dungeon and get about 4 per run. They're used for any custom items you'll want (hatboxes, pet tames, enriched ore), skill resets, or dungeon warp unlocks. A useful system if you're planning on grinding for weeks on end to climb slightly out of the wastes that being new to this server put you in.

The community. "Caste system" aside, people aren't quite helpful. Older members have others tank for them, exchange items between each other, share equipment, and party up often. Newer members solo. This wouldn't be such a slap in the face if the older members didn't also give bad leveling info. "Go kill sidewinders until you're trans," was the advice I jokingly (hopefully, he wasn't laughing) received when asking for a party for my level 60 alchemist.

Custom content: You may think custom content is meant to be fun and amusing with challenge attached, but it's not. It's meant to put more power into the people who can afford to get it. One custom dungeon requires codes to enter a door. Those codes are hidden around the dungeon through riddles and the like, but it has been a long, long time since anyone's actually solved them. If you find yourself lucky enough to be in one of these dungeons, do what everyone else does and just copy down the number of the code and the number the veteran running it shouts out to you. If you get to a good enough level to run it (as it's the only low level(ish) custom dungeon) and try asking for the code, I've personally experienced a wait of 45 minutes before someone slipped it to the waiting party. After that, the code either didn't work or it changed, and we ended up finding the solution ourselves after another 20 minutes.

RP: Most popular room is the Out of Character Room. Don't even listen to what people say about the pub... people's legs seem to be broken and asking for any if you're not in the "screw over everyone who's not one of us" group, which is just a step below the  "a large group of friends who blatantly disregard anyone else's problems and do each other favors not availabe to people outside their group" group only because the "screw over everyone who's not one of us" group doesn't have the power to grant favors to each other, then you're not likely to get any RPs started by yourself, have anyone move to interact with you in a group RP, or even be told that there's RP going on if you're out of earshot.

Would I recommend this server? Not really. I don't enjoy it. I'm not enjoying it as I sit in the OOC room right now writing this. If I get booted for writing a review, I'll end up laughing, put a few screenshots here for what i get for speaking my mind, and then move on.

To you who said the opinions were old and therefore invalid, I'm playing right now. Kado may have a longer, much more passionate opinion, but I can validate everything she had to say with the only problem you found in her post. I was never banned, I never have had a personal problem with anyone on the server, and I don't have any long standing grudges to cloud my view.

I've hosted multiple types of RP servers in the past. I've been an active element in multiple RORP servers, and never before have I received this amount of scorn and hatred for asking for a party or occasional RP. I'm not angry, remorseful, or even hopeful for a better Aeon in the future. Honestly? There's no other way to put it other than "depressed" if that wasn't so... depressing?

Oh, and my forum account was deleted. I've never heard of that happening before, but it could be common. Just something to add because I recall using it just weeks before this review was written.

hillslion

#16
If you had bothered to do any research at all before assuming the worst, you would know why your forum account is missing.

Beyond that... I bet if you asked any player who has started playing in the past month or two, they will tell you how helpful and friendly the community is. I don't think anyone who has accepted or asked for help has soloed.

I'm not going to attempt to debunk any points in this thread, though, because it's obviously pointless. The people who are happy on Aeon are there, and not lurking around on RMS trying to make it look bad. I'd just like to urge anyone reading this to realize the posters here are a very small minority. Aeon's active membership is still going strong, and if you really want to get a taste of what it's like, you can't rely on a guide posted in a community that most of Aeon's membership isn't even paying attention to.

Raven776

#17
Quote from: hillslion on Jul 01, 2011, 01:44 AM
If you had bothered to do any research at all before assuming the worst, you would know why your forum account is missing.

I'll plead guilty to that. Well, I'll plead guilty when you define research. Is asking other people research? I did that, and I received no answer. Is searching through the innumerable posts, wiki entries, and disorganized tidbits of information research? I didn't. Was I suppose to realize that a random announcement post was exactly what I needed to know? It didn't explain anything in the title, but I suppose I should have looked a bit harder.

Beyond that, a very small minority? How many people would you say are on Aeon as it is today? I've seen a max of maybe 20 on at a time. If you ignore the IRC presence, most of which ignore the server now that they're done with the multiple poorly done class changes, you've got quite the small number. I won't say we've reached even half of their population with the amount of posters here, but off the top of my head I can commit Celeritus, myself, the two posters at the beginning (They were two people co-oping the same post), and Avalon. That's a good 25% of their active population that found a random forum post and decided to sign up for the forum and posted.

If you don't think anyone who's asked for help has soloed, why would I have this problem? The people who are happy on Aeon deserve to be there and happy, but I'd rather some poor newbie doesn't get the same experience everyone else here has gone through. Anyone that wishes to argue this with me personally, whisper me and we'll work something out. Until then, I'll continue to be here giving them the best and the worst. If you haven't seen any best yet in these posts, that should be explanation enough.

As far as "most of Aeon's membership not paying attention to this." One member has posted on this forum, and there have been links to this conversation posted on their own mediums of conversation.

Dormiens

QuoteCeleritus, myself, the two posters at the beginning (They were two people co-oping the same post), and Avalon. That's a good 25% of their active population that found a random forum post and decided to sign up for the forum and posted.

The reason most of Aeon that know of this thread came to know about it is because someone came into IRC, dropped the link, and then left again immediately following. As well as that I have seen the link in the signature (somewhere outside of Aeon) of one of the original posters . Don't pretend it's a hilarious coincidence!

While most of the people in question are not banned, at least two you named there are. If you're banned and haven't played on the server for years, I am afraid that does not count as 'active'. Talking to people who are active does not in turn make you active, either.

Also, you want to discount the IRC  population as "inactive"? On an RP server that often uses the IRC for RP, especially for people who are unable to get into the game for whatever reason?

Well alrighty then.

I'm not going to comment on anything further, since I am not interested in a protracted argument and you are all entitled to your opinions on this matter. Since everyone feels very passionately and is unlikely to be swayed, I'd rather save the bother and just not get into it!

I'm very sorry to anyone that had a bad aeon experience, and wish I could change that, but for me Aeon has been marvellous.

Hammersmith

#19
Hi folks.  I'm the Letter H, you know, the "player who's name starts with the letter H", from previous posts.

I  got linked here from IRC.  But that's mostly because my 'name' (Player who's name begins with the letter H) was in it, and I'm a narcissistic old f*** who can't resist reading someone else trashing him.
(Apprently I'm an all seeing, all knowing, all doing Satan.  -Sweet-)

Whatup.

I'll cut a long story short, for those of you not inclined to read several pages of butthurt.

Someone got banned, looked up several other players who were banned, in some cases years ago, and decided to have them all make a big faux-intelligensia post to try and rip the server a new one.

We here at AeonRO are, or at least I am,  sorry you had to witness this.  But drama is part of any RP community.    Hell.  Any internet community.  Again: I'm sorry someone was mad enough to decide they had to cry on an unrelated public area.

We're welcoming folk, we get s*** done despite what one person's supposedly poor experience.  Considering this server has been running for 6+ years, we've accumulated a lot of such drama, and unsurprisingly when one person explodes into a pile of s***, it's a new and interesting experience for the rest of us in this community.

Three of the posters 'supporting' this thread have been banned at one point or another.  In some cases, like Avalon/Tasogare/Kestrel?  -Years- ago, and they still haven't moved past it.

So you'll understand if their account is a little biased?  Arguing their multi-coloured account is arguing fiction that isn't even the core here:

The core is Aeon RO is awesome.

Me?  My account's biased too.  I'm what they consider the problem.  I'm someone who has fun here.  Gameplay, community, or otherwise.  I keep coming back, and have for almost 6 years now.

I hope you'll come check us out, get the hard truth, and have some fun.  We're a fun place I've been happy to call home for over 6 years at this point.  My account's biased as well, but I've yet to run foul of any side of the community.  I've enjoyed it, had by upsets at it, and had those upsets rationally resolved through conversation and the occasional exploding MVP and cart-impact (HEIL BLACKSMITH f***).

The Loke/Blacktooth Grin & Keyio poster combo and Avalon/Tasogare would call me part of the problem.

I say I'm part of the happy norm here.  We're a community.  We argue, we s***, we talk, we screech sometimes.  We also have fun, learn, and adventure together while weaving stories

I call it home.

Maybe you can to.

Regards,
Hammersmith
Longtime player, longtime rage machine.
Me Love you Longtime
(The passive agressive Letter H)

P.S.
Loke/BroketoothGrin- I am disappoint.
Tasogare&Kado- I am not surprised.
Keiyo- Not again bro.  Seriously?

P.P.S.

Holy s*** you can send money on this forum?  Give me ALL OF YOUR MONEY.  Please.  I will make a bath out of it and pretend I'm Scrooge McDuck

I have run out of P.Ses

Everyone who's given me delicious money and support: Thank you.  I am trying my best to swim in it now.  Unfortunately I am not a duck, so I will be spending it on ale and whores.

TheBTG

To Hammersmith: While I am sorry to disappoint, I cannot apologize for what I have said. I have given my view of aeon as kindly and accurately as I can, as per my own perspective. To call my writing faux-intelligentsia I believe is untrue. I simply have always seen aeon in a different light than you have. To those of you who enjoy aeon, good for you. have fun, I have no issue while that. I have issues about how I was treated in my stay there. Yes I was banned, but I realize my ban was -entirely- justified. In a moment of anger I said things that were entirely inappropriate, and I admit to that and regret my actions and the manner in which I left the community, if not leaving the community. But it is very easy to discount everything anyone here has said by say "oh, they were banned and butt-hurt." and honestly hammer, you're better than that. I know you're very capable of forming a reasonable argument on a point counter-point basis. I wrote about my experience and the fact that I was not alone in feeling this way about aeon, and members of aeon's current roster have sought me out to say that they agreed. This was not an attempt to harm aeon, but to vent my own frustrations with my treatment there, and to perhaps forewarn and forearm people like myself should they attempt to join. As I said in my initial post, I did this mostly for the catharsis of it. If you have issues with what I have said here, I am entirely willing to speak to you about them either here or in PMs. The simple matter is I was not alone in how I felt or how I viewed the server, be it from former members or current. If you ask me to name names I will however, decline to answer without said members approval. I look forward to your reply.

Hammersmith



Hammersmith

Well.  I was going to follow that post up with a PM, but apparently the PM system on this forum is broken.  Good to know.

More specifically I'm not going to be reliably available for extended conversation for going on two weeks.  Business (pleasure) (unending rage) (can't they be the same thing?).

This forum apparently doesn't have a functional PM system, and I won't be running messengers.  So you'll have to wait.

Or in one simple word:

Nope.jpg

TheBTG

That also works, but I believe you have my skype if that's more convenient.

Ace


Rurik

First, I will indulge in some ethos. I am currently a six year member on Aeon. I have never held an active GMing position either as a RP or technical administrator. I that time, I have been lauded, become a "Chosen" one, banned, created my own server in protest to Aeon, returned, and then become another "Chosen" one. I do not see this particularly as my ability as a gamer or roleplayer, but as to the effort I place into the community on a weekly or monthly basis. I am by no means the most active member or get as much screen time as some, but I have had a good time nonetheless.

I have looked over the original post and found it to be technically accurate to a degree, except when it comes to the severity of the claims. By no means are most of these complaints wrong. However, I feel, when looking at them they are overstated, exaggerated in order to fit the exact "Caste System" metaphor the OP was trying to convey.

1. Are there social cliques on Aeon? Does this preclude you from roleplay?
Yes and Yes/No. Of course there are cliques, as the OP originally said, all communities have cliques, but by no means are they so severe as to restrict your roleplay. Some members actively kiss-donkey for favoritism, but I've seen that mentality backlash on the server so often as to be comedic. Mostly, these "Chosen" have become friends of the GMs personally and they look to them to test ideas or just to have fun. Yes, they are not always soulless, rational automatons, but I doubt the malicious, artificial nature so prescribed by later posters.

I will say one critique is that there is a decreasing amount of random roleplay as in the days of yore and much of it is structured. However, a yell in channel that "This character is doing this in that city" will usually arouse SOMEONE to roleplay with no matter the day.

2. The Head Admin has a God complex.
No, and that's certainly a libelous accusation. Rather, the head admin, Laggy, has an arrogant way about him. It necessitates action being based by either proving his method wrong or finding a more efficient method correct. This does create some frustrating moments when dealing with him and the staff since the mindset became more intertwined in the technical staff's overall behavior. However, I believe this to be an administrative decision one deals with rather than constantly fights over. The people who have hated the custom content or gameplay mechanic changes are either angry that an overpowered class was taken down a notch or that a strategy they employed on other servers no longer works.

3. Most of these complaining were banned and banned for very good reasons.
Yeah, I know it seems to be somehow bad form to bring this up: Kado (which I think has made comments on this thread) and Avalon were banned for really good reasons. Kado misrepresented himself to an admin as a programmer and was given server files. These server files were then given to server admins at another server. He was banned when this was found out. How do I know this happened? Because these server files were given to me and another compatriot.

Avalon, well, he blew his stack at the GMs after a huge server population shift from TwilightRO to AeonRO. The reason he was banned is technically accurate, except it was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. AeonRO hates people who riot in public chat about issues and even I have been temp banned for this behavior.

4. All the custom content makes the powerful more powerful.... etc etc etc

I'm a bit angry at this accusation as I placed an insane amount of time on my characters in and out of RP. Most of these "powergamers" do a hell of a lot of grinding and it IS NOT THEIR JOB OR THEIR WISH TO LEVEL YOU. The opinion is simply, "I got all the way to the top, why can't this person?" I see players daily giving slotted weapons/armor/celestial components away for absolutely nothing. Are rare items expensive? Yes, but because the simple economics of the situation.

I'd like to call attention that there are problems with Aeon. The worst experiences often come from European players who find the server empty for most of the daylight GMT hours. My experiences with Aeon have overall been very good. I have tried different RP servers during their heydays and Aeon is possibly the best in its current incarnation. It has a cohesive and democratic GM team, an always-on server, and a community that welcomes new players who are willing to put the effort