AdventRO Review

[PhoShizzle]

Player Review of AdventRO

This is my first really; really long review of a server, so please excuse me if I start rambling or something. For my review, I will be sectioning it into; "Good", "Mediocre", "Bad", and "Ugly". There will be numerous subsections in the main sections where I will address things in a more organized manner.  It will end with an "Etc" section where random things that don't fit in the other categories will be addressed. Anyway, let's start with the "Good".

Please keep in mind that I am not trying to directly insult anyone with this review, but I am merely doing a small duty as a long time player of the server for future players. I feel that the changes that were made over the time I spent on this server needed to be put out there, since new players wouldn't know anything about them.

You may think I'm making some things up, but I'm not. Yes, I have little proof behind some things, since they're in the past and hard to prove, but I would not lie about this server and hurt its reputation if it didn't deserve it. I had a lot of fun here while it lasted; I just want people to know about how it used to be and how it is now.

Misc Facts
Type of Server: Role Playing Server (RP Server)
GMs: Davven (Owner of AdventRO and Technical Staff), Audrey-Tifa (Co-Owner and Story Teller aka ST) – Both are friends irl.
Average Players Online: 2 – 15, it varies on the day of the week/time/if there's an event or not.


The Good

Custom Maps
•   The custom maps are amazing. Davven is very creative when it comes to custom maps and executes them without having any second thoughts about the designs. The main town (Shyden) was recently redone to clean up the size and positioning of the buildings, and there was vast improvement from the original.
•   Two other custom maps include the Cemetery and a city called Harmonia. I personally had never seen a cemetery before in Ragnarok Online so I was blown away by it. The map looks very serene and calm, and fitting for such a place. He spares nothing to make it feel like a real cemetery by including NPCs that sell flowers and can even have the graves have character names with their death dates on them, making it possible to role play the visiting of lost love ones or friends and even acting out funerals. The city Harmonia leaves a lasting impression. There are flowers everywhere making the city very light hearted, and the buildings are set up like there are short streets, which to me seems more realistic than a lot of the official client's cities. I found the layout a bit confusing at first, but eventually found the city's center where the NPCs are held. A very beautiful city.
•   There's also a few custom maps in between Shyden, Harmonia and the Cemetery, just nice little fields with a few monsters in it. Nothing complicated, just sweet and simple.

20 Sided Dice Item
•   Before this item was introduced, we would be using /dice and saying the number we rolled "Out Of Character" (which is in double brackets) and it would clog up the chat making us lose track of the real RP. It was increasingly becoming a pain in the butt. A few weeks ago, the 20 Sided Dice Item was introduced. It was sold by the Tool NPC in town and was put in the usable item category.  To use, it was double clicked on and a menu would come up, asking if you wanted to roll the dice or not. When you did select that you wanted to roll it, the person who rolled it and the number rolled showed up in yellow, like the GM's talking would on the map. That way, there was no scrutiny over what was rolled and there would be little to no "Out Of Character" talking during the RP, thus making things go by a bit quicker. A very useful item.

Custom Sprites
•   The owner of the server also does a lot of custom spriting, and all of it is very impressive. Professors, Priests and Gunslingers have custom mounts here. Professors ride flying books, Priests get a cloud to ride on and Gunslingers have 3-wheeled motorcycles. I have never seen this before anywhere else, it amazed me... especially the motorcycles. He also has done quests for these mounts, as well as for the other official mounts. I have been told as well that Davven has sprited some of the headgears, though I am unaware of which ones they are.  None the less, there are no huge, poorly sprited headgears in this server. Thank goodness!

Headgear Choices
•   Being an RP server, headgear choices are important. There is no lack of choices here. There's many upper headgears and numerous headgears are done in multiple colours. Some of those include ties, hair extensions and even eye colours. The only qualm I have with the headgears is that too many of them are set up to be mid headgears, and it's hard to get good headgear combinations when it's like this.


Mediocre

Community (Ingame and in the IRC)
•   The community is okay at best.  For a while, there'd usually be at least one person sitting around in the main town to try and RP with, but the last few times I myself logged in, there was zero. That's not to say that there was no one on, but they were all off doing their own things. Yeah, that's a good thing, but it's hard for others who don't have a circle of friends to play with to jump into an RP with anyone. The people behind the characters are pretty friendly, for the most part. I've had problems with a few, but that's just me. One small thing to touch on. Recently there has been too much OOC talking ((Out of Character)). It's discouraged, but people, including the GMs, seem to be doing it a lot recently.
•   As for the IRC community, it's pretty much dead most of the time. The two Storytellers rarely talk unless they are needed; leaving others to answer any questions anyone happens to have, or they aren't answered at all. The IRC is generally friendly, but it has had its iffy times, as with all IRCs. Nothing really noteworthy about the IRC recently.

Ease of getting into an RP
•   Let me tell you right now, it's not easy. When there's no one in town, it's impossible to jump into an RP and it's not worth the effort to go track someone down to RP with to only not be included. When there are people in the main town though, it's hard to join in unless you've previously RPd with them on that character or they know you (the person behind the character). I have tried to jump into RPs in recent days, but fail. Sometimes I try to sit there and see if anyone approaches me, but that doesn't work, most of the time. I've tried adding myself into the conversation, and it doesn't work. Unless there's some special way to get myself into RPs, it's impossible for me unless I know the person already or have already RPd with them.


The StoryTellers (GMs)
•   When I log on, I never see them. Yes, I am in a much different timezone than them and I have seen them on before, but still... I'd like to see them on other than for events. I would also like to see more than just them as GMs, as they're both in the same timezone. Most of the storytelling is seemingly left up to A-T, as seen by the last storyline. I'm hoping to see Davven have more influence in the next storyline. Rules are very vague, not very well enforced, and have been bent when they feel like something seems stupid. One example is that Advent sees Yggdrasil Leaves/Berries as an illegal drug, as shown in the AdventRO Advent Wiki. One day ingame, the Gm Icly "tossed" another character a Yggdrasil Berry. A player spoke up saying that it was illegal, but the GM changed it on the spot, saying only the version processed for use is illegal. NOTE: I have checked the Advent Wiki, these pages no longer exist (Unknown as to why), but it's still worth mentioning.
•   One power the Storytellers have given certain players (who are part of the Shyden Guard guild) is the ability to give characters who have broken rules (like fighting and such) within the main city, "jail time". The players are not able to actually jail the players, but they tell the Storytellers who needs jailing and for how long and they are then put in jail, making their character inaccessible for that time period. There is ABSOLUTLY NO GUIDELINE on this. Example: Character A broke a minor rule in town and ran away when the guard showed up. He was jailed for 3 weeks. Character B almost murdered someone in town with the guard seeing it and she was only jailed 2 weeks. This makes absolutely no sense what so ever. Sadly, I doubt there will ever be guidelines.


(THIS REVIEW IS TOO LONG FOR ONE POST, I WILL CONTINUE IN THE NEXT POST)
Posted on: May 08, 2010, 12:54 pm(CONTINUATION OF LAST POST)

Bad

Powergaming
•   Powergaming is a nightmare in RPs. Yes, it is too in regular games, but it really has a negative impact on an RP. AdventRO is no exception. The Storytellers deny any powergaming, but it's obviously there, they just don't want to see it. Now, it's not all over the place by any means, but there are a few people who powergame everything. These people I'm sure even realize it, but never bothers to change. How does these people powergame? Simple. The characters these people play are PERFECT. No flaws. The characters are never scared of anything, they take deathblows and injuries that could kill them and walk away like it's nothing (this has happened on at least 3-5 occasions), they think they have full authority over all the characters due to their "positions" (Covered more in Favouritism). These people's powergaming has ruined a lot of RPs for myself and other people, but many others just accept it because they know they can't do anything about it. It's sad, really.
•   Now, this seems like a touchy subject. Can Storytellers "powergame"? According to many people I've spoken to, yes. This brings me to another point about powergaming. About a month back, a long event was held to start off the new storyline. It took place in Prontera with a character called "Amdis" and "Demian", and eventually all hell broke loose. The event was very, very long for numerous reasons. There was about 7 people against the two of them, and eventually they were losing. Demian decided to use someone as a meatshield for a turn or two so he could avoid getting hit. They were both able to just fly in the air at will, and tried to just prolong the battle. Eventually, one of them destroyed the orphanage by lifting it into the air and throwing it elsewhere. At the end, all of Prontera was suddenly set on fire (which may I add was suddenly rebuilt days later, somehow). The two villains were also able to destroy weapons and shields whenever they wanted, not even asking the player if it was okay or if they were against it at all. It's just all too farfetched and over bearing. Setting a whole city on fire is going way too far. No one should be able to do that without commanding an army to set buildings on fire and the like. It's just very unrealistic.

Advent Wiki Changes
•   AdventRO has an Advent Wiki for all our "in character" and "out of character" information. It includes things such as rules, character pages, history and other important things. It is a very good tool if utilized and written properly. But when a player is unable to do ANYTHING except change their own character pages, it becomes a useless tool. Before the 3 GMs left, the Advent Wiki was free for all, for the most part such as current storyline/religion/background pages. Now, players cannot create any pages other than for their own characters. Why is this bad? Because now information going into the Advent Wiki is very, very controlled and biased. With full control of a Advent Wiki, things cannot be kept up to date fast enough and pages cannot be produced fast enough. Small pages relating to lore and basic info about aspects of the server are no longer created because the players can't put their own input and ideas into it. The ST says that you can send pages to her to be put into the Advent Wiki... but who wants to go through all that for something that might not be approved?
•   Before the current overhaul, there was a reward system in the Advent Wiki. It encouraged people to create pages and write thoughtful, well planned articles about AdventRO and their own characters. Doing this would get the player points toward earning a high up political position within the storyline. This was automatically scrapped when the overhaul happened. It was marked as "retarded" by the owner of the server and people who had positions through this had them taken away. Even if they kept the positions, they wouldn't be able to use them with the new rule changes in players making storyline ideas. I guess they like doing all the Advent Wiki work for themselves.

Disrespect
•   Yes, it happens everywhere. It's part of life, but when you slander someone who helped you for a long time on a server after they've left? That's just low. As mentioned in the above paragraph, one of the old STs had their hard work called retarded. And this quote is visible by anyone who wants to see it; "The reward system was removed from wiki cause it was retarded." As seen on the server's review page. I'm sorry, but to disrespect someone like that where she can obviously see it is horribly rude and very immature. It was really disappointing to see.

Favouritism
•   Favouritism never used to be a very common sight in AdventRO, but that all changed once 3 of the story tellers left. Because they went down to 2 afterward, they were able to do whatever they wanted, mostly what they couldn't do before because the other three were trying to keep the RP aspects balanced and fair. What does this include? Well, I've only noticed one big thing, though I bet there's been small things that happen with not many people being aware of them. All of the sudden, a character became a race leader. You may say, "Why is this a big deal?" It's a pretty big deal. For someone to suddenly take on a high up role is just uncalled for. It's unfair to other players, especially if the general population had absolutely no say in it. And I can tell you, no one did get a say in it. In fact, people have voiced their opinions about this and were just ignored, due to this player's "veto" for the lack of a better term. This person who got the race leader role had been complaining that the RPing she was doing meant nothing if it wasn't going to get her characters anywhere, that she RPed for NOTHING. You didn't RP because you enjoy it? Just crazy. May I add this person knows the two ST's IRL? Favouritism, even if they don't realize it. None the less, she got a high up role and started abusing it. Extra powers, the so-called ability to boss players around, "owning maps", the list just goes on and on. No one owns maps, no one can boss other people around without letting them at least say something in defense and as if this character needs more powers... she's perfect already. Yeah it sounds like I'm complaining about a particular player, and I am. It's not easy to ignore when the person is almost always around and always shows off her "power to control people". It just ruins things for the people who are smart enough to realize that she's out of control. It was a huge step in the wrong direction for AdventRO.
•   Another player was also given a race leader role, but this person is very level headed and plays a good character, the character being played by him for a long time now at the server. I'm happy for this person, he deserves it.


Ugly

Storyline Related for Players
•   I wish the players here would step up and say something about this, or maybe they're too blind. Players make no difference in the storyline. Yes yes, they are RPing the storyline with the STs, but in the end they make no difference. The ST's characters step up and take the glory. This is shown in the write up of the latest storyline.  "Summoning a huge axe, she fought the heroes and fell to her demise, causing great damage to the present party in the process. As Alisha dashed to her and captured back Amdis' essence in a small orb of deteriorating light, the green light faded as it declared itself to be called Avarice".  The players were basically tools for the ST's character to become the "hero". I don't know why the players settled for this, but whatever floats their boats. Full write up of the recent storyline is available to members of the forums. Please read it for yourself before you decide to join.
•   Players can no longer make a big difference in storylines or start their own big ones. The main point bothering me is this: "That will endanger a town or an area; major environment impact is completely in the hands of STs and no player-played character is that powerful." Wow really? So players can't play villains? That's basically what it says in my book. How else can someone play a villain without being able to destroy a few buildings, or endanger some people, or even organize a raid or something? How else can players come up with "storylines" when they basically can't do any damage to anyone or anything? It just baffles me. Unless you can somehow find a way around the rules (full ones listed in the Advent Wiki under Approvals) you're at complete mercy of the STs.

ST's Characters Dominating Storyline
•   With the point above said, GMs now dominate the storylines. They play both the hero and the villain. In the recent storyline, one of the ST's played both roles, leaving the players to fill the gaps in-between. You could argue that in the old storylines with the other 3 GMs around, they also dominated the storylines. Well, they didn't. They allowed players to play important roles and gave the players a lot of chances to interact and change things as they were going along. I personally would have been given a pretty big chance in a storyline as a "villain's" right hand bodyguard, but because they left the storyline was unfulfilled. I was looking forward to it too. I just hope the current STs give players some big chances instead of taking all the important roles for themselves.

Storylines
•   I can't really say a whole lot about the storylines right now. Ever since the 3 STs left in early March, there's only been one story... so it's hard to say anything. Both the STs are currently too busy to run a storyline, showing they can't balance their real life dealings with giving the players of their server entertainment... and currently they are the only two people who can do this. It would be so much easier for them if they just allowed the players to start their own plots, but the Co-Owner no longer allows this, according to the guidelines in the Advent Wiki.

The  StoryTellers (GMs)
•   Yes, the STs are in two sections. I already covered a few aspects about them, but I feel the need to cover a few more. This is more related to their RPing more than their ability to enforce the rules. A while ago, back before I had joined, the storylines were like they are now. The events were centered on their characters and no one else's and they were using the same storylines over and over. The STs that were around when I played changed this, and the events were no longer centered on certain characters and their lives, but instead ones that affected the whole world and everyone's characters. This helped put the population back up to an average 20 players instead of 2. Now that those STs are gone, the original STs have gone back into a loop. Back to using same storylines and making it so their characters are the center of it all. This happened before, when a previous group of STs left, and it has happened again. The two current STs need to get out of their horrid pattern of re-using storylines and making themselves the center of them all if they really want to keep their population and make it grow again.
•   I also question the ability of the "Co-Owner" of the server. Back when I started and the population was low, she took a leave of absence. I didn't think much of it, because she never hosted events or talked on the IRC. But when the population rose again, she declared herself back and put herself in her high up position again when she didn't even deserve it. She tried getting the "then head ST now ex ST" to share her position so she could take advantage of the success and try to call it her own. She declared the current storyline to be incompatible with her own, but how were the STs to know that she was even working on a storyline when she never said anything? The STs decided to merge their works, even though this didn't make the "Co-Owner" happy. Once the group of three STs left, she completely scrapped the old storyline and put in her own with no consideration as to how it would affect the people who currently had roles in the old storyline, leaving us to just 'deal with it' and have lingering questions. It's this kind of behavior that really makes you think, "Why does this kind of person have a high up position?" I doubt it'll ever change.

Well, that's the end of my review.
I hope you actually read it, or read the parts that you had interest in. I'm quite aware it's a "tl;dr" but I felt this was important and decided to write a very, very long review.
Thank you to all the people who read it, and I really do hope this server and the STs change their ways. It'd be a shame to see it die, but with the way things are now, it seems inevitable.


I'll leave you with this quote from the server owner, as seen on the AdventRO review page:

"As I can see it, it's getting pretty much better, since we got more players then before. I have no idea what power gaming you're talking about so I'll skip that. The story-line is actually better than before, since nothing actually happened in the past few months. The reward system was removed from wiki cause it was retarded. I think because two of your friend left, you just need an excuse to leave. It's sad actually. You'll be missed." – Davven, Owner of AdventRO

[ilphithra]

Every RP server I've been into seems to be pretty much like that unfortunately. I just gave up on RP servers because the owners just want a stage for their Mary Sues and their friend's Mary Sues. I read your review and what I've seen in these servers immediately came to my mind.

I'm a vet D&D RP-er and what I saw in these servers appalled me to no end. No one can be an individual, you have to fall into what the GM's want you to be, a lot of powergaming from the gm's, admin/gm's having no clue on how to play a character with powers... hell... having no clue on how to build a character that isn't a Mary Sue 

I just moved onto normal servers and I RP there. There are a few players that like to RP and as long as the Mary Sues and power trips are placed aside, it can be very pleasant. Unfortunately, like I said, Mary Sues and power play are the most common among RP server owners.

They have no clue as to how a character that has powers should be in terms of personality, how it should behave, etc. In their eyes, it should be the "perfect being" (aka Mary Sue). Newsflash: Mary Sues are retarded.

I have characters with powers... and yet, they eat, sleep, pop, swear, have bad breath, bad hair days, can be injured (been close to death a few times on a couple of the and took them forever to recover from their injuries), etc, like everyone else.

Having powers does not mean Immortality or Perfection. It means your characters is just someone with something special that makes them stronger... but that's about it. Unfortunately, in all the RP servers I've been into, the Admins just love Mary Sues... and poor you if you try to be something that will be better than the admin/GM characters.

This is the reason why they don't let us be an individual with an individual story: Our Mary Sue may end up being better than their Mary Sue  lol

At any rate... all I can tell you is: avoid RP servers like the plague unless you want to suffer more of the same.

[Revlypse]

Me & AdventRO
I joined AdventRO back in April of last year, and from what I've read here, it has simply gone backwards in terms of progression. I quit recently, in early March of this year. I was one of the three ST's that left, though I wasn't exactly the "best" in terms of coming up with ideas like the other two did. I think I did my fair share when it came to roleplaying with everyone I encountered to involve them and trying to keep activity around during the horrible downtime the server went through back in Dec '09 to about late Jan '10.

The Whole Co-Owner Issue -My Take Just going into more detail about things that were already mentioned
I can certainly attest to the claim that the "co-owner" of aRO basically ditched out on the server with the excuse of having a bunch of school work that they needed to focus on. That was totally reasonable in my mind. However, when me and the other two ST at the time finally succeeded in getting activity back up during February, this co-owner magically re-appeared. Slowly at first, but I'm sure once they saw everything going back in motion, they craved to be the Head ST again. However, that role was already taken by the most active ST. The co-owner, who basically said they quit Advent for school, suddenly came back as an ST again (which wasn't a big deal to us), but then approached the current ST about becoming the Head ST like they were before (when NOTHING was happening) or at least sharing the role. Honestly, this absolutely enraged me. They had been gone for MONTHS, only to suddenly come back and then ask that not too long after.

Here's the actual quote from the "goodbye" thread they made:

Subject: Backing off   Sun Nov 08, 2009 6:03 am
Sorry guys but I have to take my leave. Whether you wish to drop my position or not as an ST it's not my problem, actually I don't really care at this stage of frustration but truth be told: the fact is that I just can't multitask. I just cannot keep s*** around the way I am; I got a pile of work waiting for me, I need my space and I am not ready to sacrifice my last 2-3 hours for myself to shatter my head with a game.

Am sorry but if I still had nothing to do like during summer I would gladly stay, but don't expect me to keep up with everything. I have to keep up with college, my friends, my family, my private artwork and then suddenly I see also Advent?

Just DON'T bother me about anything. Don't bother to bother me about Advent. Don't fling s*** in this thread either; keep decent.

Thankyou and bye.

(Oh my characters? Either missing or dead)

As we can see here, college was taking up their life. However, they slowly made their return in February (4 months later, with like 6-7 posts on the forum between then and when they quit). I'm pretty sure college does not end in February for most people (correct me if I'm wrong). And, though I can't quote it, they often said in the IRC after returning that they had to go finish up some project. So, obviously college was and probably is still going on for this person.

Ultimately
This was an amazing server, one I loved very much as both a member and ST (probably as a member more though). However, it's taking a turn for the worse in my eyes. The saddest thing to see is that it's turning once friends into the opposite. That quote at the end of the initial review honestly shocked me. I never anticipated Davven, the owner, saying something like that. But people are never as they appear.

I don't suggest joining this server anytime soon, if ever. It's going down a path of self-destruction. It has been for a long time. If it ever improved itself, I would certainly rejoin as a member, but I don't see it happening. Not while its tearing friends apart and housing less-than-exciting RP.

[Naes]

I'm not a long-time AdventRO player— I joined sometime during February of this year. However, I feel like I should throw my two cents in about this server, from a semi-newbie's perspective.

When I first started, I was blown away at how much fun it was to role play on this server. Everything was organized, the main storyline at that time was easy to get into, and the Reward System that they had was particularly impressive. Overall, it was a very enjoyable server made me feel as though I could make an impact on the community, plot, and world in general.

However, as soon as the three GMs left the server, even I could feel the effects. The event that the OP mentions in the "Powergaming" section is what particularly made my interest in the server decline. The event happened almost IMMEDIATELY after the three GMs left, so that in itself told me that the two remaining GMs were giving the server a complete overhaul.

The event started with the wizard, Amdis, terrorizing Prontera. Even with her alone, it took a long time for the players to whittle away at her HP. But once she started getting into the lower half of her HP, the Valkyrie, Demian, came to her rescue out of nowhere while claiming he was her "Guardian Angel." He could feel no pain, which made fights aimed against him incredibly boring and unrealistic. I figured it didn't make much sense, but I'd run with it—only to see it spiral out of control.

Amdis' power went way out of ANY magical boundaries that was listed in the Wiki. She was apparently an expert at ALL forms of elemental magic (At the time you could only be a master in two elements, and that in itself was supposed to be difficult), and cast AoE after AoE. At one point she cast a single "All-powerful spell that combined all six elements." I just kind of shook my head at it, but figured maybe they needed to make her a bit more powerful since she's a villain.

By the time the players got them down to low HP, well over an hour had already passed. I, and a couple others, was already tired. But apparently the GMs weren't quite ready to lose their battle. The Valkyrie summoned some random guy out of nowhere to increase their chances of winning, and effectively prolonged the battle even more. Each time anyone would come close to landing the final blow on Demian, he would summon the random guy in front of him to use as a meat shield. I was absolutely floored at how badly he wanted his character to survive.

There was a lot of other things that contributed to how absolutely ridiculous that event was. The GMs flying out of the player's reach—levitating an orphanage and throwing it at the players—breaking a player's equipment without asking in OOC if it was okay—and finally, setting Prontera on fire. I couldn't believe it, honestly. The players were so close to finally finishing the battle and defending, and all of a sudden there were big, yellow letters at the top of the screen. "PRONTERA IS ON FIRE!"

And guess who caused it? The Valkyrie. He apparently went berserk, and ended up flattening the city. This was all done with absolutely no consideration as to how it would affect the players' characters. It was so ridiculous that I barely wanted to consider it a "main" storyline. To make it worse, it was declared that it would take three days to rebuild the entire city. THREE. You just can't FLATTEN an entire city and say you can rebuild it within the week. It's unconvincing, unrealistic, and just plain lame. It's baffling how even though they were losing, they just had to come out as the winners. This entire event, from start to finish, took over two hours. Two agonizing hours of watching the GMs go on a power trip, since the other three had left.

This event is what made my interest in AdventRO decline. Even though I wasn't involved in the events that came later, it sounds as though they were no better. All I heard was war after war after war, and a whole bunch of attempts at "Drama." Hell, they even had the main city taken over. Anyone who went there in-character was at risk of being "Killed." We're talking about the MAIN city, where all the newbies go to learn what they're doing, and where everyone hangs out. To make matters worse, there was no warp to get to the temporary replacement city. I believe you had to either take a train, or walk—I'm not sure. I never figured out how to go there. I'm sorry, but you just don't switch main cities under the players' feet, especially with no warp to get there.

In addition, most, if not ALL plotlines that had been happening before the three GM's absence have been dropped completely. Any villains that the players' characters had relations with were scrapped. Any organizations that the GMs didn't like were abandoned.

All in all, I've given up on AdventRO. It was at one point very, very fun, and it's such a shame that my first really good role playing experience was cut short. There's no excitement in the server anymore. The feeling that I could contribute and put some sort of impact into the storyline is long, long gone. In short, it now feels like the GMs are in their own world playing God.

[Tande]

Every RP server I've been into seems to be pretty much like that unfortunately. I just gave up on RP servers because the owners just want a stage for their Mary Sues and their friend's Mary Sues. I read your review and what I've seen in these servers immediately came to my mind.

I'm a vet D&D RP-er and what I saw in these servers appalled me to no end. No one can be an individual, you have to fall into what the GM's want you to be, a lot of powergaming from the gm's, admin/gm's having no clue on how to play a character with powers... hell... having no clue on how to build a character that isn't a Mary Sue 

I just moved onto normal servers and I RP there. There are a few players that like to RP and as long as the Mary Sues and power trips are placed aside, it can be very pleasant. Unfortunately, like I said, Mary Sues and power play are the most common among RP server owners.

They have no clue as to how a character that has powers should be in terms of personality, how it should behave, etc. In their eyes, it should be the "perfect being" (aka Mary Sue). Newsflash: Mary Sues are retarded.

I have characters with powers... and yet, they eat, sleep, pop, swear, have bad breath, bad hair days, can be injured (been close to death a few times on a couple of the and took them forever to recover from their injuries), etc, like everyone else.

Having powers does not mean Immortality or Perfection. It means your characters is just someone with something special that makes them stronger... but that's about it. Unfortunately, in all the RP servers I've been into, the Admins just love Mary Sues... and poor you if you try to be something that will be better than the admin/GM characters.

This is the reason why they don't let us be an individual with an individual story: Our Mary Sue may end up being better than their Mary Sue  lol

At any rate... all I can tell you is: avoid RP servers like the plague unless you want to suffer more of the same.

Really what you have said is common place in all forms of creative writing - a main character being over powered, over centralized, over...everything.  It's a problem in every sort of writing where the writer places themselves in the character, sees the character as a perfect form of themselves...and wants everything for that character, not just role playing servers.

It's hard balancing a "eventful" character, one that is in many events for the central storyline, to be fair. 

[ilphithra]

Really what you have said is common place in all forms of creative writing - a main character being over powered, over centralized, over...everything.  It's a problem in every sort of writing where the writer places themselves in the character, sees the character as a perfect form of themselves...and wants everything for that character, not just role playing servers.

It's hard balancing a "eventful" character, one that is in many events for the central storyline, to be fair.  

That's why such characters are called: Mary Sue or Gary Stu. (If someone isn't familiar with the terms, Google it a bit - a hint: Mary Sues are hated by decent RP-ers and writers).
And I hate them... recently had someone trying to RP a Mary Sue and we promptly ganged up on the guy... maybe a bit too had because he didn't come back to the RP session  
But he wanted to play some wizard that could take over wholes buildings with magic and control people and have these magic shields that make him almost invincible, bla bla bla... Mary Sue much? On top of it he tried to GodMod our characters which made things even worse. So yeah... we went down hard on him...
Maybe it's because, before I changed to Computer Engineering while I was in College, I was in Literature and I learned how to write (a book) and build characters (something that D&D RP had already taught me though)... but Mary Sues make me fume  

[Revlypse]

Every RP server I've been into seems to be pretty much like that unfortunately. I just gave up on RP servers because the owners just want a stage for their Mary Sues and their friend's Mary Sues. I read your review and what I've seen in these servers immediately came to my mind.

I'm a vet D&D RP-er and what I saw in these servers appalled me to no end. No one can be an individual, you have to fall into what the GM's want you to be, a lot of powergaming from the gm's, admin/gm's having no clue on how to play a character with powers... hell... having no clue on how to build a character that isn't a Mary Sue 

I just moved onto normal servers and I RP there. There are a few players that like to RP and as long as the Mary Sues and power trips are placed aside, it can be very pleasant. Unfortunately, like I said, Mary Sues and power play are the most common among RP server owners.

They have no clue as to how a character that has powers should be in terms of personality, how it should behave, etc. In their eyes, it should be the "perfect being" (aka Mary Sue). Newsflash: Mary Sues are retarded.

I have characters with powers... and yet, they eat, sleep, pop, swear, have bad breath, bad hair days, can be injured (been close to death a few times on a couple of the and took them forever to recover from their injuries), etc, like everyone else.

Having powers does not mean Immortality or Perfection. It means your characters is just someone with something special that makes them stronger... but that's about it. Unfortunately, in all the RP servers I've been into, the Admins just love Mary Sues... and poor you if you try to be something that will be better than the admin/GM characters.

This is the reason why they don't let us be an individual with an individual story: Our Mary Sue may end up being better than their Mary Sue  lol

At any rate... all I can tell you is: avoid RP servers like the plague unless you want to suffer more of the same.

Really what you have said is common place in all forms of creative writing - a main character being over powered, over centralized, over...everything.  It's a problem in every sort of writing where the writer places themselves in the character, sees the character as a perfect form of themselves...and wants everything for that character, not just role playing servers.

It's hard balancing a "eventful" character, one that is in many events for the central storyline, to be fair. 

What you say is true, but there is a point where it's obviously too much. Roleplay server owners should know these limits. The ones that don't are generally the owners of chaotic servers, much like the one spoken of in this review. Yes, some characters will have to be stronger than others for events and whatnot, but with that example that Naes gave... that's just plain ridiculous and immature of the owner and co-owner to have done.

Would you really read a book where an entire city is somehow flattened by some COMPLETELY unrealistic battle and then rebuilt in three days? It sounds worse than freakin' DBZ episodes where the fight lasts a whole damn saga.

[PhoShizzle]

Most of the storytelling is seemingly left up to A-T, as seen by the last storyline. I'm hoping to see Davven have more influence in the next storyline.

- Apparently my "hopes" didn't come true. Davven is too busy irl to run the next storyline, so A-T is doing it. Which is disappointing, it'll be just like the last one. (Info from the Advent forums)

And thanks to Rev and Naes for building on some of my points. There was some perspectives I just couldn't elaborate on.

EDIT:
- A bunch of new "rules" were added. I was utterly blown away by them and honestly... I don't think rules like this should exist. As quoted from the Advent RO Forums:

*  On this server you can DIE due to not making the right move at the right time, so please be careful of what you do. If you are fighting a monster in the field then sure fine it could be plain knockout, but if you see an ST Character and your character is being a douchebag at its place, expect the Baron to be landing next to you soon.

   * If the situation is ST-related stuff and you act like a douchebag, your death is pretty much in our hands and you don't have much choice except trying to avoid it. If you are asked if you wish to live then the character will surely live with pretty much severe penalties given. If you have to roll dice, you roll a die as told. If told that the character is dead, the character is dead and departed for Niflheim.

         o Reminder: If you are given a limit of time and say, you don't respect it and act before the time give. Expect Death to follow; if a time is given by an ST it's a time given by an ST. You should respect it and save us the headache.

   * God-modding or making it too dramatic will lead you to death too, just to let you know. Too much drama hurts the brain. You know there is a limit of how much drama can one stand and one make, for example if you're getting stabbed and miraculously stay alive act it out responsibly. If you try to make it too dramatic and get to do a marathon, you'll probably end up with face in the sands 5 seconds later. So be reasonable and nothing bad will happen.

Aka keep being the ST's puppets or you can say bye bye to your character.
Nice to know that I have very little control over my character's death. /sarcasm

[Verde]

I played AdventRO for over a year, and I had some unbelievably great times. I was there to watch it rollercoaster from being great, to bad, to great, to bad, over and over in varying degrees; I probably have more dirt on this server than anyone, but I'm not going to go there. I'm just going to articulate my thoughts on the current state of the server and staff.

The state of this server nowadays can be summed up with the term "saddening." To see something that was once a bustling center of creativity and fun turn into a strictly-controlled server where role playing becomes a chore, is a sad but accurate example of how inconsistent and unorganized leadership can take a heavy toll on everyone involved.

Since players are not permitted to create story lines any more impacting than mundane, daily life for their characters, be prepared to find your only source of excitement coming through the ST's plots. These plots are, in essence, long and drawn-out shows of fantastic powers you will never get to dream of using on any of your characters; not to mention that the ST's characters are the main heroes and villains of these shows (and I stress "shows" over "plots" because that's exactly what they appear to be).

But I think besides all of the blatantly impractical rules, the most depressing subjects are that the staff did not learn whatsoever from the last time they put their own server in a rut and caused a troupe of people to leave. This is apparent because it's happened twice... Yes, this exact same scenario, caused by the same people, has recently happened again. It really dampens my faith in humanity when I witness people repeating past mistakes and failing to accept any criticism (again!) for the sake of making the server a better place. I can tell you right now that if the staff chooses to respond to this, they're not going to take it as a piece of constructive criticism to better their own methods and how they run Advent, but rather they will deny pretty much everything or claim that they were "misunderstood"... and let's not forget the potential internet rage. You should go check out the section on the forums where they report banned people and see the sort of "reasons" they entered for an idea of what I'm talking about.

But that's why it's not the only RP server out there, so, revel in the fact that if you really want to RP, you won't have to be stuck at a server like this to do it.

[ore0s]

Yar...but there's only like a few populated RP server whereas the rest is a ghost town.  Can't really RP alone...unless you can iono O_O.  There are only a few RP servers that are actually English too unless you're going for Portuguese or Spanish then w/e.

[Revlypse]

Yar...but there's only like a few populated RP server whereas the rest is a ghost town.  Can't really RP alone...unless you can iono O_O.  There are only a few RP servers that are actually English too unless you're going for Portuguese or Spanish then w/e.

I'd honestly rather roleplay with myself than have my characters completely dictated by STs whose plots are less than mediocre. But that's just me.

[Revenant]

Yar...but there's only like a few populated RP server whereas the rest is a ghost town.  Can't really RP alone...unless you can iono O_O.  There are only a few RP servers that are actually English too unless you're going for Portuguese or Spanish then w/e.

This is the exact problem with roleplaying servers. Because there's so few that a person could call 'adequate', they choose to suffer on a subpar server despite knowing full well what may be wrong with it. And then end up asking themselves why they've wasted so much time, a year later. A lot of people have a lot of good ideas; it isn't that hard to set-up eAthena, so they may as well take a shot at it. Mind you, most of the roleplaying servers are purely RP and hat based in the sense that the gameplay doesn't matter at all. That essentially means that due to the disinterest in playing the game and low server population, people may as well be roleplaying on RMS' test server where they can give themselves items.

[Faitu]

Ah, I appreciate the review. It's been a while since I last checked AdventRO, and once I found out about this new wiki, full of information about many aspects of the game, I got somewhat excited about this server. I've always been reluctant on playing AdventRO, since the whole storyline always seemed to be too centered on the ST's characters, and it seems that I wasn't wrong at all. It saddens me, for I had the hope I'd get to play in a good RP server, but these servers never seem to work out, do they? The descriptions of that event make it more than obvious that players have absolutely no impact on the storyline, it's all their way. I'm not in the mood of playing in a server with the sole purpose of being someone's puppet, that's the complete opposite of what RP is supposed to be.

[Revlypse]

Ah, I appreciate the review. It's been a while since I last checked AdventRO, and once I found out about this new wiki, full of information about many aspects of the game, I got somewhat excited about this server. I've always been reluctant on playing AdventRO, since the whole storyline always seemed to be too centered on the ST's characters, and it seems that I wasn't wrong at all. It saddens me, for I had the hope I'd get to play in a good RP server, but these servers never seem to work out, do they? The descriptions of that event make it more than obvious that players have absolutely no impact on the storyline, it's all their way. I'm not in the mood of playing in a server with the sole purpose of being someone's puppet, that's the complete opposite of what RP is supposed to be.

I wish I had reviews like these about all roleplay servers, to be honest. xD But yes, you probably would have had more of an actual impact earlier on this year if you joined. AdventRO really wasn't all that bad at certain points, but then again, at certain points it's also been a horrible server. Hopefully one day really good roleplay servers will show their faces. For now, I guess it's either go with ok or bad, or just don't roleplay on Ragnarok Online. :\

[Piaras Wolfwood]

Having played on AdventRO for more than a month and experiencing the community, rules, and storyline, I have subsequently been banned.

As far as the original poster goes, it's all true.

Good:

-Custom maps/sprites, brilliantly done

-Cash points for logging in, which give you coins to trade in for zeny

-Custom Headgear

-Dice System (Could use some work, but better than nothing)

Bad:

-Powergaming: I've had people try to auto-hit, god-mod, power-game, and generally ignore the Consent Rule.  It's very depressing.  Storyline characters especially think they're untouchable.

-Approval System: For items and powers, if you're friends with the GMs/STs, you get what you want.  If you're not, you probably wont.

-Favouritism: This is heavily apparent in this small, cliquish server.  They say cliques are forbidden, they're not, they're just hidden (and not very well at that).

-GMs & Suggestions:  Small suggestions, like making a certain headgear mid/top slot only, okay.  Suggesting anything regarding new policies, revisions of rules, not so much.

Ugly:

Community:  There are a handful of wonderful people here, but the rest are pretty much trash.  If you roleplay more than three lines of text, they b****.  If you have a different opinion then that do, they gang up on you with pack mentality.  I've also experienced said members "poisoning the well", claiming harassment when they're the ones to start the conflict.

Storytellers:  The last one just left, and good riddance.

The Story:  The server's story is lackluster at best, poorly-written and it leaves the reader not knowing exactly what is going on.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Coming from more than fourteen years of roleplaying through various games, chats, MMORPGs, tabletops, LARPs, I was excited when I first came to AdventRO.  It seemed like a nice server to begin with, and I met a few notable people who were great roleplayers, friendly, and helpful.

After closer character interactions with some newer members, everything changed.  After denying someone a relationship with my character, they went on to cause a whole storm of drama, turning several people who were previously friendly toward me against me ICly and OOCly.

I then began to notice more power-gaming and meta-gaming, people trying to auto-hit my character and the like.  General violation of the Consent Rule irked me to no end.  When I tried to walk away I was accused of rage-quitting and being a coward. (Neither true, it's just pointless to argue with some people).

When I finally did take a stand, I tried to suggest changes to their flawed and broken system.  Currently, several players possess storyline characters (read: characters with awesome powers that can't be killed unless directed to by the ST/GM) that are allowed to kill non-storyline characters without consquence.

Of course when I spoke up, I was ganged up on then subsequently banned, citing harassment as the cause.  Truly if anyone was harassed, it was me.  If anyone would like me to further detail my experiences on AdventRO or get specifics on rules/regulations, feel free to PM me.