Agharta: Ocean of Stories

Sanin · Oct 24, 2012, 09:48 PM

It's not often that I would go past the normal review stuff and take things to the forum when it comes to giving my opinion on a server, but there's simply too much to say that could be completely compressed in such a small word limit. It might be a bit wordy and I do hold some bias on certain factors that I nevertheless feel should at least be known but by rules concerning reviews, I'll try to keep this to a minimum.

The Community-

This is going to be a bit of a doozy: Okay, first impression? The players are good folks, they know how to role-play pretty well the community involved is small and from my experiences a lot of the folks involved know one another outside the game. That being said, I do feel at times that this does prevent from a new face being properly invited to the group and for a role-playing server this means that even if some effort is put to involve the newbies; it would ultimately lead to their returning to the usual clique.

Over the span of the months I've been there we've welcomed plenty of new faces and by the end of the week? Only a small margin of those remained, and even then I feel as if they don't exactly mesh well with others.

While this is not unheard of, I do think there is a degree of animosity between veteran role-players which does lead to arguments in the IRC and while these are taken care of, it simply festers behind the scenes before it's triggered again. It does at times occur when new players are involved and it leaves a bad impression.

The Staff-

In the later part of my time there I've more or less been part of the staff, to which degree I'm not entirely sure since I was never given any sort of directive of what my position held. I had gone by the rule of thumb and did my best to both follow and enforce these rules when it comes up.

However, I won't sugarcoat this; there is hardly any trust between the Staff members when it comes to deciding upon major issues such as Lore or changes thereof. One could present their point with a solid foundation but it doesn't seem to matter since the final word falls to the head honcho. Of course this is solved by slowly swaying the Admin's opinion over the course of weeks to even a month, and even then it's met with disdain.

But it's not all bad. The staff members do ultimately care for the state of the server and the players involved. Some do take the time to explain the finer points of the server and are readily available in the IRC and the forums.

I do feel that some work should be done towards becoming more capable as a team as a whole rather than being kicked upstairs, so to speak.

The Wiki-

There is a LOT of information here, plenty of the important ones are put on display on the front page for newcomers to indulge themselves in. However it lacks any sort of coherency when it comes to actually explaining the larger details of the setting. This ranges from a few good plot holes to the unexplained changes made to past (and thereby well established) information in the present day.
Informative as it may be, the wiki strikes me more of a grab bag than anything coherent. This state is understandable however, as there is well over two-years of entries that would take far too much time to sort through.

Events-

They....happen. Simply put events are made and are quite frequent depending on the Storyteller, but there are times where some events felt that they were done at the last second or simply devolve to kill x amount of monsters—Which strikes me as an odd point; if one considers the focus of the server (the roleplaying) the need for in-character levels and build should be a moot point. There IS a d20 system of sorts implemented but more often than not, it is at times the source of some arguments.

The Setting-

Something that isn't brought up in most reviews but considering the nature of the server, it's worth pointing out.

Frankly, I haven't a clue what the setting of the whole is. It's very much Ragnarok in the sense that the towns are named the same and some in-game elements are integrated to the story. The rest of it is pretty much gutted and reworked. Also the player characters come from space.

Spoiler

I'm not saying it's aliens, but...

[close]

While there is a timeline available of the events that occurred in the past and leading to present day, it does nothing to explain why the setting is as it is now. There is also the present Schizo Tech that even its own development had been skipped over as one could simply go from swords and sandals to guns and robotic constructs.

On a note of time there is also the fact that the world itself runs on real-time. Meaning that everything is completely compressed to the point that a long, drawn out war is resolved within two-weeks time while the damage left behind from such a thing would take much longer to recover from.

While this is a non-issue for most people there's just the fact that character development is done in a fast pace; strangers become lovers within the hour, a pandemic that would kill the entire population would take years but no player could possibly be active long enough to be affected by it.

It needs work, it needs the input of others involved and it needs coherency. Most of the setting is changed on the whims of the Owner and it ultimately leads to quite a bit of a headache.

Final Words-

There may be some information here that's partly from my own experience and opinion. Whether or not this could count towards the overall review is left to the reader.

If you want to find yourself a roleplaying experience, I would recommend elsewhere. While the positives are present there are far too much negativity that would warrant a prolonged stay. There is far, far too much drama for something so simple as fabricating a story, too much is put into making sense of things that could be simply be left to interpretation or ultimately left alone, and there is more focus on recent events than patching up the past of the setting which would just lead to more work in the long run.
I had withdrawn from the server out of my own accord, feeling that the behavior as a whole was not fit for me. My only regret is that I hadn't noticed it sooner.

Thank you for reading.

Spoiler

By Nerfs/NRFS/Cylen

[close]

Dusty · Oct 25, 2012, 06:03 AM

I have rejoined Agharta since January of this year, and after remaining there for 10 months, I agree with Sanin's most of the points that he has made. I would like to make my own additions, however.

In regards to the departure of several new people, I think several members of the community, and mainly the staff, seem to not care at all about this. A typical newbie's experience is usually posting an introduction post on the forum, then being told to join the IRC and read the wiki. With the poor organization of the wiki, amount of writing on articles that don't really matter too much, and the lack of any sort of real newbie F.A.Q. to get to know the setting initially, it can be a very very daunting task to try and get settled in on the server. Most people simply get annoyed and don't help new people out, telling them "You should have read the wiki" when it comes to even minor things. I think if you are going to tell people to read the wiki when they just join, create a guide for newbies so they aren't utterly lost.

One thing I don't agree on entirely is that every one of the players are good folks either. It is relatively common that players or even staff members will constantly haze certain players for simply not being in their RP circle or different than they are. The respect level for each other is mostly out the window, allowing certain players (even some staff) to consistently break the rules are not punished whatsoever because of their seniority or being friends or RP buddies with the admin. Players have been scared away or even banned because of this.

Tande · Nov 04, 2012, 01:17 AM

As always, I appreciate the feedback, negative or not. We can't grow without fixing what is wrong, and I'll admit to being blind to some of the issues at hand. Excuses, excuses, yes, there's tons, but nothing is appropriate as an admin. I understand that.

Much of our newbie problems come from where we advertise. Agharta is mostly original lore, and we advertise only on RMS. It feels like a bait and switch to many newbies - some are happy to find a roleplaying server based on RO lore, but quickly realize that its not what they think. I've been debating pulling our advertisement from RMS, which would probably be for the better considering most of the players we do get as newbies that stay are those who hear word of mouth.

But it doesn't really help that many of our IRC conversations will scare away newbies, and some members come down on newbies when they make mistakes or aren't really much of the norm of Agharta.

QuoteI think if you are going to tell people to read the wiki when they just join, create a guide for newbies so they aren't utterly lost.

We definitely need this. It's funny we call the wiki an information treasure chest when its more like a messy room covered in hidden legos to step on at times.

The only thing I have to say against one part is:

QuotePlayers have been scared away or even banned because of this.

We have only banned ONE person from the entire server. This is Apple/Xom/whatever you want to call him, whatever he wants to call himself that week. I can show you the ban logs if you want, but we rarely ban people. We would rather work with someone and try to get on the same level instead of outright banning them.

Regardless, thank you for this. I need more people telling me what's wrong. I feel like people believe I'll jump on them if they do, but if you take me aside and talk to me personally about this, I'm typically understanding. I might be giving myself a bit too much credit, but overall I'd have to say I don't bite people's heads off, I swear :c

Dusty · Nov 04, 2012, 01:43 AM

QuoteBut it doesn't really help that many of our IRC conversations will scare away newbies, and some members come down on newbies when they make mistakes or aren't really much of the norm of Agharta.

Do you play on enforcing your own rules? The rules on the site say "R.E.S.P.E.C.T. For EVERYONE, including your fellow players AND staff" when almost on a daily basis people are belittling new people and old people alike without any sense of respect for one another. I know Apple was banned for being an a******, but there is several more that are the same, if not, worse than he is that aren't banned like he is. Just seems a little unfair in my eyes. I know everyone is human, but without someone to put their foot down, it might as well be a high school playground rather than a pleasant community of role players.

Tande · Nov 04, 2012, 01:47 AM

Report them to me. Like I said, I can be blind to things, especially when they're oldies or friends, and I'm not present in IRC 24/7.

Dusty · Jan 11, 2013, 07:20 PM

What do I do when one of the culprits is you? Even if I did report other players to you, I get discouraged with all of the rampant two-faced mentality of the staff and players that's present on the main channel of the IRC. What happened to having a sense of professionalism when you are trying to run a server? I know we were human, but that doesn't entitle you to bring other people down, simply because they are different or don't always share similar views. If you don't want to put time, effort, and money into something that you consistently loathe, then don't do it.

yC · Jan 11, 2013, 10:33 PM

Dusty, I'd think being one of the very few role-play RO server out there the time and effort put into the server can't be underestimated. Maybe you should bring your issue up on the server's forum for the server to look at it at greater depth.

Sanin · Jan 14, 2013, 05:20 PM

I'm unsure if I've right to make mention but perhaps less of an effort should be made on trying to find out who Dusty is and instead give some input regarding the review posted about your server? While I do appreciate the addendum Dusty gave, his/her addition isn't the only thing worth taking note of.