Storm Maidens Fate

[SoulTear]

I have put this here for lack of a better place, so mods and admins, you can move it if you want.

Well I have decided to take a break from the game, maybe permanently or maybe not I don’t know yet. However I have attainted something of a position in the game and am something of a quasi-RPC so I want to let everyone know without having to message a lot of people and that is what this post is for. I have played this game consistently for a very long time but even I have my limits.

I have given my Aqune account information to Yami no Sakura so that if the Storm Maidens powers are needed by Manu or whoever else for something she can just log on and use them for me.


Also just before I leave I wanted to relate part of a conversation I had with Manu about the game that may prove illuminating about where MD is headed (I got his permission to post it for those that are wondering) :

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RE:RE:RE:hi there
Haha, well yes, but you would have nothing to be ashamed of if Muratos del Mur fell behind Aqune since that isn’t even your first character and I started my Aqune character before you even created him and were still going around as King Manu.

Anyway before going there is just something I wanted to tell you about the games direction. This is just my opinion mind you and you may be happy with the direction it is going in but I really just wanted to tell you about it if only to make you aware of the situation. I think that sadly my favourite aspect of the game, the story (I am referring to the official story in the story mode not to the one in the adventure log) has lost its importance in the game world. This explanation is somewhat long and I know how you don’t like to read long pms but bear with me cause I think it is important and you might find some valuable insights here.

When I first started playing about a year and a half I was always impressed by the story the most and thought it would come to be the most important part of the game but since that time it has not progressed and has really become irrelevant to the rest of the game. I think if you took stock at how many of the options are used in the left hand menu you would find that the story icon is clicked on the least. Chapter 3 has yet to come out and you were even already saying it was going to come out soon when I started playing! However more importantly the story doesn’t really make a difference in the game, rather then weave all other aspects of them game together like I thought it was supposed to its become just something people try to get through that gives you some stats but nothing you get much more of from fighting later especially at the higher MPs and the ‘roleplaying’ in the game has become completely detached from it as well.

In fact the story has absolutely no role now in determining a players character or what happened to them in game with the exception of some special access given which can be circumvented by other means anyway. I thought at first that eventually the story choices would determine among other things what land you get into and so what kind of character you become so if you die you end up in Necrovion and get access to it and its creatures and items, if you end up helping Marind then you go to Marind Bell and have similar prerogatives and if you make some other choices then you would go Loreroot or Golemus and so on not having access to the other lands at least at first, everyone would have access to No Man’s Land of course. This would allow players that made similar choices in the story and so have similar characters start out together when they get out of story mode the first time which would create four different communities based on the four different lands rather then the current two communities based on either fighting or roleplaying. Those four communities would each having access only to their own creatures and items and go through their own quests in addition to the No Man’s Land ones and so would each develop their own unique fighting styles and ‘feels’ in isolation based on their own unique strengths and weaknesses then they could face each other in No Man’s Land and think of how interesting that would be!!! Four completely different communities fighting each other. I think this is what you had in mind originally didn’t you? And then later changed your mind as the game direction changed. Now the super number crunchers dominate the whole world with access to all creatures and land access has become a kind of special privilege you get from other players rather then something determined by your characters nature and role. I don’t see this as a positive development.

Both roleplaying and fighting have become something like an appendix to the game itself having separate special interest communities and no real relation to each other or to the other aspects of the game, which are comparatively underdeveloped. This has made the game feel ‘disjointed’ at least to me, serving two special interest groups focused around specific gameplay activates rather then something in the game world. You have the fighters who treat the game as a kind of chess match playing with stats and skills and monster types and the roleplayers that treat it as pencil and paper type RPG or MUD in the chat hoping to get official recognition from you for their self-created personas. There is a complete disconnect between these two things (though a player may participate in both aspects) and the broader game as well.

I think the key toward making a good roleplaying computer game (as opposed to just a set of graphical chat rooms where people can roleplay like they could with pencil and paper) is to make it so that a person’s character is formed through the game mechanics as people work within them so that for example if they say pick on the weak and in so far as they do so the game would recognize them as opportunistic scoundrels (the honour system as it was meant to be! but now as we both know honour has become just another stat people work to build up). With such a system fighting and roleplaying would become naturally integrated rather then disintegrated as they are now and even people that are not particularly interested in making a role for themselves when they start out end up having one ‘formed’ for them in the end by the game based on their actions and choices in the game world. As it is the roleplay is something done on top of the game mechanics at best and beside it at worst. Now the design challenge here is in making a mechanic like this that is fool proof (or we could say dst proof!) so that everything that you can do in that game world would be recognized by the game mechanic and change your character and even lead you to some game role. Then the game feels like a real world you are having an adventure in and not just like some stat building chore you have to do so that you can show off to other players in PvP later or your RPC status for consistent chat roleplay. Now this isn’t easy since exploit artist types will always try to find ways pumping up their stats crazy in an imperfect game mechanic but that’s why you have to work at perfecting it as exploits occur otherwise the game world becomes disintegrated (I guess you could call it the principle of entropy).

Perhaps this is just my way of looking at it since I tend to be a very passive roleplayer and prefer to let my character form naturally (even unconsciously) over time as I play the game, try things and interact rather then create some persona before hand and then try to act it out. I had no idea I would be playing the ‘storm maiden’ when I started playing this game and chose that avatar simply because I liked it the most of the golden ones then available and just somehow ended up here where I am today (you could say the role found me rather then I it).

I suppose that after all that criticism I should give you some suggestion on improvement but unfortunately I don’t really have any suggestions for you as to how to change this trend since it seems that short of a drastic game system overhaul, an advancement to the ‘beta’ test phase or something like that it would be very difficult if not impossible and that also its likely to really anger the current player community who have established themselves in the current environment. Then again you did once say that since this is the alpha phase players should be prepared to have their accounts deleted when you restart after going to beta phase and that that was one of the risks associated with participating in alpha test so you may want to bring that up. I’m sure you learned a lot about MD game design and development from want has happened in the alpha already, what works and what doesn’t and that’s what alpha testing is all about.

Well hopefully I have made some sense in my lecture here and have given you something to think about. I having been keeping these thoughts to myself for a while now but now that I’m leaving I figured I may as well tell you. It might be a good idea to get the player community’s opinions on this too so with your permission can I post it on the MD forum?

*From: .Muratus del Mur. (ID:1028)
*sent 1 day and 6 hours ago
RE:RE:RE:RE:hi there
Hi, yes you are absolutly right, i know of the situation but i ant d much about it at this point. The story is like a paralel things going along with the rest and thats not the way it was supposed to be. ...but to develop the initial story turned out to be much more dificult and slow that allowing players to deveklop their own stories. A lot of things changed since the story and if i were to create things from scratch now i would proceed differently.

I can opny hope that in time this will be fixed. One other main reason why story is not done yet is that major game parts , like creatures or area functioality is not done yet, so it would be strage to unlock angiens in the story yet have none at all. I will probably launch it like that since its anyway not so important anymore sadly.


Anyway i am not going away from that path, i am just completing other things and eventualy all will come to gether i am sure of it.

Thanl you for your opinion on this, you can post it on the forums, but just that you know, i wont be watching it to much, i have little time to check the forums.

Thank you

[awiiya]

I have the same opinion on the story, and am very glad you posted this. Thank you Aqune, I hope your absence isn't permanent.

Awi

[Treehill]

Wow....Its like someone read my mind!Amusing and i think these changes shall be implemented slowly....by the way thanks for voicing this Aqune it certainly help people to understand the present....

[Liberty4life]

hmm yes, this is good information aqune, i had my story to complete for 2 months, while i was waiting i was reading other md lore documents about this realm, and... story and magic&principals are best parts of game, fighting becomes boring very fast (especially when ya cant participate in hc) and sitting at willows and clicking attack button, yup thats boring

oh did i read it good, mur was saying before that there is artwork problem as well in addition to this mentioned problems, well if he didnt mentioned it now, then we have some progress at least

[smartalekrj]

hmmm so in the end, before moving forward everything that will be needed is being worked on to key specifications :-) That makes sense. nad tsi ahdr ot nudretsnad umr omst fo het tmie :-P

[cryxus]

hey RJ, that looks like my promotion annoucement, haha...



Anyhow i agree to a point, as i skirt the fighting, role playing, and story aspects of the game (although there have been some in the past who contend this because of my non-traditional role as a pirate in MD). Unfortunately as it is there is much of the story that is secretive, and there are gaping holes in knowledge, information some sources tend to hoard for themselves, and often i feel this hurts the community. I think there should be some characters in the know that give people something to work on, and a means to work on them.

As someone who as attempted on several times to investigate things such as the cube (before junior, even though there was much information on it prior) and other such things and being told that the knowledge i seek is confidential, or dangerous i know how frustrating it is not to be able to try to advance the story.

It is widely known that i desire to expand this world, and although exploration is mentioned more often...i do desire to advance the story. I wish to see certain aspects of the story being allowed to unravel, i want to see the average player, one who does attempt to advance the story, be given a chance to if they do the foot work. It seems as though often the AL goes in trivial, and more obscure paths, and is reserved for privledged players. But there is little i as a average player, could do to change that without sounding like i was compaining, and i hope i do not sound as though i am now, but something does need to happen, i am tired of hearing pointless AL, and do not get me wrong, I love MD, and i will continue to stick around, but i desire to make it more appealing...to everyone.

~Cryxus~

[Treehill]

Cryxus when you mean "appealing" isnt it more interactive?Like you said only a handfull of players know whats going on,others try to research it like you but its not like the information is going to be revealed to you,i know how you feel its the same feel i have about alliances,there are soo many people that dont know the history of their lands and even if they know half of it is hidden by a secret group that i like to call "Seventh Heaven"...lol only because its already hard to get to the 5...imagine the 7?!I heard some informations about loreroot that i felt like betrayed in a way,a important member said something to me willing and i told another one(that person holding the same high status on knowledge as him) and he said it wasnt true...now who i can trust and who i cannot?Is it people so pridefull of having this knowledge that they dont want share jsut for the sake of being special?

Yes i understand you and it irritates me.

*Grabs some rum and share with Cryxus*

[Sandra Klien]

hmm...interesting...and I agree. I was drawn in by the drawings at first and then the unique style this game has to offer. I am not a PvP type of player, so it came as a surprise how addictive the game became. The reason I stayed was because of the hope that some day I would actually be able to affect the storyline. I was also intrigued by the roleplaying as I have come across much of it in my "forum/game jumping" the past couple of years (suffice to say, I have been both disappointed by many and astounded by some).

I too hope that there will be a more seamless integration of roleplaying and fighting as both become more of a chore than a pleasure after a while. I also hope that all of the new promotions can help improve Magic Duel and give Mur a strong enough team of people willing to do what is necessary for the good of the site.

( sorry it took me so long for two paragraphs, Cryx *winks*)