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What makes Illarion special to you?

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:54 am
by Sundo Raca
What specific aspect of Illarion keeps you playing/has attracted you? Is it a particular person you enjoy rping with, the combat aspect, crafting, etc.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:37 am
by Salathe
disclaimer: I'm recovering from drinking alot and im uber tired.

without a fucking doubt, the quests kept me here. In my first few weeks i got to meet drakhen for the first time and it was awesome. I started to get into RP and started to really like it. Many more quests happened which were great and utterly fascinating. Then day of storms happened and it was such an epic event that I decided i could never really stop playing this game. The chance for a character to take a real part in a quest... It's the best gaming experience i've ever had. In particular for me, it would be the nightmare quest (if anyone is old enough to remember why salathe is a hero) which outlines this point that a character can be a very important figure in the game. Then quests like the lich wars which are so FUCKING cool. Lich wars had to have atleast 20 sub plots, and over 40 characters being HEAVILY active in the quests. It leads to great roleplay. Just being stuck in the corner of a peninsula for 2 hours with 5 random characters, because there are literally 50 flame skeletons and black dragons blocking your way, is some of the best RP i've ever had. Everyone thats heard me on quests know that i always say we need more quests like that. More quests where the staff and the GMs force characters into situations. And smile the characters that whine, those are the characters that dont want to expand their RP and they are no fucking fun.

Anyway... yea... the quests here used to be reeeaaaallly good, and they used to be veeeeeerrryyyy open. It feels like all quests now have determined plotlines with predetermined participating characters. Quests like Adrons Goblet, Nightmare, The Great Holy Tree, and of course Lich wars, had NO predetermined scenario, nor any predetermined participating characters. The quests were solely driven by acts of the players. Lich wars could have lasted months longer if certain players didnt come up with certain ideas that sped up the process. I remember proposing to Damien about splunking into varshikar castle, and that subplot turned out greeeeaaat, and also solved one of the huge dilemmas the island was facing at the time. Adrons Goblet went so many different ways, we had spies, and we put on deceit with handing over Pendar. Then when I went into a frenzy and killed Ian and Dnoi, that created two very long lasting enemies that surpassed even Adrons Goblet's quest. I want quests like that again =(. I felt like the recent moshran armor quest was too planned and too organized, and it felt really hard to get into. I gave a bunch of ideas to different GMs participating in it, and nothing happened. In old quests every idea i ever proposed to a GM for the quest, was granted and carried out. For any who remember scaling drakhens wall, The ladder idea was 100% player idea. The GMs had no intention of ever revealing what was past it, and they themselves never thought of what was actually past it. But look what came from scaling drakhens wall, DRAVISH was created. Then Dravish became a year long enemy, and surpassed the length of the Lich Wars quest. And characters get this great sense of being important.... I mean... im on a first name basis with drakhen FFS. He recognizes me not even by looks, but by personality

Anyway... i've sorta rambled about that.

But also the fact that characters can really change. For anyone thats known salathe since 7 years ago know that he has changed ALOT. I've even carried out this "forsaken" plotline for nearly 3 years now. But what i find so interesting about it is that... i didnt just one day say... "hey... im gonna do this to salathe, and then this and this and this". Nope that didnt happen, it happened because the GMs on there own accord acted with me, and i went with it and what happened to salathe was caused by GMs and a few players. And my char changed a WHOLE lot, and its been the some of the funnest RP i've had. From mid 2004-mid 2006 it REALLY felt like i was simply "watching" my character, because he was being changed so much by the events ingame. I could've kept him the way i made him, or had him return to normal, but i felt like that would be against his character to not take in everything that was happening.

Again... sorta rambling here... but what im trying to say is that i want both players and GMs to be as open as they used to be. Players used to throw bad ideas at GMs which they would turn into a good quest in only a few days, or even hours. And that shit was fun. Players have gotten out the habit of doing this and it can be seen in the current quest. Players are saying "Well why cant we do this" and im seeing repeated replies by certain GMs saying that all they need is for a player to talk to them and explain what the PCs can do in this quest and the GMs will make it happen. I feel like quests have fallen because of players like asshole stephen rothman. I'll never forget it, drow cult comes and recruits some players, they then kidnap stephens current love affair and tell him to remove his position as governor. What does stephen do? he fucking logs out and throws a bitch fit over MSN and on the boards. The staff yields and lets stephen have another bullshit ass show of power due to his OOC bitching. Players like him start whining about awesome quests because they didnt want to expand their roleplay, they have in their head the way they want to do things to be played out and have no tolerance for anything otherwise and its BS. I feel that players these days have completely gained this mindsight, and i feel that GMs are too worried about the whining and bitching of players to be risky and make really risky quests like lich wars.

But im not a GM... i can't make this happen as bad as i want it to. So i'll just try to appeal to players to have more open minds and throw any random ass idea you have at a GM. And to GMs to not worry about whining players, everyone should expand their roleplay whether they want to or not. And to make more quests that have absolutely no planned ending. Just start a quest with a big time kind of character and see where it goes, thats exactly how lich wars was and it worked so damn well. Regardless of how many players bitched and moaned during these big massive quests... player count was up by a lot after wards, and it kept rising (only reason it fell was because of the app system).

Im not sure what this topic was when i started... im recovering from drinking and im uber tired... i'll make sense of this tomorrow and edit it where im sure i had plenty of mistakes.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:45 am
by Llama
Well, its defentally the roleplay which makes illarion special to me. I find it very entertaining that characters have different backgrounds and ideas, and its all very interesting to mash them all up and try to get them to communicate with each other. I sincerly like the roleplay, I like roleplaying with new people - or old ones who I'm pretty used to be now - many characters have a certain 'feel' to them - and I can predict what other characters would say to a situation - this is a sign of great roleplay and me getting immerised into it.

What I also like a lot is the community. I spent a month or so not playing, but stayed on the forums. I like the community - it can be friendly at times and it can be harsh - and I particularly like it when new people pop up and join the community for good.

But the thing that makes illarion most special to me, is that feeling of 'belonging' I get from staying here too much. I feel that I actually belong to the community and the game - and that makes it special. I've been playing for 4 and a half years and I've seen the game, and the game world, change drastically.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:13 am
by 1d20
Salathe wrote:But im not a GM... i can't make this happen as bad as i want it to.
We know it's you Estralis!!

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:21 am
by Llama
MoonDust wrote:
Salathe wrote:But im not a GM... i can't make this happen as bad as i want it to.
We know it's you Estralis!!
The entire being-german part threw us off the track completely.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:50 pm
by Olaf Tingvatn
the roleplaying experiences is what keeps me playing IllaRION. ive allways been a big fan of role playing..way bakc when i was just 13-14 and played Dungeons and Dragons..and then ADVANCED dungeons and dragons. dont car much abiut quests in illaRIOn..its the characters i meet and the feel of the game that keeps me locked down in illaRION for hours on end.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:16 pm
by Thrym
The real role-playing atmosphere and good(?) folks have kept me coming back to Illa since I was 13 and freshly graduated from Runescape (yes, Runescape -- you can imagine the horror of my n00b days here). Illa was something totally "other" and totally magical. I've always loved it. Great memories of many things are still in my head. Like bottlenecking mummies (the original kind) at the old mummy house that no longer exists, mmm... and fighting rotworms. Clouds instead of ghosts, and a creepy little girl named Mary persistently asking Fooser about the lizard reproductive process. :D

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:17 pm
by Juliana D'cheyne
Hadrian_Abela wrote:Well, its defentally the roleplay which makes illarion special to me. I find it very entertaining that characters have different backgrounds and ideas, and its all very interesting to mash them all up and try to get them to communicate with each other. I sincerly like the roleplay, I like roleplaying with new people - or old ones who I'm pretty used to be now - many characters have a certain 'feel' to them - and I can predict what other characters would say to a situation - this is a sign of great roleplay and me getting immerised into it.

What I also like a lot is the community. I spent a month or so not playing, but stayed on the forums. I like the community - it can be friendly at times and it can be harsh - and I particularly like it when new people pop up and join the community for good.

But the thing that makes illarion most special to me, is that feeling of 'belonging' I get from staying here too much. I feel that I actually belong to the community and the game - and that makes it special. I've been playing for 4 and a half years and I've seen the game, and the game world, change drastically.
I believe you have about said it all, if I think of anything to add, I will later.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:50 pm
by Retlak
Can anyone guess why I like Illarion so much?

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:21 pm
by Llama
Retlak wrote:Can anyone guess why I like Illarion so much?
Because of the good feeling you get when you spent a few months playing on a character and you suddenly get a single swirly?

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:34 pm
by Thrym
Retlak wrote:Can anyone guess why I like Illarion so much?
Because Hadrian is here to make your day...

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:05 pm
by Retlak
I don't get swirlies, all my chars are maxed.

So it can't be powergaming reasons.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:22 pm
by Mesha
MoonDust wrote:
Salathe wrote:But im not a GM... i can't make this happen as bad as i want it to.
We know it's you Estralis!!
But with worse punctuation, grammar and spelling?

Anyway, I am attached to Illarion out of habit maybe even. I love the RP at times, and sometimes I just like it. I sometimes wish all the RPers from Illarion would go to WoW though, so I can spend time fighting as well as RPing. I am not a huge fan of the way Illarion works, gamewise, but that is because isometric games generally don't float my boat.

I'm all 3D baby. I remember the April spoof the developers pulled, with pressing the buttons. I was in tears. Tears which sprouted from insane laughter.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:26 pm
by Llama
Mesha wrote:I'm all 3D baby.
Go bother martin :P You might get lucky? :P

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:29 pm
by 1d20
Mesha wrote:
MoonDust wrote:
Salathe wrote:But im not a GM... i can't make this happen as bad as i want it to.
We know it's you Estralis!!
But with worse punctuation, grammar and spelling?
It's all clever acting.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:13 pm
by AlexRose
It was my first mmo.

I loved medieval fantasy too.

When I ctrl clicked myself the first time and that music came on, I was like "omfg this is the best game evar", that music OWNED. (I know it's the same score this time but I prefered the tone of the last one).

Then the people.

The two best points of illarion for me were:
A. When I first joined and everything was awesome, lich wars commenced shortly and there were always cool people to rp with that I looked up to etc.
B. When I finally got MES PEN after a couple of years of play, the time Kevin, Will, Dom and Grivijak shared becoming powerful and working on new strategies, taking down necromancers and then the dragon.

But I much prefered the roleplay at point A.

Probably 'cause fighting stuff doesn't have much rp in it xD .

But yes, Between the points of A and B I was very sadface about the people disappearing.

Also, the big "quest" spent with Aokan was great.

I don't think I can ever like illa as much as I originally did, because the huge hysterical fits of humour have disappeared and the wonder and amazement has gone now I've seen everything.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:16 pm
by Damien
Seeing how stuff was being done, peeking over the shoulders of our (former) programmers, telling stories / roleplaying ingame, adding a bit to the project with player support and writing stories, and a certain maturity and fun factor/humor in the game and community which Tibia and Runescape totally lacked.

Most of that has changed, most of the more mature people are gone and more of the "i-define-roleplay-by-the-sentence-my-character-is-me-in-another-world"- people are playing, you cannot read what our programmers are discussing anymore (not even in the "normal" staff), but still there is some roleplay (up to a certain degree and with a very different niveau of course, but there is), and hell, the technical growth and the work of our geniuses are indeed still very fascinating.

So the reasons to be here, for me, have changed alot, but there still are someof those, especially since the return of a few older players.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:23 pm
by rakust dorenstkzul
Pretending to be a woman and nobody judges you.

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:24 am
by Firedragon
I just like the role play. It really makes it like a living fantasy world. So many other games are called "role playing games" yet really don't have anything to do with real role play. They're good games but they're more strategy games. Not role play.

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:18 am
by Estralis Seborian
MoonDust wrote:
Mesha wrote:
MoonDust wrote: We know it's you Estralis!!
But with worse punctuation, grammar and spelling?
It's all clever acting.
Stop spamming. I am Aristeaus, did you forget?

So, what makes Illarion special? Can't be the level of roleplaying, can't be the graphics, can't be the gameplay. So, what is it? For me, the main point is that I can influence this game and don't have to swallow what I get. When I want to have a static quest, I can go script it myself. If I want to do a quest, I log in and do it! If I want to propose something, I can contact the developers directly. So, the individual player matters a lot more than in other games.

In former times, I wrote things about the community, the level of roleplaying, the casual gameplay and so on. We all have to work together to make Illarion a better game; better not in terms of adding tobacco or mounts, but in terms of improving the gameplay and the overall spirit!

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:02 am
by Joxia Doral
Juliana D'cheyne wrote:
Hadrian_Abela wrote:Well, its defentally the roleplay which makes illarion special to me. I find it very entertaining that characters have different backgrounds and ideas, and its all very interesting to mash them all up and try to get them to communicate with each other. I sincerly like the roleplay, I like roleplaying with new people - or old ones who I'm pretty used to be now - many characters have a certain 'feel' to them - and I can predict what other characters would say to a situation - this is a sign of great roleplay and me getting immerised into it.

What I also like a lot is the community. I spent a month or so not playing, but stayed on the forums. I like the community - it can be friendly at times and it can be harsh - and I particularly like it when new people pop up and join the community for good.

But the thing that makes illarion most special to me, is that feeling of 'belonging' I get from staying here too much. I feel that I actually belong to the community and the game - and that makes it special. I've been playing for 4 and a half years and I've seen the game, and the game world, change drastically.
I believe you have about said it all, if I think of anything to add, I will later.
She beat me to Llamas quote...it pretty well sums it up for me.

@ Retlak..So what IS it all ready?? :P

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:35 am
by Juniper Onyx
Something I haven't seen here is the History.

Players who have been playing a while remember being a part of something. Stories and legends about their characters. Names like Stephen Rothman, Salathe, Retlak, Dusty Bottoms, etc. Players have a purpose and become "part" of the game.

Memories of things in places like Vanima, Varshikar, Greenbriar, and of course- Trollsbane. These places have meaning because of their history and your character's involvement in it.

What really keeps me going is the opportunity to do whatever I want. I've been the Mayor of Greenbriar in one lifetime, then a poor Farmer the next, a slave, then built Goldburg castle with a donkey shagging dwarf, and now Chief of the Orcs! What a wonderful game when the players have so many opportunities to be and RP what they want to become! Opportunities that the staff actually help you to achieve!

Illarion is unlike other RPG's in this fact. As long as your RP is good, and other players support you, you can do anything, be anything you wish! Thats true Role-playing!

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:08 pm
by Retlak
56k wrote:@ Retlak..So what IS it all ready??
To me, Illarion is a great game for several reasons. Unlike most people I tend to enjoy playing for both technical and gameplay reasons.

For the roleplay side of it, I really enjoy how in this game your character means something and isn't just a random graphic. Like Dusty said, your char can develop as much as you want freely with so much variety and may become a legend that will be rememered. Personally I love when my chars hit the "unique + well-known" stage, though I only really managed to get there with Retlak (even before he was a lich).

I also like the quests of course, they bring both characters and players together for some fun, the fact that they are not just static makes the game so much more flexible.


As for the technical side of it, I'll probably get into trouble for saying this but I love trying to solve ooc things like efficient fighting system item combinations or stats etc. Basicly anything that seems like a puzzle draws my attention and makes me want to solve it. I think that's because I like mathematics probably. I even make graphs, tables and shit.


And also there is the nice community, when I get home I can be sure to have some friends to chat with from the Illarion group in my contacts list.

-Matt

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:19 pm
by 1d20
Retlak wrote:And also there is the nice community, when I get home I can be sure to have some friends to chat with from the Illarion group in my contacts list.
d'Awwwww.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:17 pm
by Christopher..Rigden
Hrm... the bassline in the fight music...

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:28 pm
by Leva Beliu
Yes, I miss old Chester, even if he was lascivious at time... and many others. So yes, history is an important part of my interest in Illarion. Gives some thickness, in a positive sense, to the game. Nostalgy can be fun!

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:28 pm
by Kranek
The possibility to build something that stays even if ya leave.

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:04 am
by Mr. Cromwell
Some very interesting characters, interesting interactions... character development possibilities, as well as the rather unique ability to shape the game, talk with the developers and the whole IG "lets see if it is possible to pull that off AND get away with it"-aspect. ;)

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:17 am
by Alexander Knight
Salathe wrote:disclaimer: I'm recovering from drinking alot and im uber tired.

without a fucking doubt, the quests kept me here. In my first few weeks i got to meet drakhen for the first time and it was awesome. I started to get into RP and started to really like it. Many more quests happened which were great and utterly fascinating. Then day of storms happened and it was such an epic event that I decided i could never really stop playing this game. The chance for a character to take a real part in a quest... It's the best gaming experience i've ever had. In particular for me, it would be the nightmare quest (if anyone is old enough to remember why salathe is a hero) which outlines this point that a character can be a very important figure in the game. Then quests like the lich wars which are so FUCKING cool. Lich wars had to have atleast 20 sub plots, and over 40 characters being HEAVILY active in the quests. It leads to great roleplay. Just being stuck in the corner of a peninsula for 2 hours with 5 random characters, because there are literally 50 flame skeletons and black dragons blocking your way, is some of the best RP i've ever had. Everyone thats heard me on quests know that i always say we need more quests like that. More quests where the staff and the GMs force characters into situations. And smile the characters that whine, those are the characters that dont want to expand their RP and they are no fucking fun.



Someone count how many times he said smile please :)
Anyway... yea... the quests here used to be reeeaaaallly good, and they used to be veeeeeerrryyyy open. It feels like all quests now have determined plotlines with predetermined participating characters. Quests like Adrons Goblet, Nightmare, The Great Holy Tree, and of course Lich wars, had NO predetermined scenario, nor any predetermined participating characters. The quests were solely driven by acts of the players. Lich wars could have lasted months longer if certain players didnt come up with certain ideas that sped up the process. I remember proposing to Damien about splunking into varshikar castle, and that subplot turned out greeeeaaat, and also solved one of the huge dilemmas the island was facing at the time. Adrons Goblet went so many different ways, we had spies, and we put on deceit with handing over Pendar. Then when I went into a frenzy and killed Ian and Dnoi, that created two very long lasting enemies that surpassed even Adrons Goblet's quest. I want quests like that again =(. I felt like the recent moshran armor quest was too planned and too organized, and it felt really hard to get into. I gave a bunch of ideas to different GMs participating in it, and nothing happened. In old quests every idea i ever proposed to a GM for the quest, was granted and carried out. For any who remember scaling drakhens wall, The ladder idea was 100% player idea. The GMs had no intention of ever revealing what was past it, and they themselves never thought of what was actually past it. But look what came from scaling drakhens wall, DRAVISH was created. Then Dravish became a year long enemy, and surpassed the length of the Lich Wars quest. And characters get this great sense of being important.... I mean... im on a first name basis with drakhen FFS. He recognizes me not even by looks, but by personality

Anyway... i've sorta rambled about that.

But also the fact that characters can really change. For anyone thats known salathe since 7 years ago know that he has changed ALOT. I've even carried out this "forsaken" plotline for nearly 3 years now. But what i find so interesting about it is that... i didnt just one day say... "hey... im gonna do this to salathe, and then this and this and this". Nope that didnt happen, it happened because the GMs on there own accord acted with me, and i went with it and what happened to salathe was caused by GMs and a few players. And my char changed a WHOLE lot, and its been the some of the funnest RP i've had. From mid 2004-mid 2006 it REALLY felt like i was simply "watching" my character, because he was being changed so much by the events ingame. I could've kept him the way i made him, or had him return to normal, but i felt like that would be against his character to not take in everything that was happening.

Again... sorta rambling here... but what im trying to say is that i want both players and GMs to be as open as they used to be. Players used to throw bad ideas at GMs which they would turn into a good quest in only a few days, or even hours. And that shit was fun. Players have gotten out the habit of doing this and it can be seen in the current quest. Players are saying "Well why cant we do this" and im seeing repeated replies by certain GMs saying that all they need is for a player to talk to them and explain what the PCs can do in this quest and the GMs will make it happen. I feel like quests have fallen because of players like asshole stephen rothman. I'll never forget it, drow cult comes and recruits some players, they then kidnap stephens current love affair and tell him to remove his position as governor. What does stephen do? he fucking logs out and throws a bitch fit over MSN and on the boards. The staff yields and lets stephen have another bullshit ass show of power due to his OOC bitching. Players like him start whining about awesome quests because they didnt want to expand their roleplay, they have in their head the way they want to do things to be played out and have no tolerance for anything otherwise and its BS. I feel that players these days have completely gained this mindsight, and i feel that GMs are too worried about the whining and bitching of players to be risky and make really risky quests like lich wars.

But im not a GM... i can't make this happen as bad as i want it to. So i'll just try to appeal to players to have more open minds and throw any random ass idea you have at a GM. And to GMs to not worry about whining players, everyone should expand their roleplay whether they want to or not. And to make more quests that have absolutely no planned ending. Just start a quest with a big time kind of character and see where it goes, thats exactly how lich wars was and it worked so damn well. Regardless of how many players bitched and moaned during these big massive quests... player count was up by a lot after wards, and it kept rising (only reason it fell was because of the app system).

Im not sure what this topic was when i started... im recovering from drinking and im uber tired... i'll make sense of this tomorrow and edit it where im sure i had plenty of mistakes.

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:18 am
by AlexRose
How can you quote him? You weren't even there to appreciate 99% of his points.