What people think of ALFA

[Mulu]

DM hates you and players want you dead? tough break, move along.

Move along how far? Most people in this situation will move along right out of ALFA.

Well, there is a certain point where you're just not a fit for the community. It is a bit unfortunate that what constitutes a fit has grown so incredibly narrow over the years. Static content removal reduced the player population here by quite a bit, but narrowing the fit has also greatly reduced it. I'm not talking about bannings, which are relatively rare from what I've seen. I'm talking about simple frustration and playstyle conflict. ALFA has evolved into a purer vision and stricter playstyle, but is a much smaller gameworld as a result. It's a trade off.

[Souvarine]

DM hates you and players want you dead? tough break, move along.

It's not even about dm hate or players desire to kill your character. It's about loneliness.

When dms are not aware of your project (i.e. when you travel from server to server w/o enough time to get dms involved, or when they just don't dm your type of character).

When players don't give a damn about your character (i.e. typically when you play a marginal not-too-social one so there is no reason to talk to you, but also when you try to join a long-established roleplaying group).

The result is that you are alone with nothing to do. That is the most effective burn-out agent working in alfa. It's something that is created naturally in all large gaming community i have seen. Those who are alone feel ostracized will usually leave (and feel cheated somewhat). They hear all this greatness about how it's fun and all...but their reality in alfa is much darker.

Once you have experienced the brighter side of alfa, however, you can endure so much more loneliness before burning out...in the hopes of finding the "light" once again. It's a tad masochistic, but that's really how it is.

[Lusipher]

Thats why I joined a player group. If you stick with a group you will have a much better time playing in ALFA.

[dergon darkhelm]

I have to admit that I've had a couple of paranoia inducing "big brother" events while at ALFA. They didn't knock me out of the game, but had it been slightly worse it could have.

The "Malcer Agelstrond" incident in which another player created a similar GSID to mine and a similar PC name in order to loot his corpse. Before I even knew anything at all about the issue, I had DMs pming me telling me that it "wasn't appropriate for them to DM me while I was under investigation" and asking if I could just log off for a while.

Similarly, with the "key incident" I had no knowledge that there was any background concern at all, and only heard of it through DM PMs that were somewhat offputting.


Let me say that, in the end, both of these incidents were handled appropriately with no consequence for me. However, during the course of the "investigations" I certainly had a sense of being prejudged by some of the people on the other side of the screen.

________

I guess my point is that, if you are a relative outsider (only a player and not close friends with DMs/admin), it doesn't take too many rough experiences to turn you off.

Had I been a new member at the time of these events happening I would certainly have left.





*shrugs* I don't know if what I just wrote adds to the discussion in anyway, but ...what the hell....cheaper than therapy.

[Cynon]

If I were a rich man I'd have a professional psycho analyse their way through the ALFA forums and then I'd deliver the final analyses to the respective government and intelligence bodies of wherever you all come from, just so they can protect the peoples of your countries from all youz folks's psycosises.

OMFG why am I even bothering.

The thing that was the sickest about this place was the way someone actually deleted my character, Kail, from the vault within a week or so of him dying. Like it wasn't enough that he'd died. OOC someone had to really make sure!

People feel so OOCly threatened by what others have IG it's just.... man I'm speachless.

I can go through thing after thing after thing that has shocked me about ALFA and the way some people are. It's like a sanctuary for the people who no gaming group would ever have. And they are all here nurturing each other in a state of persistant war and backstabbing and child like arguments.

It's the normal few that were just trying to enjoy themselves here that I really pity.

(points at the word 'were')

[JaydeMoon]

Man. Yer Cheerios are soggy with ALFA's piss, apparently.

Your statements are very general and encompass all of ALFA. I'm sorry you had such a horrid experience but I think it was a small few that influenced things for the community as a whole.

The 'witch-hunting' was pretty horrid at one time, but for the most part that's fallen to the wayside. Still a few PCs will raise a few eyebrows, but it's not like it once was.

There are a few people who have a very narrow minded vision of what they think ALFA should be. I think that vision has broadened somewhat, and that, combined with good standards with the onus on the DM teams to get things right has really stabilized some of our flaws and weaknesses.

If you're still a member in good standing, give a shot to Shadowdale or Sembia or one of the other still Live servers and see if things have changed or if they are still the same.

I think that if you operate in the spirit of fairness, RP, and ALFA, you will find it rewarding and fun.

Except for static content. It's still way low, but I know for a fact that on Shadowdale, that's being worked on too. I imagine the fact is the same for other servers.

--------

My bottom line:

Doesn't seem to matter what we find on forums and other places. Bash ALFA publicly or not, we are still seeing a steady stream of applicants. I worry less about some scary gawdawful reputation we might have as elitists and snobs and witch hunters and (apparently) gaming group rejects. I worry more about folks joining up with ALFA now and finding we aren't ready for them to be playing in NWN2 servers for a while and then wandering off to other places.

But there's another thread sort of addressing that and I think we're moving in the right direction.

[dergon darkhelm]

Way to bring the conversation back on point, Jayde!

((/me considers deleting his above rant .............nah...I'll leave it.........but I ain't leavin' ))

[Cynon]

There are select pockets of sociopathic RPG militants in ALFA who always wanted things their silly BS way and worked their ways into the running of things and decided to constantly change rules and stuff for the IG scenario.

Constantly letting people make a character within a gameworld rule frame and then when those characters are in with years of play and RP behind them and emotionally in a place where they are attached to what they have spent a lot of work on, fighting through all the oppression of the OOC BS, you change the fscking rules more, tell them they can't have this and that which they have had for ever and start closing in on everyone.

Always everyday there was brainstorming, "how can we change this rule and that rule again and again! How can we make this place less fun to play in!" It was all about taking away the fun of playing a game and creating a highly restricted controlled RP environment where no one could really be any better or more prosperous then enyone else, if it wasn't, then I don't know what people were thinking cos that is what was achieved.

At the end of the day anyone with any realistic vision to see what was happening was told bluntly in forums or chat that what they thought was not what ALFA thought. (Fricking we are the ALFA assimilate assimilate!!!) You could deal with it or you "weren't ALFA material."

Say what you like, once upon a time in a land far away you could log on and there would be maybe 20 players and a half dozen DM's on several of ALFA's servers.

I spent on occasions whole days doing DM quest after DM quest after DM quest. It was awsome. static content was there if no DM was on and actually was enough to fill the spaces.

Now your lucky if there is 5 or 6 people on one of the servers one night of the week and if no DM then what are you supposed to do? Oh yeah that one 5 minute static that gives omgosh 20 xp and 5 gold and omg i can't do it anyway cos I already did it once last week and once a few months ago and I might get banned for farming!

Toys were thrown out of the pram and the other babies left. If you didn't learn the lesson and you think this place is what an RP orientated PW should be, thank god your still here and not corrupting some other beautiful and fun PW.

[Veilan]

The thing that was the sickest about this place was the way someone actually deleted my character, Kail, from the vault within a week or so of him dying. Like it wasn't enough that he'd died. OOC someone had to really make sure!

I can tell you it's quite natural for us trying to relate everything that happens to ourselves. This, however, holds true in the fewest of cases. Are you certain this was done, to you, specifically? We had a lot of general vault wipes and problems, and also "clean ups" were inactive characters were deleted. I wouldn't go to assume this was someone targetting you, it may just have been something that happened for other reasons, in general, and that you interpretted to be targetting you.

In fact, we often have people asking whether someone could clean their folder because they don't want it clogged up by dead characters. To assume malicious intent here seems as if you may be are the one overreacting, heh.

If, however, it was done to single you out or to hurt you, then, indeed, it would be kind of sick.

[JaydeMoon]

Now your lucky if there is 5 or 6 people on one of the servers one night of the week and if no DM then what are you supposed to do? Oh yeah that one 5 minute static that gives omgosh 20 xp and 5 gold and omg i can't do it anyway cos I already did it once last week and once a few months ago and I might get banned for farming!

If you're still a member in good standing, give a shot to Shadowdale or Sembia or one of the other still Live servers and see if things have changed or if they are still the same.

We have 5-6 players on EVERY night of the week and (so long as you aren't on some kind of wonky time zone schedule) pretty decent DM coverage.

Again, work is being done to increase static content. It's not all perfect. All I'm saying is that things are improving, and cooler heads are beginning to prevail... much to the chagrin of many "sociopathic RPG militants".

ALFA is still ALFA, it's still meant to be some pretty hardcore elitist RP. But things are better.

Try it out.

Or don't and just keep ranting, I guess. Though you'd then lose any leg to stand on in your ranting (which, by that point, becomes inane babbling).

[NickD]

I keep meaning to head back to SD, but whenever I start up NWN my screen goes black...

[Mulu]

I keep meaning to head back to SD, but whenever I start up NWN my screen goes black...

I was having multiple problems with NWN, and after reinstalling several times, updating and backdating my video drivers, emptying my override and basically going crazy, I stumbled upon this ultimate solution to all NWN problems (in WinXP anyway).

1-Uninstall NWN by clicking on start/control panel/add-remove programs. (be sure to move any previous haks and other files and put them in a new folder for now)

2-Right click on start, go to explorer and locate your NWN folder and delete it.

3-Click Start, go to Run and type msconfig

4- On the "General Tab" click the "Selective Startup" button and the uncheck the "Load Startup Items" box.

5- Go to the "Services Tab" and check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box.

6- On the same screen hit the "Disable All" button.

7- Go back the the "General Tab" and make sure both "Load System Services" and "Load Startup Item" boxes are unchecked.

8- Click apply and then it will ask you if you want to restart, click yes.

9- Re-install NWN and any other expansions you have. And then patch. Then re-add any hak or other files you saved elsewhere.

10- Once installed and patched you can try the game if it works you will need to go back into msconfig to recheck the "Normal Startup Button" and then restart your computer again.

[Cynon]

Dead character are dead, rofl. I'm not fussed about stuff like that personally but someone was.

lol anyhow.

Fallen on deaf ears i'm sure but who knows someone out there might actually want to know what people think is wrong with ALFA.

Players shouldn't have to put up with a NWN player world they should actually want to log on to have some fun.

I will keep an eye on this place in the years to come. It's just gotta change if I was to ever try and play here again.

If that doesn't bother you then don't worry but if the absence of myself and many others is a problem, think about it. It's not about us it's about you at the end of the day. There is plenty of other player worlds out there all being what ALFA thinks it is.

There was my bit. Laters all.

[Mulu]

There is plenty of other player worlds out there all being what ALFA thinks it is.

If only this were true. There's a handful of rp oriented PW's that are all single server worlds with varying quality and activity, and then of course there's the thriving munchkinville that is COPAP/Avlis (though it is possible to ignore the munchkins if you make your zen will checks, and they do have some good DM's). NWC is still active, but it's scheduled gaming only, and like all rp places is only a small fraction of what it was back in 2002/2003. Heck, NWC doesn't even do their annual gaming conventions anymore, despite my pleading. The pools are shrinking.

ALFA, despite it's issues past and present, continues to exist and be active, which by itself is quite an accomplishment even if it is a shadow of its former self. I know of more dead projects than live ones, and I know more rp'ers who have left online NWN than remain. I miss them.

As one of the few projects continuing the carry the rp torch, I don't know how much the opinions of the frustrated really matter. We're here, we provide a strict rp environment, and there aren't a lot of us left. Players who demand gaming on their own terms simply don't have the options they once had. Eventually I suspect Bioware will close down their Master server and I believe that will be the end of online NWN. There are probably tech workarounds, but there won't be any new players, so it's just a waiting game after that. Enjoy it while you can.

[Lusipher]

Eventually I suspect Bioware will close down their Master server and I believe that will be the end of online NWN.

Maybe for NWN1. Bioware didnt make NWN2.