Valyrka

[tyrant-201]

I think a thread for her is long overdue. Let me list my complaints.

Guru of Elves, Dark Elves, and Sylvan. Three of the most played races in the game. We've seen little to no developments on these fronts, save for a few bones thrown to Faendryl and an Elven event ran once in awhile with a few wares retread from years passed. OOC meetings are fraught with deflections, defensive posturing, and the usual statement of "Maybe eventually, but for now it's not in the cards."

Illistim, Sylvaerrend, Ta'Illistim: I've had my own experiences in trying to build an annex here. Most parts of the town are now off-limits for building due to some quasi-legitimate IG roleplay where Myasara prohibits building in these areas. I imagine this is a game where many CHE's/Established MHO's would like to build - but can't. This is her sandbox, and you're not invited.

Subpar roleplay: Illistim used to be a thriving place for roleplay. Myasara used to be a vibrant character. Now when I've brought characters to audiences with the Argent Mirror it reads more like a script from Mean Girls than anything legitimate and fitting for a fantasy RPG. Couple that with the fact that she can't seem to get the whole royal we/ plural majesty down and it makes for quite a bit of facepalming.

Many of her items are severely restrictive in being able to be altered. In ways that don't even make sense.

It just seems to me she enjoys being on staff for the sake of power grabbing/boosting herself and really doesn't enjoy interaction with PC's in the way you'd expect a town guru/several race guru to. For being in charge of so much, the lazy attitude and disdain for players really doesn't sit well with me. I've written feedback about this several times over the years and have a feeling many other people have, but feel I should speak publicly about it since she as a staff member influences so many of the aspects of the game I'm familiar with and enjoy.

What say you?

[drauz]

Dark elves have a guru? Who would have guessed.

[tyrant-201]

Dark elves have a guru? Who would have guessed.

Colldddd!

[drauz]

Colldddd!

Whens the last time something happened in the Dark Elven world? Fuck even the gnomes have a niche place that is "theirs".

[Tisket]

I feel like someone just got her cheek swatted with a gauntlet.

There is only one solution: dance off!

[Gelston]

Ah, I remember when my character was trying to bone Myasara. :)

[Divone]

I agree. I think this gal spread herself thin, grabbed up a lot of the game then sat on it. She needs a good kick in the arse.

[drauz]

I feel like someone just got her cheek swatted with a gauntlet.

There is only one solution: dance off!

https://media.giphy.com/media/qHXVZRdshWVaM/giphy.gif

[shad0ws0ngs]

Definitely wouldn't mind a new dark elf guru. Maybe one that seemed to play dark elves or gives the impression of liking dark elven RP in some fashion.

The prior guru had written a beautiful document on the Faendryl Socio-Political Structure. I don't know the details of what surrounded his leaving, but it got posted around that time. It was quite a nice read. It took over 4-5 years after that for it to come out of QC and the final draft was barely anything like it. As though you took something beautiful, ate it, shat it out, and hurled a piece of that shit at us the player base. Almost every part that I liked was removed; addressing half-Faendryl, murder within Faendryl society, sonic-tuned crystals so bards were semi-relevant for once.

Original: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14ghXjuuE58IfxRV99a13lhLTYS7eFrWzNGORlDAbc8E/edit?usp=sharing
Official: https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/The_Theory_of_Governance_and_Social_Order

I remember when we finally found out it was going to be released during a dark elf OOC meeting as I'd asked about it at every single meeting and remember finding her response about it being released and how I could finally stop asking to be rather insulting, though the content escapes me anymore.

The overall impression given, at least in my opinion, since taking over has been that any real progress, be it official documentation or events, is almost exclusively driven by player inquiry and complaints. We had a very nice back-and-forth rant about the lack of official Faendryl RP when the Faendryl Symposium was released. An event that was in large part done by the players and player submitted content. I remember thinking during it that we could have done it ourselves and had pretty much the same results.

One aspect of that event that was run solely by GMs was the Palestra piece. A piece I missed, but did not miss the general upset and outcry following it. The general consensus seemed to be that it was insulting to long established players and directly contradicted what official documentation was provided on Palestra prior to that. Which in turn lead to more outcry, writing feedback, and complaints on the officials and is what, in my opinion, drove the subsequent creation of player Palestra and another Palestra document. It didn't take over four years to come out, so I could easily be wrong about when it was written, QC'd and approved.

As someone else pointed out, even each gnome race has their own place now. The two places for Dhe'nar and Faendryl are, respectively, a CHE and MHO and thus both created by the players. I wont go into detail, but I'll just say that attempts to get feedback and input from our guru on aspects of our culturally based MHO have been lack luster in this writer's opinion.

I am trying to take a page from the Dhe'nar book from now on. Invent your own roleplay, don't rely on GMs to support it, and maybe they'll eventually catch up to what you're doing. Just assume we don't have a Guru and go from there, it's less frustrating and you're about as likely to get the same amount of support/feedback either way. That said, I am immediately reminded how we used to be able to get Palestra and Basilica alterations prior to the current Guru and now can't, so even attempts to just do our own thing on our own are somewhat curtailed.

I wont keep going, as it's too early in the day to get this worked up over something.

[Destrier]

I have always been more of a praise in public, counsel in private kinda guy.

The Elves, Dark elves, Sylvans are the most popular races.

I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, nor do I want to.

I keep my primary character in the EN, I love the room descriptions, the history, the way the region was set up.

I would like to see:

Responses to emails. Follow through on statements made.

A long term story line developed. Even if it is once a month. The area has dust bunnies and tumble weeds blowing across the streets.

Tea parties and Garden picnics with elven children, are not what I am looking for in an RPG. While it may be of interest to some, and I do not have any issue with that being developed or staffed. However, I would hope it is not the only thing being developed and staffed. This is simply my personal preference. It is not really of interest to me. Unless it is being used to developed a long term story line.

The several invasion style occurrences in the last year. 3 orc attacks on main gate. No rhyme or reason. Just some low level orcs decided to wander up and get slaughtered. It felt like, hey I have to do something, so here kill some level 10 orcs. You are welcome. (invasion added to gm calendar=success)

I would like to see another agm added to the Dark Elves, Elves and Sylvans. Or Illistim get a town gm. I think perhaps it is just too much for any one GM.

John

[Gnomad]

Whens the last time something happened in the Dark Elven world? Fuck even the gnomes have a niche place that is "theirs".

You gotta admit that the Palestra trials were cool.

edit: I've always had an idea in the back of my head for players to try to take back even part of Old Ta'Faendryl. I could see the Faendryl doing it, the clanless Dark Elves who want a home, a group of players who claim Ashrim ancestry, or the Vaalor, just cuz they're big on poking the Faendryl in the eye whenever they can.

[Allereli]

I agree that she is guru of too much. She did a great job with the Palestra trials and the recent elven fest.

I also think it's unfair to make a thread like this where she is unable to respond.

[Taernath]

I also think it's unfair to make a thread like this where she is unable to respond.

It would probably just be locked on the officials.

[Warriorbird]

I like her as a person quite a bit.

Simultaneously she just made no effort to ever investigate the roleplay environment/background of anywhere she's been a Guru of.

She should've been the Haven Guru or something.


I agree that she is guru of too much. She did a great job with the Palestra trials and the recent elven fest.

I also think it's unfair to make a thread like this where she is unable to respond.

No player is ever really able to respond on the Officials. Simu never really adjusted to Web 2.0. They ought to be able to post here.

[Gnomad]

It would probably just be locked on the officials.
Nah, some people were spitting fire about the RR guru on the officials recently.

[Warriorbird]

Nah, some people were spitting fire about the RR guru on the officials recently.

Some folks can get away with more than others.

[tyrant-201]

I also think it's unfair to make a thread like this where she is unable to respond.

I also think it's unfair that the level of moderation on Simu's boards means I can't express an opinion like this without a post being locked or deleted.

[Velfi]

I also think it's unfair that the level of moderation on Simu's boards means I can't express an opinion like this without a post being locked or deleted.

Look, the forums are tied to billing, okay.

[tyrant-201]

I like her as a person quite a bit.

Don't know her personally. I know I've seen the way she interacts with the player base and it would seem she feels she has a certain level of impunity. See Japh's example of her taking offense at a repeated request and telling him to stop asking. We all pay a hefty subscription to this game. We're entitled to make all the requests we want, and staff should be able to handle these things professionally.


Simultaneously she just made no effort to ever investigate the roleplay environment/background of anywhere she's been a Guru of.

She should've been the Haven Guru or something.

I've heard from multiple sources who knew her that she had a certain disdain for DE as a player. Particularly Dhe'nar. Rather peculiar to oversee a race you're not particularly interested in or passionate about. At the very least, someone who oversees one of the most placed races in the game would be expected to know a bit about the history and lore - and she's admitted on several occasions she doesn't know as much as she should.

We've also seen plenty of contests and requests for ideas, which I commend as an interactive participation with the playerbase. In the same breath, it seems nothing gets done which doesn't require using someone elses' work.




No player is ever really able to respond on the Officials. Simu never really adjusted to Web 2.0. They ought to be able to post here.

Precisely why I don't post there. If I can't express an opinion freely, I'll choose not to participate.

[Androidpk]

It would probably just be locked on the officials.


+1

[Fallen]

My only complaint about her is that Khshathra's documents are still not published. They were rough around the edges, but that was years ago.

What happened with the Faendryl embassy?

[tyrant-201]

My only complaint about her is that Khshathra's documents are still not published. They were rough around the edges, but that was years ago.

What happened with the Faendryl embassy?

Truthfully it's sacrilege to say as a former member of the Tower, but I'd see a lot of the original lore replaced with Khshathra's for Dhe'nar. Loved his stuff, I think there's some sort of vendetta against using it though - despite his agreement on the premise that he's credited for it.

The Faendryl embassy is a thing.

[Fallen]

Truthfully it's sacrilege to say as a former member of the Tower, but I'd see a lot of the original lore replaced with Khshathra's for Dhe'nar. Loved his stuff, I think there's some sort of vendetta against using it though - despite his agreement on the premise that he's credited for it.

The Faendryl embassy is a thing.

Anything that wasn't contradictory to the official lore adopted by Simutronics should be fair game. I liked a lot of K's stuff he did as a player, regardless of how he thought about the people running the Tower 15+ years ago, heh.

Faendryl had both the embassy and the Palestra trials under Valyrka? Can't complain too much.

[MotleyCrew]

Sounds like the reincarnation of Andraste?

[Warriorbird]

Sounds like the reincarnation of Andraste?

None of the blatantly cheating for her friends and maniacal/insane customer service like Andraste.

[Devessi]

I like her as a person quite a bit.

Simultaneously she just made no effort to ever investigate the roleplay environment/background of anywhere she's been a Guru of.

She should've been the Haven Guru or something.


Please don't wish her on us as the Haven guru. We already have a guru that seems to go out of his way to avoid actually doing anything in Solhaven unless it's hunting his PC, a sidegrade to Valyrka would suck.

It's funny, sort of. When Valyrka first took over as the elf guru, people approached her and offered her advice on how to connect with the then-current flock of hardcore Illistim elf RPers. They got dismissed with a smirky little 'I don't need that sort of help' answer from her. Hope she likes all those tumbleweeds rolling through the streets of her city. God knows I haven't set foot in there on any character since she was such an utter bitch to Durakar during the Faendryl Symposium.

I don't care what you've rewritten the lore documents into, using an NPC specifically to rip apart someone's roleplay they've been doing for years is pretty gross. Crying at them in OOC whispers for daring to hold an minor event relevant to their Faendryl-themed years-long RP that they held OFF the grounds of your festival and NOT in a timeslot already claimed by any of your events? Also pretty gross, and it still makes me cringe remembering how she acted towards him.

The whole Palestra thing? The trials might have been cool, I didn't attend them. I've been RPing my Faendryl as a recently-graduated Palestra since I created her when minor summoning was released, going by the basic documentation saying that they were so damn common every summoner could reasonably expect to hire one. I wasn't willing to chop and hack away at 13 years of established backstory to suit Valyrka's bizarre new narrative that Palestra eschew all family ties, that they're super rare, and that they're too special for PCs to be able to portray to get the 'official' title so her shitty NPCs wouldn't mock me. I'd rather just keep avoiding her events. I also hated the fact that she made it clear, so very clear, that even people who passed these Palestra trials would never be regarded the same as those who had gone through 'real' training and 'real' academies. It was such a halfassed attempt at shutting people up. Ugh.

Let's talk about something besides that though? Okay.

How about the yearly race meetings she has for the races she's the guru of. You know, the ones where she basically tells us nothing new, shoots down all of our ideas and requests as something she's too busy to do THIS year then never actually gets around to doing them the next year.

How about the Sylvan Caravan that Naoinna used to bring around? You know, the one that's already fully coded and in the game. The one that used to show up to offer sylvan goods and give insight/glimpses into sylvan life and heritage. Last time that got asked about, it got instantly shot down as something she was tooooooo busy to do that year.

How about additional sylvan verbs she was asked about? That got shot down.

How about new sylvan materials? That got shot down too. I'm sensing a theme here.

[zennsunni]

Definitely wouldn't mind a new dark elf guru. Maybe one that seemed to play dark elves or gives the impression of liking dark elven RP in some fashion.

The prior guru had written a beautiful document on the Faendryl Socio-Political Structure. I don't know the details of what surrounded his leaving, but it got posted around that time. It was quite a nice read. It took over 4-5 years after that for it to come out of QC and the final draft was barely anything like it. As though you took something beautiful, ate it, shat it out, and hurled a piece of that shit at us the player base. Almost every part that I liked was removed; addressing half-Faendryl, murder within Faendryl society, sonic-tuned crystals so bards were semi-relevant for once.

Wow, the before and after on that document is pretty unbelievable. Full disclosure, I went to graduate school in the humanities, have won awards for my writing at professional conferences, etc. I'm not saying I'm God's Gift to discourse, but simply that I'm an expert on writing in a formal, dictatorial style. Now, the author of the first document uses reasonably well-structured style, grammar, etc. I would imagine he or she is college educated and did well in the humanities. The second author's writing is a clusterfuck of bad clause arrangement, abuse of the poor humble comma, and tons of 'mistakes' of convention, like starting sentences with 'it'. The second document's author seems to me like someone who has read 5000 bad fantasy novels and, as a result, views him or herself as 'well-read' despite having no particular proclivity for writing. I agree with the quoted author, the original document was gobbled up and shat out all over the Gemstone community by whoever re-wrote it.

[zennsunni]

I also think it's unfair that the level of moderation on Simu's boards means I can't express an opinion like this without a post being locked or deleted.

The play.net forums are a fucking joke. Speak your mind there and voice a well-founded critique and the response is always the same: Wyrom telling you to fuck off and be grateful for your ration of bullshit.

[Warriorbird]

Please don't wish her on us as the Haven guru. We already have a guru that seems to go out of his way to avoid actually doing anything in Solhaven unless it's hunting his PC, a sidegrade to Valyrka would suck.

It's funny, sort of. When Valyrka first took over as the elf guru, people approached her and offered her advice on how to connect with the then-current flock of hardcore Illistim elf RPers. They got dismissed with a smirky little 'I don't need that sort of help' answer from her. Hope she likes all those tumbleweeds rolling through the streets of her city. God knows I haven't set foot in there on any character since she was such an utter bitch to Durakar during the Faendryl Symposium.

I don't care what you've rewritten the lore documents into, using an NPC specifically to rip apart someone's roleplay they've been doing for years is pretty gross. Crying at them in OOC whispers for daring to hold an minor event relevant to their Faendryl-themed years-long RP that they held OFF the grounds of your festival and NOT in a timeslot already claimed by any of your events? Also pretty gross, and it still makes me cringe remembering how she acted towards him.

The whole Palestra thing? The trials might have been cool, I didn't attend them. I've been RPing my Faendryl as a recently-graduated Palestra since I created her when minor summoning was released, going by the basic documentation saying that they were so damn common every summoner could reasonably expect to hire one. I wasn't willing to chop and hack away at 13 years of established backstory to suit Valyrka's bizarre new narrative that Palestra eschew all family ties, that they're super rare, and that they're too special for PCs to be able to portray to get the 'official' title so her shitty NPCs wouldn't mock me. I'd rather just keep avoiding her events. I also hated the fact that she made it clear, so very clear, that even people who passed these Palestra trials would never be regarded the same as those who had gone through 'real' training and 'real' academies. It was such a halfassed attempt at shutting people up. Ugh.

Let's talk about something besides that though? Okay.

How about the yearly race meetings she has for the races she's the guru of. You know, the ones where she basically tells us nothing new, shoots down all of our ideas and requests as something she's too busy to do THIS year then never actually gets around to doing them the next year.

How about the Sylvan Caravan that Naoinna used to bring around? You know, the one that's already fully coded and in the game. The one that used to show up to offer sylvan goods and give insight/glimpses into sylvan life and heritage. Last time that got asked about, it got instantly shot down as something she was tooooooo busy to do that year.

How about additional sylvan verbs she was asked about? That got shot down.

How about new sylvan materials? That got shot down too. I'm sensing a theme here.

You have an unfortunate point. I thought at least she might attempt something with Haven Guru as she has some knowledge of it.

Crappy events stuff outside of a few people is why I don't have a paying account right now.

I remember all the fantastic people who offered to help her when she took over Elves. Most of them aren't playing now. Some of them are even doing professional gaming jobs at the highest levels.

I'm glad I didn't have to see her treat Durakar badly. He's one hell of a worker, game wise. I can't believe she'd whine about anybody holding events. Isn't she supposed to support that?

Part of why I bailed is the whole Palestra rewrite seemed ridiculous to me. I can't believe that that stuff was actually due to her too.

The race meetings haven't done much for me when anybody holds them, but yeah, she's one of the problematic parts.

I feel like it's Simu (GS, rather than DR) standard but she certainly hasn't stood out.

[Velfi]

:lol: Paragraphs of well founded complaints, and then oh yeah I don't like her because she makes typos and it ruins my immersion. :(

[Viekn]

:lol: Paragraphs of well founded complaints, and then oh yeah I don't like her because she makes typos and it ruins my immersion. :(

I think that's still well founded. It's fucking annoying. Especially when it's a GM doing it. Going to be on staff at a text based game? Lrn2type. It doesn't completely ruin my immersion, but it comes off as they're not taking things seriously enough.

[Tisket]

:lol: Paragraphs of well founded complaints, and then oh yeah I don't like her because she makes typos and it ruins my immersion. :(

Either she doesn't know how to spell or she doesn't care enough about other players game experience. Proofread before hitting enter. It's not hard.

Whatever the reason, it's unacceptable for a GM.

[Latrinsorm]

Look, the forums are tied to billing, okay.I laughed.

[Spainkenya]

I also think she's a dumb bitch!

edit: and god help you if you decide to challenge her authority

[Tisket]

I laughed.

I did too. But that's all I could do since I was out of rep.

[Jeril]

I did too. But that's all I could do since I was out of rep.

It takes almost three months for you to laugh about it?

[Velfi]

It takes almost three months for you to laugh about it?

http://i.imgur.com/dHFMogr.gif

[Tisket]

It takes almost three months for you to laugh about it?

I didn't see it until the bump!

[Jeril]

I didn't see it until the bump!

Likely story, I'm onto you little missy.

[Jhynnifer]

Likely story, I'm on you little missy.

Edited to be more Jerilesque. :p:p