Parting Words

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yellowcateyes
Project Lead
Project Lead
Posts: 1445
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:02 am

Parting Words

Post by yellowcateyes » Sat Sep 21, 2019 1:20 am

Hello everyone. As some of you know, I have been a contributor for Arelith for the past two years, and a DM on and off prior to that. It has been a blast, as the server remains one of the most lively and interesting examples of the Neverwinter Nights communities. The staff is a dedicated company of hobbyists that enjoy their work, and love nothing more than seeing players making use of their creations or participating in their events. The playerbase is has many experienced roleplayers who, by and large, do their best to welcome in new members.

I will be stepping back from this role because life no longer permits spending so much creative time and energy on an online hobby, between learning how to share space with a life partner, working out of a new area, and dedicating more of my free time to getting published again. Irongron and the rest of the staff will always have a line open to me (especially if an issue involves some wacky code that I've written) but otherwise expect to see a lot less of me.

I'm not going to list all of my contributions, but you've possibly run into the bigger projects in the form of auto-looting, the writ system, runecrafting, and the bulk of class changes from the past year and a half. Oddly, some of the ones I'm more fond of are the obscure 'small-ticket' items, such as the Gracklestugh ambassador and Skal townsfolk conversations, and the hidden streams pocketed in different parts of the gameworld.

All of that was made possible by my 'silent' partner that helped me throughout the process, with brainstorming, creative input, and the sheer dedication she put into refining and reigning back all my bad ideas while providing her own. Thank you, Dinosaur Space Program.

There were certainly ups and downs during the process. A good amount of credit also goes to the 'balance team,' an ad hoc council of players who spent their own free time and energy on reviewing changes and brainstorming ideas. It wasn't a perfect system by any means, and disagreements were many, but I feel that cooperation improved many updates and had them sent out in a more polished state.

Whatever feedback loop is used from now on will be up to the staff moving forward. I wouldn't worry about the future of Arelith - there are new contributors stepping in just as old contributors such as myself are stepping away.

Before I go, though, I would like to make a few observations.

First, there remains a tendency towards insularity, self-affirmation, and tribalism, even in this modestly-sized community. Members of a chat, for example, are keen to critique and unkindly comment on people outside of that chat while overlooking or downplaying the mistakes of other members of the same chat. I admit to having been drawn into this kind of behavior, and on reflection it's not a healthy thing to participate in.

Second, there is a lot of needless angst over the creative direction chosen by the people who have rather selflessly maintained Arelith as a free-to-play community that you have full access to so long as you have the base game and follow the server rules. Remember that one of NWN's virtues is that anyone can set up their own community, and that there are a number of communities to choose from. There's nothing more liberating than setting out and trying to create your own vision, if you find that of others to be stifling. Not to mention, there are a number of quality PWs out there just waiting for players.

Last, the lifeblood of any community is its members. New players should not be looked down upon or belittled, and older players should be careful about leaning too much on past notoriety or established clout. I understand that many people are drawn to being the big fish in a small pond, but it's not much fun to be a big fish in an increasingly small and stagnant pond.

But enough of the preaching. Here's hoping Arelith has many years of fun and roleplay ahead.

Be good to each other.

yellowcateyes / dejapes / DM Pindrop


P.S. - I will be sticking around to fix any bugs and issues that arise out of the most recent update, so don't be afraid to report any you come across.

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