Fantasy [Character Sheet Live] For This World We Love - Defending a VR MMO!

[spacepirate]

Fantasy - [OOC & Lore] For This World We Love: Defending a VR MMO

- Link to the Recruitment Thread Welcome & Premise If you're here from the Recruitment Thread, then I welcome you once again! This RP takes place in the virtual reality game of Andaros Online, a VR MMO created in the very near future. As of right now, the entirety of this RP will take place...

www.rpnation.com

New announcement: For newly interested players, this RP is still tentatively open for a few more players. Please comment below to be informed when the OOC thread is published, or if you would like to be added to our Discord.



Synopsis:

"No matter where life takes you, you will always have a place in the world of Andaros, where fantasy and dreams spread across seven distinct Stages!"
-- Andaros Online loading screen.​

In recent years, Virtual Reality MMOs, VR-MMOs for short, became an international phenomenon, allowing players to slip on a pair of goggles and fully immerse themselves in a virtual world with nothing but the power their mind and a relatively expensive PC setup. The most popular of these games by far though was Andaros Online, an MMO that prided itself on being 100% player focused: zero premium currencies, no cosmetics that required real cash, essentially doing away with the 'pay to win' model altogether. Even better, Andaros Online featured a 'dynamic skill system' that programmed and innovated new Skills and abilities in real-time according to player behavior, with devs coming in later to balance these skills. Endured attacks from a poisonous vampire bat? You might be the only player in the world with the "Sanguine Embrace" skill. If you killed a thousand skeletons, you might find yourself with the "Skull Crusher" skill that allows you to turn opponents into weaker skeletal versions of themselves. With the most advanced techology in gaming, the limits were endless! Of course, there was the caveat that players could only hold seven skills at any one time... but that was part of the fun for most of the community, who found that farming and experimenting for new skills was half the appeal of the game.

If you had time, anyone could be a top player, dominating PvP events and contests, or controlling the in-game economy by breeding monsters or crafting equipment of rare monsters. Life was good in Andaros, whose servers seemed to hold millions of players.

Until they were purchased, of course. It was an almost instantaneous transformation-- boss drops that would take entire real life days to farm could now be purchased directly by anyone with the money to burn, Sponsored Content and enemies became a common sight, and organizations around the world saw Andaros as some of the most valuable real estate in cyberspace, with virtually all Fortune 500 companies setting up shop in the seven Stages, turning volcanic dungeons into fast-food popups and floating castles into automobile showrooms. Many players dropped the game when it became clear that Andaros as they knew it was dead, only for the reality to set in that all the VR MMOs had adopted similar models. Even the semi-intelligent mascot of the game, an axolotl-like little creature called Jubby, was nowhere to be seen other than in ads.

Most players just accepted the new reality, with some spending their hard-earned money on the world they loved, even if they hardly recognized it anymore, and other people just accepting their F2P experience. For others, though, the night was always darkest before the dawn.

Though the community of Andaros Online was a competitive one, top 100 players from all walks of life and different Guilds in the Seven Stages decided that they'd had enough. Banning together with a group of only the most hardcore and long-term players, an elite Guild was established with one mission in mind: make life a living hell for Premium Players, Brands, and anyone else in the 'new' way of Andaros. They only had one mantra that united them: Fair and Square, meaning that they were vehemently against doxxing, hacking, or otherwise 'playing dirty'. Their goal was not necessarily to torment premium players and employees, but moreso to prove that you don't need to spend a dime to be the most powerful guild in Andaros Online.

For the most part, the guild had worked closely with itself to capitalize on raids, dominate PvP events, and outbid corporate entities in the in-game world, but the devs were there to thwart their progress every step of the way. Even so, the brave players persisted-- up until the most recent game-wide event, where an alliance of premium players, businesses, and more worked together to make sure that their base was not just sacked, but completely wiped from the server. Most of them had eventually fallen in battle, resetting to level 1 and even being forced to start over without their skills. At such an egregious loss, most players closed the game for the final time, but there were a loyal few who were determined to get back on the grind to take their revenge and save Andaros once and for all... this is their story!

Character Roster:

Spoiler

1. Guild Head (or Heads)

These players can have any sort of skill and class specialization, but they specialize more in strategy and player management more than anything else. With most of the guild having quit after their devastating loss, these players are some of the glue keeping the rest of the guild together and planning their next moves.

2. Powers / Magic Experts

With an abundance of different magical Skills at their disposal, many players choose to class as a mage of some kind: Risen Necromancer, Armored Acolyte, Weapon Imbuer, Elementalist, and more! Physically frailer in battle, but able to devastate from a distance.

3. Warrior / Physical Experts

Many athletic and quick-thinking players opt instead to choose a more melee or physical focused class such as the Dreadnaught, Holy Bulwark, or even Barefisted Bruiser. These are the tanks and frontliners of the guild, with their own array of unique skills focused on dishing out as much damage as possible.

4. Stealth / Rogue Experts

Some players rely on not being detected at all, or the use of daggers, bows and rare firearms to make an impact in battles. Swashbucklers, Accursed Shades, and Kisses of Death are all common classes in this playstyle. Given the guild's goals of bringing down the established order, these team members would also be spying and gathering information.

5. Lore and Gameplay Experts

Other players are famed for their wealth of knowledge or specializations in more supportive classes such as Dimensional Scholars, Biochemists, Beastkeepers, and more! These players know all the hidden formulas, drop rates, and locations of the game, serving as both guides and strategists, while being able to play on-field as well. Keep in mind you can't exactly pull up a web browser during a VR battle, so these team members are critical!

6. Life and Economy Experts

Not all players like the combat mechanics. Given how the Dynamic Skill System works, many players opt instead to build out unqiue skills in blacksmithing, fishing, cooking, and more for gameplay styles of their very own. Any powerful guild is only as mighty as their gear, so you'd better believe enlist the help of the best Worldthreaders, Dragon Butchers, and Trademasters in the entire game! These players may not have a wealth of combat skills, but a well-crafted base, stat-boosting consumable, or godly piece of equipment could easily turn the tide of battle.

7. Other! (Character skill and build creativity encouraged!)

Other Info:

If you've stuck around to read all that, heya! I'm spacey, and if you're on the fence about joining up on this adventure, I'm happy to chat below or answer any questions you have. In terms of character Skills and powers, be as creative as you'd like since the game develops as you play, just keep in mind there are human developers that come in later and before events to make sure skills are 'balanced', which is at their discretion. Happy to delve into the lore and work with other folks' ideas as well! I'm thinking that we need at least 4-5 core players in order to get this rp started.

Edited: Corrected some typos. ^^”

 

[Tiguidi]

Interesting, I'll be keeping an eye on this!

 

[Idea]

Well, I'm quite a fan of these VRMMORPG types, but I've got a few questions:

-logistics:

• How will OOC be handled? Here, discord, something else?
• What are your expectations in terms of post length and frequency?
• How will skill collections and acquisition be handled? If the player characters are (presumably) members of this top 100, in a game where it seems to be exceedingly easy to obtain skills, I'd expect each person to have hundreds if not thousands of available skills (even if we're only able to 'equip' 7 at a time). Also who decides what new skills are acquired during the RP itself or how will that process be handled?
• I assume it's possible for a player to fit into more than one of the roles you laid out above?

-worldbuilding:

• My economically-oriented brain is inclined to ask how a game this monumentally expensive could afford to sustain itself with such minimalistic monetization but I'll take that one in the suspension of disbelief. What's gonna need a little more explanation for me (not because I can't accept it as a premise but because it may color how the plot of this story would go) is what on Earth possessed the people who own the game to go after the top 100 guild. I assume (though I may be mistaken) that this guild wasn't the type to go around harassing people. So, putting myself in the shoes of the new company owners, you have a game that's getting infamously pay-to-win, players are dropping in droves, your best and most committed players formed a guild to oppose you (which incidentally probably sees them even more committed to staying in the game) that generates drama and spectacle and if they succeed it serves as a shining example of not only a lack of favoritism (because they are publicly against you) and that you can succeed in this game without paying, which could be a real blow against critics. if I'm in charge of managing this situation it'd kinda feel like Christmas had arrived early. It seems like a situation you want to exploit not make your reputation even worse by using underhanded tactics to go after what amounts to the most committed players your game has.
  So my question is, why this decision. Are the people in charge just incompetent? Was the guild doing something more nefarious or damaging besides just trying to one-up others, contrary to my assumptions? Is there some other reason?

 

[AnonyMouse]

Tentatively interested, but would also like to know the answer to the above questions.

Also, will our real-world characters play any role in this or will the RP be purely in the VR space?

 

[Steve Jobs]

Not to add to the array of good questions Idea posted, but if they were a true threat to the game why wouldn't their accounts (or IP address) just get banned?

I think there would be a story here if these players were previously playing dirty/ being toxic but are turning over a new leaf... but that's just a suggestion from me.

 

[DracoNightshade]

Color me interested.

 

[spacepirate]

Interesting, I'll be keeping an eye on this!

Awesome! If you are able to join up, I welcome you to the guild.

Well, I'm quite a fan of these VRMMORPG types, but I've got a few questions:

-logistics:

• How will OOC be handled? Here, discord, something else?
• What are your expectations in terms of post length and frequency?
• How will skill collections and acquisition be handled? If the player characters are (presumably) members of this top 100, in a game where it seems to be exceedingly easy to obtain skills, I'd expect each person to have hundreds if not thousands of available skills (even if we're only able to 'equip' 7 at a time). Also who decides what new skills are acquired during the RP itself or how will that process be handled?
• I assume it's possible for a player to fit into more than one of the roles you laid out above?

-worldbuilding:

• My economically-oriented brain is inclined to ask how a game this monumentally expensive could afford to sustain itself with such minimalistic monetization but I'll take that one in the suspension of disbelief. What's gonna need a little more explanation for me (not because I can't accept it as a premise but because it may color how the plot of this story would go) is what on Earth possessed the people who own the game to go after the top 100 guild. I assume (though I may be mistaken) that this guild wasn't the type to go around harassing people. So, putting myself in the shoes of the new company owners, you have a game that's getting infamously pay-to-win, players are dropping in droves, your best and most committed players formed a guild to oppose you (which incidentally probably sees them even more committed to staying in the game) that generates drama and spectacle and if they succeed it serves as a shining example of not only a lack of favoritism (because they are publicly against you) and that you can succeed in this game without paying, which could be a real blow against critics. if I'm in charge of managing this situation it'd kinda feel like Christmas had arrived early. It seems like a situation you want to exploit not make your reputation even worse by using underhanded tactics to go after what amounts to the most committed players your game has.
  So my question is, why this decision. Are the people in charge just incompetent? Was the guild doing something more nefarious or damaging besides just trying to one-up others, contrary to my assumptions? Is there some other reason?

Hello there! Glad to hear you find the general premise fun. Let me see if I can answer some of these questions for you.

• I enjoy having a discord server for general OOC chat and planning, but I know not everyone has it, so I don’t plan to make it mandatory. It will be an option for everyone who is interested, but we’ll have an OOC/Lore thread here on site to keep Character Sheets, Skills, RP info, and that sort of thing. Even though I have a rough plan for how the story may go, I definitely want everyone to feel like they can write up descriptions for enemies, monsters, skills, etc. In short: optional Discord for people who are interested in banter/quickly bouncing ideas off of one another, but there will also be an OOC thread to keep all of the finalized sheets and also for me to post updates/ask questions to any players who opt out.
• I definitely understand that everyone has different schedules, but in general I’d like everyone to be able to reply at least 1-3 times a week on average. If something comes up in real life and we need to amend that, we can create an in-universe reason (Perhaps their character also is unable to log into Andaros for one reason or another). In terms of length, 2-5 paragraphs on average should be good, with people being free to write more if they have a setting to describe, or less if we’re in the middle of a dialogue or combat scene. In terms of style, this rp would be 3rd person.
• Ah, so one caveat with the skill system is that it’s not necessarily that easy to ’store‘ a bunch of skills since storage is limited. The developers created the game with the idea that players would need to make choices about their build/skills— essentially, it’s not that you can only equip 7 skills at any time, it’s that those are the only 7 skills you have until you upgrade/replace/delete them. So even though it’s very easy to acquire skills, players take great pride in farming rare skills and levelling them up (from 1-100) because it basically represents that they’ve made a trade-off to commit to that skill and have it take up 1/7 of their build. Other in-game limitations of skills: they cannot be transferred or traded to other players under normal game play conditions, they are ‘logged’ as player data that can be references but once they are deleted, you need to go out and aquire it from scratch, when players die the levels of their skills are reduced but they do not lose them outright, and the only known way to “store” skills is to have a high level craftsman imprint/trace it onto a piece of weapon or armor. That being said, all pieces of equipment can only hold one skill at a time, and it is an expensive in-game process.
  • As for how we decide this OOC, I assume all or most players will want to start with 7 skills to create their build around. During the CS process, I’ll provide some feedback on how the devs might come in to ‘balance‘ these skills. Once the RP gets going, when someone wants to have their character learn a new skill, they’ll submit it in the OOC thread and I can provide feedback on it. Other players can chime in privately or publicly at that point if they see an issue with a skill that would affect the rp for everyone else.
• Yes, absolutely! The roles are just things that the Guild itself set up. As for the game itself, the main benefits of classes are equipment proficiencies, and equipment can affect the boosts conferred to skills. Classes are also something players can level up in and upgrade, and advanced players can even sacrifice a skill slot to be able to multiclass.
• Even though the world of Andaros Online was very popular and employed a lot of folks, the founders were shrouded in mystery, presumably by their own wishes. Even employees and developers can’t claim to know the creator very well. That being said, the Devs themselves aren’t monolithic, but they still have in initiatives and jobs they’re trying to follow. In terms of the RP, you can think of RevaSoft Intl. as split into two distinct groups: employees/developers, and shareholders/sponsors. Even though the devs might have a genuine passion for the game and might be personal fans of the Top 100 guild, they basically need to keep the shareholders happy if they want to keep their jobs. They can’t ban these players if no rules are being broken, but they can absolutely implement nerfs and event rules that are targeted to favor their shareholders, like adding event bonuses to sponsored consumables, or creating a PvP event where certain types of magic would cause a team to lose points, knowing that the top 100 guild was going to try a specific strategy.
  • In terms of what the guild was doing, they were pretty strict on not breaking the rules or hacking, and they had to kick a few players who started to go down that path. As to why the company in charge of the game wouldn’t be happy about it… well, the new shareholders want people to spend money. They want to use the popularity of Andaros to promote their brands, or convince players they need to spend money on premium items in order to gain a competitive edge, so having a group of OG players that defy that actually encourages a lot of other community members to spend less money, which hurts the bottom line. I guess from a purely monetization model, the top guild isn’t that good for the shareholders. Sure, they’re committed to the game, but if they’re spending hours and hours playing without purchasing anything, then they‘re just taking up server load. Someone who comes in to play for an hour, drops a couple hundred bucks on premium items, and gets bored of the game and turns it off still has a higher livetime value than free to play players

Let me know if that helped!

Tentatively interested, but would also like to know the answer to the above questions.

Also, will our real-world characters play any role in this or will the RP be purely in the VR space?

I hope the above anwers helped out a bit, but feel free to ask more if you‘d like! And as of right now, the rp is fully in VR Space. There’s no rule against characters talking about their real lives with their gaming buddies, but unless there are some players who are friends in real life as well or live near each other, they wouldn’t necessarily need to have that many scenes there. The core plot is about the guild trying to fight back across the seven stages of the game, so they’ll be spending most of their in-character time there. Of course, the Characters are still themselves whether in real life or virtually, so however all of the players want to focus on their real-world characters is up to them, just keep in mind that the moment, there’s no plans to have all of the characters meet up in real life. Of course, this RP is going to be highly collaborative, so maybe this could change! Maybe one of the ’missions’ turns out to be showing up to an Andaros Online convention to plead their case with the sponsors, haha.

Not to add to the array of good questions Idea posted, but if they were a true threat to the game why wouldn't their accounts (or IP address) just get banned?

I think there would be a story here if these players were previously playing dirty/ being toxic but are turning over a new leaf... but that's just a suggestion from me.

Sure! I mentioned this above a bit, but the players aren’t necessarily breaking any rules. They might be smug or trash talk, but they’d stop right before bannable offenses, and they’re not hacking or using any cheating software, either. The threat they present is more economic than anything else: if people can continue to play the game without making big purchases, what does that spell for the shareholders? Sure, they can make money on merch and licensing, but it might impact the appeal of spending thousands of money on an MMO to get rare items or cosmetics if everyone knows you can win the PvP events and rank at the top of the game just by putting the work in.

That being said, I do agree that a player or players with a history of playing dirty and trying to turn over a new leaf could be awesome! I will say that even though the current ‘top 100’ guild that all of our players are in has a strict policy about not cheating and adhering strictly to the rules, keep in mind that their alliance is relatively new. For the few years that the game has been out, all of these top players have actually been at each others’ throats, fighting bitterly during PvP events and raiding one another. In fact, most of these players had to leave or temporarily disband the guilds they’ve worked on for months or even years in favor of joining with the guild, just to prove a point or set an example for other players that they won’t be manipulated. That means that there are likely going to be a few players in the top guild who still believe in the old vision of Andaros, but who were toxic or underhanded in their own right nonetheless.

If any of that sounds interesting to you, or if you had a different direction on how you’d want to take your characters, I’m happy to help brainstorm, or just listen!

Color me interested.

Awesome! I’ll see if I can try to set up an OOC thread by the weekend, and anyone who is interested can work on characters, ask more questions, or make suggestions to the lore. In the OOC thread, I want to have all the Stages clearly described, a character sheet template everyone can use, and also some additional context as two how the guild was so soundly defeated in the last event and all the players have to start over at level 1 skills.

Also, for anyone else reading along, this is still open for players who want to join even though tentatively we might have the minimum of four players interested.

 

[Fabrikator.Nova]

Just so I can understand the general gist of this, it's the Top 100 vs. Corporations?

 

[Idea]

Ah, so one caveat with the skill system is that it’s not necessarily that easy to ’store‘ a bunch of skills since storage is limited. The developers created the game with the idea that players would need to make choices about their build/skills— essentially, it’s not that you can only equip 7 skills at any time, it’s that those are the only 7 skills you have until you upgrade/replace/delete them. So even though it’s very easy to acquire skills, players take great pride in farming rare skills and levelling them up (from 1-100) because it basically represents that they’ve made a trade-off to commit to that skill and have it take up 1/7 of their build. Other in-game limitations of skills: they cannot be transferred or traded to other players under normal game play conditions, they are ‘logged’ as player data that can be references but once they are deleted, you need to go out and aquire it from scratch, when players die the levels of their skills are reduced but they do not lose them outright, and the only known way to “store” skills is to have a high level craftsman imprint/trace it onto a piece of weapon or armor. That being said, all pieces of equipment can only hold one skill at a time, and it is an expensive in-game process.

I remain a little confused but I guess the point (logistically) is that we can't have more than 7 skills or at least it's very difficult to have a higher number. But the (worldbuilding) question remains on how then the system works in terms of skill switching. Since it's not like you acquire a skill by choosing it intentionally at a given time (after all they are literally procedurally generated) if you acquire a skill and don't immediately replace it what happens? Do you lose the new skill? Or is it an automatic replacement like it or not? Or is the new skill stored somehow, and if so where, how and for how long/until what condition?

In terms of what the guild was doing, they were pretty strict on not breaking the rules or hacking, and they had to kick a few players who started to go down that path. As to why the company in charge of the game wouldn’t be happy about it… well, the new shareholders want people to spend money. They want to use the popularity of Andaros to promote their brands, or convince players they need to spend money on premium items in order to gain a competitive edge, so having a group of OG players that defy that actually encourages a lot of other community members to spend less money, which hurts the bottom line. I guess from a purely monetization model, the top guild isn’t that good for the shareholders. Sure, they’re committed to the game, but if they’re spending hours and hours playing without purchasing anything, then they‘re just taking up server load. Someone who comes in to play for an hour, drops a couple hundred bucks on premium items, and gets bored of the game and turns it off still has a higher livetime value than free to play players

If that's the final answer you're going for, I'll accept it as part of just how this story goes, though I can't say I'm very satisfied with it.

I mean no you don't want to convince players they need to spend money to get the competitive edge, that would tank your game precisely because people aren't really into pay2win and even pay2win whales generally want people who didn't spend money because who else is their money-spending advantage going to give them an advantage against? So games generally want at least the illusion of fairness - and putting that illusion on "hey these guys succeeded without spending money (nevermind the fact they are literally the 100 most skilled at this game and they literally banded together for this, so when you the inexperienced player comes thinking you can do the same you'll eventually give in).".

Andaros doesn't have to be monetized they are a walking billboard whose very existence baits players who can't pull off what they can into either going into the game and satisfying those spending their wallets on the game or who eventually spend money themselves when they realize they don't have the skills to pull off what Andaros does (and of course though not all, many would rather give in to spending money than admit they simply don't have the skills).



Regarding the other questions I'm relatively satisfied. 3 posts a week is definitely way too much for me under most circumstances but if you're willing to accept a weekly post that's probably doable. I do prefer to RP in 1st person myself but I guess we can talk about it. Not sure how the character sheet process will be either way.

Regardless, I'm officially quite interested in joining

PS: There isn't an OOC yet, but anyone reading this who would like to cooperate on / discuss potential collaboration like certain character dynamics/relationships I'm all for it! We can talk by PM or discord until there is an official OOC.

 

[DracoNightshade]

Awesome! If you are able to join up, I welcome you to the guild.


Hello there! Glad to hear you find the general premise fun. Let me see if I can answer some of these questions for you.

• I enjoy having a discord server for general OOC chat and planning, but I know not everyone has it, so I don’t plan to make it mandatory. It will be an option for everyone who is interested, but we’ll have an OOC/Lore thread here on site to keep Character Sheets, Skills, RP info, and that sort of thing. Even though I have a rough plan for how the story may go, I definitely want everyone to feel like they can write up descriptions for enemies, monsters, skills, etc. In short: optional Discord for people who are interested in banter/quickly bouncing ideas off of one another, but there will also be an OOC thread to keep all of the finalized sheets and also for me to post updates/ask questions to any players who opt out.
• I definitely understand that everyone has different schedules, but in general I’d like everyone to be able to reply at least 1-3 times a week on average. If something comes up in real life and we need to amend that, we can create an in-universe reason (Perhaps their character also is unable to log into Andaros for one reason or another). In terms of length, 2-5 paragraphs on average should be good, with people being free to write more if they have a setting to describe, or less if we’re in the middle of a dialogue or combat scene. In terms of style, this rp would be 3rd person.
• Ah, so one caveat with the skill system is that it’s not necessarily that easy to ’store‘ a bunch of skills since storage is limited. The developers created the game with the idea that players would need to make choices about their build/skills— essentially, it’s not that you can only equip 7 skills at any time, it’s that those are the only 7 skills you have until you upgrade/replace/delete them. So even though it’s very easy to acquire skills, players take great pride in farming rare skills and levelling them up (from 1-100) because it basically represents that they’ve made a trade-off to commit to that skill and have it take up 1/7 of their build. Other in-game limitations of skills: they cannot be transferred or traded to other players under normal game play conditions, they are ‘logged’ as player data that can be references but once they are deleted, you need to go out and aquire it from scratch, when players die the levels of their skills are reduced but they do not lose them outright, and the only known way to “store” skills is to have a high level craftsman imprint/trace it onto a piece of weapon or armor. That being said, all pieces of equipment can only hold one skill at a time, and it is an expensive in-game process.
  • As for how we decide this OOC, I assume all or most players will want to start with 7 skills to create their build around. During the CS process, I’ll provide some feedback on how the devs might come in to ‘balance‘ these skills. Once the RP gets going, when someone wants to have their character learn a new skill, they’ll submit it in the OOC thread and I can provide feedback on it. Other players can chime in privately or publicly at that point if they see an issue with a skill that would affect the rp for everyone else.
• Yes, absolutely! The roles are just things that the Guild itself set up. As for the game itself, the main benefits of classes are equipment proficiencies, and equipment can affect the boosts conferred to skills. Classes are also something players can level up in and upgrade, and advanced players can even sacrifice a skill slot to be able to multiclass.
• Even though the world of Andaros Online was very popular and employed a lot of folks, the founders were shrouded in mystery, presumably by their own wishes. Even employees and developers can’t claim to know the creator very well. That being said, the Devs themselves aren’t monolithic, but they still have in initiatives and jobs they’re trying to follow. In terms of the RP, you can think of RevaSoft Intl. as split into two distinct groups: employees/developers, and shareholders/sponsors. Even though the devs might have a genuine passion for the game and might be personal fans of the Top 100 guild, they basically need to keep the shareholders happy if they want to keep their jobs. They can’t ban these players if no rules are being broken, but they can absolutely implement nerfs and event rules that are targeted to favor their shareholders, like adding event bonuses to sponsored consumables, or creating a PvP event where certain types of magic would cause a team to lose points, knowing that the top 100 guild was going to try a specific strategy.
  • In terms of what the guild was doing, they were pretty strict on not breaking the rules or hacking, and they had to kick a few players who started to go down that path. As to why the company in charge of the game wouldn’t be happy about it… well, the new shareholders want people to spend money. They want to use the popularity of Andaros to promote their brands, or convince players they need to spend money on premium items in order to gain a competitive edge, so having a group of OG players that defy that actually encourages a lot of other community members to spend less money, which hurts the bottom line. I guess from a purely monetization model, the top guild isn’t that good for the shareholders. Sure, they’re committed to the game, but if they’re spending hours and hours playing without purchasing anything, then they‘re just taking up server load. Someone who comes in to play for an hour, drops a couple hundred bucks on premium items, and gets bored of the game and turns it off still has a higher livetime value than free to play players

Let me know if that helped!



I hope the above anwers helped out a bit, but feel free to ask more if you‘d like! And as of right now, the rp is fully in VR Space. There’s no rule against characters talking about their real lives with their gaming buddies, but unless there are some players who are friends in real life as well or live near each other, they wouldn’t necessarily need to have that many scenes there. The core plot is about the guild trying to fight back across the seven stages of the game, so they’ll be spending most of their in-character time there. Of course, the Characters are still themselves whether in real life or virtually, so however all of the players want to focus on their real-world characters is up to them, just keep in mind that the moment, there’s no plans to have all of the characters meet up in real life. Of course, this RP is going to be highly collaborative, so maybe this could change! Maybe one of the ’missions’ turns out to be showing up to an Andaros Online convention to plead their case with the sponsors, haha.



Sure! I mentioned this above a bit, but the players aren’t necessarily breaking any rules. They might be smug or trash talk, but they’d stop right before bannable offenses, and they’re not hacking or using any cheating software, either. The threat they present is more economic than anything else: if people can continue to play the game without making big purchases, what does that spell for the shareholders? Sure, they can make money on merch and licensing, but it might impact the appeal of spending thousands of money on an MMO to get rare items or cosmetics if everyone knows you can win the PvP events and rank at the top of the game just by putting the work in.

That being said, I do agree that a player or players with a history of playing dirty and trying to turn over a new leaf could be awesome! I will say that even though the current ‘top 100’ guild that all of our players are in has a strict policy about not cheating and adhering strictly to the rules, keep in mind that their alliance is relatively new. For the few years that the game has been out, all of these top players have actually been at each others’ throats, fighting bitterly during PvP events and raiding one another. In fact, most of these players had to leave or temporarily disband the guilds they’ve worked on for months or even years in favor of joining with the guild, just to prove a point or set an example for other players that they won’t be manipulated. That means that there are likely going to be a few players in the top guild who still believe in the old vision of Andaros, but who were toxic or underhanded in their own right nonetheless.

If any of that sounds interesting to you, or if you had a different direction on how you’d want to take your characters, I’m happy to help brainstorm, or just listen!

Awesome! I’ll see if I can try to set up an OOC thread by the weekend, and anyone who is interested can work on characters, ask more questions, or make suggestions to the lore. In the OOC thread, I want to have all the Stages clearly described, a character sheet template everyone can use, and also some additional context as two how the guild was so soundly defeated in the last event and all the players have to start over at level 1 skills.

Also, for anyone else reading along, this is still open for players who want to join even though tentatively we might have the minimum of four players interested.

I know that we're somewhat in the planning stages, but what sorts of limitations are we under in the case of character designs? Are we all stuck as humans or is there some variety in there?

 

[BuggaBoo]

Actually nvmnd. Missed the discord part. Good luck with RP!!

 

[Idea]

Actually nvmnd. Missed the discord part. Good luck with RP!!

spacepirate did say they wouldn't make it mandatory.

 

[BuggaBoo]

spacepirate did say they wouldn't make it mandatory.

Yeah i also missed the part where they said it was all VR so yeah my idea don't fit. Its all goods. Im behind in other rps anyways lol

 

[shadehvrt]

I'm interested if you're still open!

 

[spacepirate]

Just so I can understand the general gist of this, it's the Top 100 vs. Corporations?

Hey there! Yes, that’s correct. Well, more specifically it’s the group of people who were top 100 prior to Andaros’ change of ownership. Where they rank now is up to each individual rper since the game world has been transformed. When I make the OOC thread, I want to outline the themes and settings of each of the seven stages and also note how it’s changed since a bunch of brands were allowed to set up shop.

I remain a little confused but I guess the point (logistically) is that we can't have more than 7 skills or at least it's very difficult to have a higher number. But the (worldbuilding) question remains on how then the system works in terms of skill switching. Since it's not like you acquire a skill by choosing it intentionally at a given time (after all they are literally procedurally generated) if you acquire a skill and don't immediately replace it what happens? Do you lose the new skill? Or is it an automatic replacement like it or not? Or is the new skill stored somehow, and if so where, how and for how long/until what condition?



If that's the final answer you're going for, I'll accept it as part of just how this story goes, though I can't say I'm very satisfied with it.

I mean no you don't want to convince players they need to spend money to get the competitive edge, that would tank your game precisely because people aren't really into pay2win and even pay2win whales generally want people who didn't spend money because who else is their money-spending advantage going to give them an advantage against? So games generally want at least the illusion of fairness - and putting that illusion on "hey these guys succeeded without spending money (nevermind the fact they are literally the 100 most skilled at this game and they literally banded together for this, so when you the inexperienced player comes thinking you can do the same you'll eventually give in).".

Andaros doesn't have to be monetized they are a walking billboard whose very existence baits players who can't pull off what they can into either going into the game and satisfying those spending their wallets on the game or who eventually spend money themselves when they realize they don't have the skills to pull off what Andaros does (and of course though not all, many would rather give in to spending money than admit they simply don't have the skills).



Regarding the other questions I'm relatively satisfied. 3 posts a week is definitely way too much for me under most circumstances but if you're willing to accept a weekly post that's probably doable. I do prefer to RP in 1st person myself but I guess we can talk about it. Not sure how the character sheet process will be either way.

Regardless, I'm officially quite interested in joining

PS: There isn't an OOC yet, but anyone reading this who would like to cooperate on / discuss potential collaboration like certain character dynamics/relationships I'm all for it! We can talk by PM or discord until there is an official OOC.

I can chat about this a bit more, if you’d like! I guess in simple terms, think of the skill acquisitions like Pokemon, so your character has an option to learn a new skill. If they have less than seven, they can automatically accept it, but if they already have seven, they’ll have to choose one to replace it. I’ll try to be clearer about this when I make a character sheet as well. There are some prerequisites to learn skills that require you max out other skills in order to obtain them, so think for example:
Dragon Smite (lvl. 100) + Hearty Feastmaker (lvl. 100) = Skyward Banquet (lvl. 100)

Of course, we’ll just be writing these out, so people can be as creative as they’d like (and I hope they are)!

To address your second concern about how the route the company is going by focusing on pay to win mechanics... You’re definitely not alone there! In addition to many players thinking it’s unfair, still others would probably think it’s dumb or illogical to try and harass them off the servers. Andaros might be worth more in the long-term as an ad platform or just a brand in general, but there are some owners who just want to get their returns back as fast as possible, or perhaps they even have ulterior motives.

Depending on how we all approach the story and its obstacles, perhaps the players will discover that they might have more allies within the company than they think, devs or other employees who disagree with the way the new owners are running Andaros Online.

I'm interested if you're still open!

Yes, you’re very welcome to check out the rp and join with the guild!

An invitation for anyone who is interested in this rp: if you’d like to be part of a Discord server, please react to this message. It will be a little while before I have time to create a dedicated lore and OOC thread, but if anyone wants to brainstorm and get to know one another as we think of character or story ideas, that would be the place to do so. I’ll send out a PM to anyone interested.

 

[Idea]

I can chat about this a bit more, if you’d like! I guess in simple terms, think of the skill acquisitions like Pokemon, so your character has an option to learn a new skill. If they have less than seven, they can automatically accept it, but if they already have seven, they’ll have to choose one to replace it. I’ll try to be clearer about this when I make a character sheet as well. There are some prerequisites to learn skills that require you max out other skills in order to obtain them, so think for example:
Dragon Smite (lvl. 100) + Hearty Feastmaker (lvl. 100) = Skyward Banquet (lvl. 100)

Of course, we’ll just be writing these out, so people can be as creative as they’d like (and I hope they are)!

I'll send a PM to further discuss this. That being said, no pressure to answer me, take the time ya need.

To address your second concern about how the route the company is going by focusing on pay to win mechanics... You’re definitely not alone there! In addition to many players thinking it’s unfair, still others would probably think it’s dumb or illogical to try and harass them off the servers. Andaros might be worth more in the long-term as an ad platform or just a brand in general, but there are some owners who just want to get their returns back as fast as possible, or perhaps they even have ulterior motives.

So there might still be motives to discover, but on the surface it seems it's just because some people are really impatient with returns and (and I'd presume not the best at foresight). Alright, interesting.

An invitation for anyone who is interested in this rp: if you’d like to be part of a Discord server, please react to this message.

I was going to react anyway, so as a bonus here's a note on my reply. XD

 

[Fabrikator.Nova]

Okay so to further kinda understand-- the main conflict is players wanting to go back to an ad-less, free to play game again??

 

[Idea]

the main conflict is players wanting to go back to an ad-less, free to play game again??

I mean I'd think it wasn't totally free to play before. You'd have to pay a subscription or buy the game or something since it apparently had no other form of monetization. The devs need to eat too.

 

[Fabrikator.Nova]

I mean I'd think it wasn't totally free to play before. You'd have to pay a subscription or buy the game or something since it apparently had no other form of monetization. The devs need to eat too.

Sure I'd accept that. I'm just trying to figure out what the point/conflict of the RP would be. What's the call to action? What's bringing everyone together?

 

[Aesir]

I'm kind of interested in this, looks like there's some real interesting premises going about - and I'm a MMO junkie anyways who loves the idea of playing and leveling up with a group. Just out of curiosity, will there ever be a 'reality' element where the actual characters (not their game avatars) meet up? Or maybe that can happen later, I think it'd be intriguing as another layer to the dynamics.

 

[Nellancholy]

I'm kind of interested in this, looks like there's some real interesting premises going about - and I'm a MMO junkie anyways who loves the idea of playing and leveling up with a group. Just out of curiosity, will there ever be a 'reality' element where the actual characters (not their game avatars) meet up? Or maybe that can happen later, I think it'd be intriguing as another layer to the dynamics.

And as of right now, the rp is fully in VR Space. There’s no rule against characters talking about their real lives with their gaming buddies, but unless there are some players who are friends in real life as well or live near each other, they wouldn’t necessarily need to have that many scenes there.

 

[Aesir]

Whoops. I guess that slipped past me when I was reading. I've got some character ideas swirling upstairs, and I'd definitely be more compelled if there were other writers willing to hash out intertwined stories; especially as it helps make the current conflict feel a lot more personally-motivated and less... Futile? Not sure if that's the right word.

Either way I'm content-enough with what I see, though I would agree with some previous posters that how the game came to be this way stretches my suspension of disbelief a little. Games really don't need to be billboards to bring in plenty of revenue, and frankly this definitely looks like a case of new management burning a perfectly good franchise to the ground for no apparent reason. Still, I'm willing to overlook a bit since the premise is just so much fun.

 

[Nellancholy]

new management burning a perfectly good franchise to the ground for no apparent reason.

With that said,this isn't at all an uncommon story in the video game industry these days. No need to wait for the future when that part of the premise is what strains belief the least,to me. Especially on the front of using FOMO to dial up monetization.

 

[Aesir]

Absolutely not, no, that's not the part that stretches my suspension of disbelief. Heck, I've just watched it happen to multiple games the last few years. But like, targeting specific players in a large playerbase? Seems like a bit much...
Also wouldn't a group of non-paying players that you can't beat, even if you throw money, be more incentive to add even more broken cash items and things for the so-called whales to throw their wallets at? But at this point I am nit-picking a bit; as I've said I'm content with the premise and I can overlook some aspects for the sake of plot.

 

[spacepirate]

Okay so to further kinda understand-- the main conflict is players wanting to go back to an ad-less, free to play game again??

Yes, that’s essentially correct! I suppose when you say it like that, it seems relatively low-stakes. I suppose if you want to think of things from the perspective of the angry players, there’s a Mark Twain quote that can be paraphrased as: the loss of a child‘s toy is like a king and his crown. Meaning, that when Andaros ‘sold out’, it was more than the game itself that was being transformed, it was the primary place so many of these people came to hang out, have fun, or just to escape the troubles of their everyday lives. Whether its justified or not, a lot of them blame the corporations for changing a world they already liked, or turning Andaros a bit too similar to Earth.

Of course, not all players would feel the same way— that’s why most players either stopped playing Andaros Online or just get with the new program and accepted that the new monetization models and branding was a part of the game. Every player and person is different, but the player characters in this one specific guild formed their alliance to prove a point.

Whoops. I guess that slipped past me when I was reading. I've got some character ideas swirling upstairs, and I'd definitely be more compelled if there were other writers willing to hash out intertwined stories; especially as it helps make the current conflict feel a lot more personally-motivated and less... Futile? Not sure if that's the right word.

Either way I'm content-enough with what I see, though I would agree with some previous posters that how the game came to be this way stretches my suspension of disbelief a little. Games really don't need to be billboards to bring in plenty of revenue, and frankly this definitely looks like a case of new management burning a perfectly good franchise to the ground for no apparent reason. Still, I'm willing to overlook a bit since the premise is just so much fun.

I do appreciate that some of you are pointing out a piece of the plot that doesn’t seem to make sense— the treatment of Andaros Online by its new shareholders. I will say that this disconnect between the new company owners and long time players of the game is one of the cruxes of conflict, though. It is likely that there are many in the guild who would not have minded some form of monetization, but the decisions by the company just continue to make less and less sense as time goes on.

I will admit that I’ve been one of those players IRL before, just sort of sitting there baffled and wondering why companies are intent on destroying their franchises, haha.

Also to add a little on your comment on how this one guild is being singled out: it’s more that they’re being targeted by sponsored accounts and content rather than the company trying to go after them. It’s true that the devs have been nerfing the guild’s skills, but those updates need to still be patched for the entire server. Their motivations are just to keep their clients happy, since the new owners and all these brand affiliates have a lot more influence than ordinary players, especially when said players have made it their mission to prove you don’t need to spend money to still dominate the game.

I reacted to the post, but also redundantly responding to ask for an invite nonetheless

I’m happy to send you a discord invite! Can you shoot me a convo message? It looks like I am not able to start conversations with you.