Thoughts thoughts thoughts....My own? Maybe.

[Witch-Doctor 0]

How do i start this thing here? I really dont know. Forgive my bad writing sometimes, not native english. But uhh lets begin as i have some things to say.

I myself, joined Epsilon back in 2018. Shortly after RPH died. Before i came to epsilon, i only knew it as RPH's Competition, a "worse" place than RPH was back then or in general became. I saw recently criticism was openly said against Epsilon wich..well i for myself. Find interesting. I remember very clearly, that if you sometime's said something that you didnt like agree or anything for that matter, is getting strikes warned or the worst part: Banned for. 
As the title says. Thoughts thoughts and more thoughts. Im here to discuss, and not start a fight or anything of that matter. Some know me, some dont. But i like to voice my opinions, because they are my opinions. I dont say you have to accept it 🔫. Not at all, you can disagree. 

Since i am on Epsilon, i do had very good times, i had good RP. I had good character progression. But you know i wonder one crucial thing: Why do i have to accept everything? What do i mean? Well...for the sake of not getting banned by zealot people, i wont mention it. Make your own idea up to what i mean. You might experienced them yourself? Who knows. 
Overall i can say that my time the last two years on this server became...dry. Bland. I KNOW, SL is highly anticipated, and highly sought after since we got the little teases. The drought was expected. But you know...i question if my comfort for RP is not as important as others. 

I got warned a few days ago, for having something my about. Wich said the following: Female+ and Fetish characters stay away. I was asked to remove said thing, wich i did because i have no other choice. Whats Female+? Well, i will assume that 95% know what this term means, as it is something for another word, wich im not allowed to write at all out of fear probably getting send on holidays for a week or more. But im sure most of you understand. 

While im...not entirely against adult topics, i think some...the last few years have gotten out of hand. And also, getting more and more focus. Progression, Story, and such themes, are loosing more and more interest. And what remains is..... Campfire? Tavern? [REDACTED] ? I mean, what happened? I observed a flood...an "obsession" with...more darker themes as of late. While...lets say "normal rp" or...i dont know "Conflict" rp loose more and more interest. Specially when it comes to progression. 

How does it.....occur that....sitting somewhere..doing the [Redacted] offers MORE Roleplay in general the last years, as perhaps doing something as a group? 
Having a group of friends to roleplay and doing something fun has lost so much meaning. LONG TERM Rp specially these days means nothing at all. 
You share interest, start your progression rp or story for that matter, and perhaps in a few days, or weeks, the person or people are gone. Without explanation, or worse: Ghosting you. And im just wondering...why is that happening? 

You want rp? What do people say? Ding ding ding, correct: "Do your own phase, stop crying". Oh im sorry, ok. I will do that. You put effort into a project, you build you prepare perhaps a cool awesome story. And nobody, and i mean -NOBODY- shows up. Im just wondering, why. You ask for rp: Do make your own. YOU offer RP that is perhaps conflict story oriented, NOBODY is showing up? 

While a non meaning place gets 30+ people, where you do nothing but...talking and talking and talking...and well. Talking? 

I dont know, maybe im just some...Lore RP nerd. Wich also...apparently is something bad? Something i really dont understand. Why am i a bad person when i follow the Lore? Or LIKE Old Lore for that matter?? I really dont understand these things. MAYBE I do come off sometimes like some..angry person. Well, im not? Should i think about myself when im getting told: "I really was fearful towards you, because on your view on Lore. And people who do custom lore." Am i a bad person? Do your custom lore, please. If it has good things to offer, why the hell not? But why am i a bad person for not RP custom lore, OR NOT wanting to? Am i forced to do so? 

I dont know. 

I dont think many will read this, as the forums have become rather empty these days. As i said in the title, these are thoughts i have regarding epsilon since a few years. And i thought i may share them. Maybe i just made myself the biggest idiot for posting this. Who knows. 

[Erkor 119]

Yeah I tried hosting a few phases that were completely and utterly dead-on-arrival that I can empathize with this sentiment. You could spend days, hours, or weeks theorycrafting what makes a public phase "good" or "interesting" to people, but the simple reality of it is that it's completely and utterly mysterious and subject to the whims of the collective playerbase at once.

About three years ago, someone I know decided to put together a neutral public phase, set during the Cataclysm period. It didn't really have any particular rhyme or reason behind it besides serving as the backdrop for a guild he intended to host as well. Strahnbrad was a chaotic pigsty, designed from the ground up as a vile haven of scum and villainy of every sort, with whimsical and silly additions and in-jokes from over a decade past that generally only those in the in-group (our friends) would know. I wasn't really involved in its creation in any direct way, but the phase was an incredible success, once it hosted: People would spend upwards of eight hours in the place in one go, staying from ten in the evening to six or eight AM the next day. Besides that, the guild was also pretty successful, at least until it wasn't.

Seeking to sort of recapture that momentum after the guild stopped hosting, I decided to build up the town of Dun Modr under a vaguely similar principle: A private entrepeneur and his mercenary group drive out the local Dark Iron dwarves in the town, kill their leader, and repurpose it as a border trading town under the flag of "we don't really care about the faction war". The clearing-out part was, actually, a public event, and a handful of people joined in, too.

After that, though, when I began hosting the phase publically and intending to run a guild in its setting as well, nothing actually happened. Virtually no-one stuck around; most people joined, ran around at a high speed for a few moments, then left; ran around scaled down to explore the phase; or simply walked into town for about five seconds before losing interest. Even though I did intend to host events for the guild, the turnout -- being roundabout 4-6 people or something (it's been a while) -- wasn't particularly encouraging, especially when you have to juggle timezones as well to make sure most people can attend. Anyways, Blood in the Wetlands was an immediate flop. It had virtually all the hallmarks that Heirs of Perenolde's Strahnbrad did, sans the funnyhaha NPCs, but people just didn't care anymore I guess.

I did this more or less off the back of another campaign guild that went nowhere, that one called Stormbrace. The general jist of it was that it was a guild with a storyline (and no public phase, per se) that I sought to recruit players for to play through a slightly altered just-pre-Vanilla setting. Judging from the way people joined the discord, I'd have considered it a success! Twenty-seven odd people joined that server.

Eight joined the guild.

Five were active.

Four were friends.

I persevered long enough to go through an entire storyline before I gave up on the guild, if not the concept in general. I have no idea why people decided to join the discord only to simply ghost everything. At least they could've done the courtesy of being up-front about their disinterest, right? Whatever.

In the end, I tried a third time after Blood in the Wetlands. That guild was called Dusk of Dawn, and began as a sort of joke between myself and @cindy. The premise was simple: "Wouldn't it be funny if we hosted a guild where we appeal to the lowest common denominator (human paladin roleplayers) and then just kill them all a few events in?"

Now, that was a funny idea, but less than a day later, we came up with the full storyline for the first act and did most (if not all) the preparation work since the events weren't really being hosted with full custom builds and whatnot.

Dusk of Dawn has been, so far, one of my most successful guilds. It had ~8-12 active players. At the end of the first "act", a few members left because the player-group was set up and killed en-masse in an ambush. Of course, there were more people in the discord than in the in-game guild, but at least more than five people were active this time. I still have no idea why it was so popular.

 

Anyways, the takeaway to all this is that when you've got an idea, and you REALLY want to host some stuff, with a story and all, don't bother looking for it. Most people are busy playing dollhouse in public phases. If you want to host a campaign, with characters, a progressing story, and so on, put some elbow grease into it. Some people might appreciate it even if most others won't.

[Sevencix 0]

the amount of things you need to leave vague in order to "not get sent on a holiday" leads me to believe that while sure the epsilon crowd can be flaky, that it might be worth examining your own stances on things and attitude. one thing i've learned over the time of doing stuff on epsilon is that your approach to things and positivity really defines how well your phase functions, given it's a concept that many can see themselves in. not to say your observations aren't aligned with my own, i agree it's absolutely a tendency, but "leaving us to ponder" things because you can't explain them without getting banned tells me that your ideas and opinions aren't worth much thought.

Edited April 11 by Sevencix