A Land Far Away

Origin

ALFA was the brainchild of Jon (Kellith) Atkison and Don (Darpaek) Ritchie, in November of 1999, soon after the concept of Neverwinter Nights was revealed to the public. Their idea was to create a closed society of exemplary role-players and re-create the world of Faerûn in what would be the first virtual true recreation of classic pen-and-paper (PnP) Dungeons and Dragons™ gaming. Part of their procedure was to require an application by each prospective member which was considered and judged for entry. The original hardware and software on which the old Alandfaraway.NET was based, was owned by Steven (Albereth Stargazer) Quartermain in Washington State. He also hosted the IRC chatroom.

Pre-Quake Tension

ALFA grew and attracted many talented role-players. However, with growth came divisivness. There were various incidents that culminated in Jon's forcing Don to step down from player acceptance and eventually leave the community. Soon after, Jon himself felt overwhelmed by the stress of having to deal with the daily drama that was produced by the community. He felt that his original vision for the project had faded. In late 2001, Jon left as well.

Quake

The leadership of ALFA was then assumed by Major William Bill (Mandos) Marcellino (USMC) and Steven Quartermain. However, the inherent difficulties caused by a semi-monarchical system of governance over a mushrooming player base, combined with the actions of various agents provocateurs resulted in the event called "the Quake"; a veritable schism in the ranks of ALFA after which the leadership of that time departed.

Post-Quake

The immediate result of this "quake" was to enact a completely new system of governance, one based on representation of the various interests in ALFA, complete with a system of elections and recalls. Currently ALFA has hundreds of members, with a significant portion of them on line at any time.

Neverwinter Nights 2

With the impending release of the next version of Neverwinter Nights, the members of ALFA have been working industriously to learn from their experiences and create an even better virtual world.

ayergo wrote:Scardale was better than VoLV.

Heero wrote:Remember VoLv? Le sigh.

Joos wrote:

Heero wrote:Remember VoLv? Le sigh.

It was the golden age of ALFA for me. Post quake I had quite a lot of fun on "The Long Road" and "(what was the server with the town Loudwater on it? Oh well my memory fails me again)", but it never lived up to my experiences with Elorns DM team on the Vale of Lost Voices. I'm listening to Loreena McKennit atm and feeling more than a little nostalgic.

ayergo wrote:

Joos wrote:

Heero wrote:Remember VoLv? Le sigh.

It was the golden age of ALFA for me. Post quake I had quite a lot of fun on "The Long Road" and "(what was the server with the town Loudwater on it? Oh well my memory fails me again)", but it never lived up to my experiences with Elorns DM team on the Vale of Lost Voices. I'm listening to Loreena McKennit atm and feeling more than a little nostalgic.

Log in and play!

Yeah, Burt and Elorn were both awesome. I had the good fortune of playing with both of those dirty PGers regularly. That was my golden ALFA age.

You still in Melbourne? I go through there every so often.

Mikayla wrote:I remember when the Alfa-Quake occurred and Albereth was taking off with lots of others and everything seemed to be falling apart, I thought, "this thing is never going to last" ... .haha ... glad I was wrong. For what its worth, I am going to go ahead and claim credit for the term "Alfa-Quake." You're welcome. Probably my least controversial contribution to the project ever. Also, when I was elected as Player Admin, I thought "I am helping run this thing? This thing is never going to last" ... again, glad I was wrong. ALFA got me through the early and mid-2000s in a way nothing else did. I am eternally grateful.

-M.