View from behind the curtains

[Thangorn]

I'd have to agree with indio but I'd like to expand on my own thoughts around it..

I do think we would have far less "stagnation" if we had our NWN2 servers live and happening.

Additionally, my strong belief is that what you focus on.. grows. Therefore I choose to focus on building a better ALFA by focussing on building toward ALFA's mission and goals.

ALFA's past exists only in memory, ALFA's future only exists in our imaginations. We only have right now to make things kick-ass and right now, all we need is for everyone who is sticking around to inject as much passion and enthusiasm into whatever it is they contribute to the community.

Players just focus on enjoying playing, if you've been flagging in your enthusiam, step it up a bit and really play your story to the hilt.
Builders choose to enjoy building, if you are losing momentum just build a little bit every day until its done and dont put too much pressure on yourself.
DMs if you've been losing enthusiam, go ahead an really step things up a notch for your players and love it.
Admins, I dont really know everything you do but please continue to support everyone else's enthusiasm with your own vocal enthusiasm for the project.
Trolls, focus on being constructive cause if its about insulting someone, guess what, you'll get it back directly or indirectly, have yourself a shitty experience and cause others to aswell.
Spammers, focus on making us laugh or something, I'm sure what you do counts as a contribution to the community .

ALFA is only what each person in the community puts in, if you put in shitty vibes, it is what you'll find you'll recieve from the community. If you put in masses of enthusiasm for as long as you are here, whatever you are doing, guess what, you'll enjoy it more each day. Please choose to own your own ALFA experience based on what you put in..

I know I'm enjoying myself

[ayergo]

ALFA is only what each person in the community puts in, if you put in shitty vibes, it is what you'll find you'll recieve from the community. If you put in masses of enthusiasm for as long as you are here, whatever you are doing, guess what, you'll enjoy it more each day. Please choose to own your own ALFA experience based on what you put in..

*Stuffs fish into ALFA*

*waits with fork and knife*

[Thangorn]

/Me gives ayergo fish chowder with a spring of parsley

[Mulu]

Given just how whacked out some of the past leads have been (certainly not Rotku) I can't imagine what a travesty it would be if any of the bad ones had gotten an entire Bush team behind them to run this place. Talk about member attrition.

[Inaubryn]

Talk about member attrition.

Little late for that one.

[Mulu]

Hey, most PW's are simply gone already. This isn't necessarily an ALFA problem, it's the nature of the game unfortunately. NWC is just a shadow of its former self too, and it's the nicest online community I've ever seen. The NWN RP community has been in decline for a couple of years now. The few thriving PW's appeal to a much lower common denominator, essentially being like an MMO. These are the sunset years of this style of gaming.

And although it's really a moot point, I also disagree with the vision of recreating Faerun whole as being a good thing. ALFA in NWN1 never even came close, and ALFA in NWN2 will likely never reach even half the scope it did in NWN1. It ends up just being false advertising, IMO. I suppose you could call it a marketing plan for the fanboi crowd, but it seems like bragging without ability to me. "All hat, no cattle" as they call it in Texas. I've said many times that a different, more realistic focus would be a benefit.

[Rick7475]

I also disagree with the vision of recreating Faerun whole as being a good thing. ALFA in NWN1 never even came close, and ALFA in NWN2 will likely never reach even half the scope it did in NWN1. It ends up just being false advertising, IMO. I suppose you could call it a marketing plan for the fanboi crowd, but it seems like bragging without ability to me. "All hat, no cattle" as they call it in Texas. I've said many times that a different, more realistic focus would be a benefit.

I think most people in ALFA caught on to this a long time ago. But what ever area we do create in Faerun comes closer than most CRPG or PW's.

[Mulu]

Sure, but most PW's are single server projects. I guess my point is the mentality of thinking ALFA is going to span Faerun or rise back up to the heights of its former glory (both comments made in the original post) is just wishful thinking, and perhaps even counter-productive. Raise your expectations too high and you'll always be dissatisfied.

On a related note, at NWC we do offer NWN2 games now. The active membership numbers haven't significantly increased as a result. Now, the style of game there is very different from here, but pretty much everyone there who is playing NWN2 is a former, or more accurately current NWN1 player. Adding a new platform didn't generate additional rp'ers, at least not any more than we lose from normal attrition. I suspect ALFA will get more of a bump than the near zero that we got, but don't expect a flood. A trickle is more likely.

[indio]

Let's just do this because we want to, and if people want to come play then great. Attributing member attrition to anything other than the almost 10 years NWN1 has been a community enterprise seems to overlook the almost 10 years NWN1 has been a community enterprise.