Atlantic Players Revolt, Working Together to Shape the Future

[Stephen of Trinsic]

The city governors and players of Atlantic have come together to express their disdain and frustration on where world events are leading. They have submit the following out-of-character letter to adaquatly explain their intentions.

Dear Event Moderator,

The governor council has been discussing current and future story lines for the Atlantic Shard. We wanted to make you aware of our concerns and intentions.

The current Humanist storyline has been highlighting racial tensions. While this has been a theme throughout UO history, real life events being what they are recently it is unpleasant for people. The council thinks it would be best to quickly wrap up the current storyline and move on to something else.

To this end, at the September governor meeting many of us will be pushing for King Blackthorn to forcefully dismantle the Humanist camp and put down their leaders. While others may be against it (but still want the story line to end). How you react to this is entirely up to you.

Further, the council plans to coordinate more in the near future, including challenging/defending the throne of King Blackthorn. You said you wanted players to have more influence on the direction the story takes and now you will have it. Once again, how you react is up to you.

Also, some of the governors would like to say a few words about the recent passing of Tiffany Moon at the September meeting.

Sincerely,
~~~ The Atlantic Governors ~~~

There are currently some governors who are trying to steer the overall direction of the Atlantic story into a confrontation to unseat King Blackthorn. This type of roleplaying allows for two definite sides where you can support or subjugate King Blackthorn. It is of the belief this type of high profile concept will revitalize a lackluster roleplaying community which was once very active.

This entirely a player driven initiative. Whether the powers that be play along and how it turns out is unforeseen. Can players work together to better their own game world? A situation of this kind is unprecedented and it will test the limits on how players can influence the world of Britannia.

The overall goal is to create a fun and engaging role playing experience. One that will draw attention not only from current role players, but also ones who have become inactive and even players who have never participated in this kind of game play before. Even going so far as to hope it will bring back inactive and brand new Ultima Online players.

It all begins tonight at 8pm EST on Atlantic Shard.

 

[Spock's Beard]

The letter you pasted isn't expanding when I click on it, in either Firefox or Chrome, so I can't read anything but the first half-dozen lines or so. From what little I can read, this sounds like some kind of SJW crap where you make a fuss about anything containing the word "race" in hopes that someone will pat you on the head for being so enlightened. Yawn.

I hope Bennu ignores you completely.

 

[Zalan]

I don't play Atlantic, however I support any shard dethroning Blackthorn. I wish you much success.

 

[Fridgster]

Not sure about others but UO represents a small escape from the dumb crap of the world. Bringing in such an event would defeat that purpose. At least for me, I just wouldn't be all that interested. I would also hope that ems would prioritize this accordingly with other game themed events.

 

[Stephen of Trinsic]

The letter you pasted isn't expanding when I click on it, in either Firefox or Chrome, so I can't read anything but the first half-dozen lines or so. From what little I can read, this sounds like some kind of SJW crap where you make a fuss about anything containing the word "race" in hopes that someone will pat you on the head for being so enlightened. Yawn.

I hope Bennu ignores you completely.

A sizeable number of players have been turned off to these events. Attendance is noticeably down and people still going are not having fun.

Many city governors have come to the conclusion it would be best to move onto something that would be less controversial.

 

[Merlin]

I personally enjoy the humanist story line and it's relation to real life racial tensions. Ultima Online doesn't need to become a 'safe space' just because it makes a few people "uncomfortable". We're all adults capable of handling the storyline. If you're not, there is plenty of other UO content to do.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I personally enjoy the humanist story line and it's relation to real life racial tensions. Ultima Online doesn't need to become a 'safe space' just because it makes a few people "uncomfortable". We're all adults capable of handling the storyline. If you're not, there is plenty of other UO content to do.

This garbage has no place in UO. Why is ok to talk about this **** but can not talk politics on Stratics, sounds like a double standard. UO and Stratics should not be used as a political arena. This **** should be moved to off topic and Mesanna should have stepped on that EM from the get go.

 

[Merlin]

This garbage has no place in UO. Why is ok to talk about this **** but can not talk politics on Stratics, sounds like a double standard. UO and Stratics should not be used as a political arena. This **** should be moved to off topic and Mesanna should have stepped on that EM from the get go.

Umm ... no. This is a video game. There is nothing wrong with the humanist story line. It is completely relevant to have a storyline to the tune of humans vs. elves vs. gargoyles. Just because people get butt hurt over something and decide to "feel offended" doesn't mean it should come to an end. Don't like it? There are other things you can do in UO.

Also - if you want to talk politics on Stratics... you can take it to the "Off-Topic" sub forum.

 

[Zalan]

Blackthorn needs to be executed on all shards!

 

[Spock's Beard]

A sizeable number of players have been turned off to these events. Attendance is noticeably down and people still going are not having fun.

Many city governors have come to the conclusion it would be best to move onto something that would be less controversial.

Yeah all 4 people who care about the plot stayed home.

 

[Stephen of Trinsic]

Blackthorn completely caved and is sending the Humanists to exile in Ildhenar.

Actually Bennu explained a bit after the meeting he just wants to do what the community wants, and it is clear the community is unhappy with this story. He encourages us to continue steering the ship and has left open the possibility that Blackthorn could be ousted from the throne.

He says any person can affect the storyline by their actions and words. He specifically called out a single sentence that JC the Builder wrote that redefined Lady Charlotte as a character. If one sentence could do so much, what will a whole paragraph or essay do?

 

[Maelwyn]

So, just out of curiosity, what sort of plot lines do you think people would be interested in?

And no, I'm not talking about the ones that give people cool items.

 

[Stephen of Trinsic]

So, just out of curiosity, what sort of plot lines do you think people would be interested in?

The governor council said in their letter they could be working towards dethroning King Blackthorn. That seems like it would be a lot of fun to play out.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

I wonder if the story was changed, but drops were stopped, how many people would complain then?

 

[Spock's Beard]

This meeting reminded me why I stopped roleplaying ages ago. You've got one guy who somehow doesn't understand the difference between speech and emotes who keeps screaming "Bows dramatically!" at people, another guy ramming his pet non-canon generic Tolkien race down the world's throat by logging in his billion accounts and trying to RP the entire species by himself, and so much hackneyed "well if'n ye" accent talk that I can feel my neck growing a beard just thinking about it.

I'd gripe about how Bennu instantly caved on the Humanist thing, but given the pitiful turnout it's obvious that 99℅ of the shard just doesn't care about this stuff either way. Spoiler alert though, you're not going to get to overthrow the king, because global events.

 

[Queen Arya]

Toads and Frogs...... Take over Atlantic.....
Just having fun guys... lighten up... eat a snickers... your not yourself when your hungry
Bennu said if you want a story line, then just make it happen.
I am going to start a market place in Blackthorns courtyard. grab a booth and go where it takes you

 

[Stephen of Trinsic]

This meeting reminded me why I stopped roleplaying ages ago. You've got one guy who somehow doesn't understand the difference between speech and emotes who keeps screaming "Bows dramatically!" at people, another guy ramming his pet non-canon generic Tolkien race down the world's throat by logging in his billion accounts and trying to RP the entire species by himself

The irony of you calling out a Tolkien race when we have Orcs and Elves running around. A race of Dwarves is not without precedent, as they were present in the single player games which obviously UO draws from for lore.

And if someone wants to roleplay a drunk fool how does that affect you? Do you wish for every person to be exactly the same?

 

[Spock's Beard]

The irony of you calling out a Tolkien race when we have Orcs and Elves running around. A race of Dwarves is not without precedent, as they were present in the single player games which obviously UO draws from for lore.

And if someone wants to roleplay a drunk fool how does that affect you? Do you wish for every person to be exactly the same?

Dwarves appeared in the first few very early Ultima games, from 1980 to 1983. You know, the same period in the series where you could literally steal a rocket ship from the Soviet Union and visit the computer camp on Neptune? Please spare me the flimsy "lore" routine.

I mean I can handle some guy wanting to roleplay his World of Warcraft character or whatever. That isn't nearly as groan-inducing as watching them slowly toddle ten accounts worth of characters up to the meeting one-by-one so they can pretend they're not the only "dwarf" in the world, or the fact that AFK dwarf-bots made up the majority of the audience.

Laughs scornfully! Wait, did I do that or just say it? Looks confused, shakes fist!

 

[Cauchemar]

Thank You Spock's Beard, I am " Game Format Correct " now. Whew ! I thought I was just playing a game to have fun. EMOTES ** Bows Deeply Sweeps Hat with a Flourish**

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

...and so much hackneyed "well if'n ye" accent talk that I can feel my neck growing a beard just thinking about it.

Wait...don't you already have a beard?

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

This is directed at Spock's Beard.

It's easy to talk **** about someone elses roleplay/play style, but I didn't see any comments on what you were expecting to see.

You really have to remember that besides Bennu, we are just regular, normal players just like you.

To me, your comments come across as some former, frustrated, elitest Rper, who can't handle anyone else who doesn't fit into your correct idea of RP. I've RP'ed with elves, gargoyles, orcs, goblins, vampires, undead and even a pooka. And while I thought some of them were pretty weird or even stupid, I tried to stay in character and not be...well...a total ****. I really try to go along with whatever is going on in whatever RP setting I'm in.

So my question for you, and anyone else for that matter, is this: What are/were you expecting from the Governor's meeting? Let us know what we can do to improve what's going on.

And, I'm calling you out on this, get yer arse involved. Run for a Governorship. Contribute something. Tell us what your looking for. Tell Bennu what your looking for. I know he would love to hear from players. The Governors would love to hear from players.

All of us have been working and brainstorming ways to get more involvement. We're open to ideas and suggestions.

 

[Cauchemar]

This is directed at Spock's Beard.

It's easy to talk **** about someone elses roleplay/play style, but I didn't see any comments on what you were expecting to see.

You really have to remember that besides Bennu, we are just regular, normal players just like you.

To me, your comments come across as some former, frustrated, elitest Rper, who can't handle anyone else who doesn't fit into your correct idea of RP. I've RP'ed with elves, gargoyles, orcs, goblins, vampires, undead and even a pooka. And while I thought some of them were pretty weird or even stupid, I tried to stay in character and not be...well...a total ****. I really try to go along with whatever is going on in whatever RP setting I'm in.

So my question for you, and anyone else for that matter, is this: What are/were you expecting from the Governor's meeting? Let us know what we can do to improve what's going on.

And, I'm calling you out on this, get yer arse involved. Run for a Governorship. Contribute something. Tell us what your looking for. Tell Bennu what your looking for. I know he would love to hear from players. The Governors would love to hear from players.

All of us have been working and brainstorming ways to get more involvement. We're open to ideas and suggestions.

I stand with Belden Brightaxe

 

[Zalan]

To those that are serous about roleplay. This is just a suggestion take a visit to Chessy, on a Governors Meeting night. They have alot of RP and great communication for the RP scene. They have an outside chat system setup with the EM. To let the EM know what they are RPing that night. Alot of the Governors, RP, and EM stores are intertwined. They have one of the best setups I have scene. The Governors their have gotten very good at hosting their on events without the EM or PEC Wraith.

 

[Cauchemar]

To those that are serous about roleplay. This is just a suggestion take a visit to Chessy, on a Governors Meeting night. They have alot of RP and great communication for the RP scene. They have an outside chat system setup with the EM. To let the EM know what they are RPing that night. Alot of the Governors, RP, and EM stores are intertwined. They have one of the best setups I have scene. The Governors their have gotten very good at hosting their on events without the EM or PEC Wraith.

Thank you will do ......... again thank you for the post !

 

[Promathia]

This is why I stopped being a Governor on Atlantic.

What a bunch of selfentitled crybabies. To literally have a perfectly fine storyline which has roots to years of content Atlantic has done to be ended just because of some insane reason....Its shocking.

And you want to dethrone Blackthorn? Can you even give an actual ingame lore reason why anyone would want to do that? Europa had a "Revolution" type of event and it was complete trash.

"We hate Blackthorn!"
"Why?"
"Uh...because hes uh... evil! BRING BACK DAWN!"

Storyline played out, Blackthorn is still king. Want to know why? Because it won't and will not change. Unless they come up with some global event across every server where Blackthorn is dethroned...but why would they even do that?



The Governor system is completely crap. It started out strong and with promise...and now look at what its devolved into. Congrats Link, you did it. Do you feel powerful now? How hilarious that the person who allows so much to happen on their own forum is now trying to act like this. Maybe Stratics had a point in banning you.

 

[cazador]

Wait what?! Mage lives matter!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Captn Norrington]

The Governor system is completely crap. It started out strong and with promise...and now look at what its devolved into.

I 100% agree. So very glad I stopped being a governor after my term in Yew. The first round of governors was fun, the second round was decent, third round it was ok. Everything after that has been a gigantic pile of awfulness and drama.

 

[Spock's Beard]

So my question for you, and anyone else for that matter, is this: What are/were you expecting from the Governor's meeting?

In no particular order:

* A minimal grasp of very basic roleplay concepts, stuff like the difference between in-character and out-of-character speech, between speech and emotes, etc.

* Basic respect for the setting and lore. Roleplaying a dwarf or drow in Ultima isn't fundamentally any different from trying to roleplay a Jedi Knight in Star Trek Online. In other words it can be done, but don't be shocked if some "elitist" fails to take it completely seriously.

* Not being a self-aggrandizing special snowflake who tortures logic to connect game events to real life controversy would be super.

Honestly is behaving in a way that wouldn't get one kicked out of literally any actual RP guild THAT much to expect from someone who deliberately ran for a position that is entirely RP-based?

And, I'm calling you out on this, get yer arse involved. Run for a Governorship. Contribute something. Tell us what your looking for. Tell Bennu what your looking for. I know he would love to hear from players. The Governors would love to hear from players.

That's an awful lot of multi-accounting and vote-trading just to sit in on some meetings. Besides, I've been on the governor's side of the table on Atlantic before, when one got bored after a week and let me play the account without telling anyone. You don't really get to do anything and it's just not that compelling.

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

In no particular order:

* A minimal grasp of very basic roleplay concepts, stuff like the difference between in-character and out-of-character speech, between speech and emotes, etc.

I agree with you on this. I'm just a bit more forgiving. I'm willing to give someone a chance at least to try and learn.

* Basic respect for the setting and lore. Roleplaying a dwarf or drow in Ultima isn't fundamentally any different from trying to roleplay a Jedi Knight in Star Trek Online. In other words it can be done, but don't be shocked if some "elitist" fails to take it completely seriously.

I disagree with you on this one. Dwarves have a history in Ultima lore beyond the first the first three games. They also appeared in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. I would say that dwarves have a far better claim than elves to be an included race in UO. And, since we have elves, I don't have a problem with dark elves in the game.

* Not being a self-aggrandizing special snowflake who tortures logic to connect game events to real life controversy would be super.

Not going to comment on this one as I play a dwarf who hates orcs with a passion. And I don't think this means I hate orcs or any other race IRL.

That's an awful lot of multi-accounting and vote-trading just to sit in on some meetings. Besides, I've been on the governor's side of the table on Atlantic before, when one got bored after a week and let me play the account without telling anyone. You don't really get to do anything and it's just not that compelling.

You don't HAVE to be a governor to be involved. I've showed up to meetings when I wasn't a governor and spoken about my character's interests and concerns.

 

[Spock's Beard]

You mean the "Mountain Folk" who consider the word "dwarf" offensive? That's who you're roleplaying with your dwarf guild of dwarves? Yeah this totally doesn't sound like someone who just wants to RP his D&D character and is looking for any fig leaf he can find.

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

You mean the "Mountain Folk" who consider the word "dwarf" offensive? That's who you're roleplaying with your dwarf guild of dwarves? Yeah this totally doesn't sound like someone who just wants to RP his D&D character and is looking for any fig leaf he can find.

Small of stature and broad of shoulder, the Mountain-Folk — known in times past as "Dwarves," though they detest this name — have a unique lifestyle dedicated to traditional craftsmenship. Over the ages, however, their distrust for outsiders and their well-known love for precious metals have put them in disrepute. In the past century. many of the Folk abandoned their old ways, left their homes and married outside their clan.
- from Memoirs of Sir Cabirus, (Ultima Underworld)

Besides being offended by the term "Dwarves", what from this quote doesn't sound like the typical D&D/Tolkien dwarven trope? As far as being detested by the term "dwarves", I guess we got over that. Besides, I didn't think anyone would understand "The Mountain Men of Kraggen-Cor", so I went with dwarves. Just about everyone understands what a dwarf is. Very few, if any, would understand what a UO mountain man is.

Elves didn't even make it past Ultima III and here we have them in UO. I guess that makes my dwarven fig leaf bigger than theirs.

You do realize that Ultima has a rich history of gates opening up all over. Who's to say that some gate didn't open up on another world, bringing who knows what into the game? Just as an example there is a recurring character in Ultima, named Seggallion, who comes from another Origin game called "Knights of Legend".

It's pretty easy to come up with some back story and bring any type of character into UO.

 

[Spock's Beard]

Sure, and maybe my Jedi Knight fell out of a wormhole and ended up in Star Trek. Lotta wormholes in Star Trek. And this Klingon sword might not look like a lightsaber, but I'm still going to emote *ksshvoom* whenever I swing it. Whatever, at least I'm not trying to roleplay being half my actual size.

I mean the fact that you don't even quite seem to know exactly whether you're playing "mountain folk" or moongate refugees from World of Warcraft pretty much tells me everything I need to know. Whatever, it's your hundred and fifty bucks a month.

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

Whatever, it's your hundred and fifty bucks a month.

Yes it is.

 

[ErmacFirebrand]

Until you get a majority of the player base to actually care about any of this in a sense other than what they may get as a drop, the entire point is mute. You could have the best story line ever and it wouldn't matter if so and so doesn't get a drop. To them the story line sucked and always will.

Not to mention the problems of lag during events and if you want to talk engaging RP, your not going to get it when 50 tamers show up to do an event with graters in tow. Then you have the immature adult-children who cant keep their mouth from spewing ignorant comments.

You cant fix the gen pop. And frankly, the players break nearly every event. EM's can only do so much and Governors can only do less. In all honesty, what your asking for can only be found on a private server, and only then if you make your own.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Oh my God.. Seriously?

PC crashes and is down for a few months. Get it fixed finally and can't wait to get back to UO and the great story line on Atlantic.. then find this?

Coming soon to UO.. "safe spaces" and "EM Event Critter Lives Matter" protests...

Think I will just take a hammer to my processor now