Arx Metaplot Finale
Posted by Apostate on 10/15/23
Some players have noticed I've been back without really an explanation why. Arx has long been unsustainable for staff to maintain, and one reason I stepped back a year and a half ago was to work on adjusting the game systematically to make it easier to support, more durable, and in time able to be relaunched as a vastly more sustainable and better game. But that's still a good ways off, and the last year has been extremely difficult, with a lot of staff facing increasing demands on their time and intense RL challenges. The problem is then that I'm unable to return to actively supporting the game without continually pushing back development on the game to make it how I want it to be, and delaying coding on what I think would truly address a lot of the long standing issues that get in the way of telling satisfying stories.
Of the different options here, what I decided I really would like to do is this: over the next few months, from the end of October to the end of January, finishing the story of this season and the metaplot. This would involve me going extremely hard with a lot of energy in GMing, honestly unrivaled since the very start of Arx, to get this done within those few months, and hopefully giving an extremely satisfying ending to many of the big questions of just where the story has been going all this time. Following that climatic end, the game would go into a GMing hiatus- it would be the canonical end of that part of the story, and continue on as a testing environment where we can GM canonical one shots to test new systems, but would not be staff supported otherwise as Arx goes largely dormant until it is ready for a game relaunch with a time skip and new characters. That is, unfortunately, the only way we could get the time to build Arx into the game we really want it to be, though I greatly look forward to telling the story of the end of the current arc of the game, and hope everyone enjoys it.
In light of this, because the pace is certain to be much faster than it has in the past, there will be a few changes.
-We probably won't be doing much basic book keeping and administrative requests, and really just keep +requests to things that are getting in the way of currently relevant RP, or some similar major blocker.
-I'm going to increase the alt limit to 3, because frankly I think a lot of players have nostalgia for more than a couple characters, and since I'm gating actions by account rather than character anyway and cutting down on book keeping, it shouldn't be much more of a burden on staff.
-I'll be around to answer questions or concerns, though I intend for the Feb 1st stop date to be very firm. There will always, always be reasons to push back the season end, and I'm putting an awful lot on hold to make this happen.
8 years is a really long time for a MU, and I recognize the intense investment players have put into the game over the years. I'll always be grateful for it, and always try to respect that investment. The next three months I'd like to build something memorable and great, and hope everyone can be a part of it.
Of the different options here, what I decided I really would like to do is this: over the next few months, from the end of October to the end of January, finishing the story of this season and the metaplot. This would involve me going extremely hard with a lot of energy in GMing, honestly unrivaled since the very start of Arx, to get this done within those few months, and hopefully giving an extremely satisfying ending to many of the big questions of just where the story has been going all this time. Following that climatic end, the game would go into a GMing hiatus- it would be the canonical end of that part of the story, and continue on as a testing environment where we can GM canonical one shots to test new systems, but would not be staff supported otherwise as Arx goes largely dormant until it is ready for a game relaunch with a time skip and new characters. That is, unfortunately, the only way we could get the time to build Arx into the game we really want it to be, though I greatly look forward to telling the story of the end of the current arc of the game, and hope everyone enjoys it.
In light of this, because the pace is certain to be much faster than it has in the past, there will be a few changes.
-We probably won't be doing much basic book keeping and administrative requests, and really just keep +requests to things that are getting in the way of currently relevant RP, or some similar major blocker.
-I'm going to increase the alt limit to 3, because frankly I think a lot of players have nostalgia for more than a couple characters, and since I'm gating actions by account rather than character anyway and cutting down on book keeping, it shouldn't be much more of a burden on staff.
-I'll be around to answer questions or concerns, though I intend for the Feb 1st stop date to be very firm. There will always, always be reasons to push back the season end, and I'm putting an awful lot on hold to make this happen.
8 years is a really long time for a MU, and I recognize the intense investment players have put into the game over the years. I'll always be grateful for it, and always try to respect that investment. The next three months I'd like to build something memorable and great, and hope everyone can be a part of it.