English

Well, I hope you all called your little children away from the computer now and ordered the damn little brats into bed, so that the grown-ups can take the stage again and we all return to the theme ... *roll eyes*

Thx Salazar (I have to assume responsibility as well by stepping into the row).

Back to the topic: It makes me somewhat sad that the interest in the political game is that low among most of the english speaking players. Maybe we can find ways to improve the attractivity. It will not be a simple task, though.

While in a bit polemic way, Icus made mention of another part of RP where the french community made an important contribution which is only partially acknowledged in the other communities, namely the languages of Fyros, Matis, Trykers, and Zorai.

The Tryker language seems to have been adopted to some extent on Arispotle already before the fusion, on Leanon this was not the case to my knowledge. Fyrk as well has not been much if at all recognized among Leanon patriots or other desert dwellers until now. In Zorai, especially Zhoi did a lot to popularize the Zorai language which succeeded at least with the greetings and some ceremonial speaking. Still I think this important contribution of the french community should be popularized further in all four peoples.

Laofa mentioned in her contribution (which was very informative about pre-fusion RP in the Aniro community) the existance of the TENANT commission, a supranational body comprising of all nations' and stateless' representatives. Personally I appreciate that construction very much (I know Salazar does not), and I recognized that Icus has suggested to re-negotiate and decide upon a renewed version of the Treaty of the four Nations alike the T.E.N.A.N.T. I would welcome very much if such an initiative would be adopted by all four countries putting international RP on new foundations.

I am quite sure that it is not only a portion of the english speaking community that is disinterested in the "political game" as it is currently being presented, by reading minutes of meetings and all these weird little "letters" and forum posts, exchanging what i feel are often just boring insults and flaming, i can say the active participants of the political game are in very small number and many of them have already posted here

this is unfortunate that many do not want to participate in this sort of thing?

the CoC seems to now outlaw insulting palyers directly, indirectly, and "under the cover of RP" there is no mistaking, the reason this was added is a direct consequence of this heavily political and insult-ridden "RP" which, the 4 main points highlighted in Daomei's post are all related to that sort of conflict

sure conflict makes for a great story but it can't be everything that goes on
nor can it be an extremely voluminous read all the time, many will lose interest

cotd

i am sure replies will now arrive pointing out weaknesses in my statements, sure you may quote somethnig or direct me to some writing that is not so long and boring or not so full of insults, or even not so politically driven, but i maintain that one basic reason that there is little participation from many who really DO want to try RP (many for the first time!) is that it is a big turn off to get caught up in all that writing, and then be afraid that someone will either insult you or, tell you that you are "doing it wrong"

(as in, casual rp even in the political sense does not seem to be serious enough to be part of the "political game")

for anyone who does not feel comfortable in this sort of environment, i will say that there are other forms of rp, lighter and imo, more fun, that you can start off in. you dont have to be a politician to enjoy rp

thanks for reading

I personally think having more casual RP on Atys would be just fine.
Additionally to Assemblies, that were once thought to initiate more Events on Atys, and sometimes did.
Additionally to Events, some organized by the Event Team, some organized by players.
Additionally to OOC-Events, like we also had on Atys once in a while.
Additionally to roleplaying in Forums.

There are many ways and occasions to roleplay on Atys. And nobody is forced to take part at any kind of roleplaying that she or he does not enjoy.

Just initiate RP of any kind that you prefer, and there will always be some other players who will support you and play together with you. It might not be so easy to find those "some others" while just talking to grinding/levelling/training characters of course. Instead Forums, Assemblies and Events are the best opportunities to learn the names of characters that you can talk to IC also via other communitcation-ways.

I do not see how reducing Assemblies and "formal" traditional roleplay would do anything good to motivate more players to take up roleplaying. I think that the exact opposite could happen just as well.

Yes, surely not everybody likes that one kind of RP. But some do! Also newcomers - some definitely might feel motivated by that, because it's the kind of RP they already know from other games (or pen & paper) and have already "learned" to enjoy.

Still it is not the only way to roleplay; and I fail to see how some can think like that?! Also one kind of RP can very well lead to other kinds of RP too. Most German-speaking players are very tolerant of "casual" RP mixed with a little or even much OOC; we had and have those kind of players in the German-speaking community too.

On the other hand I have also read rather useless "RP" in the Universe-chat lately like "the Matis/the Kami(-disciples) are all stupid" or so... Well, as "casual" as that might be, I do not think this will motivate more players to roleplay...

Unfortunately I have been called a "spammer" and have been flamed via tells before the Server-merge for RP in the Universe-channel, like when announcing what was happening at an RP-event to others in the Uni-chat. So I have reduced that kind of RP, only keeping up just a little on the German Uni-chat.

Still I have time and again heard IC-talk done in the Universe Chat even today. So it's not like it isn't done at all! And if someone talks to me IC in any kind of chat or PN or tell, I will always answer IC, and normally in a friendly way - just not if my character is offended or provoced too massively of course...

Here's an overview about the number of political representatives with voting-rights in the 4 Nations:

* first Assembly of Nobles in Yrkanis (February 17th 2013):
Avalae (French): 5 Nobles: Djaimse, Riditch di Aquilon, Kessler, Timna (was constituted/appointed Noble on that same day), Aylia Valecio (was constituted/appointed Noble on that same day)
Natae (English): 1 Noble: Ozwomen (not a Noble at that time? She did not introduce her guild like the others…)
Davae (German): 2 Nobles: Nyenor Di Avarron, Salazar Caradini

* last / second Assembly of Nobles in Yrkanis (April 12th 2013):
Avalae (French): 10 Representatives: Noble Kessler, Noble Riditch di Aquilon, Greffier Royal Zakkk (Zarkaya di Avalae), Botaniste Royal Erminantius, Dame de Compagnion Angeline, Matis-Vasall Pandari, Sujet Matis Ayukila, Matis-Vasall Zendae from Maiden Grove, Lyade
Natae (English): 1 Noble: Matis-Ambassador Minou
Davae (German): 1 Noble: Salazar Caradini
Votings about an ultimatum for Akenak Icus: 12 votes - 10 of which were from Avalae
comment: Naema said she was from Davae, but is not a Noble there and and not a political Representative

* first Assembly of the Akenak in Pyr (Febuary 24th 2013):
Thesos (French): 3 Akenak: Bardor, Icus Abygrion, Gunbra Celips
Pyr (English): 2 Akenak: Daavics, Rollocks
Dyron (German): 1 Akenak: Arrlon
(one more Akenak from Dyron, Malin, was absent on that day)

* last / second Assembly of the Akenak in Pyr (April 20th 2013):
Thesos (French): 2 Akenak: Bardor, Icus Abygrion
Pyr (English): no Akenak present
Dyron (German): no Akenak present

* first Assembly of the Great Circles in Zora (February 11th 2013):
Jen-Lai (French): 4 Representatives: Awakened Fey-Lin Liang, Initiate Valandrine, Initiate Mamasan, Initiate Etchizka
Min-Cho (English): 1 Representative: Initiate Astarth (has become Awakened afterwards), Initiate Fitis from the same guild as Astarth (has also become Awakened) - at votings only one vote per guild was counted valid
Hoi-Cho (German): 2 Representatives: Awakened Sartyrica, Honorary Initiate Zhoi

* last / fourth Assembly of the Great Circles in Zora (April 24th 2013):
Jen-Lai (French): 4 Representatives: Awakened Fey-Lin Liang, Initiate Valandrine, Initiate Altamira, Initiate Paolen
Min-Cho (English): 1 Representative: Awakened Fitis
Hoi-Cho (German): 1 Representative: Honorary Initiate Zhoi

* first Assembly of the Taliari in Fairhaven (February 20th 2013):
Avendale (French): 3 Representatives: Taliar Luth, Taliar Kaaon, Jazzy - leader of Bai Nhori Drakani
Crystabell (English): 1 Representative: Hechicera, leader of Spiritus Artificis from Fairhaven
Windemeer (German): 1 Representative: Chanchey Breggan, leader of the neutral "Free Souls"

* last / second Assembly of the Taliari in Fairhaven (April 15th 2013):
Avendale (French): 6 Representatives (at least these 6 voted for a diplomatic mission to be sent to the Verdant Heights) Taliar Luth, Taliar Meagon, Taliar Kaaon, Jazzy, Magena, Vannox
Crystabell (English): no Representative present
Windemeer (German): 1 Representative: Taliar Chanchey Breggan

Copal is no representative of Avalae (or any other city), and hasn't any vote right. He is neither a noble.
I (as a player) just came in to see what an Assembly of Nobles looked like.
If you are couting players interested in rp, Copal may be counted for one (if I ever try to continue this).
If you are interested on the "weight" of players on politic rp, he has none.

Thank you very much for clearing this up. I have corrected this.

Well, that voting was pretty chaotic;
Kessler said 7 votes were cast for a second chance for Akenak Icus - but I was not able to survey who exactly cast these votes, and who cast the 5 votes against a second chance that Kessler counted.
If yours was not one of the votes he counted then it's a bit irritating, because I also somehow believe that Zendae did not vote as well (even if I could not make this out clearly).

To be completely honest I also did not really get why the votings were in the end interpreted as an agreement to withdraw ambassadors. The translations from French to English were a bit lacking/confusing on that day.

EDIT for news:

During the Assembly of Zora on May 30th 2013 a new system for votings was established to make votings fairer but still let many of the political roleplayers (there aren't a lot of them in the Theocracy) take part:
each city now has 3 votes at national Assemblies. The cities' representatives are allowed to decide about who will get the right to vote; also citizens may have these rights; even honorary citizens.

Will have to bring this thread up once more, as the general topic seems not to be done by now.

Recently been back to Atys and just lately been at those national diplomatic events again, to name the last Chamber of Nobles in Yrkanis.

From what I've seen there and encountered otherwise ingame, the major problem I can see so far is that, by the looks, former Aniro-RPlers are doing RP with former Aniro-RPlers.
Sure this is fine, and might come by reason that they're quite used to roleplaying with eacht other, but especially at the Chamber of Nobles I attented, it left a bad taste. No hard feelings, just a rather bad taste.

They're the majority of RPlers and it seems they've chosen their direction of RP long ago, and are not willing to have that changed, and given their numbers of RPlers they're very well able to put their view upon others, be that by votes or, to speak for the more general encounteres I witnessed, by completely or nearly completely leaving out non-native french speaking RPlers.
If not directly leaving those out, they'll still have a very hard standing to get involved in RP. To be heard. Their words to be taken into consideration.

I'm not saying this is a FR-EN-DE conflict of any sort. Just to be clear on that fact.
But from what I could see, there's cliques building up, or have built up, and those are rather working as a closed circle instead of being open-minded to changes.

What doesn't help the fact is the circumstance that nearly all RP from former Aniro-RPlers is still done in French.
As good as always there's someone needed to do translation.
Especially on events this turns into a -french speaking event- that has translations for participants of other languages.
Cannot tell a solution to this except for making English the universal language for all not-closed RP, but that again will likely turn into various major participants not getting involved anymore.

- Neira

I'm really sorry that you feel that way Neira since, as far as I'm concerned, there has never been any intention of excluding anyone.

Maybe Aniro-RPIers are more numerous. Or have been more used to play as groups. Or are not "open-minded" enough. Or don't even know that they may be overwhelming for people not used to their manners (from other servers, or new players, for that instance). Or... I don't know.

For my part, I'm still trying to learn some (well, most) of what RPIers of Arispotle and Leanon probably consider as "common knowledge" regarding the background of some famous characters from these servers (such as Salazar and Zhoi, but I may name others).
It will take me time. They have a long history. And they have no reason to share it wholly with my character: he's just a stranger to them. Not a friend, or a relative.

So, I hope you will find some people from Aniro who will RP with you. Even if speaking french would, indeed, make it easier for you since, as in any culture, not everyone speaks several languages.

One last thing: from what you're saying, I understand that you have the feeling that the las Chamber of Nobles turned into a french speaking event. Maybe I misunderstood your feeling.
My feeling is that it was held in english, and that about half of the Aniro's players attending it, tried to speak in english.
Weird, isn't.

What you say is well true, as I just stated my personal impressions so far, which ain't that many to this point, but still enough to make up a -feeling- about the situation.
I do hope I'm mistaken and it's as you've implied just credited to the fact that Aniro players are vast in numbers and as I said before, generally more used to communicate with each other (logical, given the former shard-split) and to take the background of -their shard players- as granted, whilst others have to take their spot.
This is the -issue- I see that might be a dividing line now and in future, should a majority try to set their view of gameplay upon the rest of the community.
I guess nobody would want to see that happen, but it's a stealthy process that's building up over time and then later, is hard to get rid of.

Personally I like the stricter approach to RP I've heard about the Aniro players have, and I, again, do hope to see alot of that later on ingame.

If roleplay is taken as a whole concept instead of splitting OOC parts of the game and RP parts, I think we'll all get along quite fine, if most people will contribute to such an environment.

There's more to do and to develop for characters as just attending official/semi-official events.

- Neira
23's.

Neira I wonder when was this chamber of Nobles assembly you are talking about ?

Because in the last one, in Yrkanis on tuesday june 4th, the Queen was speaking in english, and each players use to spoke in his native language OR in english.
Copal - thank to him - was translating english to french and vice/versa
Zhoi - thank to her - was translating german to english

You misunderstood what I've been saying.

Never said it was an event solely for a part of the community just being able to speak one language. But what I said was that I got the feeling of an event mainly consisting of native french speaking people, which in return showed mostly as French being mainly spoken and then translated for those not able to understand.
Sure what was said by others like Zhoi had too be translated back into French for those only able to understand that, too.
But as mentioned before, we should find a more suitable solution as it's now.