Who Is Good In The Community?

A few people who have made good impressions on me over the years:

Vyrin
Redfish
Isaiah (Although the 2013 liking spree was uncalled for)
Baron Drocis Fondorlatos (even if he's too busy arguing PvP)
Joviex (even though he's an ass)
Captain Jack Sparrow
Ember Isolte
Everyone that enjoyed Parkour in the early releases (can anyone confirm if its still around?)
Maus Merryjest (an excellent opera singer)

I'm sure I'd be able to name more if all of my followers and posts weren't disassociated with my SotA account.

After thinking about this more, I have come up with someone. I might get steam rolled for this one but I'll put up BurningToad. He has always been there when in need, whatever it has been, with no questions asked and I've never had to jump through hoops just to talk to him. Seems very down to earth and helpful. a nice guy.

Chillblain is a good guy for sure. Dippy Bird is pretty cool too.

I had a few run-ins with Myrcello  Pretended to be a bit of a gamer girl at first and all that, but I suppose half the guys do that and 9 out of 10 girls are dudes so pretty common place really.

I agree with Frank too, walking away from your own idea and creation can't be easy and that tells me a lot about him. Especially considering his pledge level Though he is still master of coin, so we sure know who to rob on the highway

yeah, there are a lot of people I've forgotten. Like, I thought it was cool how Lord Baldrith (and Holt) bucked Mystic's nay-saying in the voice acting thread (I think IM posted about that)... Yep, found it after posting.

At the time, I told Baldrith that the technical limitations for crowd-sourced VA in-game would probably be too hard to manage, but I admitted to him that I don't really know anything about the topic and admire that the two of them (and I'm sure many others) at least tried. I don't follow things closely enough to know what really came of all of that, but it's just one of many examples where people in the community who have done what they can to contribute and it just sort of falls through the cracks. If I'm not mistaken, Baldrith also made a really nice post about ideas for his POT (Hamlet I think it was?... had a snow/mage village kind of theme). Other players started to make similar threads, some with some really cool ideas about layouts and unique features/etc, with nicely done models they had built in sketchup/paint/GIMP/etc, but I think the devs squashed that momentum when they took a very "don't call us, we'll call you" kind of approach..... Another topic I believe IM nailed.

None of these people are perfect and most of us are here to enjoy a game like this for many different reasons (some conflicting), but there really is a lot of talent and passion out there with interest in this game, but it just feels squandered and not properly channeled. I was even too hard on CoA in different post, because even with them there have been some really cool things made by them (the City/Town coats of arms) and I think people like Ronan are talented and were helpful to me when I sought advice, but there was a lack of flexibility to it that many have rightly argued isn't 100% in accord with heraldry, and it seems things have stagnated. I thought it was a cool idea that would add a lot of immersive visual flare to multiple aspects of the game, but its implementation was hurt badly by a very "pass the buck" attitude and over-reliance on single individuals for sometimes very complicated and expansive systems. The last I checked, it seems they are still working on some kind of generator/etc., but it feels very "life support mode" (which might not entirely be their fault, as I still think there are many people working on that stuff who are doing some cool stuff that I hope will still make it into the game). There just doesn't seem to be any follow-up or update with this kind of stuff. Asset packs, custom-NPC, companions all falling through the cracks.... "we so sorry, unforgivable"... but promising initiative after initiative, seems to be on pause/wilting on the vine. <-- this is the tragedy of all of this to me, so much good will and genuine community interest being eroded by a chronic disconnect....

I was really turned off by how hardline the CoA were about *some* of the rules, but some of it was reasonable and I understood there might be technical limitations in the game the required some compromises. However, after I saw a few hangouts were some submitted items were not allowed, even though later on it was pointed out that they didn't actually violate the rules (it was just that two of the big wigs didn't like the color/look), my attitude changed. I think one such item was some kind of image with two colors that actually followed the color rules, but were kind of ugly together. I can't remember what they were, but it did look kinda hideous.... still, the actual design used was fine and the colors actually matched the rules they were going by, at least back then. Anyway, medical problems were cited as reason for refusal, along with words to the effect that a resignation from the CoA might be required if these people were forced to look at the arms. It really came across to me more like petty people being art critics and flexing nuts, and less about legit reasons to deny the submission (which was kinda ugly, but it was still acceptable by their standards at that time). But even if it were a medical issue, which is possible, then they should have just delegated the task of determining approval/disapproval to subordinates who didn't have a problem looking at that color combination.

I just cite the CoA as an example that shows the inherent flaw in trying to crowd-source talent, but centralizing and formalizing the utilization of that talent in a way that works against the somewhat decentralized nature of crowd-sourced anything. If the sub-committees they are setting up aren't effectively managed and providing responsible guidance and oversight, the end result for users is going to be a frustrating experience that likely will piss a lot of people off. A big part of the problem is that they are picking the people to run things (to protect their own interest), but those choices can sometimes be totally hit and miss. I don't know how to properly do stuff like this, but it needs to come more from the ground up (and to unluck the power of the crowd, people have to be empowered, not made to supplicate themselves before some guy with a fancy ONBE medal who resides in some place with a Royal Warrant on the wall. Sure, maybe *some* form of questing and learning about heraldry would make sense for players who were going to create/upload something, but it needs to be administered in a way where people outside of the circle have their say and influence over the process. Some type of rules and "tradition" are all well and good, but there is also the point that what does it really hurt you if a player has something like an eiffel tower as part of their arms. I don't see why avatars from our realm/time period would not think to adorn their shields/etc with images from where they originated. It's only because somebody put in charge of stuff says 'no way, that doesn't fit my vision' that it is denied and then we start to get people feeling oppressed (and irritated when it appears there aren't many new developments or news of importance).

Yeah Lord Baldrith is a pretty cool guy, he had that Voice In Game thread here: www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/voice-in-game.6980/

He forked off into Echoes of the Caverns off the back of that post pretty soon after I believe.

Holt too did challenge Mystic in that thread, those two have about as much history between themselves as I do between Mystic and I. Maybe even more so. Kudos for that one. There was some decent advice and beginning information being put together in that thread, and if it had been allowed to develop I think things could have gone well. Though, they probably would have had to wait for the SP story and production scripts for NPCs in order to complete their work.

In some cases yes he does, he does spend a lot of time on the social medias and in the game itself though. British in game is something I can't argue with