Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo

[Ashkuri]

Cujo and Friends got rid of everybody they didn’t like or who didn’t agree with them during the Great Drama and built a utopia for themselves out of the echo chamber that was left. No troublemakers anymore!

That is now, and has been, playing out about the way everybody expected it would.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

good luck to them I hope they are having fun

[GF]

@ashkuri said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

good luck to them I hope they are having fun

This, really. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the gossip and schadenfreude as much as anyone has! It just feels like they’ve made their choice that they want no outside input*, so fine, let them have it.

*I didn’t plan that but “outside input” is a very funny pair of words to me, what a strange combo

[Hobbie]

Four uses of the term “meant to”. This is standard fare, Cujo creates a blueprint and with it, usually without communication, comes the expectation that blueprint is followed.

As is tradition.

[Warlander]

@Warlander Well, I was wrong. I suspected Darth Omen was Banshee’s alt, since a surviving Mace Windu turned to the Sith sounded like Banshee’s wet dream.

But Banshee doesn’t play Darth Omen; Cujo does. I don’t remember this information coming up before now, but it may have; my memory could be a lot better. Just in case it hasn’t, I’ll re-broach the subject now.

[Jax]

@Warlander Cujo going to Cujo. Banshee got to Banshee. Hadrix is sexual harassing a couch. Aryn got to be the prettiest and most special. Everyone else are just NPCs.

Gawd @ashkuri and @Hobbie could build and run a better sw game if they it built out of the old Elendor database. Then for theme only read an issue of a Star Wars comic, saw half of Acolyte, and @Zephyr explain the Ewok movies to them with sock puppets.

"Note* Nothing wrong with Elendor, It’s just was Lord of the Rings.

[MisterBoring]

@Jax said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Hadrix is sexual harassing a couch.

Are you implying that Hadrix is JD Vance?

If so…

[Noraaa]

What’s crazy to me about the game is how difficult it is they make returning to it. I had actually had some weird itch to go and assemble a tiny crew of friends and ST some dumb Star Wars fun (since the coded NPCs are actually kind of neat) and then I remembered that I’d basically have to slog it through months worth of work before we could even do the basic stuff.

I’ve got a lot of complicated feelings about AoA. It was one of the first MUSH games that I really got to play in a shared game world. I learned a lot from storytelling for people there, too. But it wasn’t without its issues, some of them far more damning than others.

I hope those that left for good find something they love. I hope the folks who stuck behind still find joy in it. Kind of crazy that this thread is still so active, after all this time. I guess it really does speak to… well, something about the game, anyway.

Maybe we’re all just annoyed at how good it could have been.

[SpilledBeanz]

@Noraaa said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Maybe we’re all just annoyed at how good it could have been.

I totally get the impulse in thinking this, but I really don’t think AoA could ever be a great game. Having been mushing since the mid 90s, one observation that has seemed to prove itself over and over again is that great games are a beautiful dance between great staff and great players. There were some great players on AoA, but its staff situation was always a detriment.

It rode a wave after Ep VII because there was nothing to viably compete with, rising to become “the only game in town”. Looking at its numbers from 2001 to its first death in 2012, the earlier years being some of mushdom’s most popular as a hobby, AoA was never able to compete (~6-7 average connects, mostly staff). It never took off because it was an objectively bad game in comparison to other options out there.

We players sometimes take what we can get, though, and Star Wars little corner of mushdom has been in a very sorry state for the better part of the past decade. That’s what enables AoA to even have a single non-staff login, tbh.

I’m not really trying to argue, I do understand your underlying point, I just wanted to make mine… that AoA’s staff are the weakest link on that game and that has consequences.

[Noraaa]

@SpilledBeanz said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I’m not really trying to argue, I do understand your underlying point, I just wanted to make mine… that AoA’s staff are the weakest link on that game and that has consequences.

I actually think that is largely my point as well, honestly. If I could just hop into that game, have its key systems, and do some storytelling stuff for friends I think I’d have a blast. I just sadly think that ship has largely sailed, and would just be too difficult to kickstart given staff policy and decisions on… basically everything.

Also I do think folks can have different perspectives on a thing like this. I don’t ever see folks having different thoughts an opinions as arguing, anyway.

[SqeakyClean]

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@SpilledBeanz For what it may be worth, this hit the boards recently.

=========================<* 8: Game Updates - 221 *>=========================
Message: 8/221 Posted Author
Rise of the New Rebellion Aug 11 2024 Cujo

Greetings, all.

I’m tossing out a bbpost update on the state of the galaxy, as far as the Sith and the Rebellion elements go. The intention, following our previous time jump, was for the game to get a span of time where the clear presence of Sith Empire dominance was displayed. It had been 17 years since the fall of the New Republic, and we wanted to give a sense of hoplessness to the galaxy, that they were under that iron grip, and that the Sith Lords of this new era had refined the ideals that Palpatine and Tarkin had envisioned. We wanted to make it feel like this iteration of the Sith Empire was really pulling it off, with efficiency and intelligence. There are a lot of arguments that can be made that the Galactic Empire really screwed up in a lot of major ways, which lead to its relatively short downfall, and the desire here was to paint a more powerful edge to this Sith Empire, and give it a bit of that regal classic KOTOR-era Sith style too.

So again, the past year and a half of the game was meant to let the game coast on Sith Imperial rule. I’d hope it would yield some good fun for people, to RP staying hidden, staying in the shadows, being the ones on the run, if you are the ones pushing for the freedom of the galaxy from overlords and despots.

But, this is Star Wars, and we can’t stay in a position of total control for too long.

Because of this, if the past 18 years of the IC grid would be labeled something akin to the Reign of the Sith Empire, then my hope for the future going forward would be the era of the Rise of the New Rebellion.

The Rebellion has been building up its mobile shipyard fleet, a massive Mon Calamari shipyard on engines, dubbed the Organa’s Hope. This massive fleet factory is the focus of the future for the game’s story. Being that it is fully operational now, after nearly two decades of planning, and building, it should be considered fully in-play now. With its goal being to discover safe star systems, relatively speaking, that it can hyperspace in to, release its ships out… to go grab all the resources possible, bring them in and churn out a new attack force that can then head out to engage Sith Empire forces. Being that this mobile star base is the future of the New Rebellion, and that it is fully functional at this stage of the game’s story, then those players who wish to create stories around this are encouraged to do just so. We can tell you where the Organa’s Hope is located, and what its current goals are. It will be ICly producing fleets to attack Sith Empire forces, which will give the Sith Empire players something to react to as well, as they desperately defend their regions, while also trying to find the source of this growing New Rebellion. It is meant to be a high stakes game of cat and mouse, across the galaxy.

Additionally, at this stage, the New Rebellion is meant to formally request Jedi inclusion in their endeavors again. Not to be generals in a war, but to ensure as much of the galaxy affected by this war, are as safe as possible. The New Rebellion wants the Jedi to be there to help keep civilians, and innocents, safe from the Sith, but also from the splash back of war itself.

So in summary, the New Rebellion IS in full operation now. The wars across the galaxy are meant to be amping up, with word of mouth spreading rapidly that the reign of the Sith Empire is now facing its biggest challenge yet. It is the light, pushing back against twenty years of darkness.

I hope this helps, and if you have questions, or want to create stories based on this, just reach out to Staff and we can help you do that. We are here for you to do that. If you want to decide how to shape the galaxy, this is the vessel through which you do that. We want it to be fun, and we want you all to have great stories told here.

Reach out, and we will help.
------------------------------< +bbread 8/221 >-------------------------------

I predicted long ago that the Sith Empire will rule the galaxy until the game closes, so this post came as something of a surprise to me. Maybe the influx of new players was and is a lot lower than Cujo and his pets wanted. Maybe they’re wishing for more people to show off for, and/or they’re getting sick of each other’s company.

I don’t expect things to actually CHANGE there, since the Sith Empire is the favored faction, and the most active as well (not that this means much of anything, since activity outside of scheduled events is largely dead, and there aren’t more than a half-dozen scheduled events per month, at most); over half of all scheduled events these last six months have been ‘Sith Empire and allies’ events. With ‘allies’ meaning Sith subfactions, and mercs and similar independent characters loyal to them.

But this will make it SOUND like something fun and Rebellious just might be happening. Nobody joins a Star Wars game to play a tiny, powerless Rebellion.

Something I’m sure AoA staff and favorites are counting on.

Edit: For what it may also be worth, the post doesn’t actually change anything meaningful, no matter how excitingly and enticingly it may be worded. The supposedly now-fully-operational mobile shipyard was advertised during the timejump as being on the move and largely doing the same things it will be doing now, and the Jedi have been some degree of involved in the New Rebellion/Resistance for most of the time beyond the jump. I’m sure there’s more, but this tells most of the tale. As does the near-total lack of activity from the Resistance/New Rebellion these last few months. The faction is likely losing players and on the verge of dying. Can’t have that; the Sith players need to feel like they’re beating SOMEONE, after all, not a bunch of coded NPC stand-ups.

If you know a little of the game’s history and read between the lines, this post promises only more of the same of what is already happening. Nothing has changed.

(edited because I thought of something else and didn’t want to reply to myself…)

Reads

Wait what was even the fucking point of the sith take over then? (We know the reason) Why not just have a drawn out war between equal powers?

Sound like some old school back tracking.

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander Well, I was wrong. I suspected Darth Omen was Banshee’s alt, since a surviving Mace Windu turned to the Sith sounded like Banshee’s wet dream.

But Banshee doesn’t play Darth Omen; Cujo does. I don’t remember this information coming up before now, but it may have; my memory could be a lot better. Just in case it hasn’t, I’ll re-broach the subject now.

Cujo is easy to pick out with his 3 sentence poses and bad spelling… Because he just doesn’t give a fuck.

@Jax said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander Cujo going to Cujo. Banshee got to Banshee. Hadrix is sexual harassing a couch. Aryn got to be the prettiest and most special. Everyone else are just NPCs.

Gawd @ashkuri and @Hobbie could build and run a better sw game if they it built out of the old Elendor database. Then for theme only read an issue of a Star Wars comic, saw half of Acolyte, and @Zephyr explain the Ewok movies to them with sock puppets.

"Note* Nothing wrong with Elendor, It’s just was Lord of the Rings.

God damn Jax, this would be awesome. Honestly , I’d put time and money into this to make it real. Because it’s so god damn true.

[Zephyr]

@SqeakyClean said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Wait what was even the fucking point of the sith take over then? (We know the reason) Why not just have a drawn out war between equal powers?
Sound like some old school back tracking.

So initially the point was supposed to be digging Cujo out of the hole that he’d gotten himself into with the First Order not being defeated once we got past canon movie stuff. There was a push to try and make it restoring order against pirates and warlords and stuff, smaller scale story, but he didn’t want that. So we wound up in this protracted fight that no one was interested in fighting because, what was the point? Cool the First Order wins this, the Resistance wins that, there’s no point to any of it, this is the war that never ends.

It was going to be a clean slate where players could affect the story, and build a new resistance to eventually defeat the Sith. Except that Cujo drove out the people who actually generated roleplay. I don’t just mean the events, but the day to day scenes and little one off fun things that @Ashkuri was so fond of running.

Cujo never saw the importance in the day to day on the game. He and Banshee both argued with me that posts were enough in the main story and people should just be cool with those and RP off what they read, offering no avenue to actually participate in it. They don’t know how to deal with the social side of the game, because everyone on staff now is either antisocial, or hateful.

They poisoned the well, and now they’re shocked that everything is dying.

[Warlander]

@Zephyr You explained the game’s biggest problems in the best nutshell I’ve seen to date.

@Zephyr said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

It was going to be a clean slate where players could affect the story, and build a new resistance to eventually defeat the Sith. Except that Cujo drove out the people who actually generated roleplay. I don’t just mean the events, but the day to day scenes and little one off fun things that @Ashkuri was so fond of running.

Pity this idea was screwed from the outset, since we all know Aryn wasn’t about to let her pet faction get beaten, ever, and has alts in every faction in a position to sabotage every effort to change this even if Cujo wouldn’t give her whatever she wanted (which he would). This is likely the largest part of why all the activity generators left; in your own words, what was the point?

@Zephyr said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Cujo never saw the importance in the day to day on the game. He and Banshee both argued with me that posts were enough in the main story and people should just be cool with those and RP off what they read, offering no avenue to actually participate in it. They don’t know how to deal with the social side of the game, because everyone on staff now is either antisocial, or hateful.
They poisoned the well, and now they’re shocked that everything is dying.

Antisocial, hateful, or both. Mostly both. And for what it’s worth, it IS dying. I had a look at their logins tonight, and there were 50. But 30 of them were just alts, and at least ten of those were double-connected alts. I suspect at least half of the remaining 20 logins were staff, or staff favorites.

Not a lot of original bits for a supposedly very successful game. And this is AFTER an influx of new players over the last few weeks, at least a few of which were returning players. Once they see (or re-see) the light, I suspect they’ll be gone, too.

And staff will still have learned nothing except what they want to learn.

Edit: I’m sure someone will point out that roughly ten new player logins is a HUGE number of active players these days, and under ordinary circumstances, they’d be right.

But when you factor in players who were already there, that number shrinks to 5-7 new players at most, who most likely flocked to a game that looked HUGE just from its WHO screen.

Under normal circumstances, big WHO screens mean big games, lots of activity, and easily accessible RP. Big WHO screens on AoA mean tons of alts, stagnant activity, and little to no day-to-day RP. The kinds of places players tend to linger on briefly before leaving to find fun elsewhere.

TL:DR? Drain go gurgle, AoA still go round and round.

Edited 'cause afterthought, and didn’t want to reply to myself.

[Third Eye]

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

And this is AFTER an influx of new players over the last few weeks, at least a few of which were returning players.

I’m curious what prompted this. No shade to people who want to circle back to this…experience…for whatever reason…but I’m curious

[SpilledBeanz]

@Third-Eye

I imagine for some its simply the fact that it’s been nearly two years since everything went down, and they’re taking a look. We all know that itch can be strong at times, and distance can sometimes put a sort of haze over trouble we saw more clearly in the past.

I doubt it will result in any new long-term players though. The number of new player logins that were still logging in 3-4 weeks later was always very low (and has always been low on almost all games, of course), but in the absence of a community capable of pushing daily RP it’s probably even lower now.

[Jennkryst]

@Third-Eye said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

And this is AFTER an influx of new players over the last few weeks, at least a few of which were returning players.

I’m curious what prompted this. No shade to people who want to circle back to this…experience…for whatever reason…but I’m curious

Generally, any time there is new Star wars media, it re-sparks interest. But the Acolyte was too long ago for anything just a few weeks back, so shrug

[Warlander]

@SpilledBeanz Speaking of, this just hit the bboards today:

======================<* 7: Game Announcements - 182 *>======================
Message: 7/182 Posted Author
Old Guard Lounge Sep 30 2024 Cujo

Anyone in the Old Guard Lounge, who did not die IC, that can still log in to their character, can ask to be moved back to the IC grid.

Just put in a request. If you can still log in to your character, and you’re in the Old Guard Lounge, all you have to do is put in a request to get put back IC. If there are people who don’t even have their char passwords just have to ask for them to be updated, and you can get your character back IC then.

All you have to do is a request, and ask. Super simple! super fun time simple, big IC grid awaits.
------------------------------< +bbread 7/182 >-------------------------------

Better go get another carton of Morton’s salt to take this news with. I can smell the selective enforcement from here.

[Jax]

@Warlander Ha, ha,ha, ha!

For anyone who wants it, Jax’s password is jedi. His +sheet was super good. I salted the Earth and burnt bridges on the way out, So good luck with that. If anybody tries I want logs. I’ll be watching cat videos.

[MisterBoring]

@Warlander

When I read Cujo’s post there, my brain forced me to read it in Donald Trump’s voice for some reason.

[Ashkuri]

Obviously Cujo is Cujo, and various Cujo policies/decisions are always inexplicable. The ships, the cargo, the econ, the Stuff, the fairness or lack thereof, the BBpost Metaplot, the… whatever the deal with Aryn/Poe is, this weird “you can come back” moment, etc etc, you can pick on all of it.

I think it’s important to remember, though, that the whole debacle that started this was:

On this game if you are harassed, and particularly if you are harassed by a popular player who appears to generate activity, there is no help for you.

Cujo doesn’t need to be like “guyz you can have your toon back,” Cujo needs to be here saying “I won’t tolerate bad behavior, I’ll take it seriously, this is my house and I’ll keep it clean.”

But that’s never gonna happen, so. Oh well. Super fun time simple, big IC grid awaits, lol.

[Zephyr]

@Ashkuri said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

On this game if you are harassed, and particularly if you are harassed by a popular player who appears to generate activity, there is no help for you.

Cujo doesn’t need to be like “guyz you can have your toon back,” Cujo needs to be here saying “I won’t tolerate bad behavior, I’ll take it seriously, this is my house and I’ll keep it clean.

Especially since one of the worst offenders is on staff as Reverberate. The only people Cujo has ever treated harshly are people who have been critical of the game in some way. He’s also never going to clean house because he knows he’d have to take himself out with the rest of the trash.