[Newworlds]

The King of Nordenland visits the Border City of Gahlen!

In approximately 2 to 4 weeks (sometime between September 9th and the 25th) the King of Surik will be visiting the City of Gahlen in an unprecedented event that will be the first ever in Ateraan. The purpose of the event is for the Royal Celebration and swearing in of a new Baron in the Kingdom and the building of the new Baron's Castle.

It is possible through roleplay to become a member of Royalty and own a castle in the game (a very unique and incredible location with it's own area, servants, heralds, and guards and up to 100 personalized rooms). This event will be an all day event involving all guilds and leaders and will include delegates from the Southland and the city of Darmahk. The Eagle of Surik (also known as Bojax Freed) will be coming with his special forces unit to secure the area.

This is a huge event and will involve over 100 players and a dozen INPC's. King Von Allmen and Bojax Freed are characters from the Book that Ateraan is based on and can be read online from the website and found in game under the help file "help book".

I encourage anyone who has played the game before or would like to see massive roleplay and character interaction take place to log on during the soon to participate and witness this historic event.

[dark acacia]

Lipstick on a pig.

[WarHound]

I'm not the biggest fan of his game but damn man, get a life.

[Cerelum]

Dark Acacia, you are more bitter than me, and that's saying something. Why do you need to constantly **** on everything?

I don't really "like" the whole design of New Worlds (the leveling grind mostly) but I do respect the folks who play there, as they normally are pretty decent roleplayers.

Don't like a game, don't play it.

[Newworlds]

The date has been set and events are unfolding as the Eagle of Surik has arrived with his special forces group to secure the area and the castle construction has begun for the new Baron of Lohtsurn.

The date for the arrival of the King is September 5th.

There have been several events surrounding this so if you want to participate in this massive roleplay come on by and create a character. And by all means, start in the Kingdom not the Southland unless you intend on dealing with really harsh roleplay and likely will miss the event.

[Newworlds]

Today is the day and now is the time. Join Ateraan as the King bestows nobility on a new Baron and see the celebration of a dozen guilds and clans as a castle is built. This is a unique experience rare within the game and promises to be the height of roleplay.

The time for the King's arrival and the events is 4 pm to 10 pm Eastern Standard Time (which is game time on Ateraan).

[Malifax]

Just curious...

I've read a lot of people posting similar sentiments about "level grinding," which makes me wonder, what's the alternative? I realize that lots of games do away with the concept of levels and go with "learn by doing" instead, but from my experience, any time you're dealing with ability acquisition and advancement in a text game there's going to be some "grinding" involved, whether you're grinding out skills or gaining levels. Is the objection to levels an objection to numbers and stuff in a role-playing game? I'm truly curious.

[Jazuela]

The first and foremost issue is immersion. In a game where roleplay is the focus, the concept of "levels" is immersion-breaking, because levels is strictly an OOC code issue and has nothing to do with your character's life in the fantasy gameworld.

Next, is achievement. Achieving a level is an OOC achievement. Achieving a greater ability to [insert skill here] is an IC achievement. Either are perfectly fine goals to want to reach, however again - in a game that focuses on roleplay, the more preferred would be your -character- being able to do something better, rather than the -player- achieving the opportunity to add points to a skill sheet.

Progressing in skill ability "feels" more organic than progressing in levels.

For what it's worth, I don't much enjoy the grind either way, but I would rather have coded progression than have to play a MUSH, which I've tried and loathed. However, having played a few games, each of which handled progression differently, I much prefer the skill-up than the level-up.

[Newworlds]

In my opinion, we speaking of an enforced roleplay game there is no difference unless the terms are used in character but out of genre.

Example: Jack says to Jill, "Hey Jill, I just got my level 20 in my guild and my skill is now 25 in swimming!" Which is completely ooc unless the game you are playing has rankings that are roleplayable like some military game, etc.

The term skill vs. level is irrelevant and all games use numbers to show advancement, whether it be skills, coins, levels, position, etc. The backend has numbers associated and most games give the player some perspective of that number. I haven't found a game that doesn't do this in some fashion.

Using these terms IC however (which is not allowed in Ateraan) is a severe breach of immersion and genre, even though this is done extensively in tabletop D&D, WoW, and the like.

There are long arguments over what is considered appropriate for enforced roleplay and immersive roleplay. My answer is simple and short: Stay in character and within genre and you will achieve both regardless of the system you play within as long as those around you do the same.