State of RK

Angeljoy25 wrote:

It is indeed what you make it.  You can be a quiet farmer, you can try to take over the world, you can go sailing, become a pirate, a politician, a robber, whatever you like.  It won't always be easy and it won't always be fair, but it can be what you make it. :)

+1 soon I will own the entire world! Mahhaha When it comes down to it RK is really a pretty shitty game with not much customer service. I think that is the only reason I really have stuck with it all these years because well it's not easy to get things done in a day somtimes it takes months and I find it funny when people complain about things that really should be fixed but won't be Wool autobuy :D You have to make it to the forums or you won't make it most likely at all in RK. Customer service last I checked is 4 months behind on tickets which blows my mind. But for some reason I stick with it.

I apparently had an account here? I must have made it years ago in my spying days.

I just wanted to chip in my 2 cents, I decided to check out how RK has changed since I last touched it around 2011-ish.

For those that don't know me, I started playing back in 2006 when Cornwall was just introduced (Apparently it's now Devon O_o?), and I can remember it pretty fondly, now I go back to see how RK has progressed, it's changed a lot suffice to say, and it doesn't look all that user friendly.

And after looking at the population count, it's not a game I can see that will last long-term, which is sad, because whilst the game itself was core to the experience, it wasn't what made the experience fun.
What made the experience fun was us, or rather the playerbase.

Role playing is what made this game stand out from the sea of copies/clones that existed back at that time, RK was not by any means unique in the whole "Play as X in X year and press 5 buttons and you've spent your energy", but the fact it was set in a time people around the world could feel comfortable playing in is what made people want to stay playing this game.

I mean if I remember right, Anto started playing a few months before I did around late 2005, which means he's been playing this game, pretty much constantly for almost 10 years.

10 years on a game, there's a reason for that, and it wasn't for the Microsoft Paint graphics or so he could annoy French people (mostly), it's because I would assume he feels like he belongs to a community of like-minded people who can enjoy the same things we all enjoy, developed those friendships, wrote those stories and deeds, and got to be one of RK's greatest villains.

Sadly those days are fewer and farther as this game dies, people we used to know get lost to Real Life and never to be seen nor heard from again, and in some senses it's melancholy, because that Username on the internet, a person you've never 'technically' known, is still someone you'd call a real friend.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, it's one of the habbits I got from RK that I never managed to get rid of.

- Darrellmeaney

Good to see you Darrell, it's been a long time.

Yea, I've taken my share of breaks, probably took over a year off myself; but I keep coming back because of all the friends I've made here. I am really glad we have this off-site place here to all keep in touch, many we would have lost touch with otherwise.

It is melancholy to see RK dying I suppose, but we've all kind of seen the writing on the wall for quite awhile now. Once the disillusionment starts, it is hard to stop.

Wow Darrel, it has been awhile since you've dropped in. Good t see you.

Darrell!!! Great to see ya fella! And no doubt, rk's certainly changed and really miss the 'old days'. Haven't been able to get my head into rping in quite a few years. Hope all's good on ur end, missed ya!

Same, Trinity.

In fact, the problem with RP in RK is one reason I feel it is dying.

How much would I love to be able to actually RP war, with our enemies? Imagine it! Collaborating with other players via in-game mails to discuss the battle RP, to choreograph fights between our characters? It would be so fun! Instead, we end up having two (or more) threads, the sides all staying separate. To me, this exemplifies how some/many really have a hard time separating real from character. *I* am not enemies with anyone in this game. Toastini, however...

As people die off and interest wanes, the pool in which to draw from to RP with dwindles. In reality, we don't only interact with the same five people over and over. So why does poor Toastini have to be stuck with interacting with the same handful of characters simply because she is a "bad guy" and the "good guys" don't want to be seen in an RP thread with her? I'd take it personally if I didn't see it as a game-wide problem. So seldom is it that characters from different sides RP together, that I can't even name an occurrence in which this did happen.

As a result, I have sought writing creatively elsewhere. Tis a shame, because RK is actually rife with writing opportunities. Or should be anyway.

+1 Toastini.

I remember when I first joined here, I got shit from a couple of people asking me why I would want to be in contact with people who drove them out of their homes. -_- What makes it even more ridiculous is that my character had been eradicated for about a year then, so it's not like they might have been thinking the conversation was IC and that Ritaii was the one who joined.

RP kind of sucks everywhere. It's not that common to have real RP where people are just playing. I've had some good RPs since I left RK and some really bad ones. I do feel it's improved my writing since, either way.

How many of you still play RK? I talk to people and they're like, "oh, I left it months ago."

The last time I tried to RP a war was in England... I believe it was a lot of RP on our side and a lot of "Shut up bitch" on their side... I gave up.

I suck at writing fight scenes or war stuff. I'd happily write taking in the wounded but ugh, I'm so bad at the other

Players in this community are too stuck in as seeing their IG folk as themselves. There's no distance between the player and the fictional world. You piss a player off, if they kill themselves and come back with a new face, they'll still be grudging.

It makes the roleplay so... empty, besides all the silly bitching, and how 'roleplay' threads just turn into massive arguments over whose title is the shiniest, it goes nowhere. Then, to top it off, people play in a country, then get all pissy when a native uses the dialect. Don't get me wrong, Scots is bloody hard if you're not a native speaker, but the amount of times I've been contacted by the censors over it, is a feckin' joke.

More ranting:~~~> http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Fy6thQ8wzS

If people are thinking about getting into another roleplay game, I played one called Illarion for a good few years. The community for the most part, is solid. If you're looking for people who're willing to work out a storyline like you mentioned Toasti, these folk are some of them. There's a skill base system in place, and the likes. So it actually feels like character progression rather than what we have in RK.

I played that game years ago with Falcie and a few others, but I got bored with it and wasn't too sure on how to RP Roman

Oh? Who were the characters if you can remember?

Tam/Spr wrote:

If people are thinking about getting into another roleplay game, I played one called Illarion for a good few years. The community for the most part, is solid. If you're looking for people who're willing to work out a storyline like you mentioned Toasti, these folk are some of them. There's a skill base system in place, and the likes. So it actually feels like character progression rather than what we have in RK.  

*Starts panting!* I WANT IT!

I've pretty much given up on writing in RK. It is useless, PLUS I am ready for the challenge of getting to know a new character. I play one other RPG, but the community is TEENY TINY so collaborative writing is pretty difficult there too. I might give Illarion a whirl. Shit, what can it hurt? Thanks for the suggestion.

I swear, every time I come back to Rk, there's a war brewing in Scotland, the first NNGO war when you lot marched through Galloway, and the council refused to declare, even with the English attacking the country. The time Galloway gutted Ayr, the Fret stuff, the other Fret stuff and the end of the Fret stuff.

Besides that, there's really nothing in RK that can hold much interest, lord knows it's the NNGO and groups alike that have kept that game alive in the English speaking world for years... even if that requires killing a ton of the English

For Illarion, I'll give a run down of an experience. I've had three characters there, an Orc called Orgis Ugg, due to my English being awful - if anyone can remember when Ayr opened up, to say it was bad would be an understatement -, a Halfling who became a would-be priest for the God of Madness, and another wee Halfling who became a mage.

The Orcs whilst Ugg was alive banded together, built a giant base in a desert, built a shrine to the God of evil, basically, the father of the Orcs. Declared war on the Dwarfs, threw their queen off the top of our mountain fortress, took over the biggest Human town for a night before I killed him off. Some of the funniest memories of a roleplay was with that lot.

The Halfling nutter was a bit more complex. Started out normal, a greedy little bugger who wanted to open an inn, worked with the union of farmers, the gamemasters started a quest and an evil laddie got him to slash a wee child/teen with the promise of all teh golds! Naturally, he couldn't revert back to the lovable little midget, so it took him down the natural road, and he ended up somewhat like Heath Ledgers joker character. He worked with the occultists, trying to take over the Halfling village, muttered curses and the likes at people he thought too 'normal' before finally killing himself, the end of the road he found chaos taking him.

Then there's wee Talltalker, probably the smartest Halfling in terms of magical power. The only one I've known to try and become a mage from all the years I played.

Really though, the game from my experience is what you make of it. Get a group working with you, decide to rob folk, become wanted and hunted, decide to farm the land, build a wee union or become crafters or power house warriors.

The game's currently in a building mode, the developers have been making it since the early 2000s, if you check the website, you can see how it's progressed through the years. Some things like magic and the likes aren't currently in the game in its state, but again, it's still a work in progress, and I'm sure if anyone here is good at coding, they'd happily take a hand.

Link here: http://illarion.org/general/us_startpage.php

Unfortunately RK is woefully lacking in a great many things; foremost of course is the apparent apathy toward the wants of the player base exhibited by the Celsius team. I find myself banging my head, metaphorical, against the wall when such things as mini games take precedent over a recoding of warfare, or a more comprehensive attention to detail and usefulness pertaining to medicine way, as well as a few other major details in game. I can remember a time, as I'm sure many of you can as well, when one clicked on the tavern button and found three, four, or even five taverns filled to capacity and towns with active populations above 200. And it's this apathy by Celsius which causes many to lose interest or never gain it in the first place.

RP is one of my favorite aspects to the game; I use to love developing my character via the written word and take part in joining others with mine and their character's story. The forums appear dead much of the time these days and the only thing which seems capable of resurrecting life back into forum activity is warfare and political strife. You guys in NNGO need to come back to England, sure most of the RK Brits as well as the Irish ex-pats hate you guys but I, the player, would gladly welcome your return even if my character is fighting against you and cursing your existence for sullying the peace and pillaging England's towns. I have found that it is you guys who are the keystone to the existence and good times of the English speaking world in RK. Sometimes I hope for some arrogant twit(s) in England's government to piss you folks off so you can come back and give us another spanking.

I could drone on about what else pisses me off about Celsius' lack of care and seeming lack of respect toward us, the players, but I'll step down and shut the hell up. Methinks I have made me point.

I actually hear it a lot from English players- NNGO should come and attack England again.

As fun as it may be, we really don't have any interest in it. Every time we set off and leave, it is our home population that suffers. It is a lot of work to do an invasion of anywhere. All that aside, England has actually kept to their end of the bargain, they've kept the peace and we at NNGO are true to our word.

That said, maybe England should try to attack Ireland instead if that is what they want. Then they can learn how difficult is it to coordinate.

Everywhere in the game is dying though. I talk with players in France, Spain, Italy, the Balkans, all the time and they say the same thing- their taverns are dead, their forums are dead, their population has dropped significantly in the past 6 months alone.

I don't think any war will fix the game. The game needs some investment, some fresh ideas, some vision. It's stagnating and dying quickly.

England did try to attack Ireland and we all know how much of an abysmal failure that was. It's true that England has helped to keep the peace by not allowing our "boogeyman" fears of the terrible and fearsome Anto, and innate bias toward the NNGO to override better judgment. I can't say if England remains peaceful toward the CA out of fear of being ransacked again or a sincere desire for peace as my character is strictly nonpolitical and keeps out of any and all private forums even when invited. Plus I took a long enough hiatus from RK before coming back with a new skin back in December as to remain ignorant on any deep inner politics going on now anywhere, which is a nice feeling to be honest.

And kudos to you folks for allowing your characters to be honorable, especially given the reputation NNGO and some of your characters individually have gained over the years. I have no doubt that that tendency toward honor reflects upon you as players as well, indeed I applaud your characters as well as you as players.

It is indeed true that RK is dying and this fact makes me sad as I have made a few good friends and enjoyed great RP over the years. However, the inevitable outcome is death and we are witness to RK's death throes. Perhaps Celsius will get their heads out of their asses and do something about that, but somehow I doubt such will be the case, though there is a glimmer of hope in me, albeit a small and dim glimmer.

NNGO, thank you for the entertainment and wild times. Thank you for Bristol Bay, the sack of Westmorland, and creating a strong alliance of likeminded factions and individuals, there was too little of such in the English speaking world and you guys helped change that. When RK dies I'll miss such events and the people whom helped to create them. It's been entertaining as hell, and the show has given me many a giggle and thorough enjoyment. Thanks for the fun, I mean that sincerely.

Oh, and for any fellow Englishers reading this and suddenly thinking of Bob as a traitor for his string-puller appreciating the NNGO, get bent. Bob wouldn't betray England to Her enemies or any foreign entity under any circumstances, the CA and all its counterparts included, and wouldn't resort to criminal behavior and revolutionary activities unless his homeland gave him a damn good reason. I'd rather England not give me a damn good reason to turn Bob into a bad guy because I prefer playing a good guy.

Damn I'm long winded sometimes, sorry about that but I am what I am; a sarcastic windbag.

Actually I think it's the changes made by the Admins that drove people out of RK, and their failure to advertise isn't bring new ones in.  I think we were all better off when they did little changing the game, but advertised to bring new people in.

The game is changed from an easy to play once a day requirement, to be played when it was convenient, into a timer-based demand play game.  Many people who chose to play RK didn't want timers, that's why they liked the game.  Also the 3D is just a huge mess, it's buggy and mostly unworkable, and instead of dealing with their own failures, the Admins tried to force players to make up for their own flawed design (by threatening to punish them unless they did what the Admins demanded).  When that happened to me, it was the end in a way.  I now refuse to use 3D at all, and if it ever becomes required, I will leave the game.  And when 3D came out the Admins promised it would be optional, but as they add features, it's less and less so (like the ramparts to defend towns, but oops they can be deleted if a TH is taken by bad guys).

I think we were better off with a weak IG system and rich role play on the forums.  The Admins made another mistake with the forums, many years ago, when they segmented the forums, only letting players see the town and county forums where their characters were IG.  That started the decline of RK right there (and I got asked to Beta the segmented forums and freaked out, and told the person having me do it no no no, this is awful, please get them to stop this before it's everywhere, and I want to go back to the old forums, but of course the Admins wouldn't listen).  Sure they fixed it later on, but after 4-5 years of decay, there was little left to save on the forums, and then the IG changes ran off another large part of the RK active player base.  We don't really have enough left to make a viable game, and still there is no advertising to attract new players into the game (and even if there were, I'm not sure there are enough active people left to engage them and get them to stay.  I know I don't do that anymore, because while I play still, I'm not really interested in spending that much time or effort on RK anymore).

So yes, I blame the Admins for taking a viable and vital player base, and essentially running them out of the game.  They didn't understand their own player base, and what those players wanted from RK.  Instead the Admins tried to convert RK into a different game (in their eyes more "modern"), and now it's a hybrid few if any people really enjoy playing.  If the Admins wanted a different game paradigm, they should have built a new game, not tried to force RK, and the player base of RK, into it.  There was nothing stopping them from having 2 RK games, they didn't need to wreck the one they had to build a new one.  Many of us would have tried the new one, and if we liked it, might even have played both games.

I've just started using the 3D - it's OK as long as you have a fast connection to makeup for the crappy programming.

I agree that the timers make the game unnecessarily tedious.

It would be cool to see NNGO move to a different game - I can't even begin to imagine how much revenue NNGO has made Celsius over the years, directly and indirectly.

I forgot to mention the culling of the forums, and the loss of all of our history.  That was also a huge blow, and many people stopped bothering to RP once they knew the Admins might wipe it out any time they felt like it.

ETA: Dee, I've tried some other games, but never found one with the great player base RK has. Maybe if we found another suitable game, and all moved together, or played both for a while, that might work.

It doesn't help that the admins have refused to actively change the systems or add new ones into the game. Back when I started in in 07, there was talk about the science and medical way coming into the game, years later they were introduced. If they want to do anything, they talk about years in advance before actually doing one thing about it.

They need to fix the trading system, so you can give money and the likes without needing to use ruddy stones, fix the grant system so it isn't as retarded as my Autistic self and a load of other things. But damn right Spring, they killed the desire to roleplay massive stories when they decided what the players wrote and the history they created wasn't worth spit.

Absolutely, I concur completely, Spring, that the admins screwed the game up, and thanks to their ineptness something many of us enjoyed immensely has become a shadow of its former self. When 3D first came out I was mayor of a town and the threats that were given to the town leaders were disheartening and incredibly offensive. The only reason I came back are the people I've met and the friends I've made. If it wasn't for them, including those of you whom I've never met in a tavern, I would have abandoned RK permanently years ago. I almost did say to hell with the game for good due to the demands that we comply to 3D. What was suppose to be fun and carefree turned into what felt like a lackluster job without pay.

Dee, that would be a fine idea. I may not be NNGO nor a member of the CA in any form but I'd follow you guys to the gates of gamer Hell...oh wait, we're already there with RK. Nonetheless, I would happily follow y'all to see what kind of RP mischief there is to be had elsewhere.

Isn't that the truth, Tam! How long have we waited for a better in game mailing system? Years! And now they get off their asses and implement something more accommodating. But it comes much, much too late. Now that the game is dying the excitement I would have felt at the new mailing system a few years ago is practically nonexistent because I figure what's the point anymore.

Well, I've been mayor of Glasgow for three terms in the past when the 3d became needed due to the ramparts being announced as what gave the town's defence bonus - whether or not that's active yet I'm not sure -. The 3D is somewhat of a good idea, if it weren't so bloody bland. In Scotland where you'd expect some hills, natural defence bonuses due to the terrain, och naw, it's the same as down in England. Now, instead of having users making maps of towns to make it feel historical, every town has the same types of houses, roads and the likes. There's no differing atmosphere to the towns anymore, fish towns, wood towns and the likes feel the same. I tried my best to make Glasgow look somewhat nice, but even then it just turns into a crappier version of Simcity.

A picture of me town that I tried to make look nice, now all I see is boxes...

On the topic of jumping ship to a new game, I recently found a game made by somebody whose tired with Celcius' crap whose making his own game. He's from Italy and the English Version of the game is still VERY incomplete so I won't bother sharing it with you, but I'm hoping we can finish the translation within the next week. It's already a quarter done.

Interesting mechanics too. Unlike RK and Sec, when you take charge of a Kingdom, you're in charge until you die, abdicate, or are conquered. Once the English version is released we'll bring over a bunch of English speakers and he'll add Great Britain for us Anglophone's to stomp around in... I'll definitely make sure to share it with you guys It'd be nice to have people to RP with since I'm the only one that speaks English currently.