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How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:25 PM |
In order to assist in my future efforts for adversting Vives, I'm currious how most of you came across Vives. Was it:
Guilds and Resitery board on the Bioware Forums (your own 'Looking for PW' thread that someone replied to, reading someone else's 'Looking for PW' type thread, or the overall Vives thread (like the ones that Sirac posted).
Low Level Week (as in, did this get you to come to Vives).
NWVault Vives Posting.
Gamespy.
Word of Mouth.
Or something else.
It would be helpful if you all could respond.
For me it was Word of Mouth from Barnas.
Thanks! |
Juylina Komthya | Portrait - Priestess of Naruth |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:37 PM |
I suppose word-of-mouth for me?
I heard about Vives from Phoenix Dias, Phoenix Flameheart, Shanara, and a handful of other people who frequented a couple of the same forums I did. They mentioned it often, and generally glowingly. I had been playing the OC and then the expansions off and on for a couple of years (I am the kind of person that replays games often as a different class/alignment or what have you, just for kicks) and was a bit paranoid of the multiplayer aspect, and had never actually role-played before, but after a couple weeks of hedging, I applied and dove in headfirst.
It was certainly a good place and time to start.  I've never played on any other server and have no particular desire to. |
Consequences
Unsent
It's hard to say it, time to say it...
Goodbye, goodbye |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:38 PM |
By looking at the list under PW's in Gamespy and heading for those that had more than one person logged on and looked as if they weren't PvP oriented.
Another decider was usually whether the server had a website to back it up - Vives (obviously) did. I had a browse through the forums for a couple of hours, read through the PHB (an even older version than that used now) and rolled myself an elf up based on what I'd read.
Vives was the first server I'd tried that I -actually- ran into anybody on. Curiously enough, Barnas in one of his various incarnations, Thelia I think - even that didn't put me off.
The second person I ran into incidentally was Aros... who managed to get me killed (and yes the elf was Elvalia). |
Elvalia - Chosen of Aros
Elrith Mellin
Perin - 'Cleric (an' drewid) o' Elbreff' Weddin's an' pies a speciarality
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:40 PM |
Word of mouth from Glor.
and of course, the players handbook and forum info that I read after he told me about it helped to solidify the decision. |
"I'm not closed-minded, you're just WRONG." - Bucky Katt
My characters n portraits |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:54 PM |
| word of mouth from Arasus (who sadly no longer plays NWN) |
"PLEASE!!! Bury me with it!" |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:56 PM |
Pokeundi told me about it.
But then I couldn't type the old web address in, and ended up finding it on NWVault a month or so later whilst looking around.
-Barnas |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 01:56 PM |
I personally heard through word of mouth, and watching Ken (Bronwyn) play and thinking it looked like fun.
He found it through Bioware Forums, one of the advert type blips. |
Trishy
Macha Sparrowsong - Song is my life
Coretta Alandar - Cleric of Midoran
Dekla Debena - whatever
Not all people who wander are lost.
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 02:56 PM |
I found Vives through the Bioware forums. Finding it was easy, but it took only one session to convince me to stay. My very first night in Vives I never left the Four Winds Inn. Instead, I had a nice RP session with Arizzle (Aria's old paladin) and Nessa. Poor Mykal was a bit strung out that night, and I'm sure the two women wondered what his issue was. To this day, it is one of my favorate RP memories of Vives.
Since then, well, I've been here, and gone, and here again. But I've never found a place with better roleplaying or people. |
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
-Henry David Thoreau
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 03:34 PM |
Heh heh heh, this is one of my favorite stories :D
I actually at first got into the multiplayer aspect of NwN in a world called Krynn. That was back when I was 12 or 13, if I recall correctly. I spent a good amount of time on there, and eventually got myself perma-banned. (I picked the pockets of a half-orc too many times, at that time I had no idea what "griefing" meant).
So, I went to another server that looked like I had a good chance of running into people: Lands of Lore. I spent a good amount of time on there, often setting my alarm for 2AM so I could go for 10 hours straight on a weekend before other people woke up (this is before I built my own computer). Well, there was a little hovel called Densk, or Dench, or something like that, and I, in my infinate wisdom, decided to spice life up and raid the town with an army of elves and half-elves. We ranged in level from 5 to 15, and had about 10 people in the group. We paid off a new half-orc for keys to the town gate, and piled in and started killing. Then, the lvl 20's (this was before epic levels) all gathered round outside and pummeled us. They left myself and my comrade alive, so we could hand over our key. Well, little beknownst to them, we had about 15 each! Ha HA! I refused, he refused, so they kept resurecting my corpse and killing it, to drive home the point, and then had a rogue PP my body until they got a key.
After that, my companion told me about Vives, and we both uprooted right over to here. That was back in the days when the Vives server still had a password on it :o. I sadly can't recall exactly my friends name, though I do still have him on my AIM buddy list and he is on frequently, I just don't really talk to him :(.
As a side note, I still have a numerous number of keys left on Lands of Lore, if the door still exists and they haven't done a character wipe :). It's the RP and the community that keeps me here. I've generally come to love most of you and each of your little quirks. |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 04:02 PM |
Word of mouth from Arcane.
And I've been living ever since. Good plans never fail *beams* |
CHOO CHOO!
- - - - - -
Bereil Yadashem.
Markus Mortriety, Herald of Novus Aristi. |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 04:46 PM |
| Word of mouth after the server that I'd played on previously collapsed in on itself after a builder left, and thusly the other followed. It was that worlds Lead that told me about this place actually. |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 05:05 PM |
I heard about Vives when it first began. A girl I knew, through other servers, was one of the original six on Vives when it was still being built and the crafting system was in its infancy. She urged me to come here but I was on dial-up and even back then the hak was daunting (80mb's I believe) so I tried other places always vowing that one day I would try Vives.
I got a DSL line two years ago and one of the first things I did was try Vives although I was using a different account name.
Unfortunately I didn't give it enough time. The server rarely had more than one other player on, I didn't meet a single PC in a week, so I left.
Glad I came back though |
Nos laetus epulor is quisnam mos onero nos: Dana's family motto, if she had one
(Translation) We gladly feast on he who will oppress us |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 09:29 PM |
The advertising banner on NWVault.
I was on dial-up when I first saw it, so tucked it away for future reference. When I finally got broadband last year, I spent a few months thoroughly trawling through the websites and player reviews on NWVault of various PWs, trying to get a feel for the worlds out there and (more importantly) each world's community. In the end, the choice came down to two: Hidden Tradition or Vives. None of the others were even an option.
Vives won out. I blame James42's Bennigan stories (*cough* shameless plug!). Any world with people who could write like that was one I wanted to RP in and contribute to.
Also, the community was friendly and not too big—small enough that you wouldn't be just another face in a huge crowd, and could reasonably expect to meet the famous people whose stories are in the PHB and on the forums. And meet them I did! *Goes squiggly with joy* Bennigan, Macha, Luther, Byron, Fri'el, Xaranthir, Elvalia, Coruva, Johe, Jessup, Blanche... EGAD! It's celebrity central on any given day. |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 09:44 PM |
Like Tasra, I come from LoL. I was there back when it was a decent server with decent RP, which is how I got into RP in the first place. When the admin dubbed himself God, and PvP took over the server as it became more and more popular (and popular equals jerks), I started drifting off the server.
On the forums of LoL, Aria was talking about some stuff in Vives. I asked her about it, and I ended up here, back when Vives still had a password on it too. The signifcantly lower amount of players than what I got used to in LoL is what threw me off, so I drifted off, then came back, then drifted off (due to RL distractions), then came back again. Poof, here I am. |
WickedArtist: I think he needs a proper elf.
WickedArtist: A christmas elf!
Tasra: Any sort of elf that actually smiles ;o
Gasp! Scandalous!!! |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 10:47 PM |
Okay, I'll bite. I had never played any kind of multi-player rpg before. I had actually gotten out of playing most computer games because I found I didn't have the time. A friend was huge into these online games, so I knew about them, but I didn't want to get sucked in. Besides, no way I was going to pay a subscription to hack and slash creatures on a screen.
But I missed the old DnD roleplaying days. And when I was strolling the PC Game aisle one day, I saw this NWN game and took a peek. Could it be? DnD that can be multi-playered and DM'ed? Oh, I've got to try this.
So I did, thinking I could get a few friends together and we could have some fun. Well, that was pretty wishful thinking that (1) I actually HAD friends! and (2) those few I did have would follow through, buy the game, and play it with me. Regardless, my wife and I had a great time doing the official campaign together, and then started downloading mods to play.
On the Bioware website, I discovered a term--Persistent World--and I thought, "Hmmm. That sounds interesting. So I started looking into them. And then I made the worst mistake in my still-infantile life as a PC gamer. I randomly stepped into a PW world on the GameSpy network.
And I ran into another player.
Now you will get to hear the first rp words typed by me to another player. I said.....
"Hail!"
Most dramatic.
What this individual said back to me, however, you would not believe. I cannot even attempt to repeat it here. It was foul, sickening, horrendous, and twisted my stomach into fleshy raw knots.
I ran off, and then he proceeded to SHOUT the same things as I ran throughout the world.
Yup. That was enough for me. Lesson to a wisdom 7 newbie online rp'er: Do not jump into just any public Gamespy world. Especially if the world is called PsychoThriller (or something like that--I've put that bad memory on a shelf, way back in the darkest corner of my mind!).
So I went back to Bioware, and showing slightly more brilliance this time around, kept to the persistent worlds they suggested via links. I looked at many, reading up on them, reading the forums, reading their guidebooks. One world, though, just couldn't get out of my head, because of one sentence in the beginning of their description:
A living, breathing world. Yeah. That sounded like what I was looking for.
One registration filled out, an acceptance returned, and I've been sucked in pretty much ever since. |
Willom Wilde--Actor, Playwrite, Head of Wilde's Vials, and fearful of all things cheesy
Califus Sarten--Mercenary for Hire
Bennigan Songsinger--Brooding bard. |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 18 Oct 2005 11:09 PM |
| Word of mouth from both Gnimini and G_kinkaid |
-Jubei Murasame/ Dwarven Fighter
-Date Masamune/ Half-elf Monk
-Jago Muramasa/ Eleven Rogue
-Musashi Miyamoto/ Human Samurai
"Arrrr..... and more Arrrrrrrrrrr" |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 02:18 AM |
of all places, i first heard of vives from g_kincaid during an all day Lord of the Rings, extended version, trilogy viewing.
...that Tolkein...always bringing people together to slaughter orcs and trolls! |
-Gnimini // gnomish wizard facinated with tailoring
-Mirg // young human ranger
-Dredger Hack'nchant // dwarven spellsword
-Hallelujah // gnomish singer and songwriter
-----------
"i just can't wait till this squirrel mating season is over, those bug |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 07:32 AM |
Remarkable timing.
I had just finished Shadows of Undrentide, and was looking for something new to do, and I saw the NWVault's article about a persistant world that needed Beta testers.
I joined and jumped right in, and been here (on and off) ever since. |
- [Rob], Balthor, Jake, and Thomas. |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 08:12 AM |
With me it was probably dumb luck.
Like some others, I was just browsing for my first multiplayer game in Gamespy, not knowing that there were any such things as servers and persistant worlds. From NW Connections I thought all multiplayer games were arranged by appointment and were one-shot or short campaigns at most.
Vives' touted roleplaying and alternatives to treasure-hunting are what drew me in. I'm a big Sims fan (ex-Sims player, my machine can't hack Sims 2), and turn every game I play into the Sims. Since I couldn't find "plug-ins" to change the original NWN campaign to what I wanted I started looking for a mod w/ lots of changes. In all honestly I was obsessed with finding a game that had a realistic gold-weight system, and maybe platinum-gold-silver-copper too (we don't take dirty stinking electrum here!).
I read the short blurb from "server details" in Gamespy first. I wouldn't underestimate the potential of that little blurb to bring in players. How long has it been since any of the builders/DMs read that thing? [Edit--heh, looks like it has been revised since I started, maybe recently--still a good strong statement.] Not that there's anything wrong with it. The website sealed the deal--it was obvious to me that this was a gathering of very smart, savvy gamers.
Also, just to say it, the application process kept me here too. I've snooped around other PWs after joining Vives but only the games with an application could hold my attention; its harder to vanish from a PW after that kind of contact with the DMs. It also forces incoming players to invest something in the world, even if its just a little something. An answer to an application is like a personal invite to play in Vives--fella, you're our kind of player--and it took just enough time to receive a response for me to fixate on Vives completely.
Funny, that. I once was asked to "apply" for a PnP D&D game in college, and it was the most pretentious arrogant thing. In contrast you folks are very welcoming... distantly mothering to new arrivals. If I can get away with saying that. |
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about dying."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means lying in the ground with dirt on your face and holding your breath forever."
-Burt Reynolds, "The End" |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 11:05 AM |
Ras actually invited me in... *points IG at the Monk named "Sinjin Kane"*
Him and I were playing together on a world called "Legends of Fehl"
Ras and I had actually played together for like 2 years on my first server, so I'd known him for near 5 years online. He was in my Goblin squad, and played the only female Goblin "Bupu Swamprat", who was a sorceress, and I had my Battle axe weaponmaster "Skullshred Swamprat." It was about 2 years ago, I was actually on the build team, working my butt off to make this whole mountain range, which, ultimately looks like the new Great river areas, it was a huge Goblin fortress, I even built this awesome Goblin Ghost-town of a mining system, the reamains of a once thriving underground elite goblin kingdom (kind of like the dwarven kingdom in Lord of the Rings). The areas looked superb, I was the kind of builder who'd place 50 different Pine trees on a rocky terrain, and have every tree facing a different direction. Anyways, it'd be the death of me, and I worked way too hard, and needed a break, so Ras and all these other guys, from the "White Rose" guild I was in from my first server invited me to Vives, which, they said was "Totally awesome" with Great RP and a huge player base. But I played the "I have a responsibility to Fehl, and I'm not going to give in to your invitations to Vives" card. So I ended up looking at Vives anyways, under the pseudonym Veran (my real online identity for the past 10 years or so has been Mireldeyn) so they wouldn't recognize me. Then I took my Goblin Battle-axe weaponmaster, and changed his race to elven, kept all the other stats, and I had Daimon, my "vives explorer"
Pretty soon, I was hooked, started avoiding the Fehl Build team (eep, sorry!) and my identity was eventually exposed, and soon I had an active role in the world of Vives. Fehl eventually collapsed from lack of enthusiasm on everyone's part, including all the other builders, and the player base.
After some Dungeon master disapproval of the "Guild mentality" the rest of my "guild" received, they ended up feeling mistreated by the server's administration, and it's players, and eventually all became fairly bitter, and moved to another server. Of course, I stayed, and Ras stuck around for a bit as well. I never had any relation to the "White Rose" guild in Vives, and they kinda got pissed off at me for that, since I spent more time Smithing than "being loyal to your comrades" and sharing the glory of dungeon crawling and all that. *shrugs* I always kinda stuck out of the group anyways.
When I joined, I was intimidated, Vives felt like one of those "Power server" and constantly had like 30 people IG whenever I checked. The Server had no "Web page" per se, just a forum, which I found strange at the time, but eventually became accustomed to. After exploring Vives a bit with Daimon, I thought I was ready to make my main character, an archer, which is what I've played on every server my entire NWN career (except the Goblins, but that was just a bit of fun) but, my archer didn't make it that far...
First character in Vives: Daimon
First "Home" in Vives: Midor
First other player met: Calmeir Kishraad (good story behind that)
First DM event: Neek's Archery lessons |
The Legacy Saga |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 12:11 PM |
James42
"So I did, thinking I could get a few friends together and we could have some fun. Well, that was pretty wishful thinking that (1) I actually HAD friends! and (2) those few I did have would follow through, buy the game, and play it with me."
Not so wishful I think.
James42 has friends, even if he had to travel far thru space n time to find one who would play a multiplayer online rp game with. He recruited me, and so far, I'm having a blast (except for that sewer trap that skewered me last night).
Unfortunately at this particular juncture in my life, I don't have the time to give myself over to Vives completely, like I did with Baldur's Gate, Daggerfall, etc. in a previous life (anyone else here old enough to remember being addicted to the original Bard's Tale? not XBOX/PS2, think IBM 8086).
*minimizes window as manager walks by office*
*closes office door and resumes...*
So far Vives has been the most gaming fun I've had since Halo, and unique in terms of rp emphasis.
thanks Jim, see you and Mel IG tonight (Fell stocked up on bandages :o) |
All my problems are meaningless
But that don't make them go away
~ Neil Young "On the Beach" |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 01:00 PM |
| Asked on the bioware forums for a PW that would suit my requirements, Sirac came along and pushed me into this direction. Vives really did hit the spot and, well, here I am :) |
Garrak - Aspiring Spellsword
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 19 Oct 2005 04:44 PM |
Heard about it from my big evil sis and brother in law (Sol and Sirac) who found Vives around Jan/Feb last year and wouldn't stop going on about it . |
Barnas: *coughs up a small gangster*
Barnas: ... I like pretty flowers.
Barnas: I'm not a transvestite! |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 20 Oct 2005 07:38 AM |
| I bought the game fairly late, about November 04 or something. Played through SP, then wanted to try some multiplayer. Well, I looked through the Bioware Forum and stumbled across Sirac´s thread, read a few things here, and registered my account late december then (was christmas I think). |
Portraits: zip.rar
PRAISE HECK, FOR HIS NAME IS HECK, AND JUST HECK! |
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Re: How did you come to Vives?
Posted: 20 Oct 2005 11:50 AM |
| Hmm let me see I think it was Sirac who conducted a campaign of spamming my inbox until I signed up and joined Vives.... never looked back since. |
"Mistakes have been made, others will be blamed..." |
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