03-06-2016, 01:41 PM
Personally I must say one thing, bringing a community together is hard. A community of younger kids is even harder to bring together because some of them don't know how to work within such confines.
What gives me a right to say this? I was 11 years old when I joined Dreamcraft. I had never played any game where you "work together" and "build up" people. In fact, I had only played a paintball FPS and some childish games.
When I joined DC I was on a temp-map or something. I had no clue what was going on, my friend was living in a tower full of trees, and things were coated in magical spells.
I was confused.
What made me come back to Dreamcraft afterward was not DC itself (for I could not understand it), but my singleplayer experience. I went to my Nana's house and had no wifi. I built a city - alone - made of dirt and gravel with no friends against a world I didn't understand. I felt lonely and wanted some friends to help me understand the new realm I was in.
Take away my understanding of community gaming now, put me on a server, and I am the same 11 year old kid again.
The Corps for me weren't just a way to organize, but a way to "grow up".
Sure I enjoyed a land plot at the price of almost nothing loaned to me by a lumberjack, but I eventually learned how to do things for myself.
I would learn to trade and be effective from said lumberjack. He would teach me to give to others even though you couldn't get much back.
I would learn from the mayor of the Earth Corps capital how to follow rules and what happens when I don't obey them.
I would benefit from roads, streets, public facilities, farms, and neighbors that all helped me learn how to play.
These are only some of the lessons, and now I consider myself to be a good community player. Heck, I feel out of place in Kill On Sight games because of how DC brought me up.
The Corps may have been broken, flawed, or even useless to players like Jess who knew what they were doing. However they benefit new players like me who could not see the darkness behind the outer workings. All I saw was a chance to grow up in a city with real people that could teach me morals and proper behavior.
Am I taking this game too seriously? Maybe, but that's what community players taught me.
I took their rules seriously and developed connections to people who still hold a place in my heart. I learned how to not be "noob".
Most of all I learned how to build, I watched master builders go by day after day. Fortresses, frigates, spiraling towers, ornate furniture - I felt like a farmer looking up at Versailles.
"I may not be that incredible, but I dream to be."
Look at what I can do now. I can build castles, palaces, ships, decorations, whole cities...I can even carve broken rivers into pristine trade routes.
I may have a certain pride in the Corps, and yet this is warranted. After all, it did shape me.
The new young players need the Corps to bring them up as proper members of our community before they grow up to be rifle wielding gamers playing the next installment of Grand Theft Auto.
Think of the children *laughs* But no, really. The Corps are more than you ever imagined. Trust me on this, if Corps had never been implemented when I first joined. You would be talking to a very different type of gamer.
Mull it over
I promise adding them will have long term effects that will make DC feel like old times again.
What gives me a right to say this? I was 11 years old when I joined Dreamcraft. I had never played any game where you "work together" and "build up" people. In fact, I had only played a paintball FPS and some childish games.
When I joined DC I was on a temp-map or something. I had no clue what was going on, my friend was living in a tower full of trees, and things were coated in magical spells.
I was confused.
What made me come back to Dreamcraft afterward was not DC itself (for I could not understand it), but my singleplayer experience. I went to my Nana's house and had no wifi. I built a city - alone - made of dirt and gravel with no friends against a world I didn't understand. I felt lonely and wanted some friends to help me understand the new realm I was in.
Take away my understanding of community gaming now, put me on a server, and I am the same 11 year old kid again.
The Corps for me weren't just a way to organize, but a way to "grow up".
Sure I enjoyed a land plot at the price of almost nothing loaned to me by a lumberjack, but I eventually learned how to do things for myself.
I would learn to trade and be effective from said lumberjack. He would teach me to give to others even though you couldn't get much back.
I would learn from the mayor of the Earth Corps capital how to follow rules and what happens when I don't obey them.
I would benefit from roads, streets, public facilities, farms, and neighbors that all helped me learn how to play.
These are only some of the lessons, and now I consider myself to be a good community player. Heck, I feel out of place in Kill On Sight games because of how DC brought me up.
The Corps may have been broken, flawed, or even useless to players like Jess who knew what they were doing. However they benefit new players like me who could not see the darkness behind the outer workings. All I saw was a chance to grow up in a city with real people that could teach me morals and proper behavior.
Am I taking this game too seriously? Maybe, but that's what community players taught me.
I took their rules seriously and developed connections to people who still hold a place in my heart. I learned how to not be "noob".
Most of all I learned how to build, I watched master builders go by day after day. Fortresses, frigates, spiraling towers, ornate furniture - I felt like a farmer looking up at Versailles.
"I may not be that incredible, but I dream to be."
Look at what I can do now. I can build castles, palaces, ships, decorations, whole cities...I can even carve broken rivers into pristine trade routes.
I may have a certain pride in the Corps, and yet this is warranted. After all, it did shape me.
The new young players need the Corps to bring them up as proper members of our community before they grow up to be rifle wielding gamers playing the next installment of Grand Theft Auto.
Think of the children *laughs* But no, really. The Corps are more than you ever imagined. Trust me on this, if Corps had never been implemented when I first joined. You would be talking to a very different type of gamer.
Mull it over
I promise adding them will have long term effects that will make DC feel like old times again.
Love is the key to all of creation.