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Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo
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@Lemon-Fox I’d really love to know who got bent out of shape about your apping a character who didn’t start at the bottom (which, for what it’s worth, I find hilariously petty, even by AoA standards, since the position was, as you said, largely ceremonial). I like learning more about the people who play there, good or bad. The good so I know who might be good people to know, and the bad so I know who to avoid like the plague.
Also, if you want to know why I, or anyone else here, feels the way we do, feel free to read the entire thread. You’ll either agree or disagree with us, as is your right. You may also learn things you may not have known about AoA. Possibly things you may not want to know.
And as for me ‘crapping all over it’, ‘being a giant dick about it’, ‘such a sourpuss about this’, ‘salty’, etc., etc., etc… reread my posts on this subject. Compare it to other posts here, including your own. I have my moments of anger and bitterness, as does everyone, and I’m choosing to believe that this is one of yours, because, contrary to what you may be thinking, I respect players and staff, yourself included, until they give me a very good reason not to.
And unlike you, Cujo and Company failed that test long ago, and have only gotten worse since. Positive change just isn’t a thing that happens on AoA, largely because of the sheer toxicity of the upper echelon of staff there, and until some or all of them change their ways, which they show no signs of ever doing, or leave and turn the game over to people who know and appreciate the value of respect for themselves and fellow players, positive change will remain an alien phenomenon there.
Feel free to disagree with me. As I said before, that’s your right. If this thing actually succeeds, and actually results in player driven, meaningful change to the grid (especially if it includes seeing the Sith Empire pushed into the position the Resistance occupies right now, a situation that I would consider proof positive that Aryn and her ilk aren’t just letting everyone think they’re accomplishing something while nothing meaningful actually changes) I’ll reevaluate my position. And if you and yours actually are having fun and don’t eventually get the full AoA experience (aka being screwed over by one or more staffers in at least one major way), I’ll be happy to be wrong.
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@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
Have you actually talked to him about any of this? Like, directly? Casually?
Yeah, a few times way back if it came up while we were talking about other things. I’d get various permumtations of “I worked really hard”, or complete silence. I think silence was actually the best result I got, 'cause then I could fool myself into thinking he’d listened to me. Then… history would repeat, and eventually I just didn’t try.
Most of the time he’d built something no one wanted or cared about and then got upset because no one wanted or cared about it, because he never really looked at what his player-base wanted or cared about. Some form of coded space combat was requested for years, in that time there was an alcohol system, vendor randomisation/rarity, a hugely growing space grid that was never used, endless Mandalorian handouts, beskar, the time-skip, etc.
The first indication the grid would receive that he’d made something was when it was suddenly live.
@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
The Naval Captain thing is open to anyone! No XP, Noms, or what-have-you required! You can also make a General or Wing Commander if you like! Just wanted to make sure people didn’t have that impression about it.
It is now, thanks to your actions. I don’t know whether or not you raised it as a concern to them, but I’m going to assume someone noticed and therefore the change was made. My point was the part before that, where another player took offense at you trying to play a character that could actually interact with the new system simply because you weren’t starting at zero. That’s never sat well with me and I saw it a scary number of times on that grid.
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@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
And as for me ‘crapping all over it’, ‘being a giant dick about it’, ‘such a sourpuss about this’, ‘salty’, etc., etc., etc… reread my posts on this subject. Compare it to other posts here, including your own. I have my moments of anger and bitterness, as does everyone, and I’m choosing to believe that this is one of yours, because, contrary to what you may be thinking, I respect players and staff, yourself included, until they give me a very good reason not to.
I just didn’t read it that way, and it seemed really negative toward something that is just trying to help (and being pretty effective!) I think one of the major disconnects is that people here expected a cut-throat, finely honed PvP engine, when those of us using it just like to swing big ships at each other and shout silly insults when we lose. The jank is part of the fun for now. It’ll get beaten into shape with more testing.
@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
Cujo and Company failed that test long ago
So, this is part of why I feel like old salt is interfering with giving stuff a chance. I’ve been on the game for a while now, and I’ve not experienced…hardly anything listed here. And while I play flirty characters, I’m rarely in the mood for taking anything further. And no one has creeped on me, which is actually really refreshing.
@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
(especially if it includes seeing the Sith Empire pushed into the position the Resistance occupies right now, a situation that I would consider proof positive that Aryn and her ilk aren’t just letting everyone think they’re accomplishing something while nothing meaningful actually changes)
This is actually my hope. I’m not going to sabotage the Empire’s efforts, but the Rebellion outnumbers us by a huge margin and I’d love for them to kick our butts overall. That’s the Star Wars way! I’d honestly like to also see a huge uptick in Jedi running around. Sith can be anywhere, but the Jedi are always hiding under rocks right now.
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@Lemon-Fox I very much appreciate your admission that you might have misread my intentions. Thank you. Frankly, I’m not really into complicated combat systems, no matter who designed them or how refined or kludgy they are, and the ground battle system as listed was so eye-crossingly complex that I couldn’t even finish reading it. If you really are playing with those two systems and having fun with them, and I really hope you are, I won’t try to dissuade you. That’s just not why I commented on them.
@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
So, this is part of why I feel like old salt is interfering with giving stuff a chance. I’ve been on the game for a while now, and I’ve not experienced…hardly anything listed here.
As with most of ‘the AoA experience’, I suspect this phrase should be capped off with the word ‘Yet.’ I hope not, but experience has taught me better than to harbor hopes that usually turn out to be false, or at least misplaced.
Hobbie already laid out the reasons for this better than I ever could, but for my part I’ll repeat that not only did Cujo and Company fail my test long ago, they continue to do so, and their behavior has gotten worse, not better. Even if they seem to have learned to hide it better than before. This may be a large part of why you haven’t had ‘the AoA experience’ to date.
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@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
So, this is part of why I feel like old salt is interfering with giving stuff a chance. I’ve been on the game for a while now, and I’ve not experienced…hardly anything listed here. And while I play flirty characters, I’m rarely in the mood for taking anything further. And no one has creeped on me, which is actually really refreshing.
Hi there.
I was on the game for about eight years. I was staff for close to five years. The people that are on staff now are the ones responsible for much of the sex pesting. Hadrix, in specific, had so many complaints over the years that I tried to address and it was all swept under the rug. I personally had many unpleasant experiences with him. It’s very easy to say, well I don’t experience it so maybe it didn’t happen, maybe it’s all better now. It’s not. You just don’t know about it because that’s the nature of the game culture.
Current members of staff have either outright abused systems and cheated to the point that they were set suspect up until they were abruptly put on staff. They have been complained about for harassment and manipulative behavior. They have been repeatedly accused of sex pesting. They have a long history of sweeping harassment claims under the rug, because they don’t want to deal with it, and when asked to even be allowed to address it, was met with a firm no we’ll wait and see if it stops answer. For years. This is every member of the wiz staff. Every. Single. One. I was there to see every bit of it, deal with many of the complaints, sift through the suspect logs, try and reassure players that I was listening to them.
When those are the kind of people that you put into the position of power, the well is poison. Don’t see it now? Cool. You will. You can ignore it, but the thing is, all of the things warned about here? They’re true. Eventually the shine is going to wear off on the game, and you’ll start to see what’s underneath.
They can only hide the rot for so long.
Good luck.
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@Lemon-Fox Hey Lemon-Fox, I’m glad you’re having fun on a game. Enjoy yourself tell the stories you want for the people you want to tell. Remember it’s better to ask for forgiveness with Cujo than permission. Have thick skin and no cares you will be fine.
Just be ready for the first time you cross Banshee, Hadrix, or Aryn. The 'not earned it’s for your admiral bit was just a taste.
Banshee once changed the rules for a force power mid scene cause he couldn’t one shot my very powerful dino Jedi. It was infuriating and funny at the same time.
Oh and yes, I talked to Cujo several times. It was hardly ever a directly bad experience. But years of lip service with no real support coupled with finally seeing the light is why I walked.
Oh if you’re a female player or female presenting player, try getting away with being bossy. He’s afraid of you. You really have the same power as Aryn especially if you can generate rp.
The times Cujo got onto me was my ic love interest was not playing well with others. Cujo would talk to me to get her to behave cause he was scared of her.
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@Zephyr Thanks for the heads up. I’ll be sure to post here if stuff goes sour, or if my friends report stuff being sour. I’m not going to sit around on that nonsense.
@Jax I don’t think Banshee, Hadrix, or Aryn were involved in the admiral character thing. Heck, Aryn supported me, and has been making an effort to include me in stuff with the Force Using Sith. She also seems excited about the Rebellion taking a stand and starting to recover worlds. But, as above, I’ll update if things seem to be going negative.
My trumpet is a tool of justice, not to be used in anger, not for vengeance! And, well, this is still my trumpet, so we can’t cue any cool Metal Gear Rising music just yet. But I just wanted to report that things seem pretty good right now, and you never know! People can change! Just hoping for the best right now.
And be sure to hit me up on game if you ever wanna talk or just check the place out again.
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The systems are onerous, the dino gaps are frustrating, the personalities of the staff and key players are sometimes terrible, that’s all kinda whatever in the end. It can be dealt with.
More to the point, and pointing at where this thread started:
Every MU in this day and age has a “harassment won’t be tolerated” policy. They vary by content and complexity, but to name just a few across a few genres/types/codebases: Liberation has policies of this type, Spellbound has them, Disquiet has them, Silent Heaven has them, Arx had them, I think even Shangrila has guidelines and policies around welcome and unwelcome player behavior.
There is one game out there that does not have a “harassment won’t be tolerated” policy and that is Age of Alliances. @Zephyr asked Cujo to put one in and he refused.
What on earth reason is there to refuse putting up a line of text that says harassment won’t be tolerated?
Make of that what you will, I guess.
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@Lemon-Fox
It’s nice you’re having a good time. None of the people in this thread left because it was impossible to have a good time, or there was too much gatekeeping, or it was hard to get started as a newbie, or there wasn’t enough content, or the mechanics weren’t ideal, or the DB was bloated.We left because players who had behaved in unconscionable ways were promoted rather than disciplined. These same players remain on staff. You may not care what kind of people they were to other people or at another time, but there are certain activities that, change of heart or not, I’m simply not ever willing to be around those who have done them or who tolerate them. It’s hard to say which is worse, but at AoA you don’t have to decide; you get both.
Of course we discussed these concerns with Cujo. I spoke with Cujo a few times a week for over five years. Zephyr spoke with him every day. We tried appealing to a sense of decency over this particular decision and were rebuffed. That’s why we left. We wanted to see some justice. We wanted protection from an abuser. We didn’t get it, so we had to leave.
There is a lot of unrelated salt in this thread, that is true, but this post was not put up out of a sense of revenge but sadness and concern. I am still sad, three years gone, about the outcome of those conversations, and I am still concerned for players who, like me at the time, did not know that the environment was unsafe. Please watch carefully for yours and your friends’ safety; staff won’t be.
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@Trashcan said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
We left because players who had behaved in unconscionable ways were promoted rather than disciplined. These same players remain on staff. You may not care what kind of people they were to other people or at another time, but there are certain activities that, change of heart or not, I’m simply not ever willing to be around those who have done them or who tolerate them. It’s hard to say which is worse, but at AoA you don’t have to decide; you get both.
Of course we discussed these concerns with Cujo. I spoke with Cujo a few times a week for over five years. Zephyr spoke with him every day. We tried appealing to a sense of decency over this particular decision and were rebuffed. That’s why we left. We wanted to see some justice. We wanted protection from an abuser. We didn’t get it, so we had to leave.
There is a lot of unrelated salt in this thread, that is true, but this post was not put up out of a sense of revenge but sadness and concern. I am still sad, three years gone, about the outcome of those conversations, and I am still concerned for players who, like me at the time, did not know that the environment was unsafe. Please watch carefully for yours and your friends’ safety; staff won’t be.
Yeah. You’re right. I guess I just want to be optimistic. And, as mentioned above, if I see that kind of behavior, I’ll be right back over here declaring that I was wrong. Sorry to dredge up bad memories, I was just reacting to the poo-pooing of the new galactic conquest system. I didn’t mean to chuck people’s feelings out the window, so sorry for that.
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@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
(especially if it includes seeing the Sith Empire pushed into the position the Resistance occupies right now, a situation that I would consider proof positive that Aryn and her ilk aren’t just letting everyone think they’re accomplishing something while nothing meaningful actually changes)
@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
She also seems excited about the Rebellion taking a stand and starting to recover worlds.
Aryn has a character or two in the Resistance that are in leadership roles in the form of Poe and possibly Dailo. It’s currently flush with her and her ilk. They’re on the winning side. It’s not surprising that she’s excited for them to take a stand and start recovering worlds.
