Times have changed?

[Lord Sephiroth]

A few weeks ago I was talking with Crono about old Enigma and took a little trip down memory lane and I started thinking about old times I used to have on Graal.

I remembered specifically on Enigma, everyone climbing up the waterfall and getting stuck in the "Noob Cage", and we all took a picture and stuff.
I also remembered the "Love Nest" from Enigma which, by todays standards would be totally inappropriate.

But I also thought back to old Babylon where we used to put on plays and stuff. A bunch of us would get together and we'd reherse lines and then we'd go up on stage in front of an audience of like 30-40 people and perform our play, then people would cheer and laugh and no one would be insulting anyone or anything.

So a few weeks ago I started server hopping.

I spent a couple days on each server, seeing if anything like that happened again, and the closest thing I found was 4 or 5 people on UN going to go Quest together.

So I was wondering, have the times just changed on us? Is this why some or, most of us rather, find Graal tedius and boring? Or is it just my changing age? I've grown up a lot since playing "James Bond" back on Babylon, but in my search I havn't seen anything like it replicated.

Have we just outgrown out Graal Community or has that type of fun just been obliterated by the evolution of standards?

[Crono]

We'll we've all kind of grown older but still, the playerbase isn't the same as before. Yeah Enigma was a fun time, I remember the Lycia chocolate factory, the big guild wars, the fun little wings, just hanging out with random people, and pretending to fall off the main building. Yeah...

Graal's population is kind of messed. There's a missing gap, either you're doing some lame "rping" on UN involving things like...

setnick fighturchik -queen- {mother is lylie54} {son is bober} [fiteing woman]

or simply pking. The reason why no one is really doing fun things anymore like the plays you mentioned, or silly buildings is because of event centers. Players explored and stuff back then because there wasn't much better to do. They did original things because it was fun and interesting. Nowadays there are event centers on almost every server, so players don't really NEED to go ahead and do fun and original things. Just join the event so they can win that event coin and buy some item that should be for sale for rupees instead like old graal.

:/

[Tom]

I remeber the plays and stuff on babylon, and also remeber people playing in bands with the cool instruments.

I think with technolodgy getting better we are becoming more demanding with what we want on graal.

A classic level with a few pre-made baddies used to make a few people happy as hell, now it has to be levels, really good artwork and stuff like that to make people happy.

But i do actually miss people getting along and working together.

Oh yea and greenroads cafe first started on babylon, that rocked lol

[Devil]

Babylon wtf?

Let's take it back way before Babylon on let's say, 1.39 of Classic, then Elven Lands.

[Rufus]

Every so often on Classic I get a PM from someone like "I'VE GOT 1000 RUPEES!!!!!" and it makes me smile because this is how Graal used to be, getting excited over silly little things - but it was fun.

The old generation of players have grown up and grown past that, but there's a new generation of players with the same attitudes as what we had, although it is lacking. I wish there was more new excitable players as I'm more tolerant to them then some of the egotistical old players.

[konidias]

You can't use the phrase "times have changed" as a question, because it's already a statement. =P It's like saying "Earth revolves around Sun?".

Of course the times have changed. Nothing stays the same forever. What people found fun back in 1960 isn't exactly fun by today's standards. But it's not Graal that has really changed... it's the people playing it who have changed the most. I'm no longer 16 or 17 anymore. Just like most people aren't 13 or 15 or 15... When as much as 5 years have passed, people change a lot and the stuff that was once fun and exciting is in the past and the excitement is gone.

Though there is still nostalgia to be sought... which keeps stuff in the past alive. But the problem is that Graal has evolved in the wrong direction and there are at least some valid reasons as to why it's not as fun as it was in 2001 or earlier. It's not like Graal doesn't have limitless potential... It's that it's been kind of stagnant as of late.

At one point "hats" and "bomy pets" and stuff were new and exciting. We don't have anything to replace those now... we still have the same old stuff. It's like the creativity died.

[Infernix]

lol..I have to admit Id be happy if I could just find 1 server on graal that had rlly nice artwork. Sadly all of our so called "good" pixel artist never team up/complete 1 damn project because they must have ADD or somthing and cant focus on 1 thing. So every server still looks pretty damn plain or incomplete.

..and when it comes to gameplay yea Ive grown older for sure and my demands have grown larger as well. Its been like that ever since I played pokemon and started understanding the depth games can truly take.

So yea I believe times are change in our own lives for sure and in the gameing world as well. Graal just isnt keeping up.....and its not like 2D games are dead.

[excaliber7388]

Originally Posted by Infernix

lol..I have to admit Id be happy if I could just find 1 server on graal that had rlly nice artwork. Sadly all of our so called "good" pixel artist never team up/complete 1 damn project because they must have ADD or somthing and cant focus on 1 thing. So every server still looks pretty damn plain or incomplete.

Too bad I'm not so great with pixel art huh?
Come work on my server

[killerogue]

I may never know anything about these good times all you guys talk about and never will. I started in late '02 - early '03 I remember learning my first "codes" which I later found out to be filenames. A proof to the "flocking of noobs" is the first server I played was Unholy Nation. No, never will all the great pixel artists work together and I'll give you reasons:

Elk - Self Explanatory
Tom - BMX and Probably Just Won't
DonaldShimoda - Doesn't Like His Work Taken From Him (As I've Heard Stefan and Unixmad Have Done Before)
Zero Hour - No Longer Pixels?
Alarid - Not Around Alot But Wouldn't Know Anything Otherwise (Referring To Self)
Haro - Gone And Never To Return?
Draenin - Just Won't Do It?
Gate - Gone
Bloo Kat - Gone
Garel - Gone

Some of this stuff has been told to me by the individual artist and I'm not trying to speak for anyone but this is the problem besides almost all artists are lazy. Including myself.

[Draenin]

Originally Posted by killerogue

Draenin - Just Won't Do It?

No, it's more like losing the drive to do it when you've put a lot of effort into your work, and it goes unused. Now repeat that for nearly every single thing you do and you'll discover why I really don't care as much anymore about doing it.

[PrinceDark]

Yeah damn Haro was fricking good too. Doubt he'll return.

I see Gate on occasionally. KyleOdin was another GFX beast, and I admired GYoshi's work too.

Its sad when you create things and they never get used or be brought to life, or bleh everyone quit ... the neverending story of graal.

[Tyhm]

I find it to be an issue of population DENSITY. Ironic since I probably did more damage to density than most on Classic: If there's a hundred players on a server with a thousand levels, fair chance you'll meet up with someone at random. If there's a million levels....

Thus, hubworld. I win.