So.. I ventured out of my safety zone the other day.. Yep, I left Classic and trekked all the way to another server. Initially, I only intended to stay for a short visit, to acquaint myself with the use of radio there(Which, in my opinion, is an awesome concept and I would love to see it developed further). But curiosity got the best of me, and I was sucked into the server known as Zodiac. Could be worse. Before I go on, I’d like to say that I had been to Zodiac once before, but it was for an hour at most, and I just couldn’t find the interest to stay at the time. This was more of a revisit to a place that I never thought I’d grow to like. Boy, oh boy.
The first thing that was thrown at me was that little tutorial. Wonderful, I now know to pick up every ‘Leaves’ that I see. But seriously, it’s better than what some other servers have for a tutorial--except for the part where I walked into a puddle, drowned, and was sent into the real world before I could learn how to give him my ‘Leaves’. Alright, it’s cool, I’m a blonde, I’m used to things like that happening. The next 15 minutes were spent observing the locals. A bit eccentrically dressed, but otherwise bearable. One girl--I’ll call her Miss Fae--even showed me the first leveling dungeon and explained that I should sell the bones collected to the weapons shop. Which is where? After leveling for a while(Rufus joined me after a bit and we were an unstoppable team, BAM! SLASH!), I found it and was able to sell my hoard of bones that no one else seemed to want. Suckers.
After a while of playing, though, I realized that players were showing me everything--nothing that I learned in the tutorial(or however much of the tutorial I saw) was helping me now, sans changing the color of my clothing. So I went back to the starting area and poked around. To the left, I can get to some caves that have some uberstrong scary monster dragon things in them. Run away! To the right I can look at the wall, and if I go up, I can get to a room where I hit a boy and see how strong I am. Some guy also tells me to solve some Ancient Roman puzzle or something. Awesome! I am now thoroughly convinced that this building serves no purpose other than a place to socialize after you die. So I venture outside.. and briefly wonder why there is a spotlight shining on that random little tree that makes little 3’s float around you. But I gave up on that--it apparently make as much sense as the giant rotating spiky ball in the main area of Unholy Nation. The several buildings around the main one seemed to serve similar purposes, except not the socializing or dying, just the ‘no purpose’ part. I don’t even have a clue as to what they’re for. I find lots of rooms with silent NPCs gazing at me with their lifeless pixilated eyes. One place is apparently a library, of which the librarian is very lazy and very stupid. She tells me not to leave the books out, and yet there are books littered about the entire room, and half the shelves are empty. Everyone knows that when you tell a Graalian NOT to do something, our instant reflex is to DO it. Surprisingly, the weapons shop has a sign with swords on it. Not surprisingly, the NPC man standing in front of it says nothing helpful or even related or even gender indiscriminate. I am no ‘sir,’ thank you.
Now I’m not just gonna sit here and bash Zodiac for all its worth, that’s hardly the point of this. I am just giving you my exact reactions to what I’ve seen on that server. Hey, there’s more to do there, in a genuinely productive sense, than there is on any other server that I’ve been on. Granted, I don’t leave the shelter that is Classic very often, but I do try to give other servers a go once in a while, when I’m feeling particularly brave. In fact, I think I’d venture to call it the current most entertaining Classic server at the moment. I’ve been told that after a few weeks, when most leveling has been done, it starts to become less interesting, but we shall see, we shall see.
I noticed, with a bit of sadness, that Zodiac lacks the community that Classic, has. There are no mass message conversations--only people asking for help, or uploaders, or to sell/buy items. The closest thing to a conversation starter I’ve seen massed was never responded to... thankfully. If there’s one good thing that comes of that, it’s the more family friendly atmosphere. Swear words are censored to things like M’kay(which makes me lol every time I see it), and we don’t have our lovely Classic massers eloquently(!?) discussing sex, drugs, and bad music. This has a rather obvious fix, just a place where communication is open and welcome. And thus comes the shameless plug, I give to you
http://www.zodiac-online.com/forums/index.php which happens to be my new favorite hangout as well as a very comfortable, friendly, and helpful message board for Zodiac. The Official Communication Center is excellent if you need help, but it's a much less relaxed place, which is why something more focused--a message board dedicated to Zodiac as a server--is so conducive to the development of the community.
Another thing that I've come across is a rather obvious lack of staff presence. Granted, I haven't played for very long, but I've tried to take note of what staff I've seen and how often. I've seen a total of three PRs online, and none for any great length of time. To me, this position is of utmost importance on a server that, as I've already noted, isn't very newbie friendly. I took the time to ask the staff members I did see some questions that I felt would help me better understand the current administrative condition of Zodiac. I basically asked things like "How do you feel you contribute to the server in your position?" and "How do you think the server is progressing currently?" Out of the four people that I managed to ask, I found Jerret to be the most helpful and friendly, and Darkus to be just the opposite--he actually logged immediately after I sent the pm. Jerret and one other member(I honestly forget who it was, and I just reformatted x.x) said that the server was progressing rather slowly, and the last person I asked, a female PR if I remember correctly, stated that she wasn't too sure of the development, only that she's heard that the dev server is helping. I obviously can't base much off of what answers I got from three staff members, nor can I say "OMG DARKUS IS A LOSER HE LOGGED," because he could have very well lost power or fallen for the old "press alt + f4 to get unlimited gold" scams. In any case, I will say that I do think Zodiac could use a bit of shaping up on the staff activity--at least as far as PRs go. Their job is indisposable.
One last thing that I personally have noticed is that there really seems to be a one-track objective on this sever. You level up. And you level, and level, and level. Awesome. Now maybe this is another bit of non newbie-friendlyism, but I haven't really found anything else to do, bar type up a review of Zodiac, hang out with players, and collect/sell bones. Man, some people just don't appreciate those bones. But what else is there to do? I've seen something of a fish shop, I think, but I was on my way to sell my collection of 85 bones, so I just kinda walked out without investigating. If there are alternatives to simply leveling for your entire Zodiac experience, I'd like to see them more accessible/encouraged. God forbid Zodiac turn into another UN with nothing BUT alternatives to do, but I think we can find a happy medium in which people who wish to level may do so enthusiastically, and people who want to, you know, do something else, can also entertain themselves thoroughly.
Well, I think I've bantered on long enough to get at least part of my point across: this server is cool, but it can be AWESOME with just a bit more effort. My word isn't gold or anything, but I do think that one of the most important things a community can do is to consider every opinion, possibility, option, and suggestion available. Even if it's so much consideration as "Well dang, that was stupid," it still needs to be acknowledged and looked into, accordingly. Ignoring players is the most ridiculous path a server can take. I'm not saying that Zodiac is doing this--if it was, I doubt it would be as popular as it is--but taking that route would not be wise. Just.. make sure you think about what people have to say, even the blondes.
02-09-2007, 05:31 PM
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