I am not at all in the know regarding why Arborea chose to leave, but I think the name-calling seen above is entirely counterproductive. I feel certain that the Arborea team understood the Articles of Confederation upon joining, and, from what I have seen, they and COPAP have acted responsibly and according to the Articles in the withdrawal of Arborea's membership application.
I think COPAP is facing some pretty big decisions pretty soon, and I recommend confronting whatever constructive feedback has been received from the Arborea team as a learning experience, rather than an exercise in name-calling.
I have been a COPAP member for more than a year, now. In that time, I believe, no new worlds have successfully joined COPAP (I might be wrong here, and one or two of the six may have joined within the time that I have been a member). This, to me, represents a significant problem. The really attractive idea of COPAP is that it will integrate numerous worlds: I don't think COPAP is living up to that goal, for whatever reason.
A careful look at these six worlds reveals, I think, an even more significant problem:
1. For starters, Ea's server and website have been down lately--can we even consider them a functioning world?
2. Tairis'nadur's website makes it clear that this is not a setting meant for new players. This is not meant as a criticism of them, but I think most COPAP newbies, or those looking to start a new character, see that and take it to heart: Tairis'nadur is not the place for me right now.
3. Hala, I have not been to, and really do not feel qualified to comment on.
4. Abyss 404, I have not been to, and really do not feel qualified to comment on.
5. Mystara, the world which attracted me to COPAP and on which I have spent the most time, seems to be dying. Not only are the servers and website intermittent, at best, but the quality of the world has, I think, deteriorated. I would argue that Mystara, at least, has fallen victim to the sort of cookie-cutter imagery that started this thread. Six months ago, when Rockhome was still vibrant, it was already showing considerable issues. Items all over the server bore names not in any way associated with Rockhome, but rather with Avlis. At any given time, a player would be more likely to find more characters present from Avlis (and, to a lesser degree, Hala) than native to Mystara. While generally friendly, these Avlissian explorers were often more interested in taking advantage of the generous treasure drops/xp in certain sections of the server than in advancing Rockhome's storyline in any way.
I want to make it clear that I still enjoy Rockhome, and I very much appreciate the hard work that so many people have put into this setting. I'd also like to clarify that, individually, I met some great visitors from Avlis, and I also do not want to make it appear that I am criticizing them. However, whether due to administrative decisions, player base, COPAP configuration, or a combination of the above, the atmosphere of Mystara was negatively--perhaps fatally--impacted.
I will continue to play on Rockhome when possible, but I have come to terms with the realization that, most likely, this server will not be around much longer, and I will most likely lose a character on whom I have spent countless hours. While I recognize the possibility of relocating her to another server, I have come to the decision that, as a Mystaran character, there is no reasonable IC reason to do so.
6. Avlis is impressive. The long-time, dedicated player base exigent in Avlis is overwhelming--both in a good way and a bad way.
The good--Avlis has the highest concentration of RPers that I have ever encountered. Period. And that's one heck of an accomplishment. Add to that all the integrated custom code systems and the extensive world background developed, and Avlis is, without question, a great thing.
The bad--Avlis is not friendly to new players or new starts of existing COPAP players. While you are welcome to disagree with me, this is based off of my own experience, so I think it is legitimate. With each new character I have created in Avlis (three total now) and when my Rockhome alter travelled to Deglos, I have had similar results. I have encountered a couple of PCs who were willing to befriend me and kind of show me the ropes (incidentally, whether they recognized my Gamespy name or not, these are PCs who I have also been impressed with in Rockhome). Among the four starts, I have had the pleasure of about five minutes of DM interaction (I am genuinely grateful to the DM, don't know the name, who was willing to give me this attention, and I certainly don't want to make it sound otherwise. However, when compared to the DM attention in the past in Rockhome, and in various new worlds like Arborea, it just does not compare).
I have read through the Avlis source material, but the fact is that it is too much to fully internalize for an occasional player. I really do not remember what the differences are among T'nanshi, Mikona, Elysia, etc., much less all the different deities. At this point, I simply do not anticipate spending the time in Avlis necessary to really learn all these things--while I admire the effort put into this world, I would rather invest what time I have in a setting which I will enjoy more.
So, I would argue, that if COPAP is worth saving, then we as a community really should look at the concerns expressed. Having seen what the overwhelming population of Avlis and the ravages of time have done to Mystara, I believe that there is legitimate concern regarding the cookie-cutterization of worlds. Perhaps if Moonsea had managed to hang in there we would have a more successful model. However, at this point, it seems that the path of least resistance in COPAP is to become simply a satellite of Avlis. While this might well be what the players of Avlis want, I would encourage those who want to dedicate their time to building the Avlis community to do so by filling in some of the still-numerous holes in the map of Avlis.
Those individuals generous enough to dedicate their time to building a new world should be able to coexist with Avlis without being overwhelmed by Avlis. Perhaps this will never be possible, but I think that the ideas underlying COPAP are valuable enough to keep trying.
Having finally laid out what I think is a convincing argument that COPAP needs to consider some sort of change, now I'll offer a few suggestions of possible changes that might help.
1. Eliminate the crafting system from the Avlis-compliant world model. While I recognize the generosity of the Avlis Dev team in sharing this system, I believe that it, more than anything else, enforces the cliquishness of Avlis and spreads the distribution of Avlis-specific items throughout COPAP. I would have no problem with banning the Bioware crafting system, as well. Ideally, the dev team would be willing to share their crafting system source code with other worlds, allowing freedom to alter the system as desired, so long as it remains relatively balanced.
2. Encourage new member worlds to set level limits. As long as exploration of new member worlds is primarily possible only when accompanied by high-level visitors from existing member worlds, the social dynamic of these worlds will be shaped in an Avlis-centric manner which, I think, detracts from their unique playability.
3. Actively recruit to the Avlis team those interested in expanding the scope of opportunities for Avlis players. As long as people are volunteering their time for new worlds with the thinking that they will be a great place for their high-level friends to explore, we will be facing the alternative of either disappointing the staff members or creating worlds which invite domination by Avlis characters.
4. Consider giving added voice in COPAP to those who are not specifically tied to existing worlds. I do not in any way want to minimize the contribution of Orleron (thanks for all you do!), but I think there may be, at some level, some difficulty in combining the leadership of Avlis and of COPAP.
5. Honestly listen to and consider the feedback provided by the team from Arborea. They have far more experience with the membership application process than do most.
Thanks for listening
Oh no! You mean I've been eating in Macdonalds for the last two years?
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