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First, I just want to thank Hazel and ยงcarlet ยงtorm for finding my old story Legends and returning it to me in the exact condition with which it was left ;). I greatly appreciate the help.
However, after seeing the old story again, I have found time to reflect on the way Avara impacted so many of us. To follow is a reply I had originaly posted on the Avara Guild forums, but I think bears metnioning here as well. Please, feel free to reply with your own thoughts on the subject of Avara. It is my hope to hear from you all from so long ago...
As for the Avaran community, seeing these replies at the very least suggests Avara might have survived longer had we simply maintained the ability to play the game. Even still, the argument could be made that Avara really isn't dead, yet. It seems that there are at least a few souls out there that might still be perpetuating the game through, if nowhere else, their own thoughts and musings.
It is good to hear voices from the past. I suppose that, as we all age, there exists within us a growing piece that yearns for articles from our youth. Whatever the case, I can say that Avara was truly a unique experience in my life and perhaps that is why it inspired me to write Legends and to keep coming back after so many years.
I think, for a lot of us (at least for me), Avara represents a time when we were just breaking into the online realm. Even if you were an avid gamer before Avara, the fact that you owned a Mac would suggest that you had limited options for online play to begin with. Couple that to the infantile state of online gaming in general at that time, the lack of advertisement, the somewhat esoteric nature of Avara's log-on interface, and the truly powerful expandability of the game by third party players, and suddenly conditions existed to create a game that could only ever be sustained by a small contingent of committed and dedicated players. Truly, it was unique because, without the community support, it would have gone on life-support much earlier than it did.
I know Ambrosia never intended the game to reach the popularity that it did, but the company owes much to the community for having any sales at all. I never would have paid for that game had it not been for those of you who created servers that shunned pirated or expired copies of the game; or the tournaments that would only allow participation if the player had a full version. Beyond the peer pressure from other players, there really was no need to pay for the game, but we all created the need, and without support from the developer in almost any way. I mean no slight to Ambrosia. They had their priorities and Avara was not among them. Even still, how many games can boast such a set of circumstances?
As for me, it was one of my first experiences with online play, with meeting people whom I did not know and playing a game together that few ever really understood. However, because of this, it made us into a tighter community that I have found repeated in no other title.
We were few, but we had fun, exploring a world that was new and ever changing (a reflection, I think, of our own, younger selves at the time). Avara is what we all made it, what we all put into it, and what we all, collectively and individually, remember of it.
Thank you again ยงcarlet ยงtorm and Hazel for your replies. I really hope others find this site and add to the conversation. I know most of us lack the ability to play Avara, but it would still be enjoyable to hear from others out there who still have a place for that old game in their memory.
Also, if you all do decide to re-read Legends for whatever reason, please forgive me for the typos and grammatical errors. I was still breaking into the unforgiving, yet at times immensely rewarding, field of writing and I have to laugh a little at seeing how much of my youthful view of the world was put into this nearly ancient tale. I have thought of updating the chapters, but I realize the story represents too much of who I was at that time, and, as much as I might cringe during many moments of re-reading, the story is as it was, and probably should remain that way. I promise, though, that it gets better after about the sixth chapter ;).
Thanks again, and I hope to see you all around in at least some form of the still evolving Avara.
This post has been edited by Rezolution : 25 November 2009 - 02:27 AM
(No thanks again? :p)
I think many people of the ASW community have had similar experiences with their games. Like my experience with the game, Ferazel's Wand.
I don't know if you also realized that Avara is in the "process" of being updated:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php...t=0&start=0
I put the word process in quotes because those topics are more or less dead, though the guy from the second one does seem to pop back in again once every blue moon (and his work is pretty substantial).
My initial experience with Avara was like Ares, too hard to learn and Ferazel's Wand was funner. Needless to say that's changed.
Avara was the first FPS I played (and still like no other I've played) and the first game I ever played online. It was the reason I joined the ASW forums, which were the first web forums I ever joined. I didn't start playing until 2004 I think, by which time there were only a handful of people still playing. It's still the most unique game I've ever played and probably still my favorite of all time. I loved it not only for what it was, but the potentials I saw that the engine and gameplay offered (but were never realized.)