| Getting things rolling again... | |
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Virtue - Jedi Council  |
Hey guys and gals.
Right so we're going to get things rolling around here again. We've got around a month until TOR comes out and as many of you know, we're going to be moving into that. Don't dispair, we're still going to keep catering for JK3 for as long as you guys want to play it, so the servers and what classes we have aren't going anywhere. - Oh and also, if theres anything that you feel will make out JK3 servers better, then don't hesitate to let us know! The website is getting an overhaul, so expect to see a new site popping up in the next few weeks with plenty of new features and stuff to make our lives easier and more pleasent, I'm sure you'll love it. To kick off though, we really want to get theRadio going again as it'd be great for people to just have on while they're playing JK3 or TOR or whatever to get the latest news on the JA, what's going on, and of course, good music catered to you! We're going to have an auto-DJ in between radio shows, so the Radio will effectively always be on and we'll get a DJ schedule so that people who want a show on the Radio can get their slot in. So having said that, I'm looking for people who want to be DJs. The requirements are: - You have to have a music collection (duh) - You have to have a microphone, interacting with and enertaining your audience is a must! - You must have software capable of broadcasting your show (if you don't, then we may be able to help you with that). If anyone's interested, e-mail me at virtue@thejediacademy.net with as much info on you and your show as you can and we'll work out a program for you if you qualify. For those of you who remember, when the Radio was at it's peak, we had some really great shows and some really funny stuff used to happen, it was immense - let's show it some love! Hope to hear from you guys. 
EDIT: This is just the first step in getting things rolling, stay tuned for more. _______________ Academy Architect This post was edited by Virtue on Nov 11 2011 03:35pm. |
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Wolfwood - Student 
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It's always so easy to look back and point fingers aint it ... _______________ ~ Honor is a fool's prize. Glory is of no use to the dead ~ |
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Setementor - Jedi Master 
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I totally agree with Dash and I agree with what you said there JK13.
Quote: Meanwhile, TJA teachings gave TJA students a dismissive and un-analytical answer to why they lost a fight: the opponent was clearly exploiting and thus was a cheater. Players dismissed these losses out of hand instead of exploring them for any lessons they could glean. That is a huge failure on the part of TJA.
Not everyone dismissed it out of hand, many were quite eagor to learn how to defend against them and fight them. There are a lot of times when techniques for combating them were taught. This comment was edited by Setementor on Dec 07 2011 05:14am. |
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Maher - Jedi Knight 
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meh, I have had my fun countless times as thinking of how to beat up "exploiter" with pure style.
The Game became just too easy with right swing+wiggle and I'm glad that JA.net keep out those ego kids from JAK+. tbh, TJA has just done one mistake on his way of being glorious community; letting ^Plank in all way to the council, I mean seriously wtf?!?   _______________ Still here | My Lightsaber |
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JK13 /// jaws. - Student 
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Quote: We didn't blindly ignore how the style of play was changing - we made a concious decision not to go down the same road. The JA viewed exploits as cheating (and I still do) and wanted its students to be skilled at the game instead.
Dash, that is precisely my point. When TJA made a conscious decision of this kind it ceased to be a school for learning JKA. Instead we lost academic integrity and TJA decided what was cheating and what wasn't, teaching opinion as if it were fact. It is true what you and setementor say, that the JA taught these 'basics' very well indeed. Everyone should learn things like movement and yellow combinations, but the JA also actively taught that other 'exploiting' styles were unfair and cheating. When in fact these 'exploiting' styles were just newer and more advanced styles of play. By condemning these styles of play, TJA ostracized loyal JA players who happened to embrace the so-called 'zploitz' and basically its whole playerbase who was qualified to teach or practice the most advanced saber combat. This situation left TJA with, as Setementor said: More staff positions than good candidates. By 2007 when TJA dropped its official 'frowning upon' stance, the damage was done. The players who were good candidates to teach this sort of thing were long gone and numerous players still playing at TJA were indoctrinated into a way of thinking that was xenophobic and dismissive of anything but keeping your opponent centered in your yellow swings. I know there are exceptions but in general this attitude prevailed. In a way, you could say that TJA actually stunted numerous players' JKA growth in this period because it taught the opposite of a winning attitude. To become better at a game like this, one must walk the continuous path of self-improvement: a path of constant analysis of your own shortcomings, mistakes and attitudes and trying to improve them in any way possible. Meanwhile, TJA teachings gave TJA students a dismissive and un-analytical answer to why they lost a fight: the opponent was clearly exploiting and thus was a cheater. Players dismissed these losses out of hand instead of exploring them for any lessons they could glean. That is a huge failure on the part of TJA. _______________ It's a false hologram, it IS artificial... This comment was edited by JK13 /// jaws. on Dec 07 2011 02:30am. |
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Dash Starlight - Jedi Instructor 
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Jk13, I've read your post - twice! Now obviously, you make a lot of valid points, but I'd like to share my thoughts on some of them that I disagree with.
Quote: The rules and behavior on the server started to come before the fun and games.
That's just one way of seeing it, so here's another perspective. To me, the rules actually ensured that the JA had an atmosphere as special as it was in my opinion. Thankfully, there was a community that enforced rules against swearing, abuse, homophobic talk and other kinds of abuse unlike many public servers. Quote: Our fancy little mod and fancy little map became more important than who was playing on them, and what they were learning.
We tried to produce a mod that was base-like and gave us admin abilities. Because we wanted the best possible environment for our students to train in. When we realized the mod would never work, we threw it out the window and put base on the servers. All for the sake of the development of students. Quote: TJA ignored how the style of play developed outside its walls and favored an archaic JK2 style that in all practicality was obsolete. The JA servers became ivory towers where people played one way, and anyone who ventured beyond TJA teachings and developed with the game was frowned upon.
We didn't blindly ignore how the style of play was changing - we made a concious decision not to go down the same road. The JA viewed exploits as cheating (and I still do) and wanted its students to be skilled at the game instead. We indeed dropped our stance of frowning upon it years ago as students were free to choose how they wanted to fight. They wanted exploits? No problem, but they just wouldn't learn it here. Did it make some people so unhappy that they left the JA? Probably, but remember that you can never please everyone. In other words, had exploits been taught here (and/or rules enforced much less), other people would have probably been unhappy and leave because of it. You can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself - Ricky Nelson! What we taught was far from obsolete also. In fact, what we used to teach is ignored so much these days, that some people start having problems when they fight somebody who uses what was taught. Just because they don't understand it and aren't used to it. What I do agree with, is that we could have had (much) more variety. We mainly taught yellow, which isn't bad in itself, but I would have loved to have seen red, duals, staff, force, movement and gunning classes also. Be careful though; it isn't bad that we taught yellow a lot. It's bad that we didn't teach the rest also. In other words, for those who are tempted to do this, don't blame the absence of 'the rest' on the 'presence' of yellow. Quote: The trials were so over-thought it was criminal (parry-countering blaster fire? a ludicrous obstacle course?) and by and large had little to do with a player's ability in mainstream jka.
Interesting. What makes you think there is an obstacle course and a parry-countering blaster fire test in the trials? You obviously can't know as you can't have heard anything about the trials contents. If you have, however, not only has trial information leaked to you, but you just leaked it to the public. Sorry for this post, but I really wanted to get this out of my system. _______________ The name is Bond. James Bond. This comment was edited by Dash Starlight on Dec 07 2011 11:44am. |
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planK - Jedi Council 
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Quote: There are too many words in this thread.
Don't worry, they will be quoted and explained to you in due course! |
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solitude - Jedi Council 
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There are too many words in this thread. _______________ Joined 16 October 2004 | Retired 10 April 2005 | Returned 05 June 2008 | Made Staff 27 June 2008 | Made Council 18 January 2009 Padawan To Odan-Wei Belouve | Adopted into the Belouve family | Twin to xAnAtOs | Owner of the 4th Quesi sexy badge Brother To Roan Belouve, Nomad, Majno, Silkmonkey, Kensei and Jarhok Belouve
Owner Of Virtue's 1000th profile comment, Mr. Doobie's 1000th profile comment, Gradius' 2500th comment, xAnAtOs' 2500th comment, Rosered's 1500th comment, Laziana's 900th comment, Scythus' 500th comment and Echuu's 100th comment |
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planK - Jedi Council
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Of course there's creative writing. When I did my trials I lied about how I would be good at being a JAK. |
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Alex Dkana - Staff 
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Quote: Here's a JAK+ secret: there is NO creative writing section to the JAK trial
 But I studied it at uni and everything, you must accommodate me!  _______________ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield | Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken | Rhaiko D'kana - SWTOR EU Guild Co-Founder | Is it what the teacher, teaches? Or what the student learns? A Dkana |
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planK - Jedi Council
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Quote: Here's a JAK+ secret: there is NO creative writing section to the JAK trial
But... that erotic novel Virtue told me I had to write...?!?! |
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Setementor - Jedi Master 
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Yeah, we can't and won't really discuss the trials here. |
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Lirael - Jedi Council 
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For any students reading:
This is why we tend to have these discussions in private. Because to fully discuss the JAK+ trials we'd have to explain what goes on in them and they wouldn't be much of a test. It is also quite likely to go off topic and it is also possible that someone very helpful would suggest a creative writing section. Here's a JAK+ secret: there is NO creative writing section to the JAK trial _______________ I can write my name with my sparkler. My sparkler > your lightsabre |
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planK - Jedi Council 
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Quote: I agree with Jaws on many things, but not about the trial or the way staff enforced rules in the past. I was on the staff at the time though whereas you guys weren't.
And I've been around since September 2002, participated in the original JAT trials, and two incarnations of the JAK trials. I've read just about every thread worth reading from academy discussion to council chambers, from september 2002 to present day.
With all that in mind, I can tell you that from my own personal experience, both at the time and in hindsight, I can tell you that out of the three trials I did, 75% of the stuff involved in them was completely impractical and seemed to exist purely to make it seem like a "real" jedi knight trial. |
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Setementor - Jedi Master
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I agree with Jaws on many things, but not about the trial or the way staff enforced rules in the past. I was on the staff at the time though whereas you guys weren't.
Quote: Besides, the more we talk about this, the more Sete is gonna get butthurt and quote every sentence in your posts.
Yep. |
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planK - Jedi Council
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I agree with jaws, even though I don't think things are quite as dramatic as he might make it sound. Definitely not dramatic enough for that wall of text you made me read, god damn it.
Same goes for you, Sete. I was born to breed, not to read! Anyway, long story short - the JA has always been a "honourable dueling" kind of community. The player base here who played competitive TFFA or CTF, for example, was a minority but should have been accommodated long before any effort was made to make this place as fun for them as those who spent most of their time in-game standing in line to duel whoever was winning duels. I mean, the knight trials don't even have any practical gunnery in 'em. Last time a trial was held, the trial itself came under a lot of scrutiny because it's so outdated and, in many ways, impractical. But whatever, it's not like we have a huge JKA player base to accommodate any more. Maybe people will pick it up after SWTOR launches and new JA members learn a bit about our history. Why are we even discussing this, anyway? It's such an ancient topic and everyone knows what's up. Besides, the more we talk about this, the more Sete is gonna get butthurt and quote every sentence in your posts. |
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Lirael - Jedi Council
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To be arcane and completely opaque I'm not going to go into details here, JK13 .
However, I want to say for the most part, I agree with your analysis. With a new website and a new game to consider we (JAK+) have had extensive discussions about new ways to promote/demote people. I don't want to down play what you're saying because they are important points and we are very much aware of them and have been for a long time. To fix the problem I think we need to make it easier for people with good ideas to get promoted or have powers to do something rather than just feel what they are saying is falling on deaf ears. Our current idea is that students will be able to apply to be JAK (or equivalent) rather than US toggling THEM. I hope this will draw to our attention people who might otherwise have gone unnoticed. But the process still won’t be 100% transparent because every now and again there’ll be a completely unsuitable application and I don’t want to have to explain in an open forum to this individual in front of all the other JA members that no, we don’t feel someone from Kansas with 1337 story-writing skillz is quite the skill set we feel we need to add to our team of JAK+ at the current time. New trials, which are relevant to the game type and skills required also are being considered. I am particularly concerned about demoting inactive players. I hope Sete doesn’t mind me saying that he and I differ in opinion on the precise details of how to judge a JAK as inactive or what demands we should make of them. It’s not an easy thing to decide, there are merits to both our points of view – if you’ve got any ideas about that, please feel free to say them and I can assure you they are not falling on deaf ears. Overall I hope the way things will run shall be more open and more relevant to students. _______________ I can write my name with my sparkler. My sparkler > your lightsabre This comment was edited by Lirael on Dec 06 2011 04:14pm. |
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Masta - Jedi Council 
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Sete, the vast majority of things you said I disagree with. But I do not think this is the place to discuss such things. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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Setementor - Jedi Master
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Quote: It's unfortunate that things had to turn out this way, but I'm afraid without co-operation from lucasarts, jka is effectively dead.
Yep, but we will continue to support it regardless. More details on how we will go about this will be announced later. Quote: Despite the game being widely pirated, because lucasarts strictly will not open the source code, we will never be able to encourage new players to acquire the game free of charge and join our little community
Open source doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have to buy it. Quake 3 is open source, but you're still supposed to buy it. The game gets old, that's just how it goes, but like I said we will continue to support it. Quote: The rampant inactivity and loss of quality players at the academy began to take place way back in 2006.
No, it actually began at the start of 2005. That was when the decline "started". Wireplay had huge lag problems, and the US server had a lag issue at peak times for US players. The result was US players seemed to stop playing and europeans went over to the US server during the day when it wasn't having those lag problems. It was months before they were fixed and when they were, the US side had totally gone and the european side had probably lost a few people to the lag problems. Quality players started to decline throughout 2005 quite rapidly, then in 2006 it was pretty dead throughout 2006 (but we were still flooded with new active members so it wasn't as bad as it is now). The decline obviously continued through 2006 and every year after that. The Student Induction program also died at the start of 2005, leaving many new students lost. That program really made sure that if there was any possibility of a new member being active, they would be, because we contacted them by email and aksed them if they wanted things like a tour or a guide to introduce them etc. The program was simply too much work and took up too much RL time without a more automated way of doing it. Quote: The rules and behavior on the server started to come before the fun and games.
What rules exactly were so over-the-top exactly? Attacking Vladarion's memorial? Insulting other players? Fighting in the courtyard to which we received complaints from new players? Swearing and using offensive language? Those are our rules, rules which most websites and communities on the internet have and I think most people would agree with them... After the purge, we had a HUGE amount of anarchy in the academy, it was like a warzone and rules were being broken left, right and centre. We were just doing our job in preventing this. You couldn't appreciate how many rules were broken and how serious and common very significant rule breaches were unless you were a JAK+ and saw it for yourself. The difference back then was that without JAK+ around, it was anarchy, as demonstrated after the purge. We gave people more chances than most communities or people would but we still had to ban people often. Yes, all the people that Buzz banned had the FULL concent of ALL of the JAK+ and we always gave them plenty of chances. Quote: Our fancy little mod and fancy little map became more important than who was playing on them, and what they were learning.
Not really. Quote: TJA ignored how the style of play developed outside its walls and favored an archaic JK2 style that in all practicality was obsolete.
It wasn't obsolete, there are plenty of people who practiced those kind of styles still (though mainly probably on JA+ ). Even for people who "ventured beyond TJA teachings", to them it was the basics and those basics are something that helped them immeasurably and countless people have told me exactly this about my classes.
Quote: The JA servers became ivory towers where people played one way, and anyone who ventured beyond TJA teachings and developed with the game was frowned upon.
We dropped our "frown upon" concept in early 2007. Quote: Perhaps even more importantly, long inactive jak+ were rarely replaced
We had the purge to clear all inactive JAK+ as well as those who lacked the necessary skills. After that, JAK+ were rarely inactive and if they were, we removed them eventually. But yeah, we often didn't replace them enough, partly due to the state of the academy and partly due to having such strict criteria. We did address this eventually when the level of staff became much too low. All of our staff are active at the moment and have been for a very long time (except Jaiko). During one or two of the years we had a difficulty where there weren't many or any suitable candidates despite the desperate need for staff. There were more spots for staff members than there were potential candidates. I admit, however, that outside of that year or two, the other years our criteria was so strict that it filtered out a lot of good potential intructors. Quote: and who got toggled for trial to replace them was decided by a mysterious and arcane process with zero transparency.
A very good mysterious and arcane process might I add. I agree with its lack of transparency for the reasons stated in the trial FAQ. I admit several improvements could be made to the system, however, and some will be when the new website is launched. Quote: On top of that, other than Virtue the real decision makers rarely, if ever, actually played jka and got a first hand perspective of the servers and the game itself.
Which is why they often consulted and got the views of JAK/JAT who did play when it was relevent to the gameplay. For as long as I've been on the staff it's always operated as a unit, a team, rather than JAC blindly making decisions without discussing it with us first. Most of the decisions were made after full staff meetings in fact. Quote: I still feel remorse that I didn't stand up and voice these sorts of concerns sooner.
Are you kidding? Everyone knew your views on this JK13.
Quote: Maybe I thought that no matter what I said it would fall on deaf ears.
To be honest JK13, whether something falls on deaf ears or not is irrelevent, it doesn't hurt to say it anyway. Because however deaf those ears, people will probably still hear. Quote: Maybe I thought that everyone would just take it as another lunatic rant
Yeah, that's probably true. Quote: listeners who if subjected to me live would have probably resorted to physical violence in order to shut me up.
Don't know about that. Maybe.
Quote: What I should have been preaching is that the whole system was asinine.
Perhaps it could have had improvements made to it, but it certainly wasn't asinine. Quote: We had a whole group of JAK+ (who may or may not have been all that active on the servers) discussing in secret who to toggle for these esoteric 'trials' that tested primarily the most useless and arcane aspects of jka.
Wrong. Those trials prove that you are good, regardless of whether you are a scissor-spammer or someone who has "ventured beyond the JA". If you pass the trials then you are a good player and definitely have plenty of potential to became even far more extremely good. Quote: The trials were so over-thought it was criminal (parry-countering blaster fire? a ludicrous obstacle course?) and by and large had little to do with a player's ability in mainstream jka.
Mate, you know nothing about our trials or why we do certain things, so don't try and understand something that you don't. There's a reason for the things that we do and the reasons aren't necessarily obvious to a clueless observer.
Quote: We were taking ourselves too seriously, acting like we were hiring for google and giving the old "why are manhole covers round?" test and expecting answers that include the mathematics of how a round manhole cover can never fall into its manhole when the real answer is staring you in the face: A human being climbing a ladder has a relatively round profile.
I think you're talking with your manhole. Could you rephrase?
Quote: Likewise, we should have been seeking active and talented jka players with a more broad base of collective knowledge[: Various styles of play (even non TJA styles) sabertypes, and gamemodes.
That I agree with. We did find it hard to find people for certain gamemodes and such, but like I said, I admit our criteria was far too unnecessarily strict. Quote: And we should have been seeking individuals with a much more important skill than triggering a parry off of blaster fire: The ability to convey their knowledge and ability onto other players. Teaching is a skill, and its a skill that I feel we didn't value enough.
Our instructors were very good teachers (many even teachers in RL now). I agree though that seeking teachers and looking at that as an important factor in promoting people is an important thing that could have perhaps been considered a tad more than other factors. Quote: I sincerely hope that we don't make all the same mistakes again in our new venture into the world of SW:TOR
Like everyone else we will learn from our mistakes, not necessarily all the things you believe are mistakes, but we will learn from some things. Quote: but since I'm pretty sure nobody actually will finish, I'm not going to be too broken up about it.
 You underestimated me.  |
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Masta - Jedi Council
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JK13, despite your post being a bit off topic and a bit of a dated rant, you know that I agree with almost everything you mentioned. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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JK13 /// jaws. - Student
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It's unfortunate that things had to turn out this way, but I'm afraid without co-operation from lucasarts, jka is effectively dead. While quakelive is alive and highly active, we are still stuck on the same practically all broken dedicated jk3 servers and without any kind of developer support in the form of patches.
Despite the game being widely pirated, because lucasarts strictly will not open the source code, we will never be able to encourage new players to acquire the game free of charge and join our little community, nor will we ever be able to have player-created patches which could solve some of the games buggy interactions and code bloat. It really is too bad, because at its heart jka is a really fun and unique gaming experience that will always hold a special place in my heart for all of the wonderful times I had playing it. At the same time, and I know I probably shouldn't even post this because someone will say I'm just breaking open a 5 year old can of worms, but I just have to anyway. Now really isn't the time to mourn the loss of TJA.net as a jka school. The rampant inactivity and loss of quality players at the academy began to take place way back in 2006. The signs weren't hard to see, the writing was on the wall, at least for me. I even remember having a heated irc conversation with gradius about this very issue, but it was of no use. We all took ourselves and our little community too seriously. The rules and behavior on the server started to come before the fun and games. Our fancy little mod and fancy little map became more important than who was playing on them, and what they were learning. TJA ignored how the style of play developed outside its walls and favored an archaic JK2 style that in all practicality was obsolete. The JA servers became ivory towers where people played one way, and anyone who ventured beyond TJA teachings and developed with the game was frowned upon. Perhaps even more importantly, long inactive jak+ were rarely replaced, and who got toggled for trial to replace them was decided by a mysterious and arcane process with zero transparency. On top of that, other than Virtue the real decision makers rarely, if ever, actually played jka and got a first hand perspective of the servers and the game itself. I told you before that I felt I had to post this, and now I tell you why: I'm not blameless in this mess. I know it doesn't make any difference now because nobody and nothing outside of a minor act of God is going to make JKA active and competitive again; but I still feel remorse that I didn't stand up and voice these sorts of concerns sooner. Maybe I never really had the words to articulate them back then. Maybe I thought that no matter what I said it would fall on deaf ears. Maybe I thought that everyone would just take it as another lunatic rant from the lord of all idiotic heated debate: JK13. Regardless, I should have stood up and said something when I saw things going the wrong direction. I know that now. People might think that this whole thing comes back to the 'exploitz' debate, but I think it goes well beyond that. Back then I suppose that was the big concern I had and discussed at great length; even with unwilling listeners who if subjected to me live would have probably resorted to physical violence in order to shut me up. At the same time, I now know that I missed the whole point. What I should have been preaching is that the whole system was asinine. We had a whole group of JAK+ (who may or may not have been all that active on the servers) discussing in secret who to toggle for these esoteric 'trials' that tested primarily the most useless and arcane aspects of jka. The trials were so over-thought it was criminal (parry-countering blaster fire? a ludicrous obstacle course?) and by and large had little to do with a player's ability in mainstream jka. We were taking ourselves too seriously, acting like we were hiring for google and giving the old "why are manhole covers round?" test and expecting answers that include the mathematics of how a round manhole cover can never fall into its manhole when the real answer is staring you in the face: A human being climbing a ladder has a relatively round profile. Likewise, we should have been seeking active and talented jka players with a more broad base of collective knowledge: Various styles of play (even non TJA styles) sabertypes, and gamemodes. And we should have been seeking individuals with a much more important skill than triggering a parry off of blaster fire: The ability to convey their knowledge and ability onto other players. Teaching is a skill, and its a skill that I feel we didn't value enough. I sincerely hope that we don't make all the same mistakes again in our new venture into the world of SW:TOR, because I have always hoped this community could recapture its former activity, vibrance and atmosphere. And that, my friends is the meaningless, long-winded wall of text that I've been carrying around for several years. I hope to God that none of you bother to read it because it will only make me look like an even bigger moron anyway. Also feel free to disagree, but I'm the only one who will probably read anything in this thread after this so you'll probably just be wasting your time
If you actually read all of the above: I'm deeply sorry I subjected you to all of that, but since I'm pretty sure nobody actually will finish, I'm not going to be too broken up about it. _______________ It's a false hologram, it IS artificial... This comment was edited by JK13 /// jaws. on Dec 06 2011 05:10am. |
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Carve - Student 
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You make a good point Skyler, but don't forget that many MMOs these days are adopting the Free-to-Play strategy, having learned that microtransactions are where the real money's at. So monthly fees may not necessarily be a considerable limitation.
On another note, while I share your sentiments, I also feel that sometimes we have to accept that it's time to let things pass on gracefully. I've seen a few games that I dedicated myself to die and there are few things worse than doing your hardest to keep a game going - especially with a die-hard community backing you up - just to see it die anyway. Besides, this game and its community will hold a special place in my heart, and for that reason it will never truly be "dead". _______________ © |
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skyler_ - Student 
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I’m incredibly happy to see that proper action is going to take place in order to boost attendance. The Academy means so much to so many of us that it hurts to see it in the stagnant stage in which it currently is. It is important to point out that much of the success that the academy had in its early days wasn’t because of the quality or amount of classes that were being held, but to the quality of people that used to run around the servers having fun. It was a safe haven from the chaos, the bad attitudes, bad language and insults that rules over most public servers in most games. I play games in order to relieve some stress, not to pile up some more, and the people in the Academy servers provided that environment.
However, I feel that providing this type of environment is just not enough. The game is old and people have simply moved to newer things. When I look back at the years spent playing on these servers, I can’t help but be thankful for having a very rewarding experience. Step by step the Academy provided me with constant challenges in which to prove my skills. J-Man trials, knight, trainer, movement maps, dueling the masters; they all gave me a reason to log in, train and practice with my friends towards a common goal. I was one of the lucky ones who got to experience all that the Academy had to offer and participate in its evolution. But we quickly realized that not all of us could be knights or trainers, so the motivation that working towards a goal provides was lot for many. For a long time after that, friendship was the uniting force that kept the servers booming. People like incentives and they thrive in the face of challenges, and we simply offered none. Just the same teachers giving the same recycled classes to mostly capable and skilled students that already knew the information. We have been blessed with a very accomplished community of people in many different real life skills: game designers, map builders, programmers, and heck as collective we probably know dozens of languages. It was very exciting times at the JA every time a new map came out, a new challenge course was introduced or a new trial took place. It was something new for all of us to master. To this day it is very hard for me to find another game outside of the JK series that gives the player so much freedom to roam its surroundings. We have sabers, guns of all kinds, force powers, crazy jumps and movements, etc. Being a Jedi rocks! I am convinced that the full potential that this game and this Academy can offer us has not yet been reached. As cheesy as it may be, I want to point out a television program that could serve as a model for us. I am sure many of you have seen and enjoy Ninja Warrior (or Sasuke in Japan). It is a gruesome obstacle course for which hundreds of people train years to complete, most times without any success. But the spirit of friendship and working towards a goal keeps these people motivated to keep training. Ninja Warrior doesn’t turn the participant against one another by making them face each other, but rather it is the challengers against the obstacle course. It is simply you versus the challenge in front of you. This means that everyone is a potential winner. Winning definitely gives you bragging rights but it does not give you any admin powers on a website, irc or a server. It simply means that you are awesome! Many people missed out on some of the coolest training and trials that the Academy had to offer simply because these were linked to admin status within our hierarchy. This may be an accurate portrayal of how the Star Wars movies run, but it in no way has the best interest of The Jedi Academy students in mind. Students want and need to be challenged in order to keep their interest alive. What I hope to see with these new changes is a renewed purpose of training the best players in the world. We can leave the game as is and duel a little bit here and there, or we can use our collective skills to evolve it and challenge ourselves. New obstacle maps, new trials available to all (without the need to reward with any sort of admin status, just for the fun of it), more exploration on the different game modes, use of various mods, etc. The JK series has almost unmatched potential for player improvement and as Academy members we should be on the leading front of it. I am happy to see that we will be moving on to SW:TOR, but at the same time unhappy because of the limitations of a monthly fee, not all of us will be capable of paying to play. Thanks for reading |
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Dash Starlight - Jedi Instructor
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Good post Sete. Yeah, maybe classes aren't that useful right now indeed. As long as new students can find the knowledge/skills they're looking for, that'd be good. Maybe those training tutorials/demos, a general event and one on one instruction are better options.
I haven't even thought of the SIP. That might be a good way for them to meet peers (at least one) and receive some basic instructions at least. _______________ The name is Bond. James Bond. This comment was edited by Dash Starlight on Nov 13 2011 09:43am. |
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Setementor - Jedi Master
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Quote: I just love this place, it'd be a shame to see it (or its JKA scene) die out.
Yeah it does definitely suck that the JKA scene has such low activity.
Quote: I think we have two main problems. The first one is that no new students are applying to the JA and playing on the servers actively. As older players eventually stop playing for various reasons, new ones need to 'replace' them to keep our numbers even. This isn't happening at all, sadly.
My view on this is that the Student Induction Program solved this. We can make sure that there is more support for such a program in the new website. Quote: The other problem is that if someone would join the Jedi Academy, there's nothing to be found here anymore. There are no masters, no classes (teachers don't show up) and no active fellow members who play on the servers.
There are active masters, but you know how it is Dash. We dedicate a lot of time to running classes and then nobody shows up. I ran classes for several years before I stopped running them and it was a big rarity to *actually* get students show up to them in the later years. Many instructors were becoming quite frustrated that they ran classes regularly and there was absolutely no interest in them 99% of the time. I'm not sure that running lots of classes regularly will work, however a daily event at say 7pm may work, where general playing or teaching could go on at that time.
Quote: Maybe it's an idea to add training tutorials and demos as well.
That's a fine idea.
Quote: Finally, I think we should have just a single JA server and make it base and public. Having one server forces people to play in one location, rather than having them spread out over multiple servers.
Totally agree that we should have a public server, I reckon it should be a duel server though. |
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Monteeeeeee - Nugget 
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what software do you use for it etc... _______________ If you add me to MSN, tell me who you are
Best Movie Character EVER!! |
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