Peace be the journey - (my semi-retirement)
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 5:41 pm
As some of you have likely heard from certain players or staffers in the know, I will soon be making my exit from the server. This has nothing to do with the various others who've decided to move on for their own reasons recently and in fact has been something I've been moving toward for several months and informed Server leadership of a couple weeks ago. I am not leaving due to any real or perceived problem I have with the game, staff or players, I still love you all. However, I am recognizing and accepting that I simply don't have the time to give the server what it deserves in my various roles. While a QC'er, Guild Master and indeed Player on this server is all done on a volunteer / as you wish basis, over the past 3 years my availability has continued to dwindle to the point that I no longer feel it is tenable to maintain my roles as they are currently.
Over the next couple of weeks I am working to shore up some mid-flight RP at which point I will be entering a sort of partial retirement. I will still login when I feel I can dedicate the time to RP'ing with folks, but will do so as a 'visitor' or cameo character rather than supporting long term player or DM ran plots. In the past 6 months I've been in game as a player perhaps 4 times and maybe twice that many times for QC purposes. My total in game hours combined have been perhaps 12 hours for all of those combined sessions. This has had impacts on several players who initiated RP with the Sword Coast Commercial Exchange or my PCs for one reason or another and for that I apologize. My travel schedule for work as well as various client and internal meetings that often get scheduled last minute have made it difficult for me to ever stick to scheduled RP and I realize that has had negative impact on other players in several cases. To the credit of those players and this community, everyone was always very accommodating with me, offering to handle RP over PM's where it made sense, rescheduling player / DM events fro the following day, etc. As nice as that is of all of you, it is not fair of me to require it and thus it's best if I step back and allow such RP to be handled by other players that are more consistent in their play and follow up.
Alongside this, I also do not believe it is fair in the long term for someone who is not playing in game on a weekly (or even monthly) basis to have any influence over the decision makers as to balance and gameplay decisions that impact all of you, the players. While I do believe I have a strong grasp on where the server is at currently, as time goes by and I am only logging in for a few hours in a given quarter it is only natural that my understanding of the server will become more and more outdated. Therefore, I have advised Endelyon, Maecius, Valefort, MrM3ntalist and the rest of the staff that while I am happy to continue giving my opinion if requested, I feel it is best if I retire from my position with QC. Upon a request for my timeline I informed them that I will continue monitoring forums/discord over the next couple of weeks while I shore up IC retirement of Finn, but after that I will likely avoid further participation and should be removed from Staff forums.
I joined the server in September of 2014 and relatively quickly fell in with an excellent group of roleplayers that truly showed me a wonderful world in which to lose myself for a time and become fully immersed in the various stories going on at any given time. Folks like Invoker, Solaris, Snarfy, Lyrewyn, Zanniej, Endelyon, Lisa, MrM3ntalist, Killington, Calodan, Electric Mayhem, Thids, Nomster, Steve and too many others to list have had such a great impact on my characters as well as me that leaving was a tough decision to make... I joined QC just about a year after joining the server and as my post count will attest to it has been a big part of my life over the years. It was only softened by the fact that most of these folks I have connected with on discord and I know that anyone else that might want to communicate knows where to find me (electronically that is!) A special thank you to Maecius, Endelyon, Duster, Rasael, Valefort, MrM3ntalist and Zanniej who have all given more of their time and energy to the server and these forums than many will ever truly understand. It takes a great deal of effort to keep the gears turning on the various parts we all enjoy and they do so out of nothing more than their love of the server and all of you. They aren't perfect (none of us are) and you may not always agree with them, but they want more than anything to offer the unique experience you won't find anywhere else.
Not long ago I posted in the infinite appreciation thread (actually I think it was several months ago, but regardless) and would like to echo my thanks to the various DM's and players that have interacted with me over the years. I sincerely hope that your impression of me is as positive as my impression of all of you. I won't try to make it out like there have been no issue's in my time here, of course there have! I've had my little temper tantrum at the DM's over issue's that really weren't so big as I thought them at the time. I have gone toe to toe in arguments on the QC and staff forums with many of you and have certainly had arguments with various players on the forums, IRC and discord... However, as I look back I can't see any of those discussions, even the worst ones as anything that discolors my overall memories of this community. When a group of people is equally passionate about anything there are bound to be disagreements that get more heated then they would if the participants were not as invested. So even the heated arguments only serve to evidence the unique greatness this server offers us all.
This is not goodbye, I'll still be around. In the next couple of weeks my participation and checking in on forums and discord is going to be vastly reduced, but I will still occasionally check in and will still try to log in game when I can. In addition, should anyone wish to chat with me you're welcome to shoot a PM or reach out on discord. I'll always love this server for what it has given me and many others, but I respect it too much to continue offering the disservice of being responsible for other players RP and mechanical aspects of the game when I can't fully support it with my time to be in game as often as many of you. The time and energy that has been given by our Admins, Developers, Area Builders, Media Team, Quality Control, DM's and PLAYERS is nothing short of amazing and all of you deserve others that are giving equal time and energy. Unfortunately that is simply not something I have been able to provide or will be able to provide going forward. If I can offer one piece of advice to everyone, it would be simply to remember that this is a game, the people you interact with are just that (people) and should be treated as you would in person. Respect each other always and don't let limitations of the game or disagreements on how things should work cause anger or disgruntlement. It's simply not worth it and only serves to put a bad aftertaste on an otherwise amazing flavor of a pastime. Again, thank you all for everything you have given to me over the years and as the subject states, peace be the journey.
Over the next couple of weeks I am working to shore up some mid-flight RP at which point I will be entering a sort of partial retirement. I will still login when I feel I can dedicate the time to RP'ing with folks, but will do so as a 'visitor' or cameo character rather than supporting long term player or DM ran plots. In the past 6 months I've been in game as a player perhaps 4 times and maybe twice that many times for QC purposes. My total in game hours combined have been perhaps 12 hours for all of those combined sessions. This has had impacts on several players who initiated RP with the Sword Coast Commercial Exchange or my PCs for one reason or another and for that I apologize. My travel schedule for work as well as various client and internal meetings that often get scheduled last minute have made it difficult for me to ever stick to scheduled RP and I realize that has had negative impact on other players in several cases. To the credit of those players and this community, everyone was always very accommodating with me, offering to handle RP over PM's where it made sense, rescheduling player / DM events fro the following day, etc. As nice as that is of all of you, it is not fair of me to require it and thus it's best if I step back and allow such RP to be handled by other players that are more consistent in their play and follow up.
Alongside this, I also do not believe it is fair in the long term for someone who is not playing in game on a weekly (or even monthly) basis to have any influence over the decision makers as to balance and gameplay decisions that impact all of you, the players. While I do believe I have a strong grasp on where the server is at currently, as time goes by and I am only logging in for a few hours in a given quarter it is only natural that my understanding of the server will become more and more outdated. Therefore, I have advised Endelyon, Maecius, Valefort, MrM3ntalist and the rest of the staff that while I am happy to continue giving my opinion if requested, I feel it is best if I retire from my position with QC. Upon a request for my timeline I informed them that I will continue monitoring forums/discord over the next couple of weeks while I shore up IC retirement of Finn, but after that I will likely avoid further participation and should be removed from Staff forums.
I joined the server in September of 2014 and relatively quickly fell in with an excellent group of roleplayers that truly showed me a wonderful world in which to lose myself for a time and become fully immersed in the various stories going on at any given time. Folks like Invoker, Solaris, Snarfy, Lyrewyn, Zanniej, Endelyon, Lisa, MrM3ntalist, Killington, Calodan, Electric Mayhem, Thids, Nomster, Steve and too many others to list have had such a great impact on my characters as well as me that leaving was a tough decision to make... I joined QC just about a year after joining the server and as my post count will attest to it has been a big part of my life over the years. It was only softened by the fact that most of these folks I have connected with on discord and I know that anyone else that might want to communicate knows where to find me (electronically that is!) A special thank you to Maecius, Endelyon, Duster, Rasael, Valefort, MrM3ntalist and Zanniej who have all given more of their time and energy to the server and these forums than many will ever truly understand. It takes a great deal of effort to keep the gears turning on the various parts we all enjoy and they do so out of nothing more than their love of the server and all of you. They aren't perfect (none of us are) and you may not always agree with them, but they want more than anything to offer the unique experience you won't find anywhere else.
Not long ago I posted in the infinite appreciation thread (actually I think it was several months ago, but regardless) and would like to echo my thanks to the various DM's and players that have interacted with me over the years. I sincerely hope that your impression of me is as positive as my impression of all of you. I won't try to make it out like there have been no issue's in my time here, of course there have! I've had my little temper tantrum at the DM's over issue's that really weren't so big as I thought them at the time. I have gone toe to toe in arguments on the QC and staff forums with many of you and have certainly had arguments with various players on the forums, IRC and discord... However, as I look back I can't see any of those discussions, even the worst ones as anything that discolors my overall memories of this community. When a group of people is equally passionate about anything there are bound to be disagreements that get more heated then they would if the participants were not as invested. So even the heated arguments only serve to evidence the unique greatness this server offers us all.
This is not goodbye, I'll still be around. In the next couple of weeks my participation and checking in on forums and discord is going to be vastly reduced, but I will still occasionally check in and will still try to log in game when I can. In addition, should anyone wish to chat with me you're welcome to shoot a PM or reach out on discord. I'll always love this server for what it has given me and many others, but I respect it too much to continue offering the disservice of being responsible for other players RP and mechanical aspects of the game when I can't fully support it with my time to be in game as often as many of you. The time and energy that has been given by our Admins, Developers, Area Builders, Media Team, Quality Control, DM's and PLAYERS is nothing short of amazing and all of you deserve others that are giving equal time and energy. Unfortunately that is simply not something I have been able to provide or will be able to provide going forward. If I can offer one piece of advice to everyone, it would be simply to remember that this is a game, the people you interact with are just that (people) and should be treated as you would in person. Respect each other always and don't let limitations of the game or disagreements on how things should work cause anger or disgruntlement. It's simply not worth it and only serves to put a bad aftertaste on an otherwise amazing flavor of a pastime. Again, thank you all for everything you have given to me over the years and as the subject states, peace be the journey.
).
