The Church of Alvis
Tak’s Take: Being a Filthy, Filthy Codex Whore
01 month ago
Does this describe you? You have just finished the last bonus quest on Taris. You are ready to leave that planet and its horde of rahkgouls behind. Suddenly, a persistent itch presents itself at the base of your skull. Something is missing. A quick look at your codex reveals your sense of deficiency. There are things you have not seen, people you have not met, and lore you have not read. If you cannot relate to this feeling, then congratulations, you are most likely a healthy well adjusted individual. Otherwise, you are a filthy, filthy codex whore.
Mario Skills FTW!
I have only ever played two MMOs: Star Wars: Galaxies and Star Wars: The Old Republic. The games approach exploration in vastly different ways. In the Galaxies sandbox, you had vast open vistas that, while often presenting nothing more than a pretty view, offered the hope of discovery. As a theme park game, The Old Republic often rewards exploration with big red barriers. So I see the codex as Bioware’s attempt to throw us explorer types a bone.
Curse You Missing Species!
The codex encourages exploring areas on the map where no mission icon exists. It tempts you to take on that champion mob to see what may be hiding behind it. Loot is secondary to discovery. However, the codex can also be maddening. Datacrons, for example, reward exploration with stat bonuses, but require a level of jumping dexterity that I seem to lack. Oh, Super Mario Bros, did I learn nothing from you. It also drives you insane when a codex entry is bugged. I must have travelled the entire map of Ord Mantell five times searching for those last two species entries that were impossible to find.
I like to poke my head in strange places
And yet, my futile attempt to complete the codex entries of Ord Mantell introduced me to my next obsession: completing the world map. It is always fun to see all those little hexagons disappear from my word map once I have visited every area on the planet. The bit of XP I get, does not hurt. Even this has bugs, though. The only way I could complete the world map on Coruscant was to poke my head through the roof of the starport.
No Hexagons!
Those of us who score a 100 percent explorer on the Bartle Gamer Psychology Quiz will find their options limited in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Thankfully, Bioware has given us a couple of outlets. We have become filthy, filthy codex whores.
The Church of Alvis defeats SD-0 and Other Doings of Early Access
2 months ago
Early game access has been with us for about a week and guild chat has been filled with comments like “Hey guys I just saw….”. Here are a few highlights of my week in early access.
Celebrity Sighting
We are on Juyo and one of the guilds on our server is named Porkins Pigs. I don’t know if this guy is aiming to join them, but quite frankly his look was well done and I wanted to give him props.
This man is on a mission
Lieutenant Porkins if you ever read this, I salute you for all your hard work and dedication to the Republic.
Alvis Defeats SD-0
Thursday night I was questing on Coruscant when I stumbled upon a world boss known as SD-0. Being the guild spammer I am I said “Hey guys I found a world boss.” I didn’t expect anyone to act on it since people were focusing on leveling at the moment. But to my surprise Jeezbus offered to come and tank it. The team of Jeezbus (level 33 tank), Dashl (Level 18 dps), Bulwark (level 17 dps who was healing), and myself (level 12 tag along) gave it a shot. It took us a few times to master it, but once we got the fight mechanic we got it down.
4 maned the world boss. Props to Jeezbus for tanking.
The key for us was me calling out who had the linking debuff and directing them where to run to minimize damage.
Crafting is Fun
I’ve played SWG and WoW and crafting has always been somewhat tedious to me. The reason I have figured out was I hated gathering things. When I’m out in the field I want to be shooting and looting, not looking for flowers and rocks. In SWG the resources you needed required a lot of work to get and quality mattered. In WoW my problem was the people I were shooting were always surrounded by materials I couldn’t gather yet. SWTOR has succeeded in helping me enjoy gathering crafts. Namely by allowing me to outsource.
Welcome to my crating workshop.
Being a GM I find often I have to take time away from the action to get involved in helping guild members. The SWTOR crafting minigame allows me to truly do both with competence.
Tak’s Take: Smuggling for Fun and Profit
2 months ago
So you want to be a smuggler. Good for you. Smuggling is an exciting and potentially lucrative endeavor. Here is a beginner’s guide to this less than noble profession in four easy steps.
Cloaking is for Pussies
Who needs a cloak?
When you first consider entering the exciting world of smuggling, you may have a moment of weakness: cloaking technology. You should avoid this at all costs. I cannot stress this enough. First, a ship capable of cloaking eliminates your light and medium freighters. As we all know, no ship that small has a cloaking device. If you are so wealthy as to be able to buy a ship large enough to carry a cloak, then why the hell are you smuggling in the first place. Besides, using a cloak to sneak past a blockade will lose you a lot of credibility with the smuggling community. Seriously, we will all point and laugh at you. Sack up and get a light freighter.
Nooks and Crannies
Choose Wisely
Now that we have settled on a light freighter as the ship of choice, it is time to focus on the contours. If you want to be an effective smuggler you are going to need a place to hide your stash. The key is to avoid simple geometric shapes. While your cubes and spheres may be great for hauling around your collective, they tend to make for poor hiding places when you inevitably get boarded. “We are the Borg. We do not know how all that pot got on our ship, officer.” No, the keys to a good smuggling vessel are nooks and crannies. The closer your ship looks like it was designed during an epileptic fit, the closer you are to passing that inspection.
Blasters and Enforcers
One big ass wookiee. . .or three or four.
Now that you have your ship, it is time to get your gun and someone bigger than you. Your choice of fire arm can mean the difference between walking out of the cantina and being dragged out of the cantina to be thrown in the nearest dumpster. You are going to want something quick on the draw, so stick to a small carbine or a blaster. For the love of Alvis, do not pick a melee weapon. They may be great for prancing around in robes or for a good ol’ fashioned baby seal clubbing, but they won’t do you much good when the guy you double-crossed is on the other side of the hanger bay.
Remember, hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a blaster at your side (unless your religion is all about blasters, like The Church of Alvis). You know what else no match is for: a big ass wookiee. What’s better than a big ass wookiee? A big ass wookiee with a life debt is, let me tell ya. Do your best to find the nastiest, foul smelling, so-ugly-his-mama-wouldn’t-kiss-him, bruiser out there, and save his life.
See, simple.
The Crevice that Dare Not Speak its Name
The beer may be warm, but at least it's close.
At this point you may think you have everything you need to be a successful smuggler. You would be wrong. Every smuggler reaches a point of last resort; the point where no other hiding place is immediately available. Yes, I am talking about the dirty, dirty business of anal cavity smuggling. Every smuggler must ultimately really on his or her resourcefulness. And nothing says resourcefulness more than being able to cram that balloon up where the sun don’t shine seconds before the authorities break through the hatch. Here are some tips:
- Wrap that thing in something. Nothing kills resale value more than
skipping this step. - Avoid pointy ends. This tip, as it were, speaks for itself.
- Lay off the roughage. ‘Cause, you know, gross.
Mazel Tov
Congratulations, you now have the basic steps to successful smuggling. You have taken your first step into a larger world. One last thing to remember; even I get boarded sometimes. When that bounty hunter comes after you, shoot first.
Guild Launch Alliance Offer
2 months ago
The implementation of the guild launch program has assigned The Church of Alvis to the Juyo server. Unfortunately we did not have nearly as many guilds coming along with us as we would have hoped. As a result members of the following guilds are being extended an offer to relocate.
For those guilds we want very much for you to locate on Juyo from your assigned server and play with the Church of Alvis. We are prepared to give your members temporary use of our guild to coordinate until such time that you can form your own guild. And that is not all we are prepared to help raise funds for your guild charter as well.
Please be part of the growing Juyo server culture and take us up on our offer. Use our forums to coordinate the transition or the comments on this post.
The Bad Boys and Babes of Beta
2 months ago
NDA lifted, and with it we have a lot of Alvians who have gotten into not just the weekend beta, but the normal beta program. Needless to say we are very grateful to Bioware for this opportunity to play around, help test, and get a feel for game systems before we actually launch.
It was decided that we would roll a beta Sith guild so as not to spoil the Republic stories for ourselves before we ran them with our live game mains and alts. Since we are rolling Sith, the general consensus is to sow our royally evil oats. For my part I decided to roll Jounvillain the Rattataki Bounty Hunter. He has very very few charitable bones in his body. The priority list goes credits, thrill of killing, other stuff I imagine.
I'm the bad thing that happens to good people.
I’m not the only one breaking bad. On thursday Happyclam, Furiel, Yaj, and myself ran the Black Talon Flashpoint and the general game we seemed to be playing was, “Who can be the biggest jerk?”. It was a lot of fun. I’m really curious to see if the ability to reform into fine upstanding beings on the light side of the force will happen after our vacation in depravity.
The most surprising check to my evil inclinations though, wasn’t what my fellow guildies were doing, but rather how my first, and as of yet only, companion responded to me choosing evil acts. Mako was not happy with my desire to kill a Republic Scientist for a bounty, and that led me to earn my first light side points. Oh the horror.
What ways have you been going against your launch intentions?
Reconciliation of the Teachings of Alvis and the Jedi Code
4 months ago
Editor note: This article is an attempt to mesh the lore of the Star Wars Universe with the lore of the Alvian Church.
Author Note: (I can’t take all the credit for this, a lot of it involves a thread of discussion as well as input from other Alvians as well, particularly Furiel. This is just my take on it.)
“There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no death, there is the Force. “—The Jedi Code (Based on the meditations of Odan-Urr)
Most Jedi within the order throughout history have argued that the Jedi Code, in and of itself – is complete and final, and requires no further clarification. Sadly, this dogmatic belief lies in thousands
of years of passing down the teachings through Knight to Padawan, with little questioning. It is true, questioning the will of the Force as it relates to the Jedi Code does in fact, go against certain Jedi traditions. Traditions and rituals were set into place to facilitate the learning process of the force and the training of Force-sensitive individuals throughout the ages. However, one inevitably realizes that tradition and rituals cannot destroy ignorance, as these concepts are not mutually exclusive. The Force is
an ever-unraveling truth which ever grows, evolves and changes fates of sentient species, on an ongoing basis, and throughout time immemorial.
Further meditation on the Force, beyond the Jedi Code itself lends itself to a complex unraveling of many layers of philosophical truths. Black and white areas of philosophical arguments can occasionally disappear, and one can occasionally glimpse into deeper layers of the will of the Force. To accept a set of philosophical precepts as final betrays the level of realization of the Jedi, as the Force is ever-changing and evolving.
Throughout history of the galaxy, there have been many Jedi who have been pioneers in their own right. Questioning dogmatic beliefs and searching through years of unquestioned traditions, they have
carefully been exposed to more subtler aspects of the Force. And while many experts have agreed that the Light Side is less seductive and leads to greater peace, many Jedi have confronted the Dark Side and through their attempts of learning, gained some degree of control without being completely consumed by it. Darth Revan, Luke Skywalker, Mace Windu are a few within recorded history, as examples.
Another undocumented account was handed down through word of mouth and widely debated was through the teachings of Alvis. Historians have debated whether or not he was truly Force-Sensitive and the impact his teachings have had on the Jedi Code. Many historians have sadly written off his teachings as the ramblings of a drunken sociopath. There are a few Alvian purists however, who have learned to
embrace his teachings and incorporate them as their own moral code. A very small but growing sect within the Jedi Order also embrace these teachings and have reconciled them to a degree where they are one and the same. They are sometimes secretive of their devotions, sometimes overt, and most of the times unpredictable, but all share in their unwavering adherence to his supreme principles of drunkenness and vengeance.
The key to understanding the Jedi Code as it relates to Alvis’s teachings, is balance. Balancing the will of the force, which occasionally warrants vengeance.
The biggest thing that most people overlook about Alvian vengeance is that Alvis’s vengeance is JUST. And that sense of justice is where both the Jedi Code and the Alvian Code merge. Being drunk and
violent can be fun, but the vengeance as Alvians do is payback to those who have done injustices to the will of the force in and of itself. And it is worth mentioning those injustices do not always materialize as injustices ones done to devotees of Alvis, but also to those who cannot exact said revenge themselves. Thus the Jedi uphold this part and protect the will of the force, in and of itself.
So ultimately, Alvian Jedi may be viewed as more extreme and violent than a typical, run of the mill Jedi, they do share a strong belief in righteousness and justice, be it their own unique distinct brand of
justice, and the Jedi order does secretly turn a blind eye to those who would do so as having Alvians on their side would be viewed as an asset, especially in times of injustice as was the case when the Republic was under the invasion of the Sith.
Jedi historians speak rumors of an ancient Jedi prophecy, which originally stated that Alvis’s drunkenness and revenge will eventually bring balance to the force. The influence of alcohol on
midichlorians has been noted as miraculous as it agitates the cells within a receptive mind and allows them for a furious and tempestuous rage, often misinterpreted as violence. The true nature of alcohol
on midichlorians…is Revenge.
Thus spake Alvis.
Dood Fromeianna is a Priest for the Church of Alvis.
Back to Basics
11 months ago
Waiting for a game is sometimes really hard. Star Wars the Old Republic was announced two and half years ago, and we still don’t have a release date. The best estimates say this fall, but we shall see. In the meantime I decided to do something I haven’t done since high school, play a pen and paper game. Well it is worse than that I decided to be the Game Master for an Alvian Campaign set in the Old Republic Era using the WotC Star Wars Saga Edition ruleset.
The Joy of Pen and Paper
On the above chart I was nicely in the Video Gamers/Science Fiction TV Fan boxes dipping my toes into the Trekkies box every now and then. But this latest decision is putting me squarely in the Roleplaying Gamers box. I know some people might protest “But Blackferne you play WoW and that is a roleplaying game” to which I’ll gladly respond “On a recent Lore Quiz our GM gave I knew surprisingly little about who we kill and what we get for it in WoW.” So if there is roleplaying in WoW I don’t see it.
But when you play pen and paper there is a certain aspect of role play. There has to be for it to work well. Pen and Paper isn’t just moving miniatures around a board, rolling die for damage. A good role playing game is in a sense collaborative story telling.
But the greatest fun I’ve had since this experiment started is the creative construction. I’ve decided to place the Alvians in a long mystery trying to rescue Jounville Blackferne who was kidnapped shortly before the campaign started. I used to GM games with some friends in high school, so some of it is coming back. But there is also a lot I have forgotten. For example I forgot that the biggest challenge for a GM isn’t necessarily coming up with interesting stories or cool adversaries, but rather the biggest challange is dealing with players acting in ways you didn’t expect.
For example the WotC rule set has rules for gambling. And I said there was a casino in Mos Eisley so a few of our players decided to go gamble. However this happened at a point in the game when I was trying to get the players to pay for a ship, and I was giving them choices on how to finance through taking jobs to earn money. Each job plotted a point on a risk/reward payoff. Well Arrican’s scoundrel because of the flawed WotC rules had enough to buy a ship in just a few hours, Now that can be chalked up to me agreeing to a game rule set without fully thinking through the implications, but it also served as a strong reminder that the GM has to be able to react to the things the players do, that you didn’t expect.
Overall it has been fun for me, and I hope for the players. The best thing about Pen and Paper is that it has a tendency to create memories and stories you don’t often see replicated in video games. An example we’ve seen in the game is Bulwark made fun of Wailer (Gandolfini’s Gungan Jedi), and being a bit mischievous, Wailer used a Jedi mind trick to give Bulwark a subconscious attachment to a small rock. Another involves a dimwitted service robot who’s actions led to one Alvian shooting another.
Final Thoughts and Hopes
One side effect of the pen and paper game is it has increased forum traffic as the players, and a few viewers have been checking in regularly to see if anything new has happened. But it is also a great way for us to rebuild the bonds we had back in SWG. This, if nothing else, also allows us to make new bonds with people who didn’t play SWG with us very much. I hope the game continues to be a nice distraction until SWTOR launches, at which point we will focus down on some serious MMOing.
The Launch Pressures on a Guild
1 year ago
SW:Tor is still a good ways off. We don’t even have a definite launch date yet, but that doesn’t stop people from laying plans for what they and their friends should do once it launches. But this excitement is full of potential traps that guild leaders and officers should be aware of to help keep group cohesion going into a very dynamic period of play after launch. This post was inspired by a revelation in the Q&A of the Studio Insider Friday Update on 12-17-2010 in which Dallas Dickinson, Director of Production for BioWare Austin, answered the following question:
Will there be different server types, as in PvE servers and PvP servers? (asked by Fruskov)
There will be several different types of server, including PvP servers and PvE servers.
Notice he says there will be several different types of severs INCLUDING PvP and PvE. That suggests that PvP and PvE are just two traits of server creation. I assume they will have time zone suggested servers so populations will roughly know when prime time will be, but I think there will also be Role Play servers, and probably the Role Play servers will come in a PvP and PvE variety. There may be additional traits for server rules that I’m not thinking of, but assuming the server list is populated with PvP, PvE, RP-PvP, and RP-PvE servers for a variety of time zones players have plenty of options for their game world. And that is great for players, but may not be as good for guilds who are coming from other games into SW:ToR. 
A brief bit of history is in order to better explain this. The Church of Alvis was created in Star Wars: Galaxies in August of 2003. Now the thing to remember about SWG is that it had no official server rules. Every server was the same. Sure some servers took it upon themselves to become “The Unofficial RP server” or the “Unofficial French Server”, but in every server there was at launch some fledgling RP community, a PvP scene probably fighting over Anchorhead, and plenty of PvE players doing their thing. So you ended up with all kinds of players interacting and it led to some great moments, but you also saw players get frustrated that others didn’t take their aspect of game play as seriously as others. A notable Imperial Guild Leader on our server said that because others didn’t role play right, citing the Church of Alvis, his vision of Star Wars (movies and all) had been ruined. That is unfortunate, and probably avoidable by breaking the communities among the RP/ no-RP and PvE/PvP divides like World of Warcraft has done.
The problem that this presents to existing guilds is that their pool of players have to come kind of agreement about what aspect of game play is most important to them as a group. Is you guild significantly interested in Role Play or are they fine seeing people with names like Look Skywalkar and Darf Vaydar walking around talking about how the local sports franchise is doing this year. Similarly you have to decide as a group that you want world PvP at any time versus choosing to PvP under timing that you control as you’d see on a PvE server. Besides these questions, you also have to decide what faction you will run as.
The default for the kind of server for most people will be a non-RP PvE server. Heavy Role Players like PAX Imperius, who formed as a role play guild for Imperials, obviously know their members want no Loook Skywalkars and Darf Vaydars debating the merits of the west coast offense in the SEC. Likewise guilds like Veers Elite know that they don’t care about Loooks and Darfs and only want the chance at lots of PvP. Guild leadership has to be responsive to their members. That said it will be tough because any decision you make might result in a member leaving for another gaming opportunity. If Alvis were to go Sith I know that some of our members might go along with it even though they strongly prefer Republic, and I know some of our members have no interest in one faction or the other making the faction decision a deal/no deal on running with Alvis in SW:ToR. It is important for the guild as a whole to try very hard to come to a consensus on who they are so they can land on the right kind of server with the right faction.
Even if you get the right server and faction for all of your members you will still have some potential problems once the game launches. Every player is different. Some like to leisurely level seeing all of the sites and enjoying the walk. Some will race to maximum level and be chomping at the bit for “end game content”. Some players have more time to play than others who juggle gaming with other commitments in their life. Some like to roll and play around on alts while some only play one character all the time. This shouldn’t present a problem unless people have different expectations of what the guild is suppose to be doing. I’ve been playing WoW away from Alvis since 2005 with some other friends. I’ve been in a few different guilds and on a few different types of servers, and through each expansion that comes out I see the same pattern emerge. A few dedicated players race to max level, get raid ready then complain others are taking to long. The stragglers complain that they never get to raid just because they didn’t get to max level quickly. Arguments break out invoking cliche “core guild values” and “principles of fairness”, and some people leave. So to give these groups names, let’s call the quick leveling raiding types “Power Gamers” and the stragglers “Casual Gamers”. And while I’ll use raiding as an example I’m sure similar things happen in PvP guilds where people have to sit out of events because they aren’t ready, or frustration in RP guilds that Bob isn’t writing up a novel of back story like Jack did.
So all guild leaders and guild officers interested in keeping the group together should know going in that there will pretty quickly be a gap in progress (be it level, crew skills, RP stories, PvP skill whatever) that will start to frustrate players at some point. The key thing to remember is that players need to heard, and reminded that this gap is most likely a temporary one. After time the stragglers will catch up. One big suggestion is to set “deadlines” for inclusion. It has to be reasonable for a casual player, but not so far off from now that the hardcore player feels like she will never get to do the activities they really want to do. For example let’s say that your guild has a sizable group of people who are interested in raiding. The hardcore people may be ready in a month, the casuals will start being ready in two months if they are reasonably focused. Make a deadline of we walk into the raid in 2 months. It shows the hardcore people that you want to get going, but also lets casuals know that others are depending on them to get ready to tackle the content. Broad reasonable guild goals are a good way to give people purpose not only for themselves, but for helping other guildmates. If as a hardcore player, I know that a raid encounter requires players to be geared to a certain level (using the WoW model since we don’t know too much about SW:ToR endgame) then I am more willing to jump on guild members to join me on content to get that gear. Same thing with leveling professions, if I know that we need someone to level up their crew skills so we can have something as a guild, I will funnel materials and resources their way to assist. The casual player also knows that others are depending on them to join them for the activity and would be more focused in their game time to get to the group’s expectation spending less time taking screen shots of the flowers of Alderaan (ooh this blue one was really pretty!). I don’t want to say the players don’t have a right to dedicate their playtime towards virtual floral photography, but it is unreasonable for those players to think that they can dedicate time to that and be able to engage in activities that require lots of preparation and focus to be part of a group effort.
It ultimately boils down for guild leadership to listen to what their members want, and making sure that you provide a vision of where the guild is going, and how to get there. It won’t always be easy, but if you can have a generally accepted goal, and players are on the same page on how as a group you are getting towards that goal, it should work out well.
The Post in which the Dood Posse Visits Austin
1 year ago
In what has become a yearly tradition, Dood came to Austin during the holidays to visit the Alvians who live here. It was a lot of fun to catch up. We learned that Dood’s solution to any problem is to add bitters and a lemon twist. Jounville is under the belief it doesn’t count as arson if marshmallows are involved. And finally that every Alvian is geeky in their own way. If you had seen Gandolfini and Dood talk cocktails for over an hour you’d definitely appreciate that statement.
From left to right: Gandolfini, n'Jessi, Blackferne, Bulwark, and Dood
It was great to see the Church coming together to share a meal and have a great time.
The Virtues of Gaming
1 year ago
Games are a universal part of human culture. People from every part of the world play some form of game whether it is a simple game of tag between kids or a sophisticated MMO among adults. Games have two broad components which have great redeeming value regardless of the game itself.
First almost all games have an element of problem solving. It is a little test of how do I win? The ability for us to impact that can very from not having any impact (like Candyland) or having a great deal of impact (like chess). Even in games that have no clear objective and exist in only sandbox terms, there is still problem solving. The ability to create objectives for oneself is still problem solving.
The second large component is the social aspect. Even in single player games there is a social aspect in that there is a shared experience for players of the games that can be discussed later. For example if you are playing a single player video game like Half Life 2, there are other people you can share that experience with. I remember growing up and having other kids in my class share experiences with Super Mario Bros during lunch or recess.
This blog is intended to be a chronicle of those components of gaming. The blog is associated with the Church of Alvis player guild. It is a social gaming group formed during Star Wars Galaxies that has stayed together even in the absence of any focused gaming effort for over seven years at this point. This blog will primarily focus on the upcoming Bioware title Star Wars the Old Republic. We will journal our attempts at problem solving aspects of the game, chronicle our social experiences, and hope to grow an enriched community for a better game for everyone, because games are always better when played with friends.
Recent Comments