Community Journal: November 2018 By Serpentius

Greetings Elyrians!

In November we ended Map Voting, Phase 1, and started Phase 2. Ultimately, players participated and completed the 2nd phase of Map Selection, and all four servers decided the shape of the lands they will set foot upon at launch. Immediately afterwards we launched the next step on the road towards Domain and Settlement Selection; Server Selection. Finally, our November Store promo celebrated commerce in Elyria and on Earth and offered several surprises!

Much else occurred, read on to see all of the Chronicles of Elyria details from November in this Community Journal.

A look back:

For more details and updates, check out our website at https://chroniclesofelyria.com

In other news:

Gaiscioch Magazine, who, you may recall, had us on their cover many moons ago, wrote a follow-up piece on the Searing Plague event. Check it out here

MassivelyOP wrote an article about the conclusion of Map Voting, give it a read here

As news of Chronicles of Elyria spreads across the internet, we'll try and share more interesting articles with you in this new column each month. Likewise, if you come across an article you feel the community would appreciate that relates specifically to Soulbound Studios or Chronicles of Elyria, feel free to pass it along to us at [email protected]

Surname reservations:

We consistently review surname reservations on a daily basis. Each month we like to share a few from the past period that caught our eye.

Favorite declines:

Mage-uscule

Ancients

Slothington

Thunderman

The gifted

Cialis

Killjoy

Nimoy

Sun Tzu

Fat Rips

Veni Vidi-Vici

Most attempted: Deathstalker

Standouts:

Keahtrest

Ballinuial'Taur

Wiggsvaal

Rèsskhän

Ephrìtun

Sequeraltal

Houghtrlich

Popular Memes

Each month we'll spotlight one or two of our favorite memes that were shared via the forums or Discord.

During Map Voting, Fred decided to share this gem:

As he so often does, Sanguinesh shared this fantastic blast from the past. Recognize it (tongue)

If you'd like to see your meme highlighted, share it with us in our Discord or forums and it may show up here one day!

Meet a Mod

Our volunteer moderators are not only bastions of peace in our community; they are a helpful hand whenever you need assistance. They are very knowledgeable about Chronicles of Elyria and provide valuable feedback that helps keep our community amazing.

Each month we provide a little insight into who they are and what makes them tick.

This month we meet the scallywag Captain Seli and hear of his tales.

(Special thanks to Kitlandria for creating these questions)

About the image above, he says "That'd be a picture of ol' Captain Seli fighting the Kraken! (It was a ~60lb Stingray ;) )"

Q: Do you still live where you grew up? What was it like there?

A: "I do not live where I grew up. In fact, I’ve moved around a lot since I became an adult. I suffer from Wanderlust! I grew up in Cape May NJ, which is a small seaside town at the very southern tip of the state. Being a seaside town meant that we had very busy summers. A lot of fishing on the ocean and campfires at night, telling stories of the Jersey Devil! Winters were usually mild and we would spend that time in the woods or playing video games when it was to cold!"

Q: Any fun stories from your moving travels?

A: "I’ve got boat loads of stories from my travels. For one thing, I really enjoy the Paranormal, so I took my wife on a UFO tour a couple years back. We visited Roswell NM, White Sands Missile Base, the Black Mailbox outside of Area 51, drove the entire length of the Extraterrestrial Highway in NV, and looked for Sasquatch in Yosemite National Park (Well, I did. She enjoyed the Sequoias). We ended up in Monterey, CA on a whale watching boat. It was quite the trip! I’ve also visited Loch Ness in Scotland not three months ago, as well as Stonehenge!"

Q: Pirates or Ninjas and why?

A: "Arrrr I think we all know the answer to this question!"

Q: What began your fascination with all things nautical?

A: "Well, as I previously mentioned, I grew up in a seaside town. I spent many many many hours on or in the ocean and the shores and marshes surrounding my hometown. There’s many tales of sunken ships, sea monsters, and treasure all around my town. In fact, there’s a famous wreck of a concrete ship that you can see from the beach even today! I also had a very early love of sea tales, and my favorite book growing up was Treasure Island. I was just born with an innate love of the sea I guess! I often joke that salt water flows through my veins!"

Q: What was your introduction into "gaming" communities, be that console or PC games, or physical ones like tabletop or board games?

A: "During the winter, when the weather at the beach was too rough to enjoy, my friends and I would play games. My first console was a SNES, where I enjoyed games like Killer Instinct and Super Mario. We eventually got an N64 where I really enjoyed playing 4 player Star Fox and Super Smash Bros. I didn’t get into computer gaming until I started playing Runescape in 2001. I then found Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, where I fell in love with Role playing! I played SWG from 2003 to 2010 just after they announced the Sun setting of the game. Then I moved to SWTOR where I started my first RP Guild. It was a cult of Sith who basically worshiped my character. It was really popular and at one point had over 100 active Role players between two guilds (One was our Jedi nemesis guild)! SWTOR wasn’t a game I enjoyed though, so I moved to ESO where I belonged to several more RP communities, and finally hopped off the RP train to play ARK where I grew my current day Community: The Bastards of Captain May. Now we roam the internet, playing anything and everything, and are 170+ strong!"

Q: In an ideal Elyrian world, what would your first life be like?

A: "My first life in Elyria will hopefully be spent on the water, exploring! Looking for new islands, and circumnavigating the continent, as well as picking up exotic and rare treasures from foreign lands! That is until I learn the mechanics well enough to begin my career as a scurvy buccaneer! I’m hoping that my first life isn’t cut short due to any unfortunate sinkings!"

Q: I hear you're an RP fan, but haven't done much in a while! What constitutes really good role playing for you?

A: "Really good Role playing for me is when a group of players are not trying to “win” over each other, but rather come together to create really compelling and interesting stories. The best Role play I’ve ever had was when the players realized that their characters were not the “one”, but rather just citizens of their respective realms living their lives. SWG had many great moments like that. I know the Role play is good when I feel like I am living in the world I am RPing in. To me, that’s the best feeling."

Q: Do any of your real life skills or job experiences help inform or enhance your ability to be a moderator?

A: "Well, I was a US Marine, and a Police Officer. I feel like helping others, and guiding people is part of my character as a person. The training I’ve had in both of my past careers really helps when dealing with folks in a great many situations. It also grew my skin pretty thick, which is good for online moderation!"

Q: What do you like most about being a moderator?

A: "I enjoy helping new people fit into the CoE Community, as well as engaging with the older members and just being able to help people when asked. It’s really brought me closer to the community."

Q: What do you like least?

A: "Sometimes you get some people that you just feel need to chill out and find something else to occupy their time with for a bit. Not being able to use my very colorful vocabulary to tell them that, is sometimes frustrating!"

Q: If there was a single statement you could make to all of the community, what would it be?

A: "Drink up me hearties yo ho!"

Thank you muchly Cap'n, it was great learning what makes you tick!

More about Mods

As you may already know, our volunteer Moderators and Super Moderators spend countless, often tedious hours supporting and helping the community by ensuring peace and happiness across all of our platforms.

What you may not know is that our Moderators and Super Moderators often spend time bettering our methodologies, systems, and interactions as we strive to constantly improve wherever we can. To this end I thought I would update you on a few things the team has been working on.

Melizenn and Ikkerens have been dedicating their extra volunteer time to help us construct a new system for ensuring consistency among our team, both in how and what we moderate. It isn't something you will notice distinctly as it is more of internal processes and systems, but it is very useful to the team and further streamlines our ability to be consistent and act quickly if a need arises and someone requires a moderators assistance.

and have been dedicating their extra volunteer time to help us construct a new system for ensuring consistency among our team, both in how and what we moderate. It isn't something you will notice distinctly as it is more of internal processes and systems, but it is very useful to the team and further streamlines our ability to be consistent and act quickly if a need arises and someone requires a moderators assistance. Elbereth, Kitlandria, and Hellmoon also spend many extra hours organizing information for the team and making sure we are always communicating at the highest levels possible.

I am amazed and grateful every day for all of our Moderators and Super Moderators who support us and our efforts to ensure we have the best damn community in all of gaming!

If you have an interest in becoming a moderator for our team, please; don't call us, we'll call you! There is no application process, we constantly seek out capable, kind, considerate, helpful, and supportive individuals who have a reputation in the community of being upstanding players who are honest and have integrity, If that sounds like you and you are present in our community, we'll find you!

Meet an Organization

Each month we spotlight an organization from our community.

We have many creative members who are building amazing groups in Elyria, and this is one way we can make sure you know about them. This month we meet the E'larial Trading Company, read on to find out more!

Official Organization name: The E'larial Trading Company

Server: Angelica (NA-W)

Kingdom affiliation: Ashland

How did you form? "I came up with the idea to run a Trading organization after long discussions regarding how business might work in Elyria. Myself and my friend Naihle Eisen'jorn came to the conclusion that players are by and large not going to want to work for someone else but would rather own businesses themselves. This sparked the start of the company. We've gained great leadership through various friends where we hammer out the finer details and those discussions have led us to where we are today."

Leadership: "Zakier Shædo'al (Guild Master), Zsiledifyshk (Ignis Branch Head), Naihle Eisen'jhon (Security Devision), Negnar Holf (Chief Ambassador),Ozymandiaz Brynhildr (Tech Department) and the Board of Directors."

Purpose of the Organization: "The E'larial Trading Company is a multi duchy merchants guild that aims to support commerce across the kingdom of Ashland. It is our goal to establish new business ventures, aid independent merchants, provide contracts for crafters and raw material suppliers as well as manage the politics of trade for our various members. Through our network of members we hope to establish rich trade among all the peoples of Ashland. In this way we feel every affiliated merchant can extend their reach and grow their businesses faster together for the betterment of all our members."

Motto/Slogan: "Connectens per commercia mundi, Connecting the world through trade."

Fun Fact: "Before we became an independent merchants union, we initially began as a proposed chain of general stores much like a Walmart with an Amazon delivery system. It was only after we started to gain many independent merchants that we dropped the chain store idea in favor of supporting other merchants in their growth."

Discord here

Recruitment thread: here

Thank you Zakier for helping us learn more about your organization!

Meet a Kingdom

This month, we learn all about the Kingdom of Aequitas from their monarch.

Thank you Emery for taking the time to tell us about your Kingdom!

Official Kingdom name: The Kingdom of the Free Duchies of Aequitas

Server: Oceanus (OCE)

Leadership: "Aequitas is governed by the Rêves family, which is currently headed by the King Emery Rêves and the Queen Mélia Rêves, along with the King's brother Remios Rêves, who acts as the Hand of the King. The Rêves family stands at the head of the Kingdom, and act as mediators and as the public face of our large and diverse community. While the Royal Family leaves much of the day-to-day governance of the Kingdom to other leadership structures within Aequitas, it does still retain much of its Royal Privilege and is custodian over the emergency powers necessary to make quick decisions on the behalf of the Kingdom when disaster strikes."

"In large part, the actual governing of the Kingdom of Aequitas is made possible only with the invaluable assistance and hard work of its High Assembly. The High Assembly is a body of members who have been hand selected by the King, to act on the behalf of the Kingdom and to complete many of the administrative tasks and responsibilities that come part and parcel with a community on this scale. These players are the ones who create our incredible artwork, maintain constant vigilance in moderating our community and innovate with new ideas and concepts for how we can improve as a community. Once the game itself launches, they will be the people who administer and watch over the various arms of government in our Kingdom and will serve as Ministers of the state, in service of the crown."

"While nominally a Kingdom, significant decisions in Aequitas are not made solely by the Royal Family. Our history speaks of a time when Aequitas was not a unified Kingdom, but a loose confederation of tribes and powerful Houses working together for common benefit, or all too often against each other. When the Kingdom was unified under the rule of House Rêves, each major house that swore its vassalage was promised a vote on matters of state and that practice continues even today. The primary law making body in the Kingdom of Aequitas is the Conclave of the Free Duchies, or in more casual parlance the Conclave. This body is a council of legislature where each of the Dukes or their representative can debate and represent their communities with a vote on those matters that affect them all."

Kingdom colors: "The official Kingdom colors of Aequitas are Blue, Grey and White. Kingdom crests and motifs also often incorporate leather, steel and other textiles."

Kingdom symbol: " The symbol of the Kingdom of Aequitas is a white colored nine-tailed fox, or to use real world mythology, a Kitsune. Each tail of the fox represents one of the eight founding Duchies of Aequitas, with the final tail representing the Royal Rêves Family."

Kingdom crest:

Goals of the Kingdom: "The community lore for the Kingdom of Aequitas is that until recent times, it was a land that had never before been unified under the banner of a single Lord or House. Our histories write that the unification under the House of Rêves happened as a reaction to the troubled times that came in the wake of the fall of the once all powerful Empire of Carpentaria in the south, when unity in times of trouble became a necessity. As a Kingdom, our goal is to respect that tradition of independence and promote diversity and uniqueness in the story and make up of the various Duchies and places within our Kingdom."

"As a Kingdom we want to promote exploration, trade and invention. We hope to be at the forefront of technology and of discovery throughout the ages and help to make Elyria a place of wonder for its players. Taking inspiration from the Hanseatic League, the Aequitari will have a strong focus on maritime trade and exploration which is a perfect tie in with our Archipelago style starting map. We have grand aspirations for elaborate harbours, magnificent fleets, and regular ocean voyages in search of fame and fortune."

Fun fact: "Originally the Kingdom of Aequitas was going to be called the Kingdom of Cordemaris, or in its Latin meaning the Heart of the Ocean. This name was the name chosen by a North American King who had a brief stint on our server before returning to NA-W, prior to the formation of many of the servers current Kingdoms. Eventually we settled on the name Aequitas instead, as in Latin it is the word that is the root of the words Equality and Equity. Our Kingdom is host to a large number of people who identify as being a part of Elyria’s LGBTQ community, one of whom is our King and in a lot of respects we found the name more fitting as it better symbolizes our values."

Discord: here

Recruitment thread: here

Closing statement: "At the end of the day, we're all here to have fun and play a game together. That is a philosophy that I take to heart with most things. Happy gaming *Chronicles of Elyria!"*

Thanks for your time Emery!!

Community Spotlight

To be considered for this spotlight, submit your content here.

Thank you for continuing to send us your wonderful creations!

Important: Continue to share your creations. We need more of them. Please utilize the link above so we can show off your efforts to all Elyrians!

Remember, even if your submission wasn't featured this month, we may still use it in the future.

During Map Voting, many in the community tried their hand at enhancing our maps in various ways. Count Blackshoes of Mirrorvale shared this creation:

Clockwork_Horologist / Ryoaze shared their self Portrait of Dragan Darkholm, from Blackheart Kingdom in Angelica (NA-W).

Resident community artist and self-proclaimed Fairy Queen Liva shared this fan's depiction of a To'resk mansion in the Wetlands.

For more details, check out this forum post

Our last spotlight shines a light on a darker member of the Dras tribe in this drawing of "Morose" submitted by Chimaera Corbeau (Cimeies).

(Check out next month's CJ for the accompanying portrait of Morose's partner, Nevermore.)

Meet a Dev

To help you get to know our team better, we try and interview one developer each month, or as often as is possible.

This month, we interviewed one of Soulbound Studios' most popular devs, a member of the design team, and resident jokester; Souzou. Let's pick his brain and see if we can learn some secrets behind the myth!

Q: So Souzou, where are you from? A: "The west coast, essentially. Born in California, moved to Oregon, and now I’m in Washington."

Q: I understand you speak several languages, what more can you say about that?

A: "I taught myself Japanese through textbooks, Japanese media, and exposure to the language in real life."

Q: It is known you are a fan of anime, what are your top 5 favorite of all time?

A: "An impossible question to answer. Here is a list of some of my favorites:"

Steins; Gate

Hunter X Hunter

Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi (Erased)

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Samurai Champloo

Cowboy Bebop

Psycho Pass (1st Season)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Violet Evergaarden

Fullmetal Alchemist

My Hero Academia

Parasyte

Yu Yu Hakusho

Trigun

Dragon Ball Z

s-CRY-ed

Naruto (1-4th Season)

Q: Do you enjoy Manga as well? Have a favorite?

A: "Manga was perhaps where my love of anime/manga originated from. I remember that the first copy of Jump I had ever received featured both Dragon Ball Z AND Naruto, and they were fighting Zabuza, and he had a really cool sword (look at that magnificent piece of metal)"



"I liked the content, and I really enjoyed the aesthetic of Jump Magazines and Manga volumes, so I started reading them more. I’m not 100% on this, but I’m pretty sure the first Manga volume I bought was Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Good times."

"Everyone should read Berserk."

Q: When did you start playing games?

A: "Pretty much right off the bat, starting as a small child. Board games, Imaginary games, Minesweeper on the computer, Mortal Kombat my neighbor’s SNES, Brickbreaker on my watch, etc."

Q: What got you into the game industry?

A: "A desire to create something meaningful, and a passion for games."

Q: What games do you enjoy the most and why?

A: "The games made by FromSoftware (Armored Core, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc.) are probably the ones I consistently enjoy the most. Genre-wise, however, hack-and-slash games (like Nier: Automata, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta) are the ones I like to play the most."

Q: You are really popular in the community, why do you think that is?

A: "Hmm, interesting question…I provide good GIF material."

Q: There are a few community members who have offered you marriage proposals, what are your thoughts on that?

A: "I guess I’d say that I’d need to review them each before making a decision."

Q: As a member of the design team, what types of things do you work on?

A: "It depends on what’s needing to be done! I spend most of my time dealing with mechanics and game play or worldbuilding"

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: "I’m currently working on combat! Fun stuff. Sometimes tuning and tweaking values and timing windows for example to make sure the game play feels as good as possible or implementing a specific functionality or mechanic."

Q: How will MoCap be used in CoE and what role will you play in utilizing it?

A: "Well, the current plan is for me to do 100% of all MoCap for every creature, so I like to think I’m more than just utilizing it; I’m breathing LIFE into it; my body, a paintbrush; the game, my canvas."

"Beyond that, it’d probably be utilized by the animators."

Q: Anything you'd like to share with the community?

A: "Only that I hope everyone is having a good year and continues to."

"And this."

Thanks again for answering our questions!

Reddit community

The Chronicles of Elyria community has a Reddit community, lovingly managed by Hellmoon, Mickdude, and ImbuedGreen.

If you are interested in joining our subReddit, find it here

Community shows

The Chronicles of Elyria community is a busy one, and has been for a long time now. It’s so active that there are many live shows hosted each month. To help you be aware of them, and attend these enlightening and often revealing events, we've summarized those we know occur consistently each month. If you host a show on CoE and want to be included here, please contact us at [email protected]

One of two new shows this month is A Pirate's Guide to Elyria, "a new interactive Lore and RP based CoE Talk Show, hosted by Captain Seli and Zigsmash, where we casually dive into the world of Elyria and talk about its lore, the Tribes of Mann and their religions, the solar system, and everything in between. We'll discuss theories and fan lore as well!"

"A Pirate's Guide to Elyria show times are determined by how much rum the crew has had the day prior, so stay alert for announcements of when (Generally Tuesdays around 2PM Eastern, but could happen any day and time)!"

Their Channel

Another brand new community show is co-hosted by our Spanish-speaking Ambassadors and long-time community supporters, Gammea and Daedhel.

Taberna Elyria is "a brand new podcast in Spanish where we introduce Chronicles of Elyria and its news to spread the word to all Spanish-speaking gamers." "Join Anibal, Daedhel and Gammea in this new adventure."

Their Channel

The Arkadian Herald, is "a talk show hosted by Threepwood of the Kingdom of Arkadia, with various participants from different kingdoms, debating on subjects or features of Chronicles of Elyria and giving their opinions on the best way to implement it to make the game more attractive and interesting. If you enjoy it and wish to participate while having a cam and preferably a mic, let us know by visiting our discord"

Their Channel

Conclave 360 is “a community based discussions channel that seeks to help people find their home in the larger Elyrian community. Videos focus on topics ranging from introducing local community leaders, guilds, associations, and schools to discussions on how the mechanics “as described so far” will impact those people and institutions."

"Free at 1pm PDT/4pm EDT on Sundays? If you're looking for a home in Elyria, tune in to Face the Conclave and find one!"

Their Channel

Oceanus FM is "a collaborative broadcasting effort hosted by Alleykat and featuring the Kings of Aequitas, Lor Voskara and Tylsia as regular co-hosts. The channel was created to provide an Oceanic time zone live stream and video series, to talk about issues relevant to the Oceanus server of Chronicles of Elyria."

"Oceanus FM does not follow a strict broadcast schedule due to shift work. Watch out for announcements!"

Their Channel

Cremoria News Network [CNN] "is a weekly CoE talk show brought to you by the Duchy of Cremoria. They do deep dives on CoE mechanics, interviews, and community news. Tune in every Sunday at 6pm Eastern / 3pm Pacific for this classy and sassy stream."

Their Channel

Vendor Trash is "two guys with a laundry list of gaming street cred dating back to the 80’s. It was first a failed dumpster diving blog, then they failed at motivational speaking, and then finally found their calling talking about Chronicles of Elyria. They are excited the game they've always dreamed of is finally being made. After many episodes they are still going strong, come join their throbbing obsession."

Find past episodes on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

Their Channel

TheoryForge. "This veteran team of streamers began a new show on Friday, May 10th, focusing on Chronicles of Elyria. The current hosts have all purchased packs with Alpha I access, and are excited to become more active members of the community. We are drawn to CoE because of its unique mechanics, and the migration of the Revival community."

Follow them at the link below, they are live every other Friday at 9pm EDT, 6pm PDT.

Their Channel

The BBC "(Bordweall Broadcasting Company) livestream deep dives into the latest developments from Soulbound Studios. Watch and discover what has them so excited about CoE, then join them and their guests in the CoE Discord voice after party and find out why they believe CoE is going to define a whole new genre in online gaming!"

They stream live every other Tuesday at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. Watch the CoE forums for their announcements!

Their Channel

The Town Crier is "a live informational show/podcast featuring Morbis (Duke of Vornair), Adam (King of Vornair) and Mickdude (Count from Alésia). The topic is typically the latest goings on with the game or in the CoE community, theorycrafting about things Caspian says, or watching them blunder around with recurring technical difficulties with all the grace of a three legged giraffe. Super entertainment!"

You can catch them live every Wednesday at 3pm (PT)/6pm (ET)/10 pm (UTC).

Their Channel

Community contests

We love running contests, promotions, and events for our players — but it turns out our players love running them as well! To help you keep track of all of the different contests and events at any given time, we've summarized them into one directory and stickied it in our General Discussion forum.

The Art of Elyria!

There are a ton of talented artists in our community, many who share their creations in our forums and on our Discord server. Recently, some of those artists (including our super awesome Hellmoon) have created an official Chronicles of Elyria group over at the ultimate web destination for all art, Deviant Art.

Explore the creations, add your own or just support the creativity of our members in the CoE Deviant Art group!

Ambassadors

Each month we'll get to know one of our esteemed Ambassadors, as well as let you know the status of current nominations and votes!

Meet an Ambassador

This month we interview another of our original Ambassadors and talk to Markof.

(Special thanks to Elbereth for constructing these questions)

Q: Where are you from?

A: "I grew up in Metz, a small medieval town of the east of France close to Luxembourg and Germany, an area with a very rich history."

Q: Anything interesting happen to you while growing up?

A: "Quite a lot of things, my parents worked a lot so they were not really around, but the trade off was that they gave us lots of opportunities and pushed us to try and do tons of things. But I guess you want a few anecdotes, I could tell you about the one time I nearly killed my grandpa when I prepared traps and snares to try to capture Santa, or our family jazz band, my father was playing double bass, my brother saxophone, my sister the piano and I was the trumpet. But the most epic story of my first real solo trip; for my 18th birthday, I bought myself (with the ample financial help of my parents:) ) a trip around the USA. I packed 6 weeks of Greyhound pass, a hotel room for my first night in San Francisco and plane tickets to go from Luxembourg to San Francisco, and from New York back, every thing was perfect on paper or so I thought, and every thing went AWOL right from the start! The flight in was long, very long, Luxembourg to Reykjavik to New York to Dallas to San Francisco where i finally landed really early to discover my bag was missing, had to wait to make a baggage lost claim. Then I took a cab to my really needed hotel to discover the reservation had not went through and the hotel was full.... 18 first time in a foreign land alone 5:30 am without anything and tired ..... but those 6 weeks were a fantastic adventure!"

Q: Have you ever been abroad? If so, where?

A: "I traveled a lot but never spent more than a summer away from France. I have yet to set foot in Latin America or to explore Oceania."

Q: How did you start being a gamer?

A: "My first Atari console in 1982 brought me Pacman , which was a good start but it really begun when i was gifted my first D&D box when i was 9, nearly 35 years ago, from there I became kind of a "ludopath", and computer games in the 90's. I started MMO things with Mankind by Cryo in 1998, then EQ, DAOC.... RIFT (tribute to Snipehunter)... and soon CoE"

Q: What is your favorite game?

A: "Hum, a very hard question, if Steam clock counts are to be trusted it will be between the CIV saga, the Total War saga and the Fallouts. The MMO I've played the most was DAOC and one I liked a lot but was short lived was Pirates of the burning sea by flying lab."

Q: How did you discover CoE and what made you stay?

A: "I discovered CoE reading DJ#1 on mmorpg.com, the concept was a dream come true, so I poked around a little, made an account to follow the DJs and when KS started, I jumped in. What really hooked me was DJ#18 and what make me stay, the dream, the studio, and the community."

Q: What do you like the most from CoE?

A: "What i like the most from CoE is that it is a MEOW, our accomplishments will be ours and not shared with thousands of people and we are no more the center of the world but only small actors in a grand play, if you want a leading part you have to work for it!"

Q: You're known as an ambassador of our community! Would you be able to provide some advice to our players to get as knowledgeable as you are?

A: "There is no secret, read, read, read. DJs are a nearly bottomless mines of information and images, the soul chamber on discord and roaming the forums, and debating with the Ambassadors."

Q: What do you like the most about being an Ambassador?

A: "the green tag :wink: More seriously, the other Ambassadors, the moderators and Serpentius. The collective will to help the community, answer questions, and guide people toward the info is what helps keep going back at it, answering the same question for the thousandth time, linking the same link or quote, because most of the time the person asking is doing so for the first time. When you feel a little down there is always someone in the team to cheer you up, to bring a new subject to discuss, and a new obscure point of lore or info to talk about."

Q: What's the best and worst experience you had as an ambassador?

A: "As I said above, the best is the team, but every time you are able to help a player is a wonderful experience, the worst part of being an Ambassador, i'd say to control our comms, we are players too and as such we all have our parts in one of the communities and the dramas going along, but as Ambassadors we have to stay neutral and helpful. The requirement for us to provide sources is sometimes tiring, i'm a bit like, "i know it dam it believe me i'm green" but luckily we can not do that and we have to search sources and provide them, saved me several times because I was wrong :)"

Q: If you could say anything to the community, what would it be?

A: "Read and learn about the game by yourself or an Ambassador, ask questions, discuss things you do not understand, but please do not follow blindly or believe what your community, or your leaders say, get the info at the source, the dance has begun and some dance ruthlessly; knowledge is a weapon, a prepared and informed Elyrian is a happy Elyrian!"

Great stuff Markof, thanks a lot for those answers, I am so happy you are an Ambassador!

Ambassador Nominations

There have been no new approved community Ambassador nominations since we last reported in October. If you want to learn more about this program, or know someone you would like to nominate, click on the link! Thanks for your support, as always.

Subject Matter Experts

Our current SMEs who officially joined us in September have a new private forum to communicate with us! We are very excited to continue our collaborations with this esteemed group via this new medium.

Soon we'll launch a 2nd round of SME requests where you can apply to assist the studio utilizing your expertise!

Learn more about the SME program here

What’s next?

In December, the last month of 2018, we expect to see many fantastic things! Here's what is coming to close out a very productive year:

A surprise event is near, keep your eyes peeled for a new way to engage more during December, were super excited for this one!

Package combining (merging) is almost upon us, expect it soon.

Trading your title for EP or Transferring it to someone else.

Our December promotion where we will show off some interesting and new items to satisfy your holiday purchasing desires.

We are planning a public live stream in December that will be unlike any you've seen us do before, you won't want to miss it!

The studio is in a frenzy of activity and there is even more coming up that we can't discuss yet so, buckle up, this year will end in a whirlwind of activity!

Until next time,

More to come...