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One hundred updates, of those I contributed to forty-seven updates and portions of two expansion packs. Nearly half of the one hundred!
Where to start…they say that you never forget your first love – I am not certain who they are and how they know this is true, I have never been certain – they are right. Asheron’s Call was my first and it is still an important part of the designer that I am now.
My first offering was Danby’s Outpost located on the northern shore of the inland sea. It was a foray into something new, landscaping, npc creation, item creation and quest design. It was a colossal failure. Maybe not colossal to players but to those on the AC team it was more work for them from an armchair designer who meant to do well but had none of the knowledge of skills necessary to accomplish their goals. Without some serious assistance from Annuvin and Crowley it never would have seen the light of day. I learned a lot from that though. I learned that I needed to study the system to become a good designer. So I did.
I started contributing directly to the game in December of 2001, small bits at first little items of quest bits here and there; in February of 2002 I began work on the Gaerlan Arc. After moving to design full-time I earned the illustrious task of handling much of the main story. Over the course of the next 7 months, I drew the story to a close with a massive battle between the beloved character, Candeth Martine and Gaerlan at the top of the latter character’s citadel. When the portal to Ispar was discovered, players had a choice to make; did Martine live and escape through the portal, or die saving Auberean from Gaerlan’s misguided plan? At the ACPL that next year, I think the question of what happened to Martine was the number one question that I was asked. To anyone who is a fan of The Sopranos, the choice is still up to you.
That first year concluded with Oolutanga, also known as Bobo, and my homage to Planet of the Apes. Has anyone every given Brighteyes mushed nanners? These were the fun days, the early days, and though I cannot go back there I can still hold them as dearly as I do. At the 2002 ACPL I met a great many friendly people, all of them playing Asheron’s Call and all of them happy or inquisitive of what we were doing next where we were going. I knew where I wanted to go and in the winter of 2002 with an uncertain future before us we moved to an episodic story arc. This changed into the Olthoi Arc ending with the defeat of the Olthoi Queen from Knorr.
It was a year where the failures of the previous land invasions were learned and we built out the new invasion of Olthoi. We introduced massive assaults overrunning sections of land and making the deus ex machina nature an infirmity as his power was countered by his greatest foe and failure. Paralyzed by this fear, Asheron was removed from the equation and Elysa needed to step forward and become a leader. I remember this very well; I was cornered at the 2003 ACPL and asked why the female characters were so weak. It was a valid question; Elysa has always been a difficult character for me, personally. She was strong, surely, surviving against the Olthoi and struggling through when her husband was killed and the leader of the first people of Ispar to arrive on Dereth. The players were a different sort though, they were not those initial subjects and Elysa was distant from them. Every effort to empower her was met with difficulty. But then there was Nuhmudira.
My intention all along was to re-imagine Elysa, not kill her. When Nuhmudira hired Oswald it was with the intention of assassination, but Elysa was too strong-willed to die. Nuhmudira on the other hand was my favorite lore character next to Antius Blackmoor (who was, in a sense, an extension of me) and I loved writing her fall to Falatacot practices. Nuhmudira was, I feel my strongest character, she had goals and dreams and would stop at nothing to reach them. Plus, she also enabled me to write my favorite quest ever: The Noir Investigation. Forgive me, but this is a nostalgia piece.
The words drip from my fingertips like moisture ringing a glass of cider over rocks in a smoke-filled room on the fringes of Lytelthorpe. Outside of the bar, I hear the discussion ebbing to the posters outside of all major settlements across Dereth, there is unease in those voices, concern over where they come from and who this Dame that needs help is. Dame Brinna O’Shea paid me well to place the signs and keep my mug full and my mouth shut. I sip the cider slowly and watch the throng grow. They’d figure out soon enough that the Royal Guard had the 4-1-1 and then be off to speak to the Dame. With any luck she’d need my help again and then I’d have a few more pyreal to line my pocket.
I still love that quest and the next ACPL, I remember asking the woman who the previous year mentioned weak female characters, what she thought of them now and she said that I had done much better. That made me smile, that is what designing AC was all about – now what designing LotRO is all about; making people smile.
I ended my run with the Burun Arc, tying pieces of the lore of AC1 and AC2 together. It was a fun run, a fun time and Asheron’s Call is still one of my favorite games of all time. I miss it and love it and let me just say thank you to all the folks still working on the game, playing the game and all those who have come and gone. Asheron’s Call reaches a milestone at 100, the first 100, 100 and going strong.
Congratulations Asheron. You done good. |
As we fast approach the 100th content update we felt it was a good time to start detailing some of the key features that will be included in this major event. Working towards and on this event has been a pleasure for all of us and we sincerely hope everyone will enjoy what we have in store. So without further delay, lets discuss out first new feature, Societies and the new Society system.
