Time for a change.

[Crimson Archer]

This week I have reached a conclusion. I don't 'love' City of Heroes anymore. I don't hate it by any means but with the changes my life has gone through over the past 18 months (My wife & I losing our jobs, becoming a mature student, daughter staring school, etc) I've come to realise that playing regularly is no longer one of my top priorities anymore. It is because of this realisation that I've decided to let you all know of my intention to step down as the percieved leadership of The Militia Supergroup and administrator of thisforum.

I believe that to move forward this group deserves to have a passionate leadership who is regularly available in game, and I'm just not that person anymore. I'm listed on the Wiki and other places as a leader, but having a leadership character absent for most of the time is damaging to any group or guild. Frankly, in an RP group, it feels worse because it is an ongoing situation without IC explantion and I have no explanation to give besides my real life ones.

I was chosen by the members of this group when I took over The Militia about 3 years ago, and it's been an honour fulfilling that role, but it's time for a change.

As for my characters, I'll take Jay out of The Militia and write something appropriate for characters to react to. Jay's redemption will have to wait for now.

Portent, I'm offering you Song Thrush as an RP NPC for Jen. He's a character that hasn't been played in game for over a year, so deleting him is no great loss, and his relationship with Jen can be better handled by one player anyhow.

Aurelian has been missing in action for a long time and no one has mentioned him or Jonny in as long, so he's no great loss to the group.

Silver Dryad I have no plans for at the moment but I'll continue to play her on and off as my Militia character.

I won't be cancelling my subscription or closing my account, but my in-game presence will remain sporadic. You lot deserve better than that and I finally feel ready to let go.

Thanks guys. It's been an incrediable journey which I wouldn't have missed for the world, but it's time for someone else to take over.

Paul / CA.

[Portent]

That's an understandable step to take. I'm very glad you're not leaving us completely. I'll try and take good care of Peter, if you ever want him back just ask.

[White_Vampyr]

This week I have reached a conclusion. I don't 'love' City of Heroes anymore. I don't hate it by any means but with the changes my life has gone through over the past 18 months (My wife & I losing our jobs, becoming a mature student, daughter staring school, etc) I've come to realise that playing regularly is no longer one of my top priorities anymore. It is because of this realisation that I've decided to let you all know of my intention to step down as the percieved leadership of The Militia Supergroup and administrator of thisforum.

I believe that to move forward this group deserves to have a passionate leadership who is regularly available in game, and I'm just not that person anymore. I'm listed on the Wiki and other places as a leader, but having a leadership character absent for most of the time is damaging to any group or guild. Frankly, in an RP group, it feels worse because it is an ongoing situation without IC explantion and I have no explanation to give besides my real life ones.

Perfectly understandable. I hate the idea of losing you as a regular playmate and co-creative, of course, but that's already happened, and I do understand the reasons.

I guess the real question now will be who does have that passion and commitment, and is there enough left for that person to lead?

We've had a lot of people drifting away for one reason or another in the past year, and with only a couple of delightfully welcome exceptions, haven't had new people coming in with fresh excitement to spread around. There seem to be 'holes' where Brona, Keegan, Drew, Red, and yourself were, and even Dante is a little sporadic at times. With Dipster also having fresh commitments to his drama groups, it does seem like the only players almost certain to be around on a given week are Wolfram, Romanov and myself (and usually Neuro these past few weeks, except last week). Now I'm perfectly happy playing as a regular trio and occassionally larger team, but is that enough of a core for a roleplay Super Group?

With the release of Going Rogue surely imminent now, we have to look at the fact that The Militia we have has no presence or place in Praetoria, and so would not really be a fitting SG at all for new Praetorian characters. I'm certain we'll be wanting a new SG of some kind for that, which will further erode the time and attention we can spend on The Militia as is. I think we are all going to have to rethink a few things and seek fresh purpose and mission statements for our groupings.

Perhaps we put the old 'Militia' on a back-burner witha long term generalised idea of what the SG is doing and up to. That way we could keep the latest 'Academy' (the TF team) ongoing for the monthly TFs, and make that the main focus for Militia RP, with established characters appearing through stories around the new Academy.

We'll probably want some fresh SG for the Praetoria stuff, perhaps even a VG too.

However, we must think of the mechanics of Praetoria. As far as I understand it, if a loyalist, your first loyalties are to other Loyalists, some of whom may be villain types or 'evil' and thus not able to belong to the same SG as a good Loyalist, even though goodly Resistance members, whom you oppose violently in teams, could be members of your SG...

The new alignment system changes a lot of things for all SGs and VGs. I'm strongly suspecting that anyone turning Villain can no longer enter an SG base for Heroes (an unavoidable game mechanic), just as any villain turning Hero could no longer belong to the Cadre or League VGs. On top of that, The Militia has strong IC reasons why it doesn't accept or support vigilantes, so we'd be looking to restrict The Militia to pure Heroes only.

There's an awful lot to think about and discuss. Who here has the passion and interest for that deliberation and discussion? I know I still do, but am I still in the right place?

Aurelian has been missing in action for a long time and no one has mentioned him or Jonny in as long, so he's no great loss to the group.

Actually he's been mentioned several times just that I recal, but you're never there to hear it. Assumptions about noone missing your characters in your absence are entirely false. The only reason they aren't mentioned a lot more often and prominently is that we didn't want to put added pressure on you.

[Crimson Archer]

That's an understandable step to take. I'm very glad you're not leaving us completely. I'll try and take good care of Peter, if you ever want him back just ask.

Thanks mate, I appreciate it.

Actually he's been mentioned several times just that I recall, but you're never there to hear it. Assumptions about noone missing your characters in your absence are entirely false. The only reason they aren't mentioned a lot more often and prominently is that we didn't want to put added pressure on you.

Don't worry, I wrote that about Aurelian with my tongue firmly in my cheek but it's really Jonny I have no connection to. I had no idea who he was, and while Aurelian was fun in a one dimensional, Golden Age kind of way, I always found that lack of idea who Jonny was held the character back. I may come back to him some time or just pass the coin on again.

With the release of Going Rogue surely imminent now...

August 17th, according to official announcements. So, just over three weeks to go.

[Neurocharge]

Whilst I'll be sorry not to see you around as much, I understand your reasons. At the end of the day its important you're doing this because you enjoy it. I've enjoyed RPing with you and hope to do so in the future. In the mean time take care and have fun, I'll do my best not to blow anything up in the interim (no promises mind!).

[White_Vampyr]

Don't worry, I wrote that about Aurelian with my tongue firmly in my cheek but it's really Jonny I have no connection to. I had no idea who he was, and while Aurelian was fun in a one dimensional, Golden Age kind of way, I always found that lack of idea who Jonny was held the character back. I may come back to him some time or just pass the coin on again.

Aye. The greatest problem of this kind of character (or team in one body) is that with such a strong and iconic persona (almost OTT in a really good way) as Aurelian, the alter-ego almost needs to be as strong in an entirely different way, without becoming Clark Kent. I think Johnny with his nervousness and glasses may have got just a bit too much Clark in him to engage your creative gears. Knowing you somewhat, I think you'd be far happier exploring what happened when a drunken bum got hold of the coin, with the previously washed-up drunkard being every bit as colourful and flamboyant (and difficult) in his ways as Aurelian is.

Back on topic, Wolfram kindly started a new thread specifically for discussing the future of the Militia (and our group generally I think) here.