Asrai.org is not going to be shut down just yet

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

Sad news:

http://www.asrai.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28962

[Shannar, Sealord]

I expect we'll loose a lot more in the next year or two. Hopefully this isn't one of them, but I can't say it would shock me if it is.

[RE.Lee]

Sad news indeed. I'm not much of a fan of our hippie kin gamewise, but the forum had very good quality. Shame to see them go.

[John Rainbow]

Depressing although not unexpected. I've noticed this forum is also a lot quieter... though thankfully still active.

[SpellArcher]

Thanks for flagging this up SM. As someone who's posted extensively there it's a sad day.

I expect we'll loose a lot more in the next year or two. Hopefully this isn't one of them, but I can't say it would shock me if it is.

That's up to us. Race specific forums in general are under strain. All of us who've posted thus far, as well as plenty of others are putting in effort to keep the forum healthy. I believe that as long as this continues, Ricold will keep the forum running. There just wasn't the same input over at Asrai.

[Shannar, Sealord]

Thanks for flagging this up SM. As someone who's posted extensively there it's a sad day.

I expect we'll loose a lot more in the next year or two. Hopefully this isn't one of them, but I can't say it would shock me if it is.

That's up to us. Race specific forums in general are under strain. All of us who've posted thus far, as well as plenty of others are putting in effort to keep the forum healthy. I believe that as long as this continues, Ricold will keep the forum running. There just wasn't the same input over at Asrai.

Exactly. But things have still slowed down here a lot. And new blood is going to be rare I fear.

[SpellArcher]

But things have still slowed down here a lot.

As discussed here Shannar, it's a glass half full/half empty kind of thing:

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=69575

And new blood is going to be rare I fear.

It's a sad thing but maybe we'll get a few guys from Asrai. We have some decent 9th Age discussion, if 9th takes off it could draw people in.

[John Rainbow]

And new blood is going to be rare I fear.

It's a sad thing but maybe we'll get a few guys from Asrai. We have some decent 9th Age discussion, if 9th takes off it could draw people in.

I can't see this happening sadly - not unless something like Pathfinder for D&D occurs and 'official' rules get released. How can you draw new people into 9th? Here come play a game that stopped being supported so we made a bunch of different versions of it cos no one can decide how it should be played but we play it this way for now... I wish the guys with 9th all the best but until they do something Pathfinder-ish I can't see it drawing anyone new into the community.

[Shannar, Sealord]

But things have still slowed down here a lot.

As discussed here Shannar, it's a glass half full/half empty kind of thing:

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=69575

And new blood is going to be rare I fear.

It's a sad thing but maybe we'll get a few guys from Asrai. We have some decent 9th Age discussion, if 9th takes off it could draw people in.

Half full, half empty, or simply twice as big as it needs to be.

In the end all any of it means is that there is less going on here than there used to be, and even that was down quite a bit from the peak. For now there is enough to keep things interesting. I very much hope that continues. But I wouldn't be shocked if 2 years from now there just isn't any posting going on. The loss of the game hurt. Some took it as the reason they needed to finally leave gaming. Some moved on from Fantasy. The rest split over several different games. And lets face it, high elves are a subset of those. I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if there was a active Warhammer board 10 years from now. I'll be really surprised if there are any race specific boards left at all. Not saying I like that, or want it to happen, simply that it'll be very hard to avoid. If that day does come hopefully I see a lot of you on whatever comes about to replace it.

[Prince of Spires]

It's a sad day. And it shows the power GW executives have over the hobby.

As for what the future holds, hard to say. 9th age can be very successful. A lot of open source projects are. The main thing needed is an active community. Once that's there then new people will be drawn in and you could even end up seeing companies backing it. It's too early to tell. Of course, if the excitement dies down and the community doesn't pick it up then the future will be a lot grimmer.

Rod

[SpellArcher]

I can't see this happening sadly - not unless something like Pathfinder for D&D occurs and 'official' rules get released. How can you draw new people into 9th? Here come play a game that stopped being supported so we made a bunch of different versions of it cos no one can decide how it should be played but we play it this way for now... I wish the guys with 9th all the best but until they do something Pathfinder-ish I can't see it drawing anyone new into the community.

This discussion has been had a lot on other forums John. Key thing is that 9th Age has been adopted by ETC and that has a trickle-down effect. The guys who play there are often TO's in their own countries, so that means we're seeing quite a few 9th Age events, especially on the Continent. I believe there is some activity in the US but that KoW is in charge. In Britain, this tournament got 80 entries very quickly:

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69546

The point has been made that guys going into shops will only play AoS. But that's only GW, not independents. Plus an awful lot of players, especially on the continent, get into the hobby through clubs or friends if if those are playing 9th Age (or KoW or whatever) that is what these new guys will play. The club I joined in the late 90's had a strong Warhammer tournament focus, so that's the kind of Warhammer I played.

In Britain things are panning out. AoS, boosted by support from about half the top players and most of the Podcasters, has a moderate but solid support base. 9th Age has maybe more players but that could get bigger or smaller. KoW is like AoS on a smaller scale. There are still 8th events. I'll play either 8th or 9th Age, depending on logistics.

Most of our gaming discussion is currently 9th Age, hopefully we will get more on the other systems too, I'll certainly be posting 8th stuff now and then for example. We'll always have P&M, consider how key that has been to the survival of Chaos Dwarfs Online for example.

On Asrai there were guys posting here and there but there was not enough thrust behind it. Here we get guys posting regularly because they have games or modelling projects that motivate them and that they want to share. A lot of it is about momentum and we need to keep that up.

[Ricold]

All of us who've posted thus far, as well as plenty of others are putting in effort to keep the forum healthy. I believe that as long as this continues, Ricold will keep the forum running.

This is liberally true. I'm also now very glad that I decided to combine the servers for Ulthuan and my other domain, so I will continue to keep Ulthuan running for the forsee able future, if for no better reason than I'm the sort of person who always needs a server for something.

[SpellArcher]

Thanks Ric, that reassurance gives us a solid base.

[Ricold]

As an update to the situation with Asrai:

There is now a positive plan to save Asrai. There are a few possibilities kicking around, but the simplest one will be that either Druchii or ourselves will share a server with it. As I said in my last comment, Ulthuan already shares a server with my other domain, and in the same way you see nothing of that from the public side, so there will be no visible indication of who would be sharing with Asrai. They'd keep their own domain and traffic separate. Just sharing a hard disk.

[John Rainbow]

As an update to the situation with Asrai:

There is now a positive plan to save Asrai. There are a few possibilities kicking around, but the simplest one will be that either Druchii or ourselves will share a server with it. As I said in my last comment, Ulthuan already shares a server with my other domain, and in the same way you see nothing of that from the public side, so there will be no visible indication of who would be sharing with Asrai. They'd keep their own domain and traffic separate. Just sharing a hard disk.

Great news. Nice of you to offer to do this too!

[fiftyz]

Plus an awful lot of players, especially on the continent,
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[Prince of Spires]

we couldn't just sit by and watch one of our elven friends disappear. So, we came up with a way to help them.

Rod