Shaping the future

[Novus'Olm]

Hello everyone!

On November 12th, 2004, a rather unique gaming clan was founded. Choosing to separate themselves from the chaos of the "free for all" groups and clans that populated Jedi Academy's early days, The Angels of Fire and their founder, IrishDragon, set out to provide a home to all those who wished to learn and have fun together under the banner of the Jedi Order.

14 years later we have become so much more. To many of us, AoF was/is a family, and more importantly, home. Somewhere we can always come back to and share in the memories and glories of our youth (Right, Landon?)

We did a lot in that decade and a half. Forged new alliances and friendships, expanded into other games where we were equally successful (such as SWTOR and SRO), and have a lot to be proud of.

I'll be generous and say that over the last 5 years we've struggled to maintain the binds that once held us so closely together. We've all had things happen that cut off our activity levels, changed the way we game, and ultimately led us (myself included) to click on the empty forums and wonder what could have been if we kept at it.

I've recently reinstalled Jedi Academy, and have been keeping a close eye on the Arcadia project as well as what those of you who still hang around are up to.

I'd like to pose a question to all of you.. Where do we go from here? Times have changed, and so definitely has JKA. What form would you like to see AoF take moving forward?

I've added a few poll options, and am looking forward to hearing your thoughts. If your idea(s) for AoF don't line up with the poll, comment below with your ideal outlook.

May the Force be with you,
Novus

[Leonhart]

For my part what I see is the traditional clan format dying in general across all of Jedi Academy.

Arcadia I think is the best chance for the future of not just AoF, but the game as a whole. Being part of that I believe we have to be a more open community. We stayed inside our little bubble for too long and that's why we're here.

[IrishDragon]

AoF did evolve into more of a gaming community, as illustrated by Novus in his opening statements.

However, as people retired from JKA, they also stepped away from the forums instead of bringing in these new games, and members to the forums.

In order to gear these forums towards new game types and members, we are going to have to reformat how a new user views the forums upon signing up. I'm not sure if that also means we should cut back on the JKA design of the forums... but that is a discussion for a later time.
Add to that we are going to need new game topics in the forums and eventually we are going to need specialized moderator groups to provide moderators with a means of overseeing their particular game(s) without crossing into the JKA topics, much like we did with SRO, AB siege group, and eventually SWTOR

Once we have that laid out, we are going to need to bring people from those games into our forums and find ways to keep them here, keep this the central hub for that game and that group of people's daily communication. When you were in AoF actively, can you think of a day when you did not check and post in the forums? I can't recall such a day for myself.

Once we get the basics under control and the people back into the forums, then I think it is safe to say we are a gaming community once more.

I do, unfortunately, think that clan style like AoF has died out, though I would love to be proven wrong on that front.


All the best to you guys!

~IrishDragon