To whom it may concern,
My life is changing drastically and at a pace I can’t keep up with. Aventia is a part of my life, but it deserves better than I am able to give.
One of the things that first attracted me to Aventia was the concept of a community project. Back on Av1 and Av2, players weren’t censored (for the most part, thankfully) but really had no pull, and no capacity to effect change (unless the owners/developers liked the idea e.g. QP shards), and everything was done behind closed doors. That is one of the things I tried to change with Av3 with varying success in terms of its impact on the player interest and morale.
Av3 was fully transparent, and players (donators or not) had pull, but it still didn’t lead to a true sense of community ownership, responsibility, and involvement I was hoping for.
And at the same time balancing it being an open community project with the realities of needing it to be a unique (not open source) continues to be daunting. Not to mention the fact that, once I began to invest monetarily and more importantly invest my time personally, as a developer, into the project (a little over 3 years ago), it became really difficult to give up control.
I did introduce this possibility via voting shares, but I continue to maintain a significant voting share % simply for paying the majority of the bills in the long run and doing the majority of the development.
I have been an artist all of my life, and this is the first work of art I have ever worked on for this duration, and so as I mentioned above I have difficulty letting go of control. It is also only the second community project I have worked with.
But in reality, as much as I have invested myself personally (and financially, I have spent over 2 thousand dollars on hosting this project, which is insane to me given my income level, and how I cringe at buying a 50$ game, let alone paying a subscription to pay a game I already bought e.g. WOW, but I digress…) into this, it still hasn’t achieved the one thing that got me interested in it in the first place, which was the ability to be a truly community project.
My hope is that this will inspire you all, the Aventian community, to take ownership, take responsibility, get involved, get proactive and help this project continue to grow, and reach it’s potential.
So as my parting gift as aDMin/owner of Av3, I would like to truly turn the module over to the community. First and foremost to the Aventian community, because you all have been the driving force behind what we are today, and secondly to the NWN community at large.
I would like to upload the current module, and associated files, to some cloud where by anyone can down load it, and hopefully choose aspects of it they would like to work on, and submit them to the server version of the module for change.
This would make development a lot easier, but of course completely eliminate our unique status for the development we have achieved thus far.
A huge risk.
Anyone could in theory take this, and dissect it, to use for their own purposes (be it host another version of Aventia like I did when Av2 shut down, or dissect some of our systems and incorporate it into their own worlds, like what happened with the HGLL system.)
In this respect, I am pretty nervous about this concept. I have put in an insane amount of my own time developing this project. And to give up ownership in this way is… daunting to say the least. But ultimately I feel, this is the way forward for Aventia, and if we end up contributing to the larger NWN community in general, I am happy the work put into this world (by myself and many, many, others) may be usable to other people in the NWN community.
Despite the fact that this could lead to the complete downfall and disinterest in our Aventia, I have faith that it won’t. And the reason being is twofold.
1) that Funkyswerve released PoA’s post 40 system years ago (HGLL), and despite that fact having it public, pushed them to further evolve to keep up with other worlds using their system, they still remain one of the top action servers out there.
It was a bold move on Funky’s part. And I am no Funky by any means, but happy, and proud to follow his lead and uphold that ideology. Submitting something for the good for all, will hopefully be good for Aventia too. And if not… well so be it, those of us who have contributed to the development of Aventia can be proud of the fact that Av was the first post 40 system in NWN, and has continued to evolve to this day, and is a gift to the NWN community we have been a part of nearly from day 1.
And 2) I also have faith in this community. I hope doing this will open up the possibility of much more rapid development, and frankly better development than I have been able to achieve on my own (even with help from others in the Av3 and NWN at large communities.) My hope is this may give you all inspiration, and motivation, to submit content and further the evolution of Av4. And truly make it a community project.
This is how it will unfold for Aventia specifically. I will make a snapshot of the module. I will then upload it to some cloud, or file sharing site where by anyone can access it. If someone does want to make a change (e.g. alter existing content, or submit new content) we will have to first purpose it on our boards to be seconded, and then voted on. If approved, and it works (beta tested), it will then be uploaded.
Vic and I have talked for months about this concept, and as I am passing the aDMin torch to him, this is one thing I would like to see happen in this transition. He is on board with it. (Sorry Vic not trying to speak for you, but since you barely log in here once a week (even less on the bioboards), I figured I would let folks know I am not just throwing this out here without your endorsement.) Please validate this next time you get the chance Vic.
It’s your mod now Aventians, and yes I really do think you should change the name to Av4 Victor, because this is a significant change.
Much love to you all.
Lazarus Magni
P.S. All I ask is for anyone who uses our content externally, is to just give us some credit. I have always given credit to those who have helped us, and contributed to our world, and those worlds in the past I have drawn content into our current world. All I ask is for you to give the same respect if you chose to use our content.
Peace, I am out.
Your’s truly,
Lazarus Magni
