On one of the Alpha servers of Ashes of Creation, there has recently been a dispute between two guilds, in which even studio head Steven Sharif has been dragged in.
What caused the dispute? On the Shol server, Winstead is currently somewhat of a central hub for many players. The settlement has already reached Level 4 and is conveniently located to access important places like the Highwayman Hills or the Citadel of the Steelbloom.
Recently, a mayoral election took place in this city. The former title holder (TMugsy, guild leader of POLAR) had to step down. Srixun from the guild AURA was able to make himself comfortable in the mayor’s chair from then on. Apparently, this did not please his predecessor at all.
According to a summary of events on substack.com, TMugsy planned a recapture of Winstead shortly after his defeat. His guild set up a siege group consisting entirely of characters who had already reached maximum level or were close to it. Considering how new Phase 3 of Alpha Two is, an incredible amount of energy and time went into this.
How did the new mayor respond to the threat? One would think that a leader with access to the resources of a Tier-4 city would be able to establish a comparably effective defense. However, the opposite was true.
The defending team for the city’s siege mostly consisted of low-level alts who were only there to fill the roster, but were not meant to participate in the siege at all. In this way, the mayor wanted to wage a sort of “content denial war” against POLAR, as it left the attacking community with no legitimate means to assault the city.
It also helped that the penalty for a lost siege is currently not activated in the game. In other words: the corresponding node does not revert back to Tier 0 and no materials or possessions are lost. Srixun currently faces no penalty triggered by the siege system for his strategy.
Mayor fights fire with fire
How does the community respond? Members of POLAR were of course furious and demanded action from the developers against this type of “content denial.” Some players not involved in the dispute also criticized the guild AURA for the action, as they would have liked to participate in a Tier-4 siege during the Alpha.
However, the majority of the server seems to be on the side of AURA. The reason: already in the Alpha, the guild POLAR has developed a very negative reputation on the Shol server. Many players’ accusations range from targeted griefing to exploiting bugs.
- aocfactchecker writes on Reddit: “POLAR is currently the most oppressive force on Shol. They constantly deny other groups content by leading them to mark and kill them, automatically attacking them while grinding until their health is low, and pulling mobs to them while leveling.”
For many, Srixun is therefore something of a hero, as he has managed to strike back against the apparently toxic guild POLAR with their own weapons. According to massivelyop.com, the mayor of Winstead has since commented on his action:
The mood in the community is characterized by great aversion to POLAR. This is not because they possess particular skill, but because they behave unpleasantly, abuse mechanics, exploit bugs, and have been caught dozens of times without Intrepid Studios intervening. Someone has to rise up and try to make Ashes fun for the entire community. The goal was to drive the rats out of the game by refusing content.
Steven Sharif allegedly favored POLAR
How do the developers respond to the drama? Initially, community lead Margaret Krohn stated that they did not want to interfere. Later, however, studio head Steven Sharif did reach out to Srixun to clarify the situation.
The developer also spoke up in the Reddit section of Ashes of Creation. There, he also commented on the community’s allegation that he favored the guild POLAR and would turn a blind eye to clearly documented violations of the members against the terms of service.
There are still pending features and systems that will address this type of content denial by mayors. […]
Contrary to normal assumptions, […] there is no favoritism on the part of Intrepid towards guilds or players. I have openly reached out to the mayor of the settlement and asked him not to block legitimate citizens who wanted to participate in the siege by placing level-1 alts in front of them on the list. […]
Furthermore, it is our goal during our Alpha phase to continuously improve the stability of the product and the performance of our systems and servers, and a high participation rate in this siege is in line with this intent. It would have been irrelevant which two guilds stood on either side of this conflict. My position would have been the same.
I would also like to point out that all legitimate evidence presented to Intrepid or collected by our community service teams that suggests a player or group of players is behaving exploitatively or violating our terms of service will be strictly punished, as long as Intrepid can verify this.
Studio head Steven Sharif on Reddit
This case illustrates that the developers of Ashes of Creation still have a lot of work ahead of them until the sandbox world of Ashes of Creation is at a stage that can offer a fair and as frustration-free an experience as possible for all players at the final launch.
Whether they can ever reach this status quo is not even certain. After all, much in Intrepid Studios’ new MMORPG revolves around conflicts between guilds and players. For anyone looking for general information about the game, check here: Ashes of Creation: Release, Roadmap, Alpha 2, Classes, Gameplay, Payment Model – everything important about Steven Sharif’s MMORPG
