The object of roleplay is to /create your own goal/, and when that goal is met, to make another one for yourself. This is not always 'expansion through military might'. This is sometimes a wedding at a large castle, or a border dispute, or a great voyage of Kiwiships that ends up with half of the crew falling over into some dark swamp that have to be rescued.
Cerce had many, many goals as a character.
His first when coming was to find someplace somewhat secluded from the world, far enough away to expand yet close enough to be able to head into town for supplies. Then something happened. /Other players did actions/. The Roadbuilders were set up, which created a reason for Blackrock to exist - trade swept through as the Roadbuilders came and went, and eventually they settled upon a home there. Cerce took up the challenge to begin to build defenses around the small village, and employed the help of Tristo - who had goals of his own. Simultaneously, over in Bamboo, other goals were being approached: Griefers had struck the town, and the citizens were beginning to rebuild and then evacuate the city due to the overwhelming presence of what came to be known as the Griefer Plague. Tristo became infected with the Griefer Plague, and began to build his own entrances into the Blackrock defenses. Eventually he infiltrated and captured a member of the town, infecting her with the virus. Meanwhile, Gecko, who had befriended Cerce, came under the influence as well. As a result, Cerce employed the help of Kubrick to defend the city, and Andy to chase after Tristo. Cerce, however, followed Gecko, confronted him and almost failed to prevent him from contaminating the pond of fertility over at the Church of the Everflame. After getting Gecko back on their side, however, they chased after Tristo, confronted him, waged a pitched battle which nearly lost before Gecko feigned an alliance with Tristo, one in which he backstabbed him in the middle of combat.
All of these goals were /player made/. And different. And not enforced, regulated, or impeded upon by any server administration whatsoever. They were devoid of rules, devoid of mods, and absolutely fun.
Then 2.0 came along.
Some roleplayers took this as a 'great voyage' to 2.0 in order to escape the Griefer Plague which had engulfed the continent in chaos. Cerce joined up with the Roadbuilders, who then came under attack by the Vikings, led by Sir Suba when the Roadbuilders attempted to clear out their first quarry. This created a great political confrontation between Android's republic and SirSuba's viking raiders, which led to war due to Android's support of Cerce personally and the Roadbuilders as an organization.
Again, all player-made confrontations and goals, only this time on a massive PvP and RP scale that went hand-in-hand so well that the war is still looked upon by some as one of the funnest times in the server, surpassed only by The Grand War - also /player-made confrontations/, with massive propoganda campaigns both in-character and out, pitched battles won on both sides, and more.
Then Revamped came.
I don't know much of what happened on a 'global' scale because I didn't want to derail the community again by putting a heavily-roleplay based nation in the thick of things, so I went off and built a hut where me, CapBubba, Geckosquid, Saera, and honestly quite a few others roleplayed. However, a lot of people were disgruntled by the fact that roleplay was moderated - and heavily run by the server itself. Out of the gate, lore was already set-in-stone. Ages were put in place, preventing players from fulfilling their own goals by limiting when towns could come into play and such, and eventually greatly favoring city- and faction-based players.
Finally New Kiwike came out, with the approach of 'PvP without a fuss'. And it never picked up.
Of course other things impacted the server - primarily OoC feelings towards other players. Obvious groups of friends surrounded themselves with like minded individuals, sometimes bent on causing life to be a pain for everyone outside of that group. But from what I can draw from our past here - server administration-led goals are not the answer. Players should create their own goals, and players should be the only one to make goals. Players should determine the tone of the server, be it PvP or roleplay-based, and only players. I know this isn't a democracy, but Yotta, let's face it - PvP isn't what people want, else New Kiwike wouldn't have died. Intense server administration of roleplay isn't what people want, else Kiwike Revamped wouldn't have slowly bled out. People want freedom - be it to roleplay, build, or raid. And I doubt you're going to get people to come back if you advertise a PvP-only or 'mostly' PvP server.
"One can concentrate so closely on the words of a sentence that one thereby misses the meaning. As can happen in any area of life. You must never lose focus on the larger landscape."
