[RP Server][Review] Prologue-wow

[Piratecephalopod]

The Introduction

Yay! New scrub. For those of you who're wondering who I am, that doesn't matter! What does matter is that I've been playing on the various WoW private servers for years now and I've finally taken the decision to write reviews on the various different types of servers such that new players seeking out a server to play on can review the experiences of a player who was much like themselves and ensure they don't fall into the pitfalls of the server itself.

For added flavour, these reviews will be written as if it was written by one of the staff or admin so you can see from the straight-off what it will be like playing on this server; Todays review is of Prologue-Wow and as such this means the post layout for today will be Patronising, Elitist, Self Indulgant and will treat you, the reader as if you need your hand held and can't make any decisions for yourself! Enjoy!

The Prelude

As a discussion of why I feel I'm best suited to review Prologue, I've been within its community since it was known as Epilogue-wow.(Which fell apart due to admin drama if I remember correctly) I've been about since New Chapter (The server that merged into Prologue) and have seen every phase from A to Old Hatreds, Cold Hatreds and the up-and-coming The Mark of Gods.

The Server

Lets start with the basics. As far as scripting goes; Prologue is one of the best when it comes to scripted material and stability in relation to other roleplay servers. (Although the codes are normally bugged to hell, might be different with Claiver taken the reins.) The server is heavy realism and focuses heavily on PvP to resolve conflict as opposed to the tried-and-tested RP emotes, dice-roll and other such systems. This has always been a cause for excessive drama because pets and spells are bugged like crazy, stats are unbalanced and it means that in order to be able to achieve anything, you have to be able to play the system and abuse obvious bugs: For example, During Phase B(Might've been C) a player known as Ulec was in charge of stats. Ulec was (And still is) a huge fanboy of paladins which resulted in them having nigh on stats 80% higher than the top stats of the other classes. Meanwhile mages could barely survive two hits from an npc boar. As always, this might change with the future but we have to wait and see.

Realism: Prologue prides itself on being the pinnacle of realistic roleplay. By doing so it breaks two cardinal sins of roleplay settings: Claiming yourself better than the competition and using Earth-bound logic to justify realism. As such this has resulted in the community adopting a very Low-fantasy mindset when it comes to relation to warriors, paladins, mages and spellcasters. With the logic in place that magic is hard (Reasoning being we can't cast fireballs in Earth therefore it must be a struggle to bend physics) allows paladins to wield hammers with more might than an orc could wield his axe. Meanwhile our friendly neighbourhood mage struggles to cast fireballs and is exhausted from the very concept of teleportation. (such as blink)

The Staff: With recent shifts and changes to the staff, we can't truly predict how they will behave themselves opposed to those who came before them. (Besides Aornar, he's been staff longer than most of the players have been on the server.) But we can make predictions based on their actions towards the community and how they've conducted themselves.
The liklihood is as follows: Etorix will mute you for using any word outside a very short list of what is allowed to be said. These words are I, want, to, give, my, money, to, Prologue. All, hail, commander, S.
Firefighter has shown himself time and time again to be on the verge of burnout and with the belief that Quantity is greater than quality. Events ran by him will put Chalet's Scourge events to shame.
S will ban someone for calling the playerbase retarded and then turn to tell the playerbase how they're retarded.
Aornar will force his worldview of Azeroth (Which is more suited to Dark ages of Camelot or the Elder scrolls) onto the players and make them play STD ridden humans.

The Forums and Community

The forums is to put it fairly; Shit. If you dare brave these forums be prepared for some of the most god awful concepts to ever grace mankind, to be talked down to as if a ten year old and likely to be banned for saying anything that doesn't fit into the mindset that S is trying to breed which is He's always right and the player is always wrong. The playerbase in turn has adapted to fit into or rebel against this setting which has resulted in a number of players that hero worship the admin and staff, forcibly cramming their heads up the collective staffs *******s in the hopes that they will be hired and allowed to fulfill their power fixation. The other half is generally discontent with how the Forums are slowly becoming more oppressive and moderated and seek to rage against the machine and use satire to point out the flaws with the current system. Normally with disasterous results.

The Admin

Claiver is cool in that he likes to get work done on a timely manner, seeks to complete the tasks set before him and generally stays out of the power struggles of the staff and playerbase. For that, I can respect him....he is pretty useless though. according The Listener Claiver put work off constantly because he wasn't in the mood to do anything at the time.


S is a mixed bag. He has a tendancy to flip-flop in his mindset, desires for the server and other such nonsense. One month he will be in love with those who seek to reform the server. The next, he prefers those that would offer free blowjobs for a staff position. (Hey, who wouldn't!) S is cool in my books but if he was less interested in making a police-state and sought to shoot down the elitist ****tards in the first place, he wouldn't be having these problems in the first place.

The Custom Lore

The Mark of Gods is the up and coming phase for Prologue which revolves around taking the history of Warcraft 3 and reforming it to create a unique world based thirty years in the future from this starting point. This lore is marmite on crack, you will either really, really love it or absolutely loathe it. If you are of the latter, tough titties your opinion won't mean shit.

The lore is exactly what you would expect from a set of 16-22 year old staffers with no writing experience. TMoG, lovingly known amongst the playerbase as Witchhammer age takes those beloved elements of Witcher, Elder Scrolls, Game of Thrones, Warhammer and Dragon age and then seeks to ram them headfirst into WoW with as much force as much to create a world that is not Azeroth or Warcraft at all but you still have to call it that. Remember that this has been in the works for nearly a year now and the technical side of the server is only starting to come into fruition now.

Leader(s): Delas Moonfang
"When a rock stands between Elune and Azeroth, it casts a long comforting shadow on their children. We are that rock."

The Eclipse Guard is a new initiative brought forth to High Priestess Tyrande at the suggestion of several Priestesses, among them Acolyte Merende and Priestess Delas Moonfang; the caretaker of Malfurion's mortal body while he is trapped in the Dream, and a veteran of the Third War. The concept of the Eclipse Guard was brought forth to the High Priestess some time after the assassination attempt on her life and her eyes were blinded. And while Tyrande is conservative regarding her people's culture, she is not one to dismiss drastic measures in desperate times, and she accepted that she had been put at a slight disadvantage in future conflicts. Thusly, Tyrande proceeded to annoint Delas Moonfang as the new order's supervisor and the responsibility of setting it up was put on the Priestess' shoulders.

The Eclipse Guard is a small subsection of the Sisterhood that is very much a cross-breed between the Priestesses and the Sentinels. The Guardians learn to embellish their martial combat prowess with the divine magics granted to them by the Mother Moon, and through that become a formiddable foe.

Their purpose is the protection of Priestesses wherever they may be found. Some Eclipse Guards are personally assigned to one or more Priestesses, while others simply watch over a coven of Priestesses from a distance. The Eclipse Guards are bodyguards for the Priestesses, nothing less but also nothing more. They are not servants; that is what acolytes are for. They are the rock that stands between the Priestess and anyone seeking to harm them. And while much of the Eclipse Guard's purpose lies in physical and active protection, many also prevent potential burdens on a Priestess' shoulder from becoming a burden.

Becoming an Eclipse Guard grants the individual some amount of respect in the eyes of the Kaldorei. They are essentially, honour guards of the Sisterhood of Elune, direct guardians of the beloved conduits of Elune. They are allowed to act however they see fit if the motivation for their actions are to protect a Priestess or the Sisterhood as an organisation. This does not extend to idealistic concepts such as massacring innocents because they might be a threat. It has to be direct assault from an enemy or they face charges same as anyone else. The Eclipse Guard is not a Priestess in armour. Their powers are far less impressive and they are not meant to spread the light of Elune, merely to protect it. Their duties as a Sentinel has also ceased, and they are not to take the law into their own hands, but they -are- exemplars for society. Kaldorei look upon Eclipse Guards with awe and respect, and they must behave accordingly.

Eclipse Guards are picked from regular Sentinels in the Sentinel Army if they seem suitable for joining their ranks. An Eclipse Guard must be blindly loyal to the Sisterhood to ensure minimum chance of corruption or space for personal aspirations and thusly it is often the zealous Sentinels who are picked as it ensures their undying loyalty. The Sentinel begins working closely with the Sisterhood from that point on, learning how to harness the power of Elune’s light to enhance their weapons, armour and physical capabilities and even to lash out at enemies to some extent; searing them with divine magic.

Autumn - Warchief Thrall departs Orgrimmar for the wilderness, seeking answers from the elements and an end to the drought - rain finally returns to the region but many fear the absent Thrall has died through the effort.

Autumn - "The Rain Riots" erupt in Orgrimmar as many come to blows over who should lead the Horde, with many supporting High Overlord Regthar over Warchief Thrall.

Knighthood and the Orders of Knights

Knights must be knighted personally by a liege lord (Count/Earl or above) and must receive the approval of the Church (usually in the form of a Bishop or Archbishop being present at the knighting, although a written confirmation from either is also deemed sufficient). A Knight must demonstrate a profound understanding of the virtues of the Light. Knights may choose to champion the cause of a particular saint (for example, a Hedge Knight of St. Thoras may choose to work protecting travelers on dangerous roads), but this is not necessary.

The children of Knights are not granted the title "Sir" unless they are themselves Knighted, and do not inherit any titles or even noble status. However, many Knights tend to marry up into prominent political families (of Barons or Counts) and thus secure noble status for their descendants.

Landed Knights are the wealthiest and most influential of their rank. Rather than serving as part of a noble's household garrison, they typically have their own area of land, an estate or small keep, which mirrors the organization of the larger noble houses but on a smaller scale. They maintain servants, men-at-arms and may even have other knights living with them (although not sworn to them). Landed Knights often rise to political prominence, gaining the titles of full nobility.

Household Knights (or Sworn Swords) are sworn to their liege lords and act as personal guards, captains of the local military forces, military advisers, etc. The Noble Houses of Imperial Counts and Earls generally have between 2-5 household knights serving them.

Hedge Knights are knights without a liege lord. This condition can arise for a number of reasons, but is usually due to the death of the noble in whose service the Knight was previously. Others forsake their oath to their lord and choose to travel instead, seeking employment from merchants.

Associations of Knights (called "Orders") require the official approval of Church and at least five Knights in order to form. Membership of an Order does not grant the Knight any extra powers, but are often formed for a specific purpose (protecting caravans, healing those affected by the Lordaeron Plague, etc.).

Predicted racial population count for upcoming phase (Because you need this information if you intend to play:

Combining the results of these two topics, we have some interesting insights into how players will allocate their /played time.

The good news is - 4 out of our 5 factions are fairly balanced. The bad news, as expected, is that humans are still expected to vastly outnumber everything else, even while being alone in their faction.

Some facts about projected player activity:

Players will spend the majority (~75% of their time) on their main character.
Players will spend roughly a third of that (~23%) on their secondary character.
The third character will get relegated to a measly 3-4% of total /played time.

This means that for every hour played on a tertiary character, a player will spend about 5 hours and 20 minutes playing their secondary character and about 18 hours playing their main!

With these statistics balanced for player-slot allocation, at any given moment..

48% of the playerbase will be playing humans.
17% will be playing dwarves or gnomes.
14% will be playing blood elves of forsaken.
10% will be playing night elves or draenei.
9% will be playing orcs, trolls and tauren.

By race:

Human - 48.97%
Dwarf - 7.77%
Gnome - 9.08%
Draenei - 5.79%
Night Elf - 4.61%
Orc - 3.64%
Troll - 3.66%
Tauren - 1.81%
Forsaken - 6.57%
Blood Elf - 8.10%

==========

Ratings

Server and Content: ****
Forum: *
Playerbase: *** (A solid roleplay community although bad eggs and politics on the forums cause it to suffer.)
Staff: **
Admin: ***
Variation of Roleplay types and races: *
Custom Lore: **

[Claiver]

It's the Mark of Gods, not might (:

[Piratecephalopod]

Edittededed (:

[GrumpyZombie]

I am afraid that the original poster's review is pretty accurate - Prologue WoW is an awful server for role-playing in. I've been there since Phase B and it's sad seeing such a great place going downhill because of poor administration and the pseudo 4chan community.

The current staff is like if Hitler and Stalin had a baby together; in other words, they are obsessed with themselves, their rank and imposing order because they think they're the pinnacle of something.

S, the head designer (or whatever you want to call him), is a shady moocher who asks for donations in trade of in-game stuff and now, funny enough, music and sketches. Seriously, there is a 'kickstarter' for this server - it's like Molten WoW RP Electric Bongaloo here. Feel like dumping fifteen euros to make sure S gets his meatballs? You can't also forget the inevitability of S' girlfriend crashing the server or purging the database (like last time) to quickly get away or something. I still hear that the internet police is investigating this case on hacking private server accounts. And don't dare asking him where he spends the donations money because he'll threaten to ban you on spot, just like he did with some staff members. This guy is like the infamous administrator from the Azshara RP server, who ran away with players' donation money because hey, why not? You really can't rely on this guy for nothing except to spat out indie gamer ideology bullshit and holier-than-thou comments. He's a patronising *******.

And what I just said here apply to a whole lot of the staff too. They follow S like some sort of Spiritual Liege and think everything he touches turns into gold (or donation money, probably).

Don't get me started on the custom lore; they claim they've been at it for almost year but it's clear, by the level of fan-fiction and mixed universes (Warhammer, Witcher, etc), that it was written by a group of neckbeards more interested on whatever ideas they have about it than any sense at all. Common sense rule does not apply to the lore.

Finally, stay away from the community. They make 4chan look like an educated forum with friendly people and will take any opportunity to ruin your experience on Prologue, both in-game and outside. There are a few good members like Roz or Moltar but the great majority of the users on the forums are snob elitists who can't have an opinion of their own and usually stick to playing nice with the staff people.

[wowkiller221]

arent private server's illegal????????

[ArtificialHuman]

I would just like to add that despite the date of this review the community (including staff) on this server have actually gotten much, MUCH worse.

Basically if you didn't join when the server first began and became a part of the clique that rules the server do yourself a massive favor and stay away from Prologue.

If you do decide to play it, well, just know you're a Jew fresh off the train walking straight into their Concentration Camp.

[STDizzle]

I would just like to add that despite the date of this review the community (including staff) on this server have actually gotten much, MUCH worse.

Basically if you didn't join when the server first began and became a part of the clique that rules the server do yourself a massive favor and stay away from Prologue.

If you do decide to play it, well, just know you're a Jew fresh off the train walking straight into their Concentration Camp.

Hey-o. Give some details, if you don't mind. If you're a new player on Prologue, feel free to shoot me ( STD ) a PM on their forums and I'll help get ya going.

To give a quick update on the server, S has resigned from the WoW Emulation scene, and has left the project in the very capable hands of Etorix and Firefighter. New content and bugfixes are being turned out almost weekly, and ( to me, at least ) the forums are a much friendlier place than they were last summer.

[stoneharry]

Hey-o. Give some details, if you don't mind. If you're a new player on Prologue, feel free to shoot me ( STD ) a PM on their forums and I'll help get ya going.

To give a quick update on the server, S has resigned from the WoW Emulation scene, and has left the project in the very capable hands of Etorix and Firefighter. New content and bugfixes are being turned out almost weekly, and ( to me, at least ) the forums are a much friendlier place than they were last summer.

The problem I find with the server is the lack of capable staff. It was good when Prologue initially released and Dynashock was fully supporting the in-game content, however since he left and S' continuous leaving and apparent returning, the server has all been talk and very little actual quality any longer.

Though I never played it for RP value. I just enjoy seeing new perspectives with WoW.

[Librarian]

Prologue is even worse than Divinity-X. The admins are corrupt and they use a PVP system. Anyone who knows they can beat another player in PvP will never use emote battles. The playerbase is appalling and not only are they all humans, but they're all generic archetype humans in circlejerk guilds.

[Harambeqt]

arent private server's illegal????????

There's no such law in sweden
You could get sued for having copyrighted material but truecrypt your hdd and let em come.