Hello and Greetings,
It has come to my attention that a reestablishment plan for the Architects of Blockland is in the works by a number of its former members, to resurrect the clan and restore it to its former glory. This has allowed me to come to a final decision with regards to my own plans with regard to the clan. Accordingly, included in this final message is:
- A farewell speech & story.
- A complete package of all which existed in my AoB Archive on my computer and backup duplicates.
- My best regards.
First up, my 'farewell' story. I choose to write this for purposes of explanation, which I consider myself to owe to those in the clan, for whom my increasing inactivity and certain actions have come into question. I hope with the following speech I can shed some light on these and more. So, without further delay, here it is:
I joined the Architects of Blockland in 2010. I had dropped by the server several times, looking at the highly detailed and well-built things the clan members and General Jake were building and saw this as my target goal: "When I am good enough to get into AoB, I am where I want to be with my building skills". And so, I applied, and made it into the clan on the first app.
And so, as a rookie member, I got an office in the current HQ, built things in the gallery, and took part in contests. I was forming ambitious plans for on-server things; stores, skyscrapers, hotels (hotels being my main specialty). At that time I was still in school and had few economic troubles, and my computer was less than a year old and still ran like a dream. By and by, the end of the year came. I had already been seeing signs of trouble with Jake and the clan, though he did post a message saying that September is usually the start of clan sundown.
In 2011, I was offered the position of Acting Director; I would take up the normal duties of a director with occasional guidance from Jake. He assured me that he would always be available if I had any questions or troubles. I accepted the position, believing that, after a while and under training I would eventually get good at it, and AoB would live on.
Not one week into the job, my server difficulties became apparent. I had always had trouble from my family's router setup to host a working server; half of the people who tried to connect could not make it on. Furthermore, I could not hold the server up reliably. Sometimes I had to take it down for other things, school-related included, to work properly. Once in a while, it also crashed while I was gone.
Under my rule, and despite my difficulties, I managed to have a reasonably successful clan run for the first half of 2011, putting up a new HQ with a cylindrical glass-front atrium and AoB's first elevator-bearing HQ. During the earlier part of the year, I realized my first significant problem; members' loyalty. There came a time when an applicant, Momentum, built a rather nice looking futuristic/urbanesque house, which I accepted. Five minutes later, General Jake arrived, having apparently received a crescendo of angry messages saying I had accepted a 'crap app'. General Jake told me that the problem was simply the induction of a new leader, but I began to see my main problem then; I was too goddamn naive. But my biggest problem was realized near the end of the year. I had less capacity to report to Jake than I realized.
I am a person effected by Aspergers Syndrome, a social disorder in the autism-spectrum. For me, though my other cognitive abilities are still intact with a bonus in visual memory and comprehension, my ability to make myself start a conversation is poor; it is difficult for me to be the one to
start the Skype chat, though replying to a message or sending the next one
during is fine for me. This problem is ordinarily well within my ability to manage, but in the case of General Jake, a former clan leader with a drill-seargeant personality and his enigmatic composure amounting to "That Guy You Do Not forget With", my ability to tell him what was going on with AoB waned over time as my own abysmal progress with leadership skills progressed. Every time a server crashed and I lost progress, or a member had a bone to pick with me, it was all I could do to summon up just enough grit and nerve to tell Jake so. At one point, a server crash and a misfired save led to the lost of a whole re-modeling effort from *Magick* Mage, which eroded my composure yet more.
In 2012, my start-off went horribly; having talked with the idea to Jake, I went for the idea of a circular doughnut-shaped HQ for 2012, which was shot down by AoB's members, who decided to build a "Protest HQ" off to the side instead of talking to me about it. Though I did not let it on much, my grit, composure, and much of my sanity was utterly devastated on that day. I fought the storm as hard as I could, and played along, adding an "underground HQ" off to the side, at the edge of Slate. Later in the year I tried to revitalize the clan by building one of my most super-high detailed HQ's yet, as a Secondary headquarters building. After progress was done, Benofdoom and *Magick* Mage, two of AoB's members, decided they did not like it and that the HQ should be smaller. And so I decided to scrap both the underground HQ and its secondary, and just let the members start it off this time. During this time I realized that I had learned a lot more about the styles, histories and traditions of AoB than I had done from General Jake himself.
There came a time, when, though I do not exactly remember when this was, Glaedr, a prominent member now going by Flaedr, messaged and told me he was leaving. This was another big blow, though I no more let that out at the time than I did my earlier blows. He told me it was because of school and real-life interests prioritizing over AoB, though I had the lingering feeling it was cold feet; many had left, but for whatever reason, it was the departure of Flaedr which unhinged me. It felt like AoB was in its death cries then and there.
By and by, my economic and societal situations began to deteriorate to worrying levels. I continuously failed to get a job, and eventually found the world of big-rig trucking. Thereupon, I secured myself a remote paid server from the newly implemented Kaphost, from which I would be able to continue my reign from abroad, at the wheel of a truck. So I began to form my recovery plans.
Meanwhile, I had put into actions my other major Blockland interests; my position as a hotel owner. This had been my ambition as a member of AoB, but was lost as my failures with AoB amassed. I decided, then, to make it its own thing, separate from AoB. But it did not go unnoticed by the members. Ben and Mage led a reform effort for AoB, which I decided to go with. However, this reform also included the assimilation of my hotel/academy initiative, dubbed Multi-Ops, as part of AoB; a "sponsoring" effort. This I rejected.
I had finally recovered from my earlier blows, those with the Donut HQ failure and Protest HQ, and had regained my sanity. After talking to General Jake, I summoned up my nerve, spoke my plans, made my apologies. And General Jake began to fund AoB's own server, from RTB Hosting. This plan was thrown in the dust by a sudden and terrifying catastrophy which came on me shortly after I entered the trucking business.
I was a month and a half into training when suddenly I suffered something I am fairly sure had something to do with oxygen depletion gotten in high altitudes; where my arms and much of my body began to seize up, forcing me to pull over before it got too bad. My trainer identified it as epilepsy; though I do not believe it was a seizure due to my mind being fully in the game the whole time, the idea still scares me. Thereupon, my trainer decided to send me to a company doctor, where I was to be checked. However, on my way, due to an unfortunate series of misunderstandings and bad circumstances, I ended up stranded.
It took a national missing person's search conducted by my family and a trip to Kentucky to rescue me. This once again shattered my resolve. My situation continued to deteriorate, made worse by the circumstances of my forced departure from the company, and I decided to pull the plug on my own funded server. My own situation made me increasingly unable to run Jake's AoB server and Multi-Ops alike, and eventually I was gone for a whole month solid.
A couple of months ago, Jake pulled the plug on his server. I finally built up the nerve to compile my situation and decisions, which Jake responded to, saying that he already considered the clan dead. He posted it on the topic, saying that unless a new leader was found AoB would effectively die.
And so, here we are. I cannot continue as leader of the clan any longer. I'd like to say "I have had my ups and downs with the clan", but I must be brutally honest here; the clan has cost me greatly, due to my failures as leader and to communicate properly, whereupon I might have gotten more sympathy, and the storm tore me apart. But I can say this; if AoB makes it back up, in the guide of a new leader, I am looking into continuing as just another member. In this way I can mend myself; pick up the pieces after the storm.
Secondly, the file archive. Below is a link to its download from MediaFire:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ly8sm6a33vnzwoc/AoB+Archive.zipThanks for reading, best wishes. In a few days I'll be locking this topic, since it is well past time. If AoB does revive, it will be under a new one.
Thanks, and best of wishes,
Remousamavi
