Post by Alain on Sept 13, 2010 3:20:56 GMT -5
Alright, do with this what you will but I felt that I needed to clarify something because I see hints of this all around site. Now, if, like the timeline, this is something you choose to change then I can't stop you. But I want and need people to know a few things about Animorphs Expansion.
First off, despite how people treat it, Animorphs Expansion is NOT branched from Animorphs the Aftermath. I was not completely comfortable with creating an Animorphs site to begin with after leaving Animorphs the Aftermath but I had a lot of friends who were not comfortable on AA and I still wanted to play with them. Therefore I set out to create an Animorphs site that was similar enough to AA that people could bring their characters without having to seriously mod their history.
However, as much as I disliked and disagreed with the administrators of AA, I was not going to steal their plotline. Therefore it is important to note that Animorphs Expansion does not include the characters The Ellimist or Crayak except in how they appeared in the books. Neither the Ellimist nor Crayak changed the world into what it is now. As it clearly states in the BACKGROUND thread, AE is only an alternate world in the sense that we are not going by book canon. AE takes the printed series as canon up to book 49 and then changes from there.
This (reference to the super beings) is the thing I see referred to the most that does not exist on AE. If characters would like to say it does then they have to be aware that they are creating new plot, not continuing a stolen AA plot.
When characters "transferred" from AA it only was meant to be a process where most of the history was kept intact. As much of it as possible. And post counts were comped because the leveling system was similar enough that if the post count had not been comped then players would have felt like they lost a great deal of hard work. Plus, the added morphs allowed by the AE leveling system served as an incentive to transfer a character.
Now we've taken a lot of "history" from AA but only the history that belonged to us and to our characters. It's a fine line and I'm not sure if anyone sees it but me but it was important to me that the site stand on its own as much as possible. AA and AE are very similar worlds, but AE was never meant to be seen as a branch. This is demonstrated in the alternative history of AE that has the humans fighting in a resistance with Andalite and Hork-bajir forces until, eventually, most if not all (and the all is not certain hence the Andalite blood originally in the morph pool) Andalites left earth to its own devices promising to return at some point, a promise Cassie believed was empty. And the only reason Cassie is the animorph left alive is so characters like Suji did not have to change their history (don't believe many others had much contact with Cassie before AE was created).
Now, what you decide to do with this is, as I said, up to you. If, like the original timeline, you choose to mod this then so be it. But I felt something needed to be said. Especially because the admin account was changed to Ellimist, the timeline was changed, AA has been linked to AE on the bottom of the page (something I strongly disagree with as much as I believe in giving credit where due) and mentioned in important site threads, and now andalite blood has been removed from the morph list, a change that was important to me as a sign of the changed history of the site and the expanded possibilities of the plotline.
I have not spoken up about many of the changes made to the site because I understand that changes are inevitable when new people take over. Added to that, there were aspects of the site that didn't work as well as they could have, like the timeline. But I feel that a few of these changes are being made simply because it is not understood what the original intent was behind some of the rules and plot set up. It may be too late or too uncomfortable for players and characters to begin adhering to the original direction of the site now but I don't believe it is. And, even if that is what is decided, as I said, it was important to me that it be at least known what was originally intended.
~Gage
First off, despite how people treat it, Animorphs Expansion is NOT branched from Animorphs the Aftermath. I was not completely comfortable with creating an Animorphs site to begin with after leaving Animorphs the Aftermath but I had a lot of friends who were not comfortable on AA and I still wanted to play with them. Therefore I set out to create an Animorphs site that was similar enough to AA that people could bring their characters without having to seriously mod their history.
However, as much as I disliked and disagreed with the administrators of AA, I was not going to steal their plotline. Therefore it is important to note that Animorphs Expansion does not include the characters The Ellimist or Crayak except in how they appeared in the books. Neither the Ellimist nor Crayak changed the world into what it is now. As it clearly states in the BACKGROUND thread, AE is only an alternate world in the sense that we are not going by book canon. AE takes the printed series as canon up to book 49 and then changes from there.
This (reference to the super beings) is the thing I see referred to the most that does not exist on AE. If characters would like to say it does then they have to be aware that they are creating new plot, not continuing a stolen AA plot.
When characters "transferred" from AA it only was meant to be a process where most of the history was kept intact. As much of it as possible. And post counts were comped because the leveling system was similar enough that if the post count had not been comped then players would have felt like they lost a great deal of hard work. Plus, the added morphs allowed by the AE leveling system served as an incentive to transfer a character.
Now we've taken a lot of "history" from AA but only the history that belonged to us and to our characters. It's a fine line and I'm not sure if anyone sees it but me but it was important to me that the site stand on its own as much as possible. AA and AE are very similar worlds, but AE was never meant to be seen as a branch. This is demonstrated in the alternative history of AE that has the humans fighting in a resistance with Andalite and Hork-bajir forces until, eventually, most if not all (and the all is not certain hence the Andalite blood originally in the morph pool) Andalites left earth to its own devices promising to return at some point, a promise Cassie believed was empty. And the only reason Cassie is the animorph left alive is so characters like Suji did not have to change their history (don't believe many others had much contact with Cassie before AE was created).
Now, what you decide to do with this is, as I said, up to you. If, like the original timeline, you choose to mod this then so be it. But I felt something needed to be said. Especially because the admin account was changed to Ellimist, the timeline was changed, AA has been linked to AE on the bottom of the page (something I strongly disagree with as much as I believe in giving credit where due) and mentioned in important site threads, and now andalite blood has been removed from the morph list, a change that was important to me as a sign of the changed history of the site and the expanded possibilities of the plotline.
I have not spoken up about many of the changes made to the site because I understand that changes are inevitable when new people take over. Added to that, there were aspects of the site that didn't work as well as they could have, like the timeline. But I feel that a few of these changes are being made simply because it is not understood what the original intent was behind some of the rules and plot set up. It may be too late or too uncomfortable for players and characters to begin adhering to the original direction of the site now but I don't believe it is. And, even if that is what is decided, as I said, it was important to me that it be at least known what was originally intended.
~Gage
