Status update January 2018 Can't say the year started out too well because we're basically suddenly out of members. There was an incident with another active member (no comment) and from what I can tell they're not playing on EMC any longer. Details aren't important and quite frankly I'm also not in the mood for that anyway. But in more positive news the Holiday season went decently well, or so I think. GRIP had accumulated 5million rupees total (a lot of that also came from my ALT's vote bonusses) and quite frankly I think that's too much. GRIP isn't super active, as far as I'm concerned the money is basically community money so I figured we'd get rid of some overhead. We've done the same thing last year. So I planned to put 1 million rupees back into the community. Last year GRIP donated 1 million to the two top musea on EMC (500k each) but this year the idea was to do something different. Instead GRIP donated 250k to an event (Aya will share a brief list with more details later in the expenses post above) and then we split the remaining 750k over 3 members (250k each) with the idea to sponsor / donate / $stuff other players. Obviously we kept logs (which will be shared) and I like to think that we reached a decent amount of players and projects. This whole thing is / was still somewhat ongoing but considering the recent events I did feel the need to address the current situation. But yeah... 2018. We'll see what's next. I haven't decided between looking out for another member or leaving the whole project a little dormant and only using its resources whenever we come across an obvious griefing incident. I can say that I'm still really happy to see that as far as GRIP is concerned the amount of incidents seems to have dropped thanks to the block protection. Thanks for reading.
GRIP REBOOTS! It is with great pride and lots of enthusiasm that I can now announce that GRIP will not be a dormant organization (well... if there's nothing to do then so be it) nor will it be a solo'ish project. I would hereby like to announce GRIP's latest two (!) members: The_Mancub & NDubb24. Mancub When looking back at 2017 then I think Mancub got seriously wronged. It's always easy to look back with hindsight and then drawing conclusions but... For the record: if I had known what I know now I would have done several things differently (Mr. Obvious speaks again! ). My point is that when looking back I think Mancub has been treated unfairly (by some other players, no further comments, sorry: I'm trying to be open & honest, not trying to point fingers). The point here is that MC kept his cool. In public and in private. He could have gone rogue, he could have done things "differently" and I'm even convinced that if he had tried to "undo" certain things he might even have gained the benefit of the doubt by staff (no offense intended but let's not include them here). My point though: he was wronged from my point of view but still kept other interests above his own. That gains respect from me; being able to put other players interests above your own... that's what GRIP is basically all about. NDubb24 I know her through the Meadows outpost and quite frankly... "Stuff happened" around that outpost and the way she handled herself as a co-owner gained her a lot of respect from me. For reasons not shared (convenient! ) because I have this strict self-implied policy of not sharing stuff which has been relayed to me in private *. But I really think that NDubb can place herself into other people's perspective and try to work with that, but she can also draw a line and stick by that. Figure of speech, sorry, I can't go into details (convenient, I know) but NDubb also gained a lot of trust from me. She's active, she's fair & honest and she also gives players the benefit of the doubt (note: my personal impression). That is also something GRIP can really benefit from. I trust those two, and so should you (random reader). It doesn't happen often anymore thanks to Aikar & his co-developers awesome block protection scheme, but sometimes players find themselves down on their luck. And that's where we come into play. ----- * Let's get one thing out of the way here: "So what about 'that' time when you ranted against a staff warning". Yah... That was a bad call. My opinion hasn't changed but I should have handled that a bit better than I did. Sometimes (like this one!) I get passionate. But I do not let my actions spiral out of control.
I am just now seeing this. Slipped through my forum browsing somehow (ok ok.. sometimes I'm all over the forums and sometimes I'm not.) I'm very excited to be party of this. Although I have not ran in an opportunity to help someone yet as a member of GRIP, I look forward to the day I can. Thanks for saying all the nice things Shell. =)
Status update April 2018 I promised somewhere else that I wasn't going to rant about this and I won't. But GRIP is still a public organization acting on behalf of the players which - in my opinion - makes it mandatory to keep everyone informed on what is happening with us. It's what I've mentioned amongst GRIP members quite often: we work with stuff which isn't ours. Technically, so strictly following the rules of the Empire, everything belongs to my alt so eventually to me. But that's no the way I see it; most of our belongings were donated so we'll be fully transparent about it. Right now GRIP is looking at what is probably the biggest donation in the history of our organization. The problem though is that I seriously dislike the circumstances. Even so... this whole thing means that we're looking at even more items and materials which can be used to benefit the EMC community. The big question of course is how we're going to do this. It's much to early to speculate on that, but I still wanted to show a sign of life and maybe throw in a bit of a teaser that we're still around and still have plans. Everyone likes events, so right now I'm seriously considering to check how we might be able to help (serious) players with starting some of their own events or event ideas. EMC veterans usually have plenty of materials to start (or they know where to get them) but newer players not so much (not all the time anyway). But yeah... this recent turn of events will definitely change a few things because, like I said, I consider our stuff to be community property and I'm seriously motivated to make sure that it will be that same community which can benefit from all this. Last Holiday season we started donating heavily to a wide variety of events and that definitely worked for the better. So who knows, maybe we can do a repeat of that. Alas... Last but not least I want to give a HUGE thank you to mjnoe70 for thinking about us. I'm not going into details here but instead of letting a huge amount of stuff go to waste ("poof") he preferred that we took control over that in order to, well, as I said above: try and do something which can benefit our community as a whole. I do not like the circumstances leading up to it one single bit, but I will definitely do whatever I can to make that happen somehow. ... and a little bit more but that's beyond the scope of GRIP Anyway, a huge thank you to mjnoe70!
Status update May 2018 Things have been relatively quiet for GRIP, though there are some side-projects we're looking into (stuff I'll go into more at a later time). But there's still some exciting news I'd like to share with you guys! GRIP would like to welcome its latest member: PatchesMasterBlk. GRIP's very own Creeper, I'm sure he'll leave quite an impact! (ok, sorry for the silly pun, it was stronger than me ). More serious though... Right now Patches is a junior member. Meaning that he can fully help you getting some of your items back if you've been griefed, but the decision for refunding more expensive items is currently not his alone to make at this time. But that sure doesn't stop him from getting into his job right away! We're currently still working (slowly) on processing the massive donation which we got a few months ago from mjnoe70. Basically we put up as many chests as we could and starting moving the stuff onto our residence with the idea to sort it out later (we still need to decide on a few things). So enter our latest member... I just got online and he immediately told me that he had already sorted out some of the chests. Now that's very helpful! Needless to say that I got a very good feeling about all this right now! Welcome PatchesMasterBlk!
This is the first time my talent/habit of obsessively sorting random chests comes in handy! And as for being unable to refund expensive stuff, that is why I plan on bugging Aya, as she is treasurer
Warning: this post isn't addressing anyone specific, it's merely a general statement made on behalf of GRIP. Why GRIP doesn't refund items which got lost during normal gameplay Sometimes players ask us if we can help them refund several items which they lost during their game. This usually involves issues in the wastelands or frontier where the player for whatever reason lost their items. However, our answer is usually no which understandably sometimes disappoints the players. So to try and avoid creating false expectations I figured it might be best to address this issue directly in public. The problem which we have with these requests is that it involves normal gameplay. When you go out into the wilderness you're taking a risk that you might die and in the process lose your items. It's part of the game. Not only that: it's something which has happened to each and everyone of us at some point. And it will probably happen again sometime in the future too. Yet that's the main problem here: because if we help one player get their lost items back, then who are we to deny another player who has the exact same problem? That wouldn't be fair. If you set up rules to play by then those should apply to everyone, not just a select group of players. And personally I don't think GRIP would last very long if we'd go here. Next it would also severely affect the game itself. Because what's the challenge of going into the wasteland / frontier if you're pretty much guaranteed that you'll never really lose anything? I think that's also something which some players tend to overlook: it is definitely not a pleasant experience, but losing a game is always a part of playing the game. See, the idea behind GRIP is mostly focused around helping players who have been wronged. They got into a situation which they never asked for nor had any control over, and they basically got robbed in a certain way. That's where we will step in. But, as mentioned earlier, if you go out into the wilderness then that is entirely your own choice. You decided to play the game, so then you should also keep in mind that you might also end up on the losing end. No fun, but still a normal part of the game... Thanks for reading.
We're going to disband! All good things must come to an end. And right now I'm sitting on a lot of stuff which was provided by the community and therefor should be pushed back into said community. We have "a lot" of rupees (ask Aya, I really don't know how much. Then again, don't ask her, I'll bet she won't recall either and only blame me for you bothering her ). aaaanyway, before I derail my own thread.... GRIP started out strong, very strong I might add because I am still deeply impressed (seriously) with some of the support which the community showed us. I stil recall Aya putting up a request to buy items on behalf of GRIP and in no time the whole request thread got squashed! You meanies! .... 'squashed' because several members wouldn't hear anything about buying and provided the items for free, which we then provided to the player in trouble. That's how the system always worked, and it did good. aaanyway. I have been absent for a while and somewhat poked back but it still doesn't click for me. Been through a very rough period of my life (self inflicted, don't feel sorry for me) and it worked out for me. And as I intended to do I let EMC share in that because, one way or the other, I have a history with EMC I am very happy to say that neither Aya nor myself will ever go derelict because... we don't. The problem though is that I am not enjoying myself on the forums anymore. Not even after the comeback. Aya is prevented to like posts on this forum because oh dear: she could be my alt (we often share the same IP address) and if we both like the same post then the EMC universe is going to implode. And we can't have that! In all fairness: it is me who requested this measure to be taken, but I only did that to put a stop to all the lame pokes we've been getting. I mean: no where in the EMC rules does it say that you cannot like a post with your account and an alt. But when it involves me then this is suddenly a dire problem... Not to mention the fact that Aya mostly liked posts when we were having an event of some sort. I'd start the event, Aya sorted out the aftermath and sometimes we'd let the judging go by which posts we liked both; then the poster would win. Also in full honesty: sometimes it obviously did go beyond this as well, but hardly that intensively. Aya has never been very active on this forum, that's always been me anyway. And oh dear: Aya and me outbidding each other and by doing so giving the auction host a much better price for this stuff. You certainly can't have that! See... now... before I go on: you are going to think that I'm hating on EMC. I do NOT. If I didn't I wouldn't have gotten myself some really cool treats earlier this evening. EMC is special, the place you come back to because in comparison there really isn't all that much out there. There are some really nice places, but in all honesty: nothing really adds up to EMC. But I do think EMC's management are dumb enough to kill the goose with the golden eggs. Take my story above.. ask yourself this: how much does it hurt EMC if Aya and myself were to like the same posts sporadically? Better question: what would we actually gain from this? The way I see it EMC would be the main benefactor because when we held an event plenty of players got curious. I know for a fact that Aya got plenty of PM's (even on Discord one time (yes, she has her own Discord account, amazing for an alt I'm sure)) and everyone was eager to learn about the event. Aya's likes meant something. But we can't have nice things here it seems, and that also cuts into my motivation to be active on these forums. Sure, the rules.. I (don't!) get it. Boosting forum likes, as if that is going to win you the game. The funny thing is that it's not even about us (me liking Aya's posts or her liking mine, but us both liking someone elses post). See; when people put rules above players or the players experience then you know something is not right. EMC would rather uphold dumb rules then let someone who can attract peoples attention to have some fun on these forums and in doing so also attract attention to them. Do I sound arrogant? Heck yeah I do. But I can back up my claims easily.... Only being online, active and participating in online communities has gained me a little too much freebies. I have Enterprise licenses for a very fine selection of development software (purchase value: E 1500+) and only because of my active participation and the way I handled myself online. I can attract a crowd in my own way on fora. (edit): Visual Paradigm is one of my favorite software products. Ask me and I'll write essays as to why I think this is awesome (it really is). Noodle: In my opinion there are 2 licenses which are really vallue for your buck: the modeler license and the professional one. I cannot affort the professional one, so like.. why do I have an Enterprise license? This is as far as I'll take this because this is hidden spam (in my opinion). But it also proves my point, I was told that words online only mean so much, and they were right. Alas! Don't get me wrong... this is not a whine about me being entitled to something. Heck no... In the end I couldn't care less (no offense). Sorta... At this point in time please ask yourself this: why would I spend ... 40 minutes on a post like this? Just to talk down on EMC? Heck no! EMC is in a decline, a serious decline, and the sad part is that they got mostly themselves to thank for it. It's either their way or the highway, even if "another way" could be a very beneficial addition to the EMC experience. I ask you once again: what harm would it do if 2 players liked the same post while there might be a chance that the trigger could be the same person? aaanyway.... I think EMC is on a road to self destruction here. They ticked off a lot of fine and decent players who meant well and I am proud to place myself into that collection. I don't hate on EMC but .... I do think they're being very dumb in the way they run things. Back ontopic! GRIP is no more. SO we're left with a few million rupees and a helluvalotof blocks. One way or the other we are going to push this right back into the community. We'll be very careful with our picks but please: we're also going to be lenient here so maybe we're going to make some mistakes here and there. But even those mistakes might have good results, who knows. No: I am not hating on EMC. And I'm also not going to 'leave' (hard to leave with perm derelict ^.^). But I will be limiting my forum activities for real and move those to a planet full of Minecraft We're also going to be enjoying ourselves in game. Screw the forums, let's have some real fun! One thing I AM going to do is hold my Utopia event. That is going to happen THIS year, I hope next month (= my birthday next month) but I am hellbound on doing that And like it or not but Aya is gonna help me </vent>
GRIP will be missed. Y'all done good, thank you! <3 PWU is renovating an old area at out Wild North spawn (Pep's old place that had been griefed beyond recognition in years past). If you have a crapton of oak logs, oak leaves, and jungle leaves, lemme raise my hand. Here are the materials estimate based off the schema. We're doing a world tree as part of the design. Gods help me, what was I thinking? Building this is gonna take forever. We don't need rupees. But if you have this stuff in some chests and it's going no place special, I'd appreciate it for this build. Most of this we've got or can easily get. The purples are what folks like Chris are working on gathering. Cheers either way Shell, you've always been a blast Coarse Dirt 281 Stone Slab 311 Polished Andesite 363 Glowstone 378 Oak Wood Stairs 406 Cobblestone Stairs 489 Spruce Wood Planks 503 Oak Fence 528 Glass 662 Spruce Wood Slab 703 Cobblestone 851 Stone Bricks 913 Andesite 926 Spruce Wood Stairs 1570 Oak Wood Planks 2065 Dirt 2166 Stone 2655 Grass Block 4116 Oak Wood 6802 Jungle Leaves 12946 Oak Leaves 13013
This is what we hoped for Considering that Aya is (was? I dunno) of the PWU team you guys obviously are our first choice. And if Aya's accessstill applies we'll be happy to deliver too! (come to think of it.. I seem to recall that I had access first, ha! ). At the time of writing I am in no condition to do anything serious but we'll sort this out, you guys are first pick easy! One question: what's with the different color? more required stuff? I know we can't match that (but then again... no promises: but we do sometimes enjoy crazy stuff, give me something i can work with and who knows what happens) So yeah: (edit) I just learned the purple stuff, my bad! Told you I was in a horrible state (horrible communicative but I am doing quite well). But YOU guys got OUR full support. We're gonna go over the stuff tomorrow (you have NO idea what effort this is gonna take, our last major donation didn't go smooth ) but we'll make it happen! Like I said above: I have my issues but I still love EMC for what it is. We'll make this work! Thanks Khixan!
Much love, thanks a bunch Shell Don't go to any trouble. If it's in the chests, hooray. If not, don't sweat it. Chris has gathered a lot of mats for this build too. You should still have access on my 3rd at tp "pwu". If you don't for any reason, hit me up. I've had some .... interesting things happen with perms there bc so many ppl (and it seems to always be when supporter to non-supporter status so .. go fig).
