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I joined Mhaldor now because ICly there was like a long line of events leading up to it.
I started playing back in 2014, and it has been extremely hard for me as well.
Let me start out by saying that I LIKE multi-classing. Mostly. I am glad IRE can make more money on credit sales, and I love that people now have the option to branch out and play more things without having to make entirely new characters. I think it was done in a way that is balanced and fair and except for the fact that it has made the credit market into an untenable nightmare for new and old players alike, it is overall a major win for Achaea. That being said, it is extremely difficult to find anchor points for immersion and RP now.
Race has always been a transitory thing... changing race is as easy as reincarnating or activating your gem or hitting level 99 and suddenly having scales. There are no cities or Houses based on race. It is hard, at least for me, to base my character identity around my race when the people I interact with keep changing what they are and I know that sooner or later, I will too. My race has about as much substance as what set of clothing I wear on a given day. There is no culture behind race, although I have seen some people make an effort with varying degrees of success to try to present one.
Class was really where it was at in terms defining roles. The old Houses seemed to draw their substance from class archetypes. A serpent, for example, was special because she had a set of specialized skills that nobody else had. She had a House not only teaching her the trade, but also providing a class based culture and a specific outlet for her skills. An entire bank of lore went along with the class. Now though, everyone can be everything given enough time... Houses are no longer about class. The 'culture' of the classes has to some degree evaporated. While not as transitory as race, I think a lot of the old meaning behind the archetypes has been lost.
The old Houses were themselves reincarnations of the Guilds which were all about class. Now the Houses don't seem to be about anything. I realize that is not a fair blanket statement to make because some Houses are developing an identity better than others are but where the old Houses had foundations, the new Houses have templates. For me to care about a group I first of all need to clearly understand what it is about, second, what I'm doing there, and third, what exactly I'm getting out of it. I need something more than a vague/incomprehensible one word name and a paragraph worth of outline if I'm going to dedicate a character with years worth of work behind it and inherit a Houses checklist tasks and built-in limitations. You expect that sort of thing from a clan or high clan but not a HOUSE.
Right now everything feels disconnected from everything else. Like a bunch of individual puzzle pieces that don't fit together to form a picture anymore. The lore and history of the world is disconnected from what now exists. The classes are disconnected. The races are disconnected. The sub orgs (clans and high clans) are both numerous and disconnected. We have maximum creative freedom, which is good, but nothing seems to support or compliment anything else. There is no depth. And it is in this environment that we are told to build Houses from scratch with virtually nothing to base them on other than the memory of how things USED to work and the overall mission statement of the city that hosts the House. I ask again, why join one at all unless you are forced to? And if you are forced... you didn't really chose it and you probably don't really care enough to invest more than the minimum in it.
You can't build any structure without having a solid foundation first. This is fundamentally where I feel the Renaissance went wrong and what most needs to be corrected about the game itself.
I'm not exactly sure how to do that with each org because I almost feel like your asking the Gods to custom make an entire story for each org (something that wont happen they don't have that kind of time). But I do understand the feelings and some of it might be a bit justified. The hard part is everything is so individual now it's a struggle to find consensus things that make a big enough difference to create these pieces of defining culture. #IhopeIjustmadesenseifnotsomeonetellme
(Blades of Valour): Draekar says: "Synbios if sunbeams sparkle off that I'll kill you where you stand."
(Party) Halos says, "Disbar?"
(Party) Draekar says, "You know here we have disbar."
(Party) Draekar says, "And over there we have datbar."
(Blades of Valour): Draekar says: "Synbios if sunbeams sparkle off that I'll kill you where you stand."
(Party) Halos says, "Disbar?"
(Party) Draekar says, "You know here we have disbar."
(Party) Draekar says, "And over there we have datbar."
I don't remember wtf that was all about anymore, it was so long ago -- but boy, was that some major suckage.
So much this (and a brilliant example @Kaden).
Nostalgia and structural worries aside, if Renaissance Houses fail or succeed, it will be (almost) entirely due to creativity (or lack thereof) of the players with characters in them, not because of admin. The guilds and greater of the old Houses didn't start off awesome. They became awesome and fun and engaging exactly because of the stories, time, and effort that many generations of characters put into them (with patron help).
If a lot of it feels disconnected from history, it is. It's your job to connect it. It's your job to make history. We're all getting blank canvases to build brand new orgs from the ground up with very loose guidelines from city patrons. This is an opportunity of a text lifetime. A fast (or slow) track to iconic character status. Do not fail. Anyone who comes after will remember you or forget you based on the contributions you make in these early days.