btw, i heard that u was a Mod in AG like Strop, so did u give up that title bcoz u was too busy with ur study?
Technically I should, uh, have retired a long time ago myself, but Cen beat me to it (after I delayed for 2 years lol).
Right, since there's only been 2 significant updates and they were 2 months apart each (blame my neurology job, that was horrendously busy), I think we would do well with a miniature bare-bones update. Some of this you'll find on page 504. It'll be by no means complete but it'll help ground everybody on what happened, and if you want to read the archive, this may help you understand what's going on more quickly.
SummaryThe Way of Moderation is part of a project to fictionalise the Armor Games community into a physical world. That is to say imagine the forums is like a city, the users are citizens, and there are walls and houses and shops and an actual tavern, and of course a castle which symbolises the Administration, because technically, nobody can get in except the Admins and the Mods. And of course, an economy, a loose metaphor for the way we deal with Armor Points.
I found the dynamics of internet forums fascinating, so I wanted to loosely relate the story of the history and the people of AG. The WoM attempts to explore some of the major themes and preoccupations of the AG forum community, as well as reference the events from the point in time AG's population exploded from the hundreds of thousands to the millions, and the challenges that go with it. Namely, an administration that struggled to adjust to the demands of a growing population, a team of moderators that struggled to do their jobs for lack of manpower and versatile tools, contrasted with a population fascinated with the ambition of gaining power and authority.
The main plot of the WoM is fictional: a tournament held to try and simultaneously entertain people as well as discern candidates for a new moderator. But such a fictional plot served as a good vehicle to explore the themes of teamwork (and lack of it) and the conflicting ideologies among the people involved in communities. At least that is what we'll be aiming to focus on in the rewrite. As it is, you'll see a series of madcap crazy misadventures, lots of explosions, things breaking, snappy one-liners and a lot of disjointed satirical pieces in which I take a potshot at every contemporary issue from drugs to gender politics to global current affairs.
PlotThe Wheel of Moderation, official moderator selection device, has broken! Devoidless allegedly broke it by getting excited and spinning it too hard. But this is a time when Armor City needs a new moderator more than ever, for the population grows, and grows restless. Queen Carlie holds a secret meeting in which the moderators discuss their quandrary, and so it is that the duty falls to Strop, with the help (and hindrance) of his colleagues, Dank, Devoidless, Moe, Nemo, Ubertuna and Zophia, to address this problem in the form of a tournament: the Way of Moderation tournament. Strop decides to drag his good friend, Cen, along for the ride because he wants to make a man out of him, and because he needs somebody to file his paperwork.
The tournament is initially wildly successful, capturing the attention and imagination of Armor City. Many candidates sign up, and Strop goes to town thinking up challenges that will "test their ability", such as dodging balls he throws at them. Cenere silently disapproved of the wanton destruction that resulted, particularly when a runin with regular troublemaker Klaus resulted in Armor Castle itself being temporarily destroyed... but thanks to the delay when Flippo the Hippo's bakery was blown up by Dudeguy, it was rebuilt in time for the next trial, in which the remaining candidates had to navigate an obstacle course built by the imposing brain-in-a-jar, Moegreche! At the same time, both the candidates and Strop had to contend with the nefarious trio of moderators, Nemo, Voidy and the fishy keeper of the moat, Ubertuna, who had joined forces to oppose the existence of the tournament. This time around, it resulted in the hospitalisation of everybody present, and just when the dust was clearing, Klaus returned from an imposed trip and went too far, earning himself a permaban at the hands of administrator Carlie.
Just when Strop thought it was back under control, Zophia showed up to commemorate a Halloween prank with an upgraded version, turning Strop, and everybody else present, into females. As it turned out, even Nemo, who was attempting to murder Strop, and Moe, who was spying on Strop to make sure things didn't get too out of hand again, were affected. Only Cen, somehow, managed to escape the fate. Horrified at the change, many of the remaining contestants collapsed under the mental strain and confusion, whereas others took it in their stride. Strop, as Strip, freed from her responsibilities as a moderator, proceeded to cause trouble in the ancient motherland of Newgrounds, and only came to her senses when she realised the loss of her powers, which would come back to haunt the other moderators later in the story.
Following this, Strop had intended to test the dozen remaining candidates on their eloquence, but a doublebooking resulted in the Community Hall being turned into a rap arena, in which Strop, having ingested some suspiciously narcotic substances sold by a certain herbalist, passed out, and the prank hatched by the most nefarious of candidates, Leon McAcid, resulted in Strop being charged with the attempted murder of the youngest candidate, Chill, Grandmaster of George. Daunted but not defeated at the mounting challenges, Strop interviewed the candidates and found he had to disallow the elderly Kingryan from continuing purely on the basis of his health. Thus came the round of eight, in which Thoad narrowly defeated Manta in a mindbending duel, Frank took down Pixel in an aerial battle turned mudfight, Crimson gritted his way past Chill's trickery, and the Bullman was bested by Leon, and his own code of honorable conduct. This finally being a round that seemed to go without a major hitch, Strop decided to push his luck and held the tag-team two-on-two in the hall of the castle itself. Seeing as Carlie wasn't around as she was on a 'secret trip'. What resulted was the most severe carnage of the tournament thus far that left Crimson and Leon victorious, but only Leon relatively unscathed, underscoring the real danger that lurked beneath the chaotic entertainment the tournament provided. Strop had one other serious bit of business to attend to, that being the court hearing in which an unusually affected Moe erratically runs Strop through the wringer before the prosecution's case descends into farce, Leon confesses his guilt in his typical roundabout fashion, and absconds before any consequence is meted.
Thus brings us to the most recent round, round Ten. The day of the Grand Finals, where a barely healed Crimson secretly carries the hopes of preserving good order, against a rampant Leon, the maniacal unknown quantity. Yet as they are about to fight, the round is interrupted first by the appearance of Strop's antagonists, which serves as the catalyst for a monumental argument between Cen and Strop which results in Cen suddenly leaving Strop to fend for himself. Worse, just after he leaves, Dank rushes in bearing the news of a raid- the fire born from embers of trouble stirring from many months earlier. Turns out that Klaus, bitter at being rejected as a moderator, manipulated the flammable crowd at Newgrounds into raiding Armorgames with intent to completely destroy it and its fundaments. Unprepared and still shortstaffed, the moderators are overwhelmed by the rapidity and totality of the raid, and the city rapidly and progressively falls. The nuking of the Free Market triggers a fight between Strop and Klaus. Strop defeats Klaus in an effort to save the Bank and thus AG's economy, but Klaus pulls a last-minute sacrifice move and the Bank falls. Strop is flattened, but saved by Dank, who attempts to defend his beloved Academy. Meanwhile, Strop goes on to reunite with old veterans and ex-moderators Asherlee and Dragonmistress, who agree to help him out while he quests to gather all the mods. However, in the process, Strop witnesses the destruction of most of the city at the hands of mega mutant trolls. Spaminator Flipski sacrifices himself in an effort to block their progress to the Castle and to save Moe, who is distraught. Asherlee and DM try to take the bank back with Crimson but they are heavily beaten and retreat, and it is only thanks to the last-minute arrival of Zophia and Ubertuna, who were trying to return Nemo to his male state that the lot of them were not caught up in the detonation of the Academy. Worse yet, while Ubertuna lead the remnants through the sewers, his ongoing problems with sharks trying to evict him from his home at sea finally caught up with him, and he was taken by a loan shark.
With their morale at an all time low, the remaining moderators must dig deep and somehow organise to ensure the safety of the users, as well as find a way to resolve the ongoing conflict. Through a series of high risk plans they manage to secure vital points and send a distress signal, as well as redirect the citizens who stayed behind to the one safe place left in the land of Armor Games: the park, a haven free from economic consequence. At first, they planned to shoulder the responsibility of saving the community on their own, but it was at this crucial time that some of the users, like Nill (formerly Nemo), and many of the finalists from the tournament, including Manta, Thoad, Kingryan, and Crimson, independently came up with their own plans to galvanise their fellow citizens and make a stand. Everything came to a head in a last desperate defense of Armor Castle itself, when Cen puts his life on the line for the sake of a few precious seconds, and even the seemingly villainous Leon plays a pivotal role in holding the castle, while Chill and his magical colleagues rush to the aid of Dank, who, with Moe, hatch a plan to counter the largest threats of them all, the revived super Mutant Trolls that feed on hate and adversity, that not even Flipski's sacrifice could put down. Staring down the face of defeat, Strop finally sacrifices himself and drinks coffee. Everything comes together in one final clash, all the little plans and contributions of everybody from average citizen to moderator pitted against the hostile forces in one grand showdown, until a giant thunderstorm signalling the return of the Administration puts a halt to the battle.
Once the dust settles, the extent of the damage becomes clearer. So too does the extent of the irresponsibility of Strop, and the degree to which the tournament and its consequences raged out of control. Queen Carlie explains her absence by announcing her forthcoming wedding to one of the developers, John. The founder and leader of AG himself, Dan McNeely, announces an overhaul of the administration to reflect the evident needs of the community, as well as an inquest to clarify the events of the past several months. Strop resolves to accept responsibility and realises that his time as a moderator is coming to a close. But before he retires he resolves to tie up loose ends, including treating the wounded from the battle, apologising to Cen for his conduct and for ignoring Cen's reasonable warnings, helping everybody relocate and repair AG while it awaits a complete overhaul by the Administration, restoring Nill and Moe back to their normal status by reversing the persisting effects of the F-bomb. Most importantly he has to see the tournament to a close, and of course, the question of sourcing another moderator has still gone unanswered...
