Text:CookieQ's AFOWs

This file was autogenerated from a /warp history book.

Book Metadata

Title: CookieQ's AFOW

Author: thecoolkid26

Custom Name: CookieQ's AFOWs

Lore:

November 6th, 2019

Book Content

wwCookieQ's AFOWs

by: thecoolkid26

Notable: First AFOW game, started the AFOW genre, last notable game in the Dark Ages

Creator(s): CookieQ, other minor assistants
Time Period: 2019, sporadically

Player Count: N/A (AFOW)
Table of Contents

Underground....................4
Birth of AFOWs..............11
Problems............................16
Failure.................................23
Legacy................................27
Chapter 1 -

Underground

The Loria Boom had made RPs a server wide topic, one of both fascination and ire. Among such players would be Err0r77, a player who would draw inspiration from Loria Boom games, starting with Belloria,
and make his own version of the games. His games would be characterized by their low quality, low preparation time, and controversially, a lack of fair hosting.

While two Warlords players, Bloxhead7 and thecoolkid26, would play many of his games, he'd never
be voted in to join Warlords, nor would his popularity on DF increase. Regardless, he still had a small but dedicated community of people who would consistently play his games, as they found it entertaining. The 'drawbacks' to the game (the quality, preparation, and hosting)
were unique and still are as of the publishing of this book, and these people who would come back to his games played because there was nothing else like it. They enjoyed it.

Among these people was a player called CookieQ, a player who wasn't
unknown to the DF community, but hadn't gained large popularity either. What would set her apart from the other followers of Err0r77 is that she'd go on to make games of her own. While these games received the same amount of small but loyal players that Err0r77's games did,
they'd go on to be made even after Err0r stopped making RPs, and would receive his approval and assistance.

By this point, the Dark Age of DF RPs had begun, and these games that CookieQ made were among the last of a dying genre. They would go on 
beyond Belloria's unofficial death, but would stop before Belloria officially died and well before Kingdoms S2's death. These games are insignificant today.

However, she'd make something a bit... different.
Chapter 2 -

Birth of AFOWs

To understand what an AFOW game is, you need to know what "AFOW" means.

The term is an acronym to Alternate Future of the World, a concept primarily seen in Youtube
videos, where countries on Earth talk to each other, interact, forge alliances, combat each other, and personified as if they were actual human beings for the enjoyment of its viewers. The concept is moderately popular on Youtube, and especially well known for history buffs
and nerds or anybody of the sort. CookieQ was among those, and she'd try to adopt this concept onto a DF RP.

(Note: While the idea of what became an AFOW existed before, and controversially in other coded games (see the book on Pixels), CookieQ would
make the first RP AFOW and is commonly accepted as the first AFOW creator.)

An RP AFOW would work as if you were watching a Youtube video. No player would actually participate in the game, and it would just be the host who would control the countries, their
interactions, and the changing of borders as the audience would watch.

She'd make the borders of a fictional world, and name it "Alternate Future of the World," now commonly known as the first AFOW.
Chapter 3 -

Problems

There is a reason as to why Err0r77's method of making games was important. His low effort and, most importantly, low preparation of games would pass on to CookieQ.
This wasn't a problem for other games, but CookieQ was entering a new genre of games never done before. She could not have foreseen that such ideas would not work here. The lack of preparation would prove evident, as she'd advertise the game before making the countries
themselves, meaning that she had an entire world, but it was blank.

A great number of people would join, and it wasn't suprising. DF's community as a whole has always had a large group of nerdy people, some of which may already be familiar with the Youtube AFOWs.
Them, coupled with the few people from her fanbase who joined, would rack up an impressive eight spectators. This number is especially significant when you notice that this was during the Dark Age of RPs. The problem was to maintain them.
thecoolkid26 was among the 8 or so players, and this is his (my) account of events:

Immediately as people joined, CookieQ would make the board of countries and start mapping them out. She'd come up with names as she went, and put them on the 
board. The issue was that people came to watch an AFOW, not the making of one. Over time, more and more people left, until I was among the last watching. She resorted to starting the AFOW with only three countries on two islands, leaving the rest of the world blank, but it was
too little and definitely too late. The AFOW would barely begin before all people left, and the game died out permanently, most likely cleared soon after.


Chapter 4 -

Failure

While CookieQ may have not seen the short lived success of this game coming, she would consistently make the same error in her subsequent games. The only improvement that would be made is
enlisting the help of others after advertising the game, but these either usually showed minimal support or disinterest in helping at all, and she'd lose her audience, unable to even begin.
The last of her attempts as of the publishing of this book, sometime in late August-early September, she hadn't even made the map before advertising the game. Nobody who she enlisted for help, thecoolkid26 among them, would help her make the map. The game started and
died as a blank plot.

It was ultimately the failure to adapt to the AFOW system on CookieQ's end, and also the lack of volunteer assistance from others that contributed to the early fall of the concept in DF.
Chapter 5 -

Legacy

While she is not a horrible game creator herself, it cannot be ignored that CookieQ partially or wholly contributed to the demise of her own concept on DF.
Yet, on Warlords, the concept had not died out. After being reintroduced by thecoolkid26 in a game now called "TCK's AFOW" a minor rebirth and death of Warlords AFOWs occured. 

thecoolkid26 himself has also taken interest in the AFOW games, believing that
had such a game been properly made, it could potentially end the Dark Age singlehandedly. However, as CookieQ is the only creator, it is yet to be tested, and the idea has not gained popularity in Warlords, so it is unlikely that such an event will ever happen. 
The series of AFOW games that CookieQ made are an important lesson to be ready and put more effort when you are about to enter a new type of game never done before. It has been consistently shown prior to this instance.
For example, Echokia was not fit enough to be the game to blow up Lorias, and Belloria would take its place with better preparation. Or, when the Early Boom failed to popularize Proto-Afterlife games, we now know Afterlife as the creator of the main Afterlife genre and its popularizer.
Or, when RP Wars eventually fell and failed to popularize RPs as a whole, Kingdoms would come and finish what it had started.

These are just the major examples, but a minor player like CookieQ would most likely not have the foresight we now
do. She is not an active Warlords player, and most likely does not know the history behind RPs. So, can you really blame her? Or, does her constant failure of game after game make her worthy of criticism? That's for you to decide.