The Humble Beginnings of the Eterspire Community

Hi everyone! I’m Manu, and this is my first… entry? post? article? on our dev blog.

Since we’ve just hit 15,000 members on our official Discord community server (wow, I still can’t believe there are that many people now!), I thought I’d share some interesting facts and stories from the early days of this community.

I’ve been part of the Stonehollow Workshop team for almost three years now, and many of you probably know me as the dev who hates on the Rogue class, rants about Argentine cuisine in general chat, or spams @everyone every time something goes wrong.

But on top of all that, I’m also the head of what we call the “Com” (or “ComCom”) team, short for Community and Communications. My role, simply put, is to bring new players into the game and make sure the ones already here are happy. Of course what that role entails has changed a lot since I first joined.

Early beginnings

Back then, Eterspire was a very different (and much smaller) game, and our community was just a small group of MMORPG enthusiasts. Our Discord server had around 300 members, and things were… quiet.

My very first discord message on the day I joined the team (no idea why they reacted with a tooth emoji)

One fun fact many people might not know: for a long time, our Discord server was directly connected to the in-game chat. You couldn’t just read messages from Discord, you could actually talk to players in-game through it.

The old global chat channel on Discord

We didn’t have many players back then, like maybe 5 to 10 concurrent at most, so even the global chat was silent at times. I distinctly remember Veryok, a longtime player and former community mod, sending a “Good day” message every single day and sometimes not getting a single reply.

Our first events!

After some time we started running community contests and events like we do today, though they looked very different. Our first collaborative event (the kind where players work together toward a shared goal) launched alongside the first portion of the main quest. Players had to reach the point where you meet Captain Suller (which was the end of the quest at the time) and send a screenshot next to him.

We had a whopping 150 total entries! (which is what we usually get now on the first day of an event).

We also had some not-so-great looking counters designed by yours truly.

Another big milestone was our first group screenshot contest. When we finally released the long-awaited party system, we celebrated with a themed group contest: teams of up to four players creating coordinated screenshots. We had a lot of incredible entries, and in the end, a player by the name of Addik was picked as the winner

Addik's winning entry

Newer players might not know this, but Addik was a hugely important part of the community. He shared his own stories he wrote based on the game's lore, was always active in chat, and participated in most events.

Sadly, in November 2024, Addik passed away after being deployed in the Ukraine–Russia war. From what we were told, Eterspire served as a much-needed distraction during the incredibly difficult conditions he faced on the front.

Hearing that gave us a completely new perspective on what this game, and this community, means to people.

As a tribute to the impact Addik left behind, we added the Solemn Clearing, featuring an adventurer dressed like his main.

Official or not-so-official server?

This might surprise many of you, but there was a time when we seriously considered not having an official Discord server at all.

We had a few incidents involving toxic users, and the resulting drama burned us out to the point where we didn’t know how to handle it, especially as a team of just three people.

Eventually, we made one of the best decisions we could have: we created a community mod team made up of long-time, trusted players. This changed everything!

Not only did they help keep toxicity in check, but they also brought in incredible ideas for contests, events, and activities. They gave the community new energy, and made it a much more welcoming place for new players.

Shoutout to Veryok, Soul, and Jakee. I haven’t seen them around in a while, but they were the ones that kickstarted the mod team and helped our community become what it is today.

The creative brains of the Eterspire community

To wrap things up, I want to highlight some of the amazing (and sometimes hilarious) creations from the community, especially for newer players who might have missed them.

Consider this a little community spotlight retrospective.

Virtuoso’s Kyu Kyu Kyu Nya video, featuring some of the cutest character art drawn by Arian, Leila, Esacto, Umu, Yungblue, Levi, Cereza, and Squiggaly:

These awesome Minecraft skins by Kickonly! Yes, you can literally play as the Adventurers’ Guild in Minecraft:

You can download them here!

These incredible The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past-inspired Katalyn sprites:

Pumpkin Suller by Squiggaly:

And if there are other community creations you think deserve some love, let me know in the comments!

Thank you so much for 15k and let's keep this beautiful MMORPG community growing!

Manu