Player-Driven Is the New Black: But How to Wear It?

[jhunter]

To be completely honest, I haven't seen this "new" change at all.

I've still seen high-rank boss NPCs being animated, and I've not seen any low-rank nobody NPCs being animated within clans (that I know of).

I was in a somewhat recent leadership position and I had way too many expectations going into the role. That was what I did wrong, and eventually lead to my retirement of said role. It's because I wanted things to happen. I wanted to change the world - even if just a little bit. I wanted to drive plots for -many- players to be involved in. But I was turned down for almost all of them. There were even PCs coming to me with -awesome- plot ideas that would barely scratch the surface of world changing plots. These ideas were genuine, small, doable, and would have created so much -player- interaction and plot device. I wanted to scream YES! Let's do it! Let's start some plots! Jump onto the ole bandwagon we're gonna have some fun! But when I asked my staff if we could proceed, even with the small stuff, they said no. My hands were tied, the role became unrewarding, and I started to feel like a megaphone output for staff to say: "NO." ig.

You could call me bitter, and you would be absolutely right. Bitter enough that I've decided not to play any more leader positions for some time. Instead, I've come down to the micro level and am thoroughly enjoying the low-expectations, pc-pc relationships found amongst the lower castes.

So what is the problem here? Is it really that I had too many expectations for staff allowance going into the role? Should I have just continued my character's life with little to no expectations and goals in mind? What would be the point? Perhaps my characters should all be static, leader or not, who simply float along the waves of mediocrity? I think that is the mindset you have to adapt for Armageddon. Nothing you do will change the world. It's also mostly true for IRL.

Rhyden just perfectly explained my past experiences with leadership roles. It always seemed that no matter what I wanted to try and do, or no matter how I tried to go about it, I was thrown up rock-solid brick walls that shut things down completely. I didn't ever truly feel like I was "allowed" the -opportunity- to at least try to make some things happen.

It sounded to me like the changes were supposed to make this situation dissipate to some degree. It seems to me that in the much farther past, it was more possible to make things happen in the game than it was in recent years. As for the current situation, I'm honestly not sure what has changed if anything. I haven't had the time or the inclination to get involved in any sort of leadershiip roles in recent times to find out.

[Rhyden]

I've got off to the wrong start. Think my initial post came off a little bit too bitter. My apologies, but it's been a bad day. Meh. I'll try to be a bit more explanatory about where I'm coming from, and attempt to have a more light-hearted tone.

I never posted on the original thread to this announcement. Not sure why. Probably because I agreed with most that it was a pretty awesome idea. I love that Adhira has turned the focus to the player-player and player-staff scheme of things, not to mention staff assistance has only got better since the time I joined ArmageddonMud.

This is an area for us to work on. One thing that has been suggested is making up 'job descriptions', or guides, for the different types of sponsored or leader roles. For example your Merchant might be told that he has the right to:
- Hire crafters
- Hire an assistant
- Arrange for hunters to seek out specialist resources to make goods
- Hire the byn to assist in expeditions
- Work on trade partnerships with fellow merchants in other houses
- Work with enterprising independents to 'incorporate' their goods into the house lines
- Research new product lines

And so on. By giving you guys a better idea of what you have authority over we hope that you'll then have more confidence to do these (and other) things.

I followed this list and had some pretty interesting interaction with players. Hired crafters, assistants, Byn, a few parterships, the whole shabang. It was quite fun all around.

But I guess I'm too creative, or impatient, or something. Because it's not enough, at least for me individually. I want to change the world in this game I spend -way- too many hours playing. Even if it's just a small, small bit, which might pass on into the realms of Armageddon Reborn. That seems like all we can achieve before the end of the game comes. Leave a legacy, no matter how large or small.

And if I can't do that, then I don't want to play a leadership position so much. Instead, I'll play a gritty joe schmoe nobody who never has a chance at leaving any trace, but probably have a blast-and-a-half of fun doing so.

My 2 sids. Take it or leave it. I mean no harm and come in peace - here are my brainz, here is your spoon. I'm going to bed.

[Gimfalisette]

More thoughts.

Generally speaking, I ask for staff assistance with a plot when there is some element of it that I cannot accomplish completely in-game, using existing code; perhaps some skill or location or item that is not fully coded, or I need to interact with a virtual-only organization, or I'm creating something. However, if everything I want to do is already in-game (I want salt crystals; I hire the Byn to get them for me; they go do that codedly), then I don't need staff assistance and I just email them to let them know what's up. This means there are plenty of plots that I am 100% able to pursue without staff help.

However, there are times when something simply cannot be done without staff help. And I believe that in order for these plots to become fully player-driven, players need better communication with staff both from their side and from staff. While miscommunication persists, players will remain reluctant to take up leadership, fearful of presenting plots, and mistrustful of staff. Much of what LoD wrote previously is helpful for players in planning and communicating well, which will help lead to success at creating and pushing plots. But players can't solve the overall communication issues on our own; we need staff help to pursue this plot

Below are some of the problems I have encountered, and have observed other players encountering as well.

-- Sometimes the staff seems to not understand that my PC and I can, and do, have different emotional reactions to things. Just because my PC rants and screams in game, that does not mean that I am OOCly upset about whatever is bothering my PC. My PC may negatively react to an NPC; but that does not mean that I, the player, believe the staff member is being unfair or a jerk or wants to punish me. My PC does not want to lose (what character ever would, really?), but the player is generally fine with the roleplay that comes from "losing." Unless I send an email communication that states, "I, Gimf, am really upset" then I would like the benefit of the doubt that the reaction staff is seeing is completely IC, not OOC.

-- Sometimes the staff misinterprets my emails, which I valiantly do my very best to be precise, concise, and crystal-clear in. (Once a staff member actually sent me kudos for my weekly reports, so I think I must be fairly decent at my emails.) The above IC-OOC confusion also comes in here; I have found it valuable to state that "ICly, this is how PC feels." But even then, I have felt at times that staff interprets my PC's feelings as also being my feelings. Sometimes staff does not read my emails thoroughly, and responds incompletely. When this happens, I honestly do not know what to do--risk pissing my staffer off by re-asking my question? Drop the matter? Go ahead and do what I want anyways? Usually this quandary leaves me doing nothing at all.

-- Often, the staff are very unclear about their OOC expectations for a particular role, what they would generally like to see happen, what the parameters for play are, and how best to communicate with them and ask for assistance. Getting a new staff member at rotation or upon joining a new clan can be a frustrating process, similar to being a college student and trying to figure out exactly what the professor wants--so that you don't fail the class. But in ARM, there are no grades, there is very little feedback, and I have often felt totally in the dark about figuring out what the staff really wants or how they prefer to do business. The one exception to this is when I played a Tuluki noble; upon acceptance, we were given a whole slew of email instructions about what to do, what not to do, and how things would work. Because I knew that weekly reports were required, you can be damn sure that I sent them faithfully every week. But the vast majority of the time, this does not happen for sponsored roles--and it certainly doesn't happen in non-sponsored roles. So almost always, players are left trying to interpret what the staff wants, based on staff's reaction to their own attempts. This is a nearly impossible and extremely frustrating task, and it sets the parties on both sides up for failure of the relationship. I would like to see all sponsored roles receive expectations documentation upon acceptance; and I would like to see staff members coming onto rotation in their clans always adding to their, "Hi and I look forward to killing you!" message something about what they would like from their players immediately and on an ongoing basis.

-- Sometimes the staff are inconsistent with their response, as a group, or inconsistent with prior staffers or with the documentation. I had an instance where I sent one email to my overseeing staff about a plot idea, and received four completely different responses back (one, I believe, was not even from a staff member who was currently listed for that clan); some were along the lines of "OOCly yes," some were along the lines of "OOCly no," and some of them left me feeling that I was being chided for suggesting such a plot. This left me completely befuddled as to what to do, and demotivated me for pursuing that type of plot at all. Of course, staff members are individuals and will necessarily have varying opinions; however, I think it would be beneficial for staff to present one overall opinion to players, almost always.

-- Sometimes staff support disappears mid-stream. When rotation happens and the new staff member has a radically different style or different preferences, or when a staff member suddenly needs to focus on RL for a while, players often must abandon their plots, even those that were previously-approved. This has happened to me a handful of times now. I do not know whether there is now an understanding amongst staff, in the player-driven environment, that previously-supported player plots should be allowed to go forward despite staff changes; but I think it would be very beneficial to players to know that there is such an "transfer agreement."

Staffers, especially those who have previously responded in this thread, please don't think that I'm "aiming" at you or have any particular agenda other than to openly discuss communication issues; also please don't feel like you must personally respond to the issues or go point-by-point to address my "problems." I am not wanting to call anyone out or point fingers, I simply want to talk about our current system and what system changes might help support the player-driven environment. I believe, nearly always, that difficulties we have here in ARM are not the fault of any particular players, staff, or group of either; rather, they are the result of faulty systems that may just need some fixing.

[X-D]

So...I was going to post...but Gimf beat me to it.

So...yes, what Gimf said.

And the first one being the largest problem I've had in the past. I really do play the PC as somebody other then myself guys...And no matter how my emails sound, I'm really not pissed off. Well, cept when it has to do with things happening because somebody saw 2 minutes out of 5 hours play and used that out of context info...that bugs me.

Also, on the plots side, I myself love the low level stuff. Which is why I suppose the change towards player driven has not affected me.

[LoD]

There are always going to be communication problems as long as we are human, and there are some issues that will plague the lines of communication between Staff and players no matter what policies are adopted, especially as they pertain to asking for permission.

Full Disclosure

One factor that likely influences the answers we receive is the difficulty in achieving full disclosure.  We may ask something like, "I want to make a new breed of mount by breeding kanks and inix."  This request may have come in while they were still deciding how to handle IP property issues for the new game, and so there may have been two repsonses:

Response 1

"Thanks for your plot suggestion!  Unfortunately, that will not be possible at this time."

Response 2 (Full Disclosure)

"Due to issues with WoTC Intellectual Property contained within Armageddon, kanks and inix as it pertains to your request, we are considering releasing a new version of the game in the future void of this IP.  Because of this decision, certain plots have already been set into motion that are independent to your own and, because they are necessary for the future of the game, somewhat fixed in their outcome.  Unfortunately, we will not be able to support your attempt to mix kanks and inix, because both of those animals will no longer be a part of the game's future, and we want to ensure a clean break from any IP issues."

Now, the full disclosure response may contain information that the Staff was either unwilling or unprepared to divulge at the time, and while the reasoning is sound and completely understandable, you aren't provided with any better reason than the Staff simply won't allow you to move forward with what you feel is a legitimate request and fun/exciting plot line.

The Boy Who Cried Plot!

Almost all of us have lost a character and created a new one.  It's only normal for us to treat the two characters as two separate entities, with unique descriptions, wants, needs, relationships and goals.  We have new clothing, new clans, new skills, and new plots to pursue as we interact with the rest of the game.  And it's natural for us to forget the past as we plod toward the future, drawing a clean slate to begin anew.  Except, it's not really new for the Staff members.  Though you are embodying a new character, with a new personality, they are dealing with the same player, the same account name, and everything that implies.

There are likely people who make frequent requests to the Staff for plot support, only to inevitably die, disappear, or store their character.  And while they may feel that each character represents a clean slate, and a new opportunity, the Staff members are still interacting with the same email address, the same account name, and, potentially, the same style of requests for sdesc changes, NPC desc changes, special object requests, room creation requests, etc...  This may also contribute to the responses you receive when your 10th character submits their 10th request for staff support on a plot they want to pursue.

Varying Degrees of Experience and Authority

When making requests, it's entirely possible that your message is going to be received by Staff members with varying degrees of experience and authority.  Most Staff members know, or feel they remember, what it was like to be a player waiting for a response and want to respond to you as quickly as possible.  This could certainly result in responses that vary, not only in whether your request was approved or denied, but in how they've chosen to respond.  New Staff members might be curt because they don't really the history behind a policy, only that it needs to be enforced, while others may answer abruptly simply because they're busy.

I can understand how it might be frustrating to get a response that doesn't quite answer your question, leaves you with more questions, or leaves you feeling as if your request wasn't fully considered.  I'm at a disadvantage here, because I generally don't email the Staff for the things I want to pursue -- I just pursue them and see what happens.  By the time I'm asking whether it's possible, I've already achieved a fair portion of it in-game.  And this is possible because I've almost always chosen to pursue plots that I felt were realistic with the current game environment, including the existing Staff support, policies, active organizations, and active players.

Pretense of Perfection

One thing that I imagine is quite common is that we (the players) have generally come to expect timely and professional responses from the Staff on the majority of our requests and submissions, and that certainly sets us up to be disappointed whenever the responses differ in either timeliness or tone.  It's important to remember that the Staff are all volunteers, and that pursuing plots that require Staff assistance is really asking for something above and beyond what the game is obliged to provide to you.  No other game you play will allow you to make changes to it, or have major events bend to your will in the way that Armageddon can, and we can sometimes take that fact for granted when making requests.

I mention these various situations not because I feel the Staff are perfect, or that they couldn't benefit from improved methods of communication or attention to tone -- we all can -- but more to highlight issues that will probably always exist, no matter what policies, methods, or people are responding to your questions.  And while it may not help every person with their problems, it may help you be cognizant of certain conditions when making requests and choose your wording accordingly, accept a response more readily, or perhaps pursue specific plots more sparingly.

As far as having success, I've succeeded the most in plots where I:

1. Involve people.  Create a goal that will include as many players from your own clan as possible and include steps that require both combat and non-combat roles.  Imms will support a goal more readily if it involves a lot of other players, even if it is only within one clan.

2. Draw inside the lines.  Create a goal within the guidelines of both the MUD and clan documentation which does not blatently go against their best wishes, common practices or established laws. (i.e. Coming up with a new style of mount for pulling wagons that grants your clan a special advantage in that field might be good whereas plotting to kill every family member in attempt to take over the operation would not be as good.)

3. Add to the game.  Create a goal that has an end goal that can be both appreciated by a wide variety of players and fill a NEED in the game.  Something that the game does not yet have, or needs more of.

4. Less work, better success. Create a goal that requires the least amount of Immortal intervention and work possible.  If it requires work that you can do in advance, then you do as much as humanly possible.  This will increase your chances of seeing it done.  I guarantee that an Imm will look much more closely at your proposal if it has been well thought out and designed ahead of time than if you are depending on them to do it all for you.  This would include writing up rooms, objects, NPC's, scripts, documentation, backgrounds, etc...

5. Plan to work, then work your plan.  This is not an overnight gig, or even something you should expect to happen in a RL month or two.  This might be something you need to commit to for several months or even years depending upon the outcome of your proposal.  There are going to be pitfalls, setbacks, challenges and problems that arise which many people see as Imms telling them 'no.'  My simple suggestion is not to accept that if you feel strongly enough about your actions and find another route to take.  There are many roads leading to the same city, so don't be discouraged when one is closed to you.  I mean, if your goal is trying to get home for Christmas and the highway you normally take is closed for repairs, do you just shrug and say, 'There's always next year.'?  No, you probably figure out another way to go about accomplishing your task.  The same can be done in Armageddon.

-LoD

[flurry]

I'm way late to the party on this one, but I had a few things I'd been thinking about when this thread was hopping, and I never got around to posting them.

Mostly, I think communication with staff is the most important thing leaders can do, especially since the change. And that includes asking questions when you need clarification. I ask an annoying number of questions to my clan staff when I play leader roles, but it helps me a ton and I think it helps them know where I stand on things. I just think it's better to ask something than to remain frustrated over some ambiguity.

While I accept that the change was and is for the best, there are still some things about it that I don't yet understand. For instance, I am aware the world is now supposed to be more changeable by player initiative, but I don't understand how. What is different now? That part I still wonder about. Does a noble have more IC authority than before? A templar? A merchant? I don't think it is supposed to reflect an IC change in authority, but still the world is more malleable, somehow, even if it doesn't feel that way.

Another related issue is the difficulty I have reconciling the ideas that a sponsored character is just a simple cog in the wheel and yet, now, has carte blanche (seemingly) from their clan to do what they want. That's probably the most confusing issue for me, navigating clan issues with the unseen NPC population which now can be perceived as voiceless and apathetic.

This isn't meant to be a criticism of the policy itself, but rather a note of agreement that adjustment to the policy is still a work in progress on the player side.

[Gimfalisette]

After thinking over some experience I had last year in what was essentially a player-driven type of clan, and some more recent experience, I have some more on what has worked for me:

Have a goal that makes sense for your clan, and preferably will benefit the game

Pretty much covered above. Some goals are more workable than other goals.

Document fully

In order to bring anything to fruition, you're going to need to be working at it a long time, so you may as well keep yourself organized and document stuff fully, OOCly. This will help you not get lost in the maze of your plot.

Communicate clearly, with sufficient detail

I believe this was pretty much covered above, but in order to drive plots you are going to need to be weekly communicating with your staff via email to tell them what you're doing, and asking for responses.

Combine both OOC and IC actions

Email your report to the imms once a week, but also do stuff in game to further your plot. This could mean meeting with PCs, communicating with V/NPCs, going and doing something. For extra bonus awesome points, use other PCs to do this stuff for you. I sekretly suspect that the imms will love you for handing out plot-related quests.

Do not expect animations--these are more often minor interactions now

Staff will animate to possibly drop a plot clue, or to snap at your PC for bleeding all over the floor, or to attend an RPT, or for some other minor reason, but they are most likely not going to animate in order to have an NPC deliver orders to your PC. Those days seem gone, and players need to adjust.

Involve other players and organizations

LoD really covered this point thoroughly above, so I'm just going to repeat: Involve other players and organizations, and your plot is more likely to be fun and to succeed.

Expect and relish obstacles and change

If you want to do something even moderately big, the staff is not simply going to say "yes," hand you 50k, and let you go do it. There are both IC and OOC reasons for this. The main IC reason is that the world of Zalanthas is highly calcified, and change is extremely difficult to bring about. GMHs and noble houses and the templarates and tribes all have their defined roles and their territories, and all the V/NPCs are locked into that. By attempting to change even the smallest thing, you are rocking the boat; you have, in a certain sense, become an outlaw and a rogue and a bad guy. Congratulations, you're the enemy!

The main OOC reason is that the game wouldn't be any fun for you, or the other players, if stuff was easy to accomplish. The staff pushes back on player-driven plots because this is a form of conflict for us to work to overcome.

So my recommendation is that you come to expect and enjoy the obstacles that will definitely be presented to you. The bigger the plot, the bigger the obstacles you will encounter, and the more fun you can generate for yourself and the rest of the playerbase around the plot. In the end, you may not "win" at your plot, but ultimately it's the journey that matters anyways. (Though I admit, winning is fun!)

How to interpret staff responses

Mentioned above in the thread was some persistent confusion among players as to when an email response is an IC or an OOC response. In my experience, this is generally fairly clear; but if it is not clear, I would recommend emailing the staff back and simply asking. IC responses generally say things like "There are rumors that...", while OOC responses are worded as, "Right now, that doesn't seem like an appropriate goal to pursue."

If you have received an IC response to a plot proposal or some progress you've submitted, you will probably need to read between the lines somewhat for clues as to what you might do next. The staff is not going to lay it out for you: "OK now do this." Nope, they're just going to drop some hints and let you figure it out. This sounds frustrating! (And it can be, a little.) But it is also fun.

You can choose to take the hints you get from staff and go in what seems like the logical direction, or you can choose to go another direction entirely. Logic and knowledge of the gameworld will help you figure out ahead of time what are the likely results of your chosen paths. But remember that you do have complete choice as to what you do next.

Another thing that will happen as you go along is that staff will change your plot. Perhaps you just thought you wanted to invent a widget, but suddenly with the way staff has made the world respond to your plot, you're now on the verge of discovering nuclear power, or needing to build a widget factory. You didn't plan for this, but here you are, so change with the plot.

Keep your eye on the goal, and persist

Nothing in Armageddon happens quickly. Take your estimate of how long it will take, and multiply it by five...and maybe...maybe...that will be enough time for it to happen. You are going to have to be in it for the long haul if you want to accomplish anything even moderately large. Yes, that can feel frustrating if you let it--we've all been there. But I think if we simply keep in mind that this is how things work, and make sure we're having fun in the meantime, this will work itself out.

[musashi]

 just want to throw in heret hat if you get a negative response back from staff about something you should send in a follow up email to ask if that is an IC response or an OOC one.

I've had staff clairfy for me both ways. Saying either ... go ahead and persue that IC'ly as your PC would ... And ... we don't generally approve that an we've denied it in the past so, no.

Staff are pretty up front if you ask them for clairification.   

[Shalooonsh]

Huh, shows how observant I am.  One of my favorite topics, and I've never even seen this thread.

I think something that commonly escapes player attention is how much work it is to get new stuff into the game.  It's really not as simple as it might seem to be.  Storytellers can't just 'whip up' a new room, bar, street, city, or zone and plop it into the game.  There's a -lot- going on behind the scenes to make sure that Armageddon is held up to stringent standards.  It's because of this large amount of work that we have had to put some slight strictures in place in order to keep the workload down.

Some things we have to look at when a player writes in to introduce a plot are:

• Average PC Lifespan on the account
• Player Communication Ability and Responsibility
• Potential effect on playerbase at large
• Potential effect on new players
• Potential snowball effect for extra plotlines
• Building cost in manhours IC
• Building cost in staffhours OOC
• Precedent the action may or may not set
• Realism vs. "Cool Factor"
• End Result

Average PC Lifespan on the account
Because some plots take a long while to spin up, we need to look at this factor to make sure that the PC will still be alive (or consequential, if dead) when the results kick off.  If, for example, Joe Bynner wants to make a set of latrines on Meleth's Circle, we want to have some relative assurance that, if we start building, Joe isn't going to go scrab himself half way through the project, wasting the time we spent on approval/building.

Player Communication Ability and Responsibility
Another thing we look at is how reliable is the player themselves, and we don't just mean in karmic levels.  How often do they report things?  Do they report even handedly, or just the good?  Could there be an alterior motive for getting whatever change it is in game?  The more up front you are with us, on an every day basis, the more likely we're going to trust your intentions.

Potential Effect on Playerbase At Large
So you want to topple all the Templars in Allanak.  Somehow your PC has the IC resources to invent a sickness that travels only between people who own metal (this is just an example).  You release it on the populace, being the equivalent of Chemical Ali, and starting the untold murder of loads of templars.  Allanak would suddenly become lawless, and we'd have riots every day.  This, from a player standpoint, might be a lot of fun.  From a storyteller standpoint, it would be absolute hell.  This is an example of something that, while possible, we may dismiss as a potential plotline, due to the investment in storyteller hours (see below for more details on this)

Potential Effect on New Players
Not so recently a plotline happened that a LOT of people had a ton of fun on, and changed something dramatically.  Something in the way, way, way southeast.  There was a village.  I'm not giving any more info, but it was cool.  The ramifications of this change were a bit more far-reaching than we realized at first.  It made starting in sudden locations as a new player a lot more difficult.  This is also part of what is listed below as "The snowball effect."  Things that seem not so huge can have -major- ramifications in other areas.  While Joe Bynner may have tons of cash to throw around, Edward the Sparkling Newbie will not, and may very well die if they aren't able to attain Resource X at a low cost.  Something that makes perfect sense from an IC standpoint, and is do-able with resources, may be shot down if it makes the game virtually unplayable in location Y due to the change.

Potential for Snowball Effect
It's very difficult to gauge what changes will bring what other changes, but we do our best.  We are (mostly) only human as staffers, and we do our best to look into the potential futures to make sure all eventualities are planned for.  However, if one small change has a potentiality of over 100 "snowball plotlines" we may shoot it down, or at least ask the player to refine the idea so that the potential plotlines are more directional (IE: easier covered by us).

Building Cost in Man-Hours IC
Sudden change may be cool, but it doesn't really bring too much of a feeling of accomplishment.  For this example (and the next) I will use the idea of lighting a campfire in a wooden apartment building (this happened to me as a staffer).  It was 3 am.  I was tired, and had to work in the morning.  Suddenly a wish comes up about this character lighting a campfire in their room and throwing a bunch of cloth on it to make a huge blaze.  Realistic?  Yeah, sure.  Cool?  Not really.  Not only had we not been informed, but this totaled maybe 20 minutes of PC effort for something that would create...

Building Cost in Staff Hours OOC
... about 3 weeks worth (at best estimate) of staff effort to finish the effects.  We'd need to first gauge how far the fire would spread, what rooms would be affected and to what degree, and if the fire would spread outside of the complex.  After that, the building would begin.  If the staffer moved at crackrabbit speeds, it would be about a week's worth of building (rough estimate), with a potential of two to three weeks.  After that, the new rooms would need to be proofread and approved, then linked in, which takes, at a minimum, another week, and at a maximum about a month.  For this reason, a neighbor was very attentive and ran in to smother the blaze, creating a nice burn mark on the floor of the apartment that took about an equal amount of staff time (a simple description rewrite for 2 lines of the room) to invest.

Precedent the Action May or May Not Set
Continuing the above example, it would be bad to set a precedent that it is "OK" to burn down an apartment building with absolutely 0 warning at 3 AM on a Thursday night.  This would, likely, quickly lead to a severe shortage of housing across Zalanthas.  However, leaving a large scorch mark, or (as was mentioned in a previous post) tearing up the floorboards are largely cosmetic changes, and can be handled most of the time by a staffer on duty IF they are so inclined.  I swear to the Gods if a bunch of you start going on a floorboard murdering spree that I'll castrate the lot of you.

Realism vs. "Cool Factor"
Is it realistic?  Is it needed?  Is it something that will enhance the game?  Is it just "cool and neat" or will it bring benefit to the game in some manner?  Things that are just "cool" will not be OK'd as often as something that brings a benefit, whether it be physical or atmospheric, to the game.  Storyteller time is Serious Business.

End Result
"Is this going to enhance the game, atmospherically, physically, or in any other manner?"  If a plotline is created simply to 'grief' other players, then yeah, we're probably going to say no.  This is not to say that we don't want additional hardship in the game, but we need to strike a very careful balance between hardship and unplayability, especially where new players are concerned.

I hope this helps anyone who's interested kind of understand the thought processes behind why we staff, who sometimes appear as ogres or angels, do what we do concerning plotlines.  There are a lot of factors involved, and it's not just a coinflip on a good/bad day as to whether we agree to support you or not. 

[Aaron Goulet]

Thank you for putting a staff perspective on this.  The more we, the players, know about the process, the easier it will be to tailor our plots to be more realistic.