Player/Staff Meeting (1/26/2013) Transcript

[Nyr]

Hello everyone.  Sorry for the delay.  It turns out this kind of stuff takes a while to copy down.  We will look at some crowdsourcing options in the future so that we don't end up slamming one poor player with the work!  Our thanks go out to WWYD for the generous donation of time in doing this transcript.  Thanks also to Sephiroto for providing the server!

[Nyr]

ADHIRA: Okay, Halycon, you're up with the first question.

HALYCON: Thanks for holding this! I noticed in the weekly reports that you were taking a couple of immortal applications, and was wondering if those were open despite the lack of a call for them.

ADHIRA: We did not actually have a staffing round, which is why there was no call. What we did have was some people that were legends, and looking to come back. We had a vacancy so we took that person back on.

NYR: Some people have sent in staff applications as well, while we weren't actively taking them. They do show up on the weekly.

ADHIRA: Also, for everyone's information, Vanth was going to come back on staff (but hasn't). Oryx is rejoining the team.



IIYOLA: I used to be a storyteller on a small game, and we used to make files per character. Characters in Armageddon go pretty fast, and don't usually have a long life span. How do you guys actually keep track per character? Do you do reports, make a file ... how does it go?

MORGENES: There's several ways we do it. On each character we can put notes that stick with them. We also have a database that all your backgrounds and reports go into. We can look for how many times gith were mentioned, for example.

IIYOLA: There are certain storytellers directed to certain groups, and I assume that it's everyone in (each clan group) taking care of all the PCs, not one person for animations, etc, right?

MORGENES: The way that works usually is that each staffer ends up being 'in charge' of certain groups, keeping up with who's who for those particular clans and their animations, as well as reports. There's usually cross-talk, even if someone isn't the primary immortal for your clan.

ADHIRA: Just to follow up - with having the report tool, we've really moved forward into making it a team environment. Even if you only see one reply, people are talking about your reports as a team. You don't get left in the dark if someone goes on a break.

IIYOLA: If two clans get involved in some plot, do both groups communicate with one another, or do they deliberately avoid stepping on toes?

ADHIRA: So how it works is like this - (as an immortal playing a PC) we ask that you don't get involved with another group like that, that you don't read their reports or check their boards. Every staff member can check any request. We might put it on their board and ask another group to give feedback. We also do a monthly thread where storytellers can summarize what's up with the PCs in their clans.

IIYOLA:  That sounds like a full time job.

ADHIRA:  It is a lot of work.

IIYOLA: I'm out of questions.  Thank you!



SPACEWARS: I just want to ask what staff's current vision is for the game.

ADHIRA: My primary vision for Armageddon right now is that it keeps going. I'm invested in seeing that the MUD doesn't fail - that we keep a stable environment for people to keep playing in.

MORGENES: On my side, I want to make sure we're evolving - that we're listening to players and responding, both from the story and code, fixing things with the latter while we work on our new engine. The main problem with that is we're all volunteers, and a lot of us are busy people. How much we're doing really depends on what's happening in real life.

NYR: From my point of view, I like to keep track of plots and make sure things are moving along with players and their particular plots...supporting them on a better scale, and see if we can improve on that...and also to see if we can bring it farther than we have done in the past.  That's kind of disjointed, but that's my view.

ADHIRA: There's a lot of people out there that think the new staffing method means there's less plot and animation. If you don't notice much of the latter, it's probably because the storyteller wants it that way. We try and base our plots around what you're doing in game. Hopefully you'll see some evidence of that yourself.

SPACEWARS: Morgenes mentioned a new engine, can you tell us more?

MORGENES: The new engine is multi-threaded and completely from scratch, made with Java and enterprise-level technologies, which makes it complicated. It's huge. Whenever we get a new coder, they tend to run and hide. That said, I'm really proud of what we've accomplished. We've got about twelve years of development on this - not constant, but it's always in the back of our minds.

SPACEWARS: How far along are you with it?

MORGENES: We started with a chat engine, which we've used for a previous meeting. It databases and logs everything said. The idea for it is that we could allow for helper chats in game. Still not sure if we'll use it in that way. It would work for things like meeting with other players to arrange RPTs, as well. It's almost like an IRC server, where it has channels and you can make your own. From there, we went on to work on with basic communication, and locations. We've talked a lot about what kind of coordinate, and how big rooms can be. We're adding jumping, and we're working on skill systems. We've got combat going, and a little bit about races. I've got a chart for what we would want for a beta. It's getting closer, but we're still not there.

SPACEWARS: This is for Armageddon, and not Armageddon 2, right?

MORGENES: The engine is meant to work for any game. Since Armageddon 2 isn't coming, it's going to be ported over to the old game. There'll be a transition, since landscapes need to be morphed and there's new skills. Combat is completely different as well, using an action-reaction system. You get action points depending on your agility.

You can configure your defaults, like have your character prefer to dodge - then in the middle of the combat change that to parry, or even just specify if you want to try to block the next attack. If you manage to run out of reactions (defending VS multiple opponents) you won't get any attacks off. So, it's a pretty complicated system, but we'll definitely do a beta when it's ready.

SPACEWARS: That sounds really nice, and I'd like to be part of the beta.

MORGENES:  Thanks.  We'll be calling for testers before we go live.

[Nyr]

ADAMBLUE:  How do you find a way to make IC changes to the landscape to transition to the new engine?

MORGENES:  It's going to be mainly the places where you guys are complaining about where the map doesn't match up.  The new engine requires everything to be in an actual xyz plane, so those rooms will have to be solved.

ADHIRA:  We've got a lot of work ahead of us with that, and we'll let you know when we figure it out.



SMASHEDTREGIL: How are extended subguilds going?

ADHIRA: A lot of people are using them, they're really popular. At about this time we're looking to do some sort of survey to see how people are liking them. As far as balance goes I haven't really seen any major issues, but we'll find out more when we do our survey.

MORGENES: There's been two hundred and thirty six extended subguilds in the last year.

NYR: That's not counting those that were filed incorrectly as a special application.  We added an extended subguild option in the tool that lets people file those separately.  So at least 236...maybe more.



VALERIA: Hi guys, thanks so much to everyone who's here for making a cool game.  What keeps you guys going, when you've been staffing for so long?

MORGENES: You guys! The feedback, the praise, the love, the fangirls ... keep sending the kudos! Seeing you guys run with what we've done keeps me going. I've been doing this for seventeen years.

NYR: Same thing here, too. This is my sixth year. The things that made me go - "wow! That was neat (what staff did there)" - wanting to do those things is what keeps me going.

VALERIA: How has the playerbase changed in your time, Morgenes?

MORGENES: It stays the same. All kinds of people play this game, with various levels of enthusiasm, but everyone is here for their love of the story. I'm a huge roleplayer myself, every Thursday I'm out playing RPGs, so I love the fact that this is like a twenty-two year old story that's still going on. I'm proud to be a part of it.

ADHIRA: For me, this is my tenth year on staff. I have to admit, sometimes I think about leaving the game, but it's such a big part of my life now that I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. I really just enjoy seeing people enjoy the game. As volunteers we get to provide something that means something to people, and it's a really great hobby to have.



ZOAN: Why are you hesitating on magick extended subguilds?

ADHIRA: There's some code issues with it, and some game issues with it. We don't want to move forward with it yet until we solve those.

MORGENES: Extended subguilds were supposed to be in a while ago, actually. When we moved to the cloud from the old Ginka machine, a lot of code for that was lost. We're still waiting for that machine to come back up, since there was so much of it done. Hopefully we'll get that back or I'll just start over.

ADHIRA: We can't go into too much detail about if it's elements or a whole new thing.

NYR:  I think we said what the magick ones might be on the GDB, so you can check out that thread.  I'll look for it and see if I can look it up.  (link:  http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,42570.0.html for discussion)



IIYOLA: Who is paying for the server?

ADHIRA: A number of awesome people have paid for things over the years. Sanvean, Azoren was paying for the donmain name. Presently server costs are covered by producers. We discussed donations, but we're not sure how it'd work for taxes, so we decided against it.

MORGENES: The cost for the server is forty dollars a month, plus the domain name. It's not much for us to cover. My father-in-law is a tax accountant, and we spoke about (donations) at length. For the cost of what it would take for us to incorporate and protect ourselves, it's just not worth it.



CASE: I haven't been playing for all that long, but I've seen a lot of debate on the forums about the shift from staff-driven plots to player-driven plots, about us putting in the work and our characters changing the world. How much can we expect to change? It's very static right now, and the status quo is set up to continue.

(long pause as the producers debate who gets to answer first)

ADHIRA: I think there are many things about the game that makes it hard to change things on a large scale. If everyone was able to change inflict change, there'd be no sorcerer kings, no cities, everyone would have their own little camp in the wilderness. Players can absolutely affect change, but it needs to be in a level where the powers that be will support them. We're willing to have it happen.

You can't expect to, as a Bynner, storm the Templar's Quarter, take on Tektolnes, and get three hundred 'sid from the entire city.

NYR: The more that a plot makes sense, the more likely we are to support it. You might not succeed, but it is possible.

CASE: As for the new engine, what kind of transition can we expect? Will it be more of a wipe?

MORGENES: I'm going to put it in a cautious "try my best to avoid a wipe", because that'd really suck. There'll be a lot of changes, so like everything, we'll try to put our best foot forward to make sure it'll work. We'll do everything we can.

[Nyr]

HALYCON: To your perceptions, what's working with player-generated plots? What do you want to see more of?

NYR: There was something brought up about this on the GDB recently. (Nyr note:  it's over here and here) The person had an idea for a plot, and we said no. In their particular case, you can't come up with something out of the blue and just force it in. A lot of things could be "that's cool, but you'll be on the losing side". We'd rather people start at step one, rather than look immediately at step five, their goal.

ADHIRA: I'll give you an outline on how I see a player-driven plot working. It's really about going on with your life, then involving stuff. Maybe your character is trying to find a certain herb or cure. Maybe staff might notice it, put some hints in front of you. It could be bigger. If you want a new merchant house, you have to start at the bottom - get a warehouse, prove yourself, get support. You can't go from warehouse to being the new Salarr. It's stuff we can work with - be that assistance or opposition. We can help it progress.

HALYCON: Do you guys have some sort of baseline you'd like players to reach before they get any feedback?

ADHIRA: In terms of us telling you "your plot is doing X, we'll help Y way?"

HALYCON: I meant more if you'd want a character to last a certain amount of time before they get animations.

ADHIRA: You don't need to be around a long time to get animations. If you want to change the gameworld in a significant way, then yes. If we destroy Salarr for you, then you decide to go hunting bahamets, we've got nothing to replace it with. There is an expectation that we've built this stuff around you, and that takes time.



ADHIRA: Question from staff - the storytellers have asked if any of the creative work for Arm 2 will be used.

MORGENES: Nyr can speak to that.

NYR: Yes.

MORGENES: Good answer!

NYR: More seriously, there's some things that will definitely find their way in. Some stuff will need to wait for the new engine. As for races and things of that nature - it's possible. You never know.

ADHIRA: We haven't ruled anything out. There's a lot of fantastic ideas there, and some of it may appear in game.

ADHIRA: No aliens.



ADHIRA: Ok, WWYD up next.

WWYD:  Hey guys, my first question is:  "Cendi?"

ADHIRA:  Haha!  We will not give out any details on what may or may not appear.  You'll just have to see if anything appears in-game.

WWYD:  Seriously though, what do you guys think about really long-lived leadership?  I'm not sure how to word it.  Are you ever afraid that things stagnate because you have a lot of really big characters that have been around for so long?

ADHIRA:  I think it's really a tough situation.  If you don't have characters that stay around for a while, the game cannot move forward because you do need some time invested to have power.  By the same token, it's like a politician--if they're sitting in office for 20 years and don't want to do anything, then nothing happens.  It's a fine balancing act and maybe it's our job to step in if we see someone just going through the motions...then we talk to them and see how we can help them.  These leadership positions are tough, so we don't expect all action all of the time.



MUSASHI: Sometimes I've felt when I get new staff, there's a lot of miscommunication (jn questions, reports). How can we as players help alleviate that, and make the transition easy for staff rotating into a particular clan group?

NYR: One thing that players can do (and do already) is send in a report going over their character's life. Something we could do better is have old staff go over those specific reports filed for new staff, and have them add their notes and comments that give some greater perspective and understanding to the new staff.  That way we know what's happening from both sides of things and are able to understand the intricacies.  I've seen a few cases where things fell through the cracks - it happens a lot less with the request system, but we can definitely improve.

MORGENES:  We keep account notes on each account.  However, account notes are more about you as a player and not necessarily about your characters.  We have notes on each PC that we keep, too.  That's unfortunately limited and it's only one line per note, 12 or 13 lines.  Those are all, but we need to be better at making sure we go look at previous reports to search and find other interesting info.  I know it's tough though having to go back and figure it all out.



BCW: How often do you guys talk to each another about characters and events? Specifically on matters like wishing up. And when someone responds to a wish, how often is it someone who's been reading your reports? I read somewhere that only higher-up immortals can reply.

NYR: Almost always. We usually don't animate for people's clans.  If there are code issues, anyone can jump in or help out, but only an admin+ or somebody in that clan can send back to then.  In some cases, we might jump in and animate with a specific and easy-enough animation where anyone can jump in, provided they know what's going on.  It's pretty likely that the people answering your clan specific wishes are your clan staff.

BCW:  I wished up and got a response from two staffers.  I'm assuming they're two different staffers since they were two totally different responses.

NYR:  That was my fault.  Sometimes we won't notice that someone is already answering.  In my case, two of us sent answers at the same time, and they were different answers.  A little embarrassing.  We try not to do that.

MORGENES:  Something I'm hoping to fix with the next engine.  Right now if we send to players, we try to send it across the immortal channel, too.  We usually call it, like catching a pass.  It's dropped a little bit, but yeah, that shouldn't happen.

ADHIRA:  We do try and encourage people to cut and paste what conversation we're having, but sometimes they forget.  When you wish up, we see the wish, but not the reply, so sometimes it can be confusing.

[Nyr]

ASTER(?):  After seeing the update to helpfiles, are there anymore updates to the website we have in mind or are working towards?

MORGENES:  I'm the most recent person to take on the website, and Nyr as well.  I haven't had a whole lot of free time until recently to do some work.

NYR:  Screenshot:  http://i.imgur.com/zqt3MLn.png

MORGENES:  We're going to be cleaning it up some more.  Most recently, I've been trying to make it so a lot of the documentation that was hidden down deep underneath things has actual helpfiles, and then is moved to helpfiles.  We're getting framework where we can easily link to those helpfiles throughout the site.

ADHIRA:  Now you see why when you put in requests about changes to the website, it hasn't been happening.  We're hoping to switch over soon.



ADHIRA:  One more question from Valeria back on a previous topic.

VALERIA:  Is the first/third person display emotes system on the new code system?

MORGENES:  Yes.  The first/third person idea was part of the new engine.  It's still really cool, and it makes everything so much better when you're emoting and you actually see when you emote yourself.  I'd be interested to see how many people actually go first person.  So what is the first-person thing?  Instead of saying "you" it says "I" or "me."

Let's say you

Code Select Expand

>emote smile

It would say "I smile" instead of "You smile."  Just a personal thing you can change.  What perspective do you want to be reading this in?  It's just an option you can play with.



SHALEAH:  I'd really like to see more social media interaction.  Have you had any thought on maybe having staff or maybe helpers specifically for posting certain things?  Helpful kinds of things?

MORGENES:  We've got the publicity forum.  We added a facebook button that players have used some.  They've also created their own group which gets some conversation going.  We have a twitter account where we tweet our new posts.  A big problem is coming up with what we should be saying.  Quote of the day?  Tip of the day?  What information can we provide in a social setting?  And for obvious reasons, there's a lot that we can't talk about.  Like...what plot is going down, etc.  So if you have ideas, feel free to shoot them our way.  That's what the publicity forum is for.

ADHIRA:  On the topic of facebook, we absolutely encourage you to post your own things.  If there is a big event that you think people should be attending and that everyone should know about, please use it for that as well.

SHALEAH:  Thanks!  Never thought about putting an RPT that's clearly in the game, using facebook...that's actually a great idea!

NYR:  I forgot about the facebook I made specifically for Nyr, so I'll get back into that.  (editor's note:  I have not)

SHALEAH:  Second question--oh, hold on, I wrote it down.  Okay...can you give us an idea of where the choice comes from to close certain clans or certain divisions of clans?

MORGENES:  We roll a die and decide.

ADHIRA:  It'll come from the clan group, and it's never just decided by one person.  These are big things.  Let's say we're talking about Tuluk and what noble houses are open.  The admin says that we're not getting many applications to play in this clan, so let's discuss changing it to another one.  The same goes with divisions.  A lot of this is a balancing act.  Before it gets closed, it gets posted on the staff board for general discussion.  We realize these are big changes.

SHALEAH:  Thanks for bringing that up.  Personally, I've witnessed rolecall after rolecall for certain clans that either have a very quick turnover or just don't get the ove that they really should.  Yet...they keep coming up and staying open, so I wonder why.  I feel like there are a lot of really rich cultures that are not open, and I'd rather have sparse population in clans than sparse clans themselves.  I'd rather have 3-4 in one clan than 15 in another than deny people that richness.

ADHIRA:  There's also a finite amount of clans that we can handle operating, and that's a factor for us.

SHALEAH:  Thank you!  That's not just the alcohol talking!



ADHIRA:  Smashed Tregil basically asked if there's anything we can tell you about the last big plot for the volcano and flooding.  Sorry...not really!  But when is the next HRPT?  It will be when we announce it on the boards.  There absolutely is a chance that one could happen, and that's really driven by what you will do in the game.  we have things that have a chance to develop, so ti's about what people pick up on, and where things go.

ADHIRA:  Do we plan on opening any other clans?  Can't really say right now. That's always an option, though.


The rest of the session was a general question from staff asking what players would like to see from them.  Clearer guidelines for clans, more direct animations, more cool mundane related things, more karma-based skill bumps, etc.