Player/Staff Chat Meetings

[Adhira]

We held our first 'test' player/staff chat in January and feel that it went reasonably well.  The transcript of that chat is here:  http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,45046.0.html

We have set up a teamspeak server so that should we desire we can run future chats of this nature.  Our question to you all is first, should we? And if so, how often.  Please vote in the poll above to give us an indication of what you'd like.  Bear in mind that it will not necessarily be that we go with the best amount of votes, staff will be having the same vote/conversation also, but we'll try and align this as best we can.

Please use the thread commentary to pitch ideas for how to make these meetings work for all concerned.  You might want to throw up topics, or ideas on ways we can format the chat. 

Please don't derail the thread in to side discussions, troll, flame of get off topic. We're looking for idea gather, not debating the merits of different ideas so just get them all up here.

Thanks!

[i can haz mantis]

I think quarterly would be good. I think done too often staff/player excitement might burn out surrounding them, but quarterly gives enough time between for players to gather their questions and be excited, chomping at the bit for the next one without having to wait an indefinite amount of time. At the same time giving staff time to compile things they'd like to talk about and ample time for new things to come to fruition or near fruition.

[RogueGunslinger]

Monthly sounds too often. Quarterly not often enough.

Bi-monthly.

[Fredd]

Quarterly sounds right to me. it doesn't take up to much staff time, and the staff can go through things they have been working hard on in the past 3 months.

[Lizzie]

I wish we could pick two. What I think would be most useful would be once every 6 months - plus any special meeting when something really big is going on that doesn't coincide with a twice-yearly meeting.

[Rhyden]

I wish we could pick two. What I think would be most useful would be once every 6 months - plus any special meeting when something really big is going on that doesn't coincide with a twice-yearly meeting.

+1

[Booya]

I wish we could pick two. What I think would be most useful would be once every 6 months - plus any special meeting when something really big is going on that doesn't coincide with a twice-yearly meeting.

+2

[musashi]

Format suggestion: Allow for people to send in questions before hand. I worry when put on the spot people might not be able to remember what they wanted to ask, or that staff may forget some important sliver of detail they wanted to put in their answer.

[ShaLeah]

Format suggestion: Allow for people to send in questions before hand. I worry when put on the spot people might not be able to remember what they wanted to ask, or that staff may forget some important sliver of detail they wanted to put in their answer.

Having them at regular intervals would allow players to think of then and write then down as they creep up.  I also think being presentfor the whole thing might lead to someone else asking your question for you.  I'm sure staff will have a list of things they want to bring up too. If you have people send then in before hand it might as well be staff reading hour.

[Kismetic]

I voted quarterly, but part of me wants to say more often would be better.  But monthly, well, maybe that's too much work for everyone.

[musashi]

Having them at regular intervals would allow players to think of then and write then down as they creep up.  I also think being presentfor the whole thing might lead to someone else asking your question for you.  I'm sure staff will have a list of things they want to bring up too. If you have people send then in before hand it might as well be staff reading hour.

Please don't derail the thread in to side discussions, troll, flame of get off topic. We're looking for idea gather, not debating the merits of different ideas so just get them all up here.

Thanks!

[AmandaGreathouse]

I like the idea of having them monthly, but having some sort of time limit, like, say, an hour, or 2 hours. Then you can limit the amount of work that would necessarily go into each, you wouldn't have to wait as long between them if you would not have to attend one, and you could also say: "Nope, cut off limit. I call time. Save that for next month." if it started running over, and no one would necessarily get jilted or butthurt about it since they happened at fairly regular intervals.

[Malken]

I think that if it's done monthly, people will quickly run out of questions to ask, and it'll be a lot of the same sort of questions being asked over and over again.. Why isn't Clan X in the game, are you going to allow race X one day again, what are you guys working on right now, what can we expect in the near future, etc..

I mean, it's not like there's a lot of questions that Staff is able/willing to answer about the game itself, I think?

Maybe have the session start with Staff talking about what they have been working on since the last player meetings and get the players excited a little, then questions about that stuff could be asked, or suggestions on how to improve what's been done

[AmandaGreathouse]

I mean, it's not like there's a lot of questions that Staff is able/willing to answer about the game itself, I think?

I'm thinking that with the average question/answer times there would be time for 2-3 questions and answers for the most part during each meeting if it was limited to a 1 hour meeting.

[Maker]

Quarterly at the very most frequent.  Not much happens in three months.  If you do them too often, the chats will be less and less substantive, and most will start feeling they aren't worth it.

[Adhira]

Thanks for the input on that guys, if you'd like to elaborate on 'topics' that we could have for these chats that would be great also.

While we can just continue on with general question and answer we might also look at doing themed chats so an idea of what you'd like to see would be great.

[shadeoux]

Thanks for the input on that guys, if you'd like to elaborate on 'topics' that we could have for these chats that would be great also.

While we can just continue on with general question and answer we might also look at doing themed chats so an idea of what you'd like to see would be great.

I'd like to hear about what decisions goes into choosing what race/clans open and close periodically.

Another topic I'd like to see discussed would possibly a separation of spec-app usage between the Spec Apps and newish
sub-guild GCP options. Perhaps by allowing maybe six sub-guild apps per year it would allow many more players and fans to
take chances and really test out all of them, instead of the practical ones.

[Nyr]

I'd like to hear about what decisions goes into choosing what race/clans open and close periodically.

At least part of that was discussed last time, in case you missed it.

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.