Armageddon Brainstorming - Get it while it's hot/

[Adhira]

We're doing some brainstorming on the staffside about changes to some of our structure and processes. As part of this we thought it might be worthwhile to canvas the playerbase and get your input on a few different areas.  We're looking for methods to streamline what we're doing staffside. We want to be able to put more of our staffing time into doing things that more directly affect the game. To free up our time so that our staff can run storylines, and participate in those plotlines, make the world more dynamic and perhaps even put some spit and polish on some of those neglected spots out there.

So we are taking this next week to solicit your feedback, feel free to throw out those oddball suggestions, sometimes it's those leftfield comments that strike a chord, sometimes it's the tried and true suggestions that we've talked about 100 times before but the timing is finally right - either way we're seeking input for our own brainstorming process so post away.

Nyr has a thread already for one areas that we're looking at - character reports. There are a lot of other things that go into this game that could be looked at. One thing we did recently is turn over the moderation of the GDB to the players, that helped enormously (thanks players!), maybe there are other things we can do like this. Maybe there are things we can do storywise, with our staffing teams etc. These are the things that we have been discussing at the staff level. But why not pool together our collective wisdom while we can?

There's no guarantee that anything will come to fruition, but we will read everything you post. So, thanks in advance!

In the interests of keeping things streamlined, and because we actually do want time to review things on our side, and hopefully make some inroads on changing things up staff side, I'll be locking this thread next Saturday, March 21st.

[Narf]

Could we get an idea about which processes are taking up how much staff time?

I wanted to make this a general question, but I'm particularly interested in how much staff time goes to approving descriptions and backgrounds.

[bardlyone]

Find a place for digging clay in Allanak.

It was really weird to find out only after character creation that the subguild chosen couldn't be used in the city the character was in.

This would also allow people who need to forage (a google search on 'armageddon merchant' suggested it is necessary for no less than 5 different things for the guild) to do so without breaking city-only clan restrictions. So in a way it would help 2 different things.

[Barzalene]

Everything I can think of requires code.
For instance, automate description changes, maybe just for people who have at least a point of karma.
I think you're already working on streamlining the app process.
This is a little complicated, but bear with me:
Merchant House Warehouses
More NPCS and more items loaded. More NPCS so that what they have is broken down more so it's easier to find the items you need. So, maybe the Salarri warehouse, an NPC for Shields. An NPC for various knives and swords. An NPC for chopping and bludgeoning weapons. An NPC for armor you wear above the waist. This would require set up, but take a lot of pressure off the imms to load crap every week. That way only special and restricted items would require imm assistance.

In the Kadian warehouse maybe a separate NPC for each color.

[Adhira]

Barz - thumbs up!!

[Zoan]

Barz wins this thread. I'm usually fantastic at thinking of the little 'quality of life' things like this due to my old job in games design, but I completely didn't consider anything like that!

[CodeMaster]

Publish the "where players found us" data somewhere in some raw form in a purely automated manner.  Maybe in some .csv file somewhere on the website.

Then, rather than have a staff member parse it every month, let the players write visualizers, look for trends, and that kind of stuff.

[Nyr]

The following would be generalizations.  We don't have actual numbers on how much time these processes take in terms of actual staff time spent, so we can make guesses on each one.

Requests, in alphabetical order (skipping the more rare ones):
Account notes -- between 5 - 30 minutes per request.  Admin+ only.
Description changes -- 5 minutes, maybe more if there is some discussion on it, but requires an admin+ to do it.  Admin+ only.
Ext Subguild / skill bump -- 10-20 minutes, mostly because of math involved.  Admin+ only.
Mastercraft Submissions -- 30 minutes to (at the very least) 1.5 hours.  Lots of review time here.   Some requests take longer that that, especially if there is something special being done, added, or approved that requires more consideration.  The more complex, the higher you have to go up with staff to get it reviewed, so the more time it takes.  On the upside, these are lower priority.  STs and/or Admins usually build, Admins approve.
Reimbursement -- 5 minutes to 20 minutes.  Depends on length of request and whether any discussion is had.  ST+.
Special applications -- 10-20 minutes, though this often takes into account multiple staff members and their feedback and suggestions, so it takes comparatively longer for players.  Admin+ only.
Character reports -- sometimes as few as 5 minutes, sometimes as much as an hour.  More if the report is long, more if there is back and forth, more if more staff have to be involved in checking it out.  This is a big part of why we want to revise the format and emphasis on reports.  ST+.
Item orders -- 10-30 minutes.  We have a staff-side project for making this better but it needs to be completed.  I'm taking a look at that one.  ST+.
Question/request or Question requests -- could be a minute, could take an hour.  Depends on the content.  The former is ST+, the latter is Admin+.
Role applications -- 5-20 minutes.  ST+ resolution.
Player complaints -- 5-30 minutes.  Maybe more if we have to do a lot of investigation.  Admin+ resolution.
Player kudos -- usually no more than 5 minutes.  ST+ resolution.
Staff complaint -- 5-20 minutes.  Rarely more than that.  Producer resolution.
Original submissions -- At least 20-30 minutes for reading and reviewing, then possibly double that if another staffer needs to approve something related to it.  ST+ resolution.

Applications:
about 2 hours spent per week, collectively.

These are just my spitballed estimates.

[Saellyn]

Thumbs up to Barz for that merchant shop idea (I think. Are we talking general Salarri Shop X or are we talking COMPOUND stores where you have special x gear loaded in so that salarri with the authority can get it for those requesting the gear?)


I like the idea of fleshing out more item descriptions. I've seen some items that are very -loosely- described that could use more filling out (those meaty steaks are a good one). Just for flavor.

More "tasty" tastes. Instead of saying something tastes like fruit, say what sort of fruit it tastes like. A sort of bittersweet flavor, maybe it's tangy, citrusy... I always wanted to know just what a jallal tasted like, or a belshun or whatever.  All the stuff that has empty or generic tastes, give it FLAVOR!

[slvrmoontiger]

10 - 20 minutes on Ext. Subguilds / skill bumps because of the math involved. Is it possible to write some sort of script that could do the math for you? I mean the script might take 30 minutes to do total and could save say 5 to 10 minutes per request. It might be worth the time.

[Nyr]

That was mostly a joke.  Sorry.

We do have to consider how skill bumps affect character builds.  This part is new.  Once we've done it a few hundred times we'll probably be more okay with automating it.

[wizturbo]

Create a new staff role with less time commitment than a Storyteller.  The goal of the new positions would be to handle more administrative work that cannot be automated or addressed through process.  

Handle stuff like character applications, reimbursement requests, kudos, easy questions, master crafts building but not approving.

I'd recommend the new staff rank be targeted at veteran players who are willing to donate some of their time to help the game, but not to the degree expected of Storyteller.  Something in the realm of 5-10 hours a week.  Could be a great proving ground for wannabe Storytellers, or a great retirement ground for people who have less free time, but not no free time.

[HavokBlue]

Speaking from experience, I fully agree that automating the process by which GMH merchants/agents can browse and order items would not only make the roll 300% more enjoyable, but make just about every player who's ever ordered something from the merchant houses happy.

I imagine there would be a handful of people who would love to help with things like crafting recipes for all the uncraftable items too.

[Armaddict]

Create a new staff role with less time commitment than a Storyteller.  The goal of the new positions would be to handle more administrative work that cannot be automated or addressed through process.  

Handle stuff like character applications, reimbursement requests, kudos, easy questions, master crafts building but not approving.

I'd recommend the new staff rank be targeted at veteran players who are willing to donate some of their time to help the game, but not to the degree expected of Storyteller.  Something in the realm of 5-10 hours a week.  Could be a great proving ground for wannabe Storytellers, or a great retirement ground for people who have less free time, but not no free time.

I like this a great deal, but don't forget to include that management of more positions is time as well.  Only if players who took these spots were reliable, long-term people who took very little management, it would save time.  Otherwise, the maintenance of the new position and its workload becomes time consuming in itself.  Given that I wasn't given access to anything that would ruin sekrits of the game, I'd be inclined to do things like this.  I even thought about seeing if I could help with coding, once I get a little deeper into the computer science field.  Opening up more player involvement in the health of the game is like...stock options.  I think if it can be relied on, it's great.

[Talia]

We're looking for methods to streamline what we're doing staffside. We want to be able to put more of our staffing time into doing things that more directly affect the game. To free up our time so that our staff can run storylines, and participate in those plotlines, make the world more dynamic and perhaps even put some spit and polish on some of those neglected spots out there.

This thread is kind of veering a little into "hey you should add this thing for me" or "here is a way for you to do boring things more efficiently" in a couple of places.

To clarify (because Adhira asked me to, because I'm always the person who says this particular thing ): We want to spend staff time on things that are not boring, pointless, and routine. We don't want to spend more staff time on those things. So, some suggestions aren't very helpful, because (for example), we don't want to create a special class of staffers who only do routine things. (Though that's not a bad suggestion for a business, when the business can't just eliminate boring things.) Because the routine things aren't the fun things, and the things that are fun for staff are also the things that are fun for players.

Fun things are things like: Plots, RPTs, animations, bringing the world to life, and projects that improve the world.

It's my personal opinion that we could retain staff better and longer, and do a better job for players, if staff was simply having more fun. So...that's sort of where the focus for the question is. Can you guys help us figure out how to make this entire game more fun for everyone, by reducing or eliminating routine and boring stuff?

[HavokBlue]

We're looking for methods to streamline what we're doing staffside. We want to be able to put more of our staffing time into doing things that more directly affect the game. To free up our time so that our staff can run storylines, and participate in those plotlines, make the world more dynamic and perhaps even put some spit and polish on some of those neglected spots out there.

This thread is kind of veering a little into "hey you should add this thing for me" or "here is a way for you to do boring things more efficiently" in a couple of places.

To clarify (because Adhira asked me to, because I'm always the person who says this particular thing ): We want to spend staff time on things that are not boring, pointless, and routine. We don't want to spend more staff time on those things. So, some suggestions aren't very helpful, because (for example), we don't want to create a special class of staffers who only do routine things. (Though that's not a bad suggestion for a business, when the business can't just eliminate boring things.) Because the routine things aren't the fun things, and the things that are fun for staff are also the things that are fun for players.

Fun things are things like: Plots, RPTs, animations, bringing the world to life, and projects that improve the world.

It's my personal opinion that we could retain staff better and longer, and do a better job for players, if staff was simply having more fun. So...that's sort of where the focus for the question is. Can you guys help us figure out how to make this entire game more fun for everyone, by reducing or eliminating routine and boring stuff?

What are your least favorite things to do, as a staffer?

[nauta]

With things like character descriptions / description changes, you could just let us do it, then flag the PC, so staff can just peek in to make sure we didn't add the word "penis-face" in too many places in our mdesc.

I'm not sure where else this would apply, but in general you could move the staff role away from creating-the-thing and more to peeking-at-the-created-thing (maybe under the proviso the player is at say 1 karma).

[wizturbo]

Talia,

Just to play devil's advocate with you on this point, let's say there's no real way to eliminate some of the boring stuff that's out there without negatively impacting the game, or requiring enormous amounts of time building automation solutions.  The only solution is to spread out the boring stuff so each staffer is doing less of it in a given week.

A "routine stuff" staff role might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but the key part of my suggestion was that they weren't expected to contribute nearly as much time as a Storyteller.  If someone is willing to donate 5 hours a week of boring routine work, because they're retired, an insomniac, or they have a job that affords them a lot of downtime...  Why not let them?  If there are two or three of these people on staff, and 15 hours a week of routine work is removed from the queue, it could make all the difference.  Look at how much amazing stuff has gotten done since the staff roles were all filled out a few months ago?  Think how much could get done of those talented/creative-type staffers could focus purely on Storytelling?

With that said, I agree that the low hanging fruit on this is eliminating boring work wherever possible.  But in the end, there's going to be some stuff that can't be eliminated.

[nauta]

Account notes: I thought a bit ago it'd be neat to have PCs submit their own account notes, like a CV, with an argument for what they think they've been doing good, and have staff just look at that.  AT the very least, you could have PCs put together the basic outline of the account note (the name of the PCs, some basic facts about them) and then staff can just jot notes on that.

[KankWhisperer]

It might take some work initially, but I 'd make nearly everything the GMHs sell that players can order craftable. Maybe you won't need
to load stuff if you can just have the players make it.

As for GMH warehouses, make them load with the appropriate amount of items to sell for w/e time period. Then the GMH merchants can
get the items and sell them, and put in the report afterwards instead of having to request beforehand to sell things already
available there  at the NPC.

[WithSprinkles]

Here is a suggestion..

What if for reimbursement requests an NPC was loaded up in an OOC room that held onto people's coins/items, what have you? Then the GM could load up the items for the PC and the people could collect them when they can.

Good even to have one for when stuff needs to be delivered to a player and staff and said player can't connect maybe?

Maybe even a Stylist PC in an OOC room that automates changing descriptions that have been applied for and approved so that the Admin person can just queue it up, the PC goes in whenever, gets fixed up and everyone moves along pleased as punch?

Stuff like that?

[Tetra]

Here is a suggestion..

What if for reimbursement requests an NPC was loaded up in an OOC room that held onto people's coins/items, what have you? Then the GM could load up the items for the PC and the people could collect them when they can.

Good even to have one for when stuff needs to be delivered to a player and staff and said player can't connect maybe?

Maybe even a Stylist PC in an OOC room that automates changing descriptions that have been applied for and approved so that the Admin person can just queue it up, the PC goes in whenever, gets fixed up and everyone moves along pleased as punch?

Stuff like that?

I like this.  A lot.

[Talia]

What are your least favorite things to do, as a staffer?

Some of it is clear-cut Not Fun Stuff, e.g. reimbursement requests. Those are extremely difficult and time-consuming, and often require back-and-forth with the player. (Not the handing off the stuff in game, that's super simple and quick. But gathering the objects together.)

The less clear stuff is stuff that probably can't be eliminated, and that I've volunteered to take on as an Admin, e.g. when a player is causing a problem for one of my Storytellers (or the game), then it's my job to intervene and/or support the ST. That is definitely Not Fun Stuff, and I don't like doing it, but it can't be done away with.

For Storytellers, I want to see them having more fun, doing more animations, running more plots. I want them to feel free to pursue those things, free in a real way...we have some STs who are pretty driven and they like to clean out the request queue and Get Things Done and that's totally admirable! But it gives me the sads when they spend too much time on that stuff.

A "routine stuff" staff role might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but the key part of my suggestion was that they weren't expected to contribute nearly as much time as a Storyteller.  If someone is willing to donate 5 hours a week of boring routine work, because they're retired, an insomniac, or they have a job that affords them a lot of downtime...  Why not let them?  If there are two or three of these people on staff, and 15 hours a week of routine work is removed from the queue, it could make all the difference.  Look at how much amazing stuff has gotten done since the staff roles were all filled out a few months ago?  Think how much could get done of those talented/creative-type staffers could focus purely on Storytelling?

Well, you know, I get you...but if I have a Storyteller who only has 5 hours to spend on game work, then I still want that person to be having fun and actually telling stories within the game. In order to do that, we do need to eliminate routine work and boring stuff if we can. There is no group of players that I look at and think, "Oh, you're less creative and talented than our existing staff, so you could totally fulfill this lesser role." (I know that's not what you meant, but do you get me? )

I don't think that any staffer will ever be able to focus 100% on storytelling, because there will always be other stuff that needs to get done--building, documentation, and so forth. But what kinds of solutions can we come up with using the existing tools (codebase, request tool, website) that will eliminate some unnecessary stuff, so we can do even more with the talented staff that we do have?

[FantasyWriter]

Speaking from experience, I fully agree that automating the process by which GMH merchants/agents can browse and order items would not only make the roll 300% more enjoyable, but make just about every player who's ever ordered something from the merchant houses happy.

+100



I've always wished there were "builder" roles for Arm like we had for 2.Arm.
I don't have "regular" times that I can devote to the game.  This is one of the reasons that I never app for sponsored roles or join clans any longer, but I can devote a large -amount- of time to the game in a few large clumps as week.

I would love doing stuff like entering items in to await higher staff approval, going through the typo queue, approving zero or low karma apps: One and done type things.  I just don't have the time to keep up with a load of PCs and shoot correspondence back and forth several times a day to resolve an urgent issue.

It's my personal opinion that we could retain staff better and longer, and do a better job for players, if staff was simply having more fun. So...that's sort of where the focus for the question is. Can you guys help us figure out how to make this entire game more fun for everyone, by reducing or eliminating routine and boring stuff?

From a player's perspective, it seems to me that over the past few years, most of the stuff that -can- be automated, has been.  What do you see that is left that does not require a hands-on fix or bureaucratic approval of more than one staffer?  

Account notes -- between 5 - 30 minutes per request.  Admin+ only.

Have account notes entered in a way that staffers will be able to specify information that needs to be redacted at time of entry rather than redacting it later by hand.
Have account notes automatically redact things like the account name/character name of PKers in the log.
Redact less.
Account notes would appear to the reviewing Admin+ with the information that has already been redacted segregated so that what the player will receive appears in a different colored text than that which will be redacted.  We have documents like that where I work where some information is viewable on screen, but if you print or try to past it to another document the redacted fields will not transfer.  No idea how this is done code-wise, though.

Description changes -- 5 minutes, maybe more if there is some discussion on it, but requires an admin+ to do it.  Admin+ only.

Allow players to enter a new desc via a command similar to tdesc.  Staff would be able to approve this or reject it.  If it is rejected, the player must try again or ONLY THEN use the request tool for the change request.

Mastercraft Submissions -- 30 minutes to (at the very least) 1.5 hours.  Lots of review time here.   Some requests take longer that that, especially if there is something special being done, added, or approved that requires more consideration.  The more complex, the higher you have to go up with staff to get it reviewed, so the more time it takes.  On the upside, these are lower priority.  STs and/or Admins usually build, Admins approve.

I seem to remember the youtube vid about the Arm 2 codebase stating that the coders were working on a web-based building tool.  Try to make this work and give players access to it through the request tool, letting them fill in the fields, doing most of the work, then staff only has to make the required changes/tweaks then approve.

Reimbursement -- 5 minutes to 20 minutes.  Depends on length of request and whether any discussion is had.  ST+.

Most of time, reimbursements can be handled through a cash replacement (and I believe staff has said that they prefer this.
Make an in-game command to request a cash reimbursement, possibly only to 1+ karma accounts to avoid abuse.

Special applications -- 10-20 minutes, though this often takes into account multiple staff members and their feedback and suggestions, so it takes comparatively longer for players.  Admin+ only.

Good luck.

Character reports -- sometimes as few as 5 minutes, sometimes as much as an hour.  More if the report is long, more if there is back and forth, more if more staff have to be involved in checking it out.  This is a big part of why we want to revise the format and emphasis on reports.  ST+.

http://www.tidyform.com/weekly-status-report-template.html
I somewhat dislike the following ideas, but have a form for character reports. You can select from two forms: "leader/sponsored roles" and "standard." This make them more consistent and readable from a reviewer's perspective. Be sure to include a section that specifies things that need a staff response before the request is closed.
Can include an additional comment section below for anything that does not fit in the form.

Item orders -- 10-30 minutes.  We have a staff-side project for making this better but it needs to be completed.  I'm taking a look at that one.  ST+.

As suggested before in this thread, have a warehouse that includes all non-special clan-crafted items on separate, themed NPCS.
Give all appropriate players a list of special-order items including the requirements for ordering them.  Only these will need staff approval now, and the back and forth trying to find the right thing is eliminated.

Player kudos -- usually no more than 5 minutes.  ST+ resolution.

Include a list of no-nos on the form (I think this exists in the request too already), and Automate it for accounts with X+ Karma.

Question/request or Question requests -- could be a minute, could take an hour.  Depends on the content.  The former is ST+, the latter is Admin+.
Role applications -- 5-20 minutes.  ST+ resolution.
Player complaints -- 5-30 minutes.  Maybe more if we have to do a lot of investigation.  Admin+ resolution.
Staff complaint -- 5-20 minutes.  Rarely more than that.  Producer resolution.
Original submissions -- At least 20-30 minutes for reading and reviewing, then possibly double that if another staffer needs to approve something related to it.  ST+ resolution.

It is what it is.

[Adhira]

Just an FYI on account notes - they already redact all the info like other peoples account names etc, the time that it takes is that often there just aren't any notes there. People want a -review- they want to know if they can get karma. And that is where the time comes in. If there are no notes, then we have to go hunting. So for example, if I'm doing the resolving I will ask other staff to comment if they have been staffing that player. So that's a bunch of other folks leaving a note there. If no one does, then I'll spend time going through the players old requests, I'll go into mud mail to see if they have any old emails in there, I'll do a quick board search to look for posts about them. Basically I'll try and find some information that I can use to give them some feedback and do a karma review. That's where the time comes in for their account notes.

Maybe we can do away with reviews!