Player staff meeting discussion

[Renenutet]

If you have questions about or questions for the player staff meeting, please feel free to use this thread to voice them.

[Sorry]

Has it been thought about maybe to have timezone slots for special roles? Say there's 2 US Atrium instructors or Byn Sergeants, but 0 EU ones, maybe the standard should be for 3 in roles instead of 2 - as it is, it means there's no way for a big percentage of newer people to get a chance to learn the more indepth stuff of the game

It could help a lot to alleviate the feeling of the game being weighted semi-officially heavy towards the idea of "server time" (which makes most RP plots offlimits due to 3am just to start if they aren't lucky or on night schedules) when the player base is actually a lot more spread out (it seems like that there are often no staff around at EU times as well which limits things a lot, there's a rift between the players)

[Riev]

Is there a line drawn between "the player has an idea for a plotline hook, but requires virtual entities coming to life" and "the staff have a plotline in mind that they HOPE the player hooks into"?

Or rather, is this like a session of D&D where we're enticed by a plot hook, but we don't have to take it? Or are staff plots kind of generated and designed behind the scenes, and then pushed until a player decides to bite?

And at what point does "I, as a player, want to see this happen" turn into "sounds interesting, but nobody on staff is interested in supporting that right now", and how can that be said to a player without sounding like "We don't want to do YOUR thing, but here's OUR thing"?

[Veselka]

The OOC conundrum of "Sponsored Role X cannot leave the organization" creates a bit of OOC discord in clans such as the T'zai Byn, where the "Sponsored Sergeant" is stuck in the T'zai Byn for life, while the Runner->Trooper->Sergeant has more latitude throughout their career, in that they can leave at any time.

While this makes perfect sense for organizations such as the Greater Merchant Houses (particularly a blooded Family member), Nobles, and Templars -- It begins to create odd scenarios and explanations for clans such as the Byn, when you have a 100% Loyal Mercenary, which sort of futzes with the documentation and the perception of a coin-for-hire sellsword.

Would Staff consider only applying this Rule of regarding 100% loyalty and not being able to leave an organization to those where it makes the most sense? (Nobles/Templars/Blooded GMH)

[azuriolinist]

I probably won't be making this player-staff meeting (unfortunately!), so here are a few questions I have:

• What makes or breaks a player's role application for a sponsored role, in staff's opinion(s)?
• Are there any trends staff may have noticed that lead towards the storage of sponsored PCs (by that PC's player)?
• Any suggestions staff might have to keep a sponsored PC fun for the person playing them?

[Veselka]

GMH:What is Staff's opinion on the role of "Merchant" in a Greater Merchant House, whether it is blooded family or not? It seems to me that these sponsored roles may (though I don't have the numbers) be one of the higher-rate stored roles. Do you think there are things that can be done to ameliorate this?

To posit my own theory -- It would seem that the ordering and receiving of items causes little in the way of plot, and more in the customization of a character. The fancy ring, the sharp sword, the beautiful cuirass -- These are things I rarely hear of being the driving focus, or even the behind-the-scenes MacGuffin, that drives plots forward, or incepts them. On the other hand, PCs that are in the 'Agent' role of a House seem to automatically generate plots, as they try to further the Agenda of their House.

While Merchants, and certainly Blooded Merchants due to their status, have a degree of political sway (and often, as a PC, they will become embroiled in plots themselves), the Role doesn't tend to do them favors in this respect.  While a Blooded Merchant may/will enter the political Arena, it becomes tricky when there is an active Agent in the House who's Agenda you may be stepping on, and their role after all is the political one.

As well, adding in the 'vending machine' aspect to the PC can become tiresome. When you aren't relegated plots of importance, or feel shut out of the political side of things, and you are simply an ordering machine, perhaps this is the heart of why people store in these roles to move on to something more autonomous.

What would be my suggestion? Tricky, but I'm tempted to say that the 'Merchant' side of the GMH should be relegated to Common Crafters / Non-Blooded Anyone, and that all Blooded, Sponsored Merchants/Agents should represent their House equally in the political arena, and that should be their main focus -- Driving forward the Agenda of their House, and thereby creating plots around it.

[tapas]

Why isn't there more variety in sponsored roles? I think adding some more wildcards into the pot would benefit the game world. Especially when it sometimes feels like everyone and everything is a known factor.

Some ideas:

Wandering dune traders with a variety of special items on sale.

Skilled guides that could lead clans and players to unexplored regions of the game world.

A nobody that has come into possession of something very special. Like a steel sword or an artifact, or a ratlon..

A highly skilled assassin with no starting affiliations, willing to shake up the status quo of a city.

[Iiyola]

- How updated and available is the documentation needed for said role?
- More communication among staffers of designated House (especially in regards to separate plot lines and staff roles regarding seniors and their relationship with the PC)
- Feedback on the designated forums from staff (often enough certain questions are being ignored or overlooked)
- There is a delicate balance between "making the virtual world come alive" with PC motivated plot lines and what's allowed/possible by staff. I think this complicates the motivation to make things happen, besides the usual stuff that happens/is requires for said role. Staff has been mildly lenient but it really depends on which staffer you get. Some are more flexible and dedicated than others (and again, communication comes to mind).

[Calavera]

- How updated and available is the documentation needed for said role?
- More communication among staffers of designated House (especially in regards to separate plot lines and staff roles regarding seniors and their relationship with the PC)
- Feedback on the designated forums from staff (often enough certain questions are being ignored or overlooked)
- There is a delicate balance between "making the virtual world come alive" with PC motivated plot lines and what's allowed/possible by staff. I think this complicates the motivation to make things happen, besides the usual stuff that happens/is requires for said role. Staff has been mildly lenient but it really depends on which staffer you get. Some are more flexible and dedicated than others (and again, communication comes to mind).

It might be difficult to get specific answers to these since your bullet points aren't phrased as questions.

Can you let us know in a bit more detail what you mean by 'feedback on the designated forums'? And 'how updated and available is the documentation needed for said role?' This meeting isn't specific to any one particular role but we'd like to make sure your concerns are heard.

Great questions so far everybody, keep 'em coming.

[Melkor]

What does the Staff have in mind to fix Arm's reputation in the MUD community?

Has there been any consideration towards repeated issues with staff/player relations?

[Veselka]

I think the focus was Staff Sponsored Roles.

[Melkor]

I think the focus was Staff Sponsored Roles.

Didn't see that anywhere in the OP. If that's the case, mods, feel free to delete my posts.

[Veselka]

I think the focus was Staff Sponsored Roles.

Didn't see that anywhere in the OP. If that's the case, mods, feel free to delete my posts.

There's usually a link in the OP to the announcement, but here:
http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,53548.0.html

Not to say it's not a good question to ask.

[Grapes]

I have a concern, it's not specifically related to the primary focus, and I'm not sure I'll do a good job phrasing it as a question, but here goes:

I was wondering if we could get some kind of time-frame for restructuring of the karma-awarding system. Why? Because with the new tweaks to the special application process many options have been placed beyond the means of a zero karma player, including small number of the mundane extended subguilds. I understand with any new system there will be some inconvenience and growing pains, but it would be reassuring to have some estimates. Apologies if this has already been addressed.

I would also very much like to see some updated information on the new guild system. I, for one, would really be excited to see at least a little of what's going on and hear some commentary on how it's going, maybe some more detailed information about the skillsets of the new guilds, if possible.

[Iiyola]

- How updated and available is the documentation needed for said role?
- More communication among staffers of designated House (especially in regards to separate plot lines and staff roles regarding seniors and their relationship with the PC)
- Feedback on the designated forums from staff (often enough certain questions are being ignored or overlooked)
- There is a delicate balance between "making the virtual world come alive" with PC motivated plot lines and what's allowed/possible by staff. I think this complicates the motivation to make things happen, besides the usual stuff that happens/is requires for said role. Staff has been mildly lenient but it really depends on which staffer you get. Some are more flexible and dedicated than others (and again, communication comes to mind).

It might be difficult to get specific answers to these since your bullet points aren't phrased as questions.

Can you let us know in a bit more detail what you mean by 'feedback on the designated forums'? And 'how updated and available is the documentation needed for said role?' This meeting isn't specific to any one particular role but we'd like to make sure your concerns are heard.

Great questions so far everybody, keep 'em coming.

Sorry, just made some notes for myself for said meeting haha.

They're not really questions, but mostly what I'd like to see/have encountered when I was in a leadership role, and would be a point of attention where staff would've fallen short/could give more attention to.

[mansa]

In my opinion, answering the call to play a sponsored role is very difficult.  You're jumping into a role of a character of which their political entity is missing  / not represented currently in the game world.  There some expectation that you're introduced into the game to keep some sense of continuity and representation of said role within the story as a whole.
In my most recent "sponsored" role, I jumped in and immediately froze.  I didn't really, really know how my brand new character was supposed to deal with political entity A, B, C.  I didn't put in a request to get "up-to-speed" with the various groups.  I got anxiety and I dreaded logging in.  Eventually I was poked by the clan immortal and I asked to be stored.

Seeing as my failure was to not communicate my anxiety and to not communicate with my staff my needs, is there a better way to introduce the new sponsored characters inside the game?

[MarshallDFX]

I just wanted to toss in a quick couple comments on the meeting generally. Thanks for holding it, I think these are great and should be regular.  I think this went on WAY too long. I'd like to propose we all submit our actual questions in the queue and then proceed through them one at a time, with the potential for a bit of very time limited banter. I'm sure a staff voice channel could coordinate who's preparing responses to what. Thanks again.

[valeria]

In my most recent "sponsored" role, I jumped in and immediately froze. ... Seeing as my failure was to not communicate my anxiety and to not communicate with my staff my needs, is there a better way to introduce the new sponsored characters inside the game?

The most recent time I was playing a templar, I asked the staffer setting me up during creation what I would know about what was going on in the city, and they gave me a couple of blurbs about current issues.  It might be nice if this was turned into a standard practice as part of set-up.

[chrisdcoulombe]

I would like to see more documentation available for all the sponsored roles, especially when applying for them.

[MeTekillot]

When I played an Oashi sponsored role we didn't have a toilet.