Opinions on a Public Leaders forum

[Aromit]

Players have mentioned how nice it would be to have the leaders of clans be more reachable and to more easily get notified of the what's what. Also for enabling leaders of clans to more easily communicate and arrange events and playtimes together more easily for the benefit of the playerbase at large.

My initial thought. A public forum with a recommended template along the lines of

Character name:
Character rank:
Sdesc (optional):
Playtimes:

Included will be a list of clans/ranks that are free to post their leaders on this (sergeants/nobles/templars/GMH leaders). This board will be moderated as any other and require no pre-approval, special access or posting privileges. Participation would be optional. As a benefit to the staffing team, this would require minimal and I feel provide a boon to the players that would like to participate.

I'm interested in the thoughts of the community at large with this idea, is it wanted?

[Patuk]

Yes, please.

[MeTekillot]

Yes, please.

[Tranquil]

This'd be great. Yes please!

[Doctor9]

This is great for tribes too! +1

[mansa]

I'm uneasy about letting other players know who you are currently playing, which would be apparent if you post under your popular GDB handle.

I'm also uneasy about letting other players know what your typical playtimes are, if they are planning harm to your character.


However, I think it would be better to the game as a whole to share this information, so new characters can jump into the game and start to their own plots knowing who the major pieces are.

[Suok]

I'm uneasy about letting other players know who you are currently playing, which would be apparent if you post under your popular GDB handle.

I'm also uneasy about letting other players know what your typical playtimes are, if they are planning harm to your character.


However, I think it would be better to the game as a whole to share this information, so new characters can jump into the game and start to their own plots knowing who the major pieces are.

I feel the same. This makes me nervous but I see the good in it.

[Narf]

I'm also uneasy about letting other players know what your typical playtimes are, if they are planning harm to your character.

I would argue that it's actually the reverse of this that might be the biggest problem. A person shouldn't use OOC means to hide from harm, but what I might be concerned about is a player using a Leader's login time to /hide/ from the leader OOCly.

That said, this could be rectified if leaders didn't post too comprehensive a list of their log on times, just posting the most common.

[Reiloth]

Benefits:
-Allows for multi-clan RPTs to be much easier coordinated.

-Allows for leaders to directly contact other leaders on an OOC level. Oftentimes, you are not privy to what a Templar's handle is on the GDB, have to go through their aide/a soldier PC, and rely on their organization skills and for things to not get lost in translation. I can't tell you how many times I've played a Byn Sergeant and had RPT times messed up by the messenger, simply because I don't have similar playtimes to the Templar and can't ever get them on the phone.

-Allows for people thinking of their next concept to see what the current roster of leaders is, and what their playtimes are, and if they match up with said playtimes. Often, a PC will meet a leader PC at a bizarre time slot for that leader (Like, 9AM one random morning that leader could log on, they recruit the person, but will never see them again because they never play at that time.)

-Allows for Staff to keep an updated list of active leaders in a public forum. Similar to the Wizlist/active Staff list that is updated by Staff on the GDB. As a visually minded person, it might also allow Staff to see where they are lacking some leaders in a visual/venn diagram sense, or have too many in one area of influence.

Consequences/Downsides:

-I dislike any system that doesn't originate and take place inside the game. I don't like having to play the Request Tool as much as I play the game, for instance, as a leadership PC. I don't like having things outside of the game that I have to monitor, that affect things inside the game. This would add one more thing to that list.

-I don't like OOC associations with GDB handles. I'd personally circumvent this by using alts if and when ever using that forum or submitting to it.

-I can see it being abused, but people who abuse a system like this already abuse other systems in the game or outside of it (Secret Discords, etc).

Overall, I'm in favor of it, and would use it with my leadership PCs.

[Gentleboy]

You can put whatever hours you like down, doesn't mean you'll always be available to play them.

Already people ask "around what time of the week is this person about.

I see no issue. Especially since it's not like a schedule in stone.

[Tuannon]

tl:dr

I'd be fine with the proposal if the only information was posted by staff and had the relavent data:

Lord Fuckface Oash
Lord Afro
7pm to midnight server
The paunchy, paisley afro-ed man

[X-D]

If optional...Whatever.

If I was playing a leader I would not use it...not even with an alt account.

[sucre]

tl:dr

I'd be fine with the proposal if the only information was posted by staff and had the relavent data:

Lord Fuckface Oash
Lord Afro
7pm to midnight server
The paunchy, paisley afro-ed man

This would alleviate a lot of revelations. I think staff posting player relayed info, viewable to those who have access, would be a better idea.

[zealus]

Yes. I like this.

If people don't want to reveal themselves, they can use an alt.

This would save a lot on the leaders too, it can sometimes be a challenge to remind people that you're not dead, just offpeak

[Tranquil]

If people don't want to reveal themselves, they can use an alt.

This.

I think the consequences are reasonable, but I think as Aromit said it on discord: "quite frankly, foul play or abuse of ooc knowledge is sort of one of those things where I feel "bullshit finds a way"" puts it perfectly.

Anything bad that can happen from this would happen either way, and again.. it would be entirely optional. I would personally use the forum on any leader I play, as it allows people who aren't in my clan to better play with my leader. Be it attempted assassination, trying to get hired, or RPT organizing on GDB PMs instead of borderline OOC psi conversations.

[Nao]

Please, yes.

Nothing sucks like repeatedly trying to contact Lady Borsail because you absolutely need to talk to Lady Borsail, but having no idea when that player is online, and that would resolve most of that issue.

Alt gdb handles are a good option if you don't want PCs to be associated with the main account.

[Barsook]

tl:dr

I'd be fine with the proposal if the only information was posted by staff and had the relavent data:

Lord Fuckface Oash
Lord Afro
7pm to midnight server
The paunchy, paisley afro-ed man

This would alleviate a lot of revelations. I think staff posting player relayed info, viewable to those who have access, would be a better idea.

But if the promise to keep it up to date month to month or something.

[Inks]

I wouldn't use it most likely. But have nothing against it existing if optional. Maybe I would.

[Night Queen]

I don't think there's any point in it really because the ingame boards can be used in the same way, and are nicely separated to keep the air of mystery that can only be revealed by stories from other characters or travelling: if there's just a global board, it would ruin a lot of the atmosphere and make it feel like one of those games where the important characters are all posted up on a wiki. Especially sdescs, the fun of not knowing that person is important in a crowd would go, and the game of recognising insignia and stuff like that. If you're from the other side of the known, it should be interesting.

I saw one of the leaders in law enforcement factions posted playtimes on those IC boards months ago which reinforces that it's not needed to be on the game-wide forums, but seeing that alone actually made me feel disappointed in the impression that they were making out their group is for crazy role play with bestfriends at specific times, and not for people of other timezones:

— Not only for joining, but also for the whole city/game at large to "serve"(/OPPRESS) people - when you say "this is the time we play" that cuts a divide through half the game. And people that might otherwise join will self-select themselves out (instead of giving it a try and maybe ending up meeting someone else in that clan, seeing a sign that says "NO", and turning away - this is one of those PR psychology kind of things) and it'll just reinforce the existing hierarchies where most clans end up with a single leader on US timezone, instead of two leaders to give more depth to the world - and retain players!

[Inks]

I like Night Queen's post.

[williamson]

I think the benefit of this idea outweighs the risks, especially for new players.

[Bogre]

I think the downside of this is not so much people knowing who you play (for instance, I have a clan-specific account), but in players knowing who's in and around the other areas of the world. It may be hard to send minions to go find out who's leading so and so clan when you just kinda know that there's a southern templar named Gormenmorgen.

[Maso]

I think the downside of this is not so much people knowing who you play (for instance, I have a clan-specific account), but in players knowing who's in and around the other areas of the world. It may be hard to send minions to go find out who's leading so and so clan when you just kinda know that there's a southern templar named Gormenmorgen.

Agreed. Honestly, maybe it should only be like.. Byn and GMHs. Would definitely take away a lot from espionage plots between the two cities to just have all the nobles, templars and militia sergeants up there. They are kind of 'next level' clans anyway, and if you want to work for a noble/templar, being able to find out who the nobles are is probably the the easiest of the challenges (and, like I said on the new player thread.. that journey is part of the roleplay).

[Narf]

I could see removing law enforcement type clans from the board, just to start.

Give it a while, see what happens. If every clan but law enforcement surges in popularity and functionality, add them in later. If it doesn't make a huge difference, leave them out.

[Armaddict]

Is there no way that you can enable that old option of anonymous posts on the board for just a single forum or somethin'?