How to Frustrate the Players, in One Easy Step

[mansa]

Maybe it's just me, but, I'd like to state what I find a tad bit ... annoying ... about immortals, and something that I think, if done, would be awesome.  At least, to me, because I'm greedy.

Respond to my email with a, 'Give me two days, to get a census with the other staff members.'

I know, when I email my clan immortals, usually it takes about 3 days to get a 'response'.  Sometimes it takes longer.  Sometimes I get a response that same day.

I assume that, this is because the staff members involved have to ask another staff member, to get their general opinion or something.  Perhaps they have to get a Highlord to load up the items involved.  Perhaps they went away for a few days, and forgot to tell other people involved.

But, if something happens in Zalanthas on monday night, thursday afternoon, there might of been 4 deaths arranged by the including parties of the conflict.

So, let me say again what I wish to be done.

A simple email, in response to my inquiry, saying, 'I hear you.  Give me time.'

[LazyBessie]

I've been REALLY lucky lately in that my clan IMM is pretty quick to respond to e-mails. So was my clan imm before this one. And Sanvean has -always- been awesome about responding to my e-mails.

However I had to agree that it can be REALLY frustrating sometimes...example (hypothetical, this never happened):

My Borsail spy secretly working for the Lirathuan templar Susieque up north gets found out by Lord Jojo Borsail. During his plotting and scheming to decide what he wants to do about it, my Borsail spy finds out that he's been found out.

So he tries waying the LIrathuan templar, to no avail...time is of the essence, and the -only- people in on the sekret up north is Faithful Susieque and her boss, Super Faithful Anniemae the NPC.

I send an e-mail to the clan imm, knowing that in just a matter of RL days, if nothing is done, my Borsail spy will be arena meat. I also know that I'm a REALLY good spy, it's just that Borsail's sekrit sneaky spy sent up north to spy on Faithful Susieque sent word to the Lord noble that she had me infiltrate the clan.

So being a REALLY good spy, worth my weight in err..gith legs or something, I know that the Faithful folks wouldn't want to just let me die, and maybe use me for something else up north instead. And yet - 3 days pass with no word from the IMM, no hint in-game that the imm even knows what's going on, and even with a CC of my e-mail to mud, not a word. Just - nothing. And then my character dies, all because...

No one ever responded to my e-mail.

Is it because the IMM never got it? Judging by the many stories I've read on the boards here in the past few days, doubtful. I don't use hotmail and ALL my e-mails eventually end up where they're sent, and I have never 'not' gotten an e=mail I knew was coming.

Is it because the IMM was just too busy at the time to deal with it? Great, I can appreciate that. So E-MAIL ME AND TELL ME SO. Tell me I'm SOL and have to make do on my own. I can handle it, honest. Just let me know I have to handle it and don't make me sit there with my finger in my nose waiting.

Is it because the IMM doesn't want to get involved, or doesn't think it should be dealt with via e-mail? GREAT! E-mail me and TELL ME SO. I can handle it.

Again I can't stress this enough - I've had very little problems with getting responses from staff. But the problems I -have- had were annoying enough to make an impression.

[Anonymous]

Are you guys CC'ing the mud?  Obviously an immortal cannot be expected to answer their email on a daily basis.  But by CC'ing the mud account and expressing that the issueis pressing in game maybe the matter would get escalated.  Maybe the clan imm cannot act on it and doesn't feel at privilege to reply because of other IC goings on.

I've played more loners and solitary folks than I have clan members, but I've never had problems like these.

Mekeda, Vendyra, Gesht, Tlaloc, Zagren and Savak are the only clan Imms I recall ever having for any length of time, and they were all very prompt.

Well, I had Halaster too, now that I recall, but I never asked for anything, just told him when I was planning to kill people.  And his silence let me know HE WAS PLEASED.

[Raesanos]

I probably don't just speak for myself when I say that I am not able to finish all of my email several times a day so that everybody gets same-day replies to requests.  Sometimes you send an email, and I already did my email that day and it has to wait until the next evening, which could easily feel like a "two day" wait.  Sometimes I have a lot of mail, or real life things keep me busy, and that two day wait easily extends to a three day wait.  Its not because I'm lazy or have a lack of interest in communication.  It is because I have real life demands and a full inbox.  Of course, occationally I'm particularly not busy for a week or two and people do get same-day replies to everything.  I feel that that is ideal whenever I can make it possible.  The fact is, sadly, that its not always possible, even when I'd like to do it.

Suggesting nicely that we send "I read your email, please hold" emails is well and good, but it should be mixed with an understanding that there are other things that cause delays before emails even get read.  I know that I myself do already send emails like the ones you suggested, and many other staff do.  I'm not suggesting that any specific person isn't being understanding of this, but I felt it needed to be brought up.

[Bestatte]

To CRW: In my "LazyBessie" post I specified that I had sent to the IMM and the Mud. Again this hypothetical situation never happened, but other situations did which are IC and I'm not about to post here.  I make a habit of not just "ccing" but actually "sending" e-mails to both mud and the clan imm. I very rarely use the CC feature of my mail application. I just add mud to the "to" list instead.

To Raesanos: I totally agree that sometimes people just gotta be patient. Waiting 24 hours for a response is usually very reasonable, understandable, and acceptable. But I've had instances where I've sent to both my clan imm and mud, and hadn't heard a response from anyone for days, and in the meantime the issue was either resolved by someone else or the plotline changed simply because I had no way of RPing any input.

I'm not about to go pointing fingers so I won't get into specifics or even be very vague. But there have been times when I've needed clan IMM input, or at the very least a "handle it yourself" note, and ended up with half the town pissed at my character because my hands were tied and I couldn't get things moving without that input or the go-ahead to handle it myself.

I've heard stories about people who've e-mailed their clan imm for assorted things, only to find out 2 RL weeks later that the imm was on vacation the whole time, or that their computer broke. This might sound harsh and snide, but I'm being sincere, so please take it as such:

The public library in almost every city in the country has computers with free internet access and e-mail. There is absolutely no reason why any able-bodied person can't manage to send an e-mail to Sanvean or Nessalin (or both) and ask them to please pass along the message to their clan that they won't be available for awhile.

Perhaps that isn't true in areas outside the USA, but it's pretty standard fare here, and most IMMs live in the states.

If I was playing a noble character or a templar, or senior merchant PC in a house, and something happened to my internet access, you'd better believe I'd be in the library letting *someone* know and asking them to pass word along to the rest of the clan.

[flurry]

I'm a bit hesitant to post this, because I don't want to come off as ungrateful at all.   I am very thankful for what the immortals do.

I did have an unpleasant situation along the lines as some of the previous posts.  I was playing in a clan, a somewhat unusual role that I knew going into it would be challenging and somewhat isolating.  Somewhere along the way, IC circumstances changed somewhat and made the role more challenging in a way that was at times OOCly frustrating.  I emailed one of the clan immortals, explained things, and asked for some guidance.  (Also cc:ed the other clan immortal and the mud).   Three weeks passed and no response.   Then IC circumstances changed again, and due to this I felt I had no other option than to store my character.   I wrote to the clan immortal again, and mentioned my email from three weeks prior.  I also explained the new situation, and why I thought I needed to store my character.   Still no response, and that's how it ended.   (Another immortal took care of my storage request.)   I thought it was strange I never got any response or even acknowledgement that I was storing my character.  

Even just a one sentence response either time would have been wonderful.  As it was, it definitely made me feel like it didn't matter one way or the other to the immortal if I was in the clan or not.    Especially mailing to say I would have to store the character and getting no response.  And maybe I was being overly sensitive about it, but the point is that I had no way of knowing and still don't know.

I fully understand that immortals have lives outside of Armageddon.   I don't expect quick or lenghty responses, but no responses at all is hard to deal with.

And I have no bad feelings and mean no disrespect to the immortal(s) involved, but I'm just saying it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth after an already difficult situation.    I'm not posting this for any other reason than the hope that maybe it might help keep things like that from happening in the future.

[Twilight]

I've never really had a situation where I was displeased with the email with the immortals.  One or two lost emails, but that is understandable.

My only advice is if you expect a response, state that in your email.  At that point I would expect a response, and consider it extremely rude not to get any acknowledgement at all.  But without explicitly stating that, I would not necessarily expect a response.

[ShaLeah]

When I played in Salarr Xygax was amazing at responding to emails, interacting and filling requests. Mekeda, Xygaz and Vendyra have all far exceded any dreams in response time. We should bottle these people up, sell them on the Imm black market.

[sarahjc]

I think you should add IX Machina to that list ShaLeah, Reasanos too.  I am constantly sending emails to my current house staff and they never -ever- say "Stop.. It's annoying already." And I send a -lot- of emails.." In fact they are amost always really fast to respsond.. Even if it's not the answer I want to hear.. :wink:

[Petra]

I think you should add IX Machina to that list ShaLeah, Reasanos too.

I don't think anyone should be added to any list.  You're not really doing the staff any favors by singling certain individuals out and putting them up on a pedastal above the other, unmentioned, IMMs.

Different imms handle things differenty and I rather prefer the variety.  You might not ever add Zagren to your list of "Always Responds Quickly" but that has its benefits too.  My experience being in his clan was that the players were in more control of their lives and destinies; rarely would an NPC interupt with your affairs, instead allowing you to climb or crumble on your own.  If you want something done you arrange it yourself rather than sit and expect every little plot to be handed to you on a platter.  Yes, the bad side to imms like this is there is very little response from them but there is an opposite end to that spectrum.

I played a templar some time ago and the imm at the time was exceedingly involved in player's affairs.  It was fantastic.  I never had a question that went unanswered, no matter how mundane or trivial.  Every scene I RPed in I was sure to be watched (and sometime's critiqued) on by him, and this meant I knew I could get accurate feedback.  The flipside is, after a while I felt like I couldn't breath and even that my character wasn't completely mine.  I most definately was not in charge of my own character's destiny.  And while it's important to realize there is always a bigger fish than you in your clan, it can be stagnating when every bit of your character's growth is solely dependend on what your clan imm allows or rejects.

I like that not every imm runs the show the same way, and depending on what character concept I have in mind I can either go to someone who offers a lot of support and regular feedback, or to someone who sits in the background and only throws in feedback where necessary.  That said, I admit, the occasions where I am flat out ignored on an email that I feel is important really sucks.  Especially when you get responded to on a later e-mail, to me that says my first e-mail wasn't important enough for you to answer.  I don't ignore you, so unless I am spam-mailing you (which I'm not) please return that courtesy.  That's my take on it.

[Krath]

Hehe. I have to agree with Petra somewhat. My Rule of thumb is this.

When in a leadership position, At the beginning I will email the imm a lot of questions..Typically IC things my character would or would not know, depending if I was or was not APPED into the position. Once that Is done I assume this is like an adlib movie script. I will control my character and let him go about things the way he would. At the end of each OOC week, I will email the immortal the things I have done and the reasoning behind them and upcoming plans he has. If the immortal agrees cool, if not you have your input. Also, I have noticed Immortals respond very quickly if your subject is Weekly Update for Clan KrathIsTheUberGod(generic clan name obviously) for week whatever.

That way, ONE, your character generally determines his destiny, and Two, You and the Immortal both have an establish communication relationship of that being, You let him know what is going on, and he/she lets you know what is ok, and will give you advice on how you can or can not improve your playing ability.

That is my two cents.

Just keep the immortals informed.

[John]

Here's something that happened to me once. I joined a clan (through IC actions) and I e-mailed my Imm my details, was added to the GDB, then asked him access to the clan docs. A long player who had joined a month earlier did the same thing. Neither of us got access to the docs. I e-mailed a couple of times too.

I died, let him know as a FYI, wasn't expecting a reply. He took time out to send his condolences. To me, that made no sense. You think he'd have sent the docs (which I and the other player were allowed to see) but if he was too busy, you don't think he'd send condolences. But he did, and that made me feel happier about the death too.

A little bit later the Imm announced he had been having real life problems (which is most likely why I had the lack of response with the docs) and retired. What was the point to the story? To show Imms are people too. No-one knew he had been having trouble (AFAIK) and most likely cause he wanted to hold on as long as possible, but just couldn't in the end. He was human, that's all Sometimes Imms get busy with RL stuff and even though they SHOULD let players know. They don't. They're only human.

Given the choice, if he came back I'd be in his clan quicker then you could write up an mdesc. Imms I've had who WEREN'T busy, I've found to be on the ball with e-mails.

What I do is ask how much detail they want in e-mails and how often they want them. That's worked well for me so far

[ShaLeah]

I think you should....

I don't think anyone should...

Hehe. I have to agree with Petra...

I can only speak from personal experience and I'm sorry, I don't agree. Giving people well deserved praise in no way isults the rest of the organization they are a part of. Singling people out for praise should not be seen as alienating the remainder of the staff, individuals part of a collective still remain people and I don't see anything wrong with giving kudos where kudos are well deserved.

[Ix Machina]

I speak only for myself here:

I try to answer email every day, at least three times a day. Even if it's just an informational email, I will almost always send a response letting someone know I received their email and thank you for the report/order/information. If I have to furthur look into the information, either doing research or speaking to other immortals, I will also tend to send an email that I am looking into it and will email when I have answers. If it is something like a reimbursement request, this may take some time to gather things up if I don't have access to get something from a certain zone in the game, so please be patient, your request is not ignored.

If I don't respond within 24 hours, you can assume I haven't received the email for one reason or another, the email doesn't indicate that some sort of response is necessary (Rarely. Even so, I'll tend to send some kind of response.) I once accidentally ignored an email: I'd filed it in the back of my head to respond after receiving a large batch of emails, and then instantly forgot about it while reading a few emails later, then had a busy week and misplaced the email. A polite reminder from the player a week or two later ended up reminding me. (Thank you, player.) Another reason I may not respond is a reimbursement request I'm trying to gather.

I'm sure other immortals may or may not check and answer their emails with the same frequency, but usually, everyone does check their email and answer as soon as they are able to. A good way to get an answer of some sort is to always CC: every immortal involved in the request, and the mud account, if it's not just a general inquiry. Also, if you expect a response, then indicate that expectation somewhere in the email. Occasionally, emails do get lost or misfiled, so if you haven't received any sort of answer in over a week, sending a polite reminder is helpful.

Ix

[Ayashah]

I think at least sending a 'thanks, got the email' would be nice in response to everything. Updates, requests, etc. A little honey can spread a long way.