Continuation and Communication

[nauta]

Hi,

I've been thinking about two issues (in the topic) for a little while.  I would like to discuss an idea I had on how to improve both, but I'll start out with some definitions and why I think they should be improved.

CONTINUATION. There are two sets of players who seem to be removed from the plots that go on: off-peakers and occasional players.  It would be nice to facilitate the continuation of such plots with these two sets of players.  There is nothing more depressing than not logging in after a week vacation and seeing nothing changed on the rumor boards and being unable to contact anyone at all via the way and so having no clue where the current plots you are interested in stand (especially when cool plots -were- happening).

Example: Bob is a Kadian who only plays during offpeak or every few days (but during peak).  He doesn't know that last night during peak (or even worse: a week ago during peak, or even worse: a month ago, during peak) his boss died along with all their mounts and the argosy.  He has no easy way of knowing this (other than via a request to staff).

COMMUNICATION. Communication can include actually talking to someone or waying them IG, or spreading information via rumor boards IG, or, otherwise, getting information from one player to another, information of the sort that would keep plots continuous and alive.  I feel that current options for communication in the game (esp. for offpeakers and occasional players) is too limited.

Example: Independent players who organically form some sort of pseudo-clan (be it a friendship with a mate, a whorehouse, a crew of raiders, a gang of rinthers) have no way of communicating feats, accomplishments, and rumors with each other in the way that real clans do.  This is a fortiori true of offpeakers or occasional players.

Example 2: Clanned players definitely have an advantage here, but even so, within the clan, it'd be nice to lighten up the demands on the rumor boards so that more personal messages (monitored of course) could go through.

Three ideas:

1. Allow for some monitored forms of PM communication and encourage (not discourage) the use of rumor boards IG for spreading more mundane and trivial bits of information.

2. Allow all independents to enlist in a massive Indy clan (which would have a GDB forum that looks just like the other clans: a roll call thread, rumors thread, absences thread, and documentation thread.)

3. Allow independents to request a new clan - give it a name - which would have a GDB forum that looks just like the other clans.

I doubt (2) and (3) would solve the problems of continuation and communication.  Rather, I think something like (1) would be the solution.  But (1) and either (2) or (3) would be awesome.

Here are some ways it'd play out:

Bob is best buds with George, who is his hunting buddy (both are in Salarr or indy, doesn't matter).  Bob, however, is an occasional player and so is George, and these occasions don't overlap.  Bob will then tell George that he killed twelve scrab and left the meats at the apartment via some PM to George (a PM that is monitored and which would not reveal either players' gdb handles).

Bob and George are both members of the Guild.  Bob killed a bunch of pitches and hung them up on the statue at Hathor's.  Game crashed.  George has -no- idea what happened, but the pitches ask him about it, natch. 

so, tl;dir:

I think the current modes of communication available to ARMers is too limited and restrictive; by unrestricting it a bit we could really improve the game for offpeakers and occasional players by making their lives continuous with the plots that happen around them.

[RogueGunslinger]

I think those are some very solid ideas. I've been in the situation where my character has no idea other long-lived characters around them died and I was just never told. That can be super annoying problem to deal with.

There are a lot of little going-ons in clans that I didn't know about for forever because they were never in the Rumors like I felt they should have been. There's nothing worse than not being able to grieve with other people in your clan over someone death, becuase it was never talked about on the forums and you tend to play at different times, and don't get to see everyone often.

I also love the idea of make your own group-forum. I think anyone should be able to use such a system, not just established clans.

[Harmless]

If this were up for votes, I vote for solution 1, the monitored PMing route.

[Lizzie]

Could possibly be a special addition to the request tool. A "interclan communique."

It could work kind of like when Nyr I think it was, had some of us working together to write up descriptions for a certain visual effect project awhile back. I think it was all done with some Google tools - Google docs via Google cloud maybe?

It could be disbanded, added to, subtracted from - intended to be a non-permanent group "request" via the request tool.

[Taven]

I feel like I'm being the downer here, sorry guys. 

CONTINUATION. [...] Example: Bob is a Kadian who only plays during offpeak or every few days (but during peak).  He doesn't know that last night during peak (or even worse: a week ago during peak, or even worse: a month ago, during peak) his boss died along with all their mounts and the argosy.  He has no easy way of knowing this (other than via a request to staff).

If everyone was in the same clan, then it would be easier to just have a rumor thread on the GDB. I know RGS said that sometimes rumors don't get posted, but that's a case of players choosing not to utilize something that is already in place. Adding another form of communication on top of that isn't something I'd see as helpful. More helpful might be encouraging staff and players to remember to post appropriate rumors.

COMMUNICATION. [...]

Three ideas:
1. Allow for some monitored forms of PM communication and encourage (not discourage) the use of rumor boards IG for spreading more mundane and trivial bits of information.
2. Allow all independents to enlist in a massive Indy clan (which would have a GDB forum that looks just like the other clans: a roll call thread, rumors thread, absences thread, and documentation thread.)
3. Allow independents to request a new clan - give it a name - which would have a GDB forum that looks just like the other clans.

It might be possible to do #3, I imagine, but I'd think there'd need to be guidelines on what exactly a "clan" that was big enough to earn this would be.

Bob is best buds with George, who is his hunting buddy (both are in Salarr or indy, doesn't matter).  Bob, however, is an occasional player and so is George, and these occasions don't overlap.  Bob will then tell George that he killed twelve scrab and left the meats at the apartment via some PM to George (a PM that is monitored and which would not reveal either players' gdb handles).

I know the idea is to have staff monitor communications, but my concern is that it would create a lot of extra staff work. You'd probably want to have them check the PMs before they went through, which could cause a delay. If the PMs went through first, then there could be players who thought that it was appropriate to convey information that wasn't acceptable (IE, information that should be shared by characters ICly).

I think the current modes of communication available to ARMers is too limited and restrictive; by unrestricting it a bit we could really improve the game for offpeakers and occasional players by making their lives continuous with the plots that happen around them.

I like the goal of this, I really do! I'm sorry my outlook on the proposals isn't all that encouraging. In the past I've had difficulty coordinating events and playtimes with someone out of clan, and had to use staff as a go-between via request, which took awhile. I would like a faster, easier system, if possible... I'm just not sure that it is, given staff time and such.

[Harmless]

The staff are working on some way for us to share playtimes (I think Nyr posted that this was in the works somewhere on the GDB). As long as we can share playtimes while offline, then that would do loads to help. I.e., I know so and so is likely to be online at this time because the official playtimes checker told me so. So I'll try to log in then and we can exchange information ICly.

[nauta]

I just wanted to add two thoughts (one an observation the other speculative):

Observation: If you are lucky your PC is friends with a PC or two who has high playtimes who you can "check in with" via the way after an absence (or when you log in via offpeak) to give you an "update" of what happened.  But often you are not lucky: maybe your clan is a little light or there's no reason for your PC to know that high playtime PC.  It'd be nice to have a way to get such an update without having to go through a PC.

Speculation: By allowing a limited and moderated way to communicate plot information other than the PC-by-PC route, I suspect there'd be less of a drive toward OOC communication via IM and what-not.  In other words (and to put it somewhat weirdly): No offence to the few friends I've made over my year here (you know who you are, I heart you), I'd prefer NOT to communicate with anyone except through the official channels, where you can remain anonymous, at least about the game.

[Fujikoma]

Fuck. Yes. I'm getting sick of finding out IC like, a month after I should have known.