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Re: Announce post #3143: Cursed Event
I am going to repeat my words from another thread and tweak them a little here as a reminder.
We are all human beings behind the keyboards. Please dial down the aggression, be kind to each other. The world is an exceptionally stressful place right now, and there are already people upset about other events in-character.
Again, not commenting on the actual topic here and how I may or may not feel about it. I am simply reminding you to be good to each other. You're better than that.
We are all human beings behind the keyboards. Please dial down the aggression, be kind to each other. The world is an exceptionally stressful place right now, and there are already people upset about other events in-character.
Again, not commenting on the actual topic here and how I may or may not feel about it. I am simply reminding you to be good to each other. You're better than that.
Zeheia
11
Re: Announce post #3143: Cursed Event
People emailed corporate about an event you could opt out of/gag the channel? Y'all are a bunch of Karens.
These events take a lot of work, even if you hate it just opt out, say something constructive about what you didn't like, and move on. The channel was kinda problematic, but I would never try to get people fired just because one part of an event didn't work great, wow.
These events take a lot of work, even if you hate it just opt out, say something constructive about what you didn't like, and move on. The channel was kinda problematic, but I would never try to get people fired just because one part of an event didn't work great, wow.
Xarian
10
Re: Announce post #3143: Cursed Event
I echo @Czcibor's sentiments, but at the same time want to say:
> Players complain that events aren't happening and there's a lack of stuff going on.
> Players complain when an event happens for a myriad of reasons, some legitimate criticisms but others because "BAD THINGS" happened to their characters.
Real talk, this is where I get really irritated as a player because this is the first event we've gotten in awhile and people ranted to IRE corporate about it, and now it's flat out being cancelled. This is also the first event I've seen that allowed people to opt out if it wasn't their cup of tea and they wanted to do something else, so I really don't know how the Pools can win here.
Don't get me wrong, I have some legitimate gripes about how it was run. I got tired of people intentionally trolling on Curse chat because they could hide behind anonymity like with the nicknames that were flat out pointless to people, as well as the OOC chat which should've been kept to a minimum unless admins needed to give direction. People were acting overly silly and that kind of takes away from the event. Curse chat should've been used for coordination and communication and that should've been hard enforced, rather than repeated shouting about "TOUCHING PEOPLE WITH THEIR SANDY APPENDAGE" or "WHO HAS TOUCHED THE MUFFIN MAN YET? ANYONE?". Seriously, it got annoying really fast.
In any event, if y'all want events, you're going to have to take some punches every now and again. Events generally correspond with bad things happening to your character. It's just the way of the world. Also, if there is a shared channel for "impacted folks" during a similar event in the future, please do not troll and try to take it with some semblance of seriousness.
> Players complain that events aren't happening and there's a lack of stuff going on.
> Players complain when an event happens for a myriad of reasons, some legitimate criticisms but others because "BAD THINGS" happened to their characters.
Real talk, this is where I get really irritated as a player because this is the first event we've gotten in awhile and people ranted to IRE corporate about it, and now it's flat out being cancelled. This is also the first event I've seen that allowed people to opt out if it wasn't their cup of tea and they wanted to do something else, so I really don't know how the Pools can win here.
Don't get me wrong, I have some legitimate gripes about how it was run. I got tired of people intentionally trolling on Curse chat because they could hide behind anonymity like with the nicknames that were flat out pointless to people, as well as the OOC chat which should've been kept to a minimum unless admins needed to give direction. People were acting overly silly and that kind of takes away from the event. Curse chat should've been used for coordination and communication and that should've been hard enforced, rather than repeated shouting about "TOUCHING PEOPLE WITH THEIR SANDY APPENDAGE" or "WHO HAS TOUCHED THE MUFFIN MAN YET? ANYONE?". Seriously, it got annoying really fast.
In any event, if y'all want events, you're going to have to take some punches every now and again. Events generally correspond with bad things happening to your character. It's just the way of the world. Also, if there is a shared channel for "impacted folks" during a similar event in the future, please do not troll and try to take it with some semblance of seriousness.
Nisavi
16
Re: Bloodloch's government system is unfair and doesn't make sense
I'm not commenting on the thread as a whole, but I'd like to remind people that this is a sensitive topic and to please be polite to each other, rather than dismissive and rude. Forum rules, #5. Everyone's feeling it a bit right now - everyone.I'm actually going to take this into consideration and do something completely out of left field here.
Carry on.
@Callidora. The power is 100% in your hands. What happens is 100% up to you.
It is not up to Tiur. Tiur has already stated that he believes compromise is the solution, and it has been stated by multiple people on varying sides that the compromise is just a bandaid, liable to be ripped off down the road, or scraped off over time. Tiur's solution is a non-solution. Tiur probably feels his hands are tied, because no matter what choice he makes he will make some group of players mad. Tiur has decided that making everyone mad is the better solution so he can say 'no one is happy and we just have to deal with it'. I have no idea why Tiur is doing this, when it is incredibly obvious that the mechanical constraints are unwanted, unnecessary, and causing problems for the organization and the players in them, and that a bandaid is not going to help. The 'lore' argument has fallen flat, proven inadequate in this thread in a variety of ways. But for whatever reason, Tiur does not want to do the Obviously Correct Thing.
Those of us who view the system as wrong, or odd, or unnecessary, or as some constraint on how we get to play the game, or just opposed to it for whatever reason, clearly cannot do anything about it. We've pushed an IC option, there was a meeting about it in the pools, and the posts on this thread have proven their points quite well. But, it is a coded mechanic, and the only thing we can do is ask Tiur to remove it, and Tiur does not want to.
So, it is up to you. It is up to you to take a step back and understand the system that has been created from an objective view point. It is up to you to recognize that at least two people on this thread have stated they voted yes in the referendum for IC reasons, and are against it or ambivalent towards it on an OOC level, completely changing the results. It is up to you to realize that both IC and OOC resentment grows as a direct result of this constrained city leader position. It is up to you to realize that the structure holding you in power is actually also hurting you, by causing players in a city to dislike either you, or your character, or both, purely because of these power dynamics and how the game is being forced to be played within the organizations.
It is up to you to relinquish control. It is up to you to let go of the power that is given to you as a guarantee, instead of the power granted to you, through voting, by the characters and players in the organization you help lead. It is up to you to understand that you are not just the IC leader of the Dominion and Bloodloch, but an OOC leader as well. It is up to you to understand that this means part of your responsibility is to do the right thing, even if it isn't the thing you want to do. Even when you have dealt with sleights and unfair treatment by other players, or forced decisions by the admin, it is still up to you to make this difficult decision.
I do not want to bump heads with you. I feel like I have been talking at you without ever talking with you. I, as a player, have never harbored any ill-will towards you or your character. My past character and current character have had either amicable interactions or no interactions with your character. Any bad mouthing of the Dominion I've done on web, I've only done specifically because of this mechanic. I have also shit talked Bloodloch, the Teradrim, @Bulrok, and Spinesreach (fuck spinesreach). But mostly I shit talk myself because I love self-deprecating humor. And frankly, Tiur and the pools will tell you I am extremely critical when I have a critique or criticism, so if anything I've probably handled this with kids gloves compared to what I throw at them.
I guess, in the end, I'm asking you to be a leader of Bloodloch. Not a propped-up leader of Bloodloch.
P. S. Considering the post now above this one, I should mention that doing this isn't going to be some panacea for tension in BL. But if there is a desire for cohesion, then it has to be up to the players and their characters to push the city in that direction. A mechanic that constrains that possibility of cohesion is going to work directly against any chance for BL to works towards unity or mending wounds or seeing eye to eye or whatever else.
It's just. This ain't it, y'all.
Edit: To clarify, I'm not asking anyone to step down as OL, just that the lock on the OL spot be removed so anyone can contest and fill the position, not just Primus.
Re: Bloodloch's government system is unfair and doesn't make sense
So being as you are bringing me into this, I want to state that I also came into the meeting to be able to hash some things out, resolve things and move forward. I wasn't being condescending (or at least wasn't trying to be) when I said that even if a good point was raised, it would be argued. The admins are using both sides of the same argument (for and against the Dominion OL) to find some sort of middle ground, while also maintaining some semblance of lore, history and identity. While I understand and acknowledge that it doesn't exactly scream fair, there's not really much we can do at this point either.
Also, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I went into that meeting really stoked to have an opportunity to talk some of this over, and to have Rhyot start condescending to me because I was trying to make an argument was, yeah, way too much for me. I wasn't angry until I was treated like my opinions didn't matter RIGHT in front of an ADMIN while we're OOC and are supposed to be on our best behavior.
In no way or manner was I trying to make you feel as if your opinion was being dismissed or didn't matter and I apologize for making you feel that way. I have always done my best to make sure everyone can have their opinion be heard and I don't have any real issue with you on an OOC level.
BL had lost it's identity over the years and it's been great to hear that we're getting events to help us work together and get some identity back. What's not so great is losing players in the process because neither side can agree on something and it has to be this 'My way or the highway' concept. No matter how it boils down, nobody wins.
If you ever want to talk to me, I will always welcome you reaching out to me.
Rhyot
5
Re: Volunteer AMA!
As a serious answer to the "favorite prog" question - the corpse mound in Mandre's tower. It's a relatively simple design that I don't remember being that difficult to create and worked out surprisingly well. It was the first time I'd tried to make a 'lights out' kind of puzzle, and I love puzzles like that in other games. Plus the messages are very gross and the concept behind it is strangely hilarious to me.
Silena
3
Re: Volunteer AMA!
This is a huge question @Tetchta, so forgive me in advance if this ends up being a huge answer.
So I guess to rephrase the question: what is the best way we, as players, can make it clear that when we give feedback that it's not personal, and what's the best way to reduce hurt feelings all around? Maybe I'm just talking for myself, but I don't think I've ever been angry at a Celani for stuff they've implimented in game, even a little.
I think step one is always taking a step back and re-reading whatever it is you're about to say before you say it, just like in real life. Like I mentioned in one of my answers above, we're all heavily invested (figuratively, and sometimes literally) in our text characters, so very veeeery often emotions can run a little high with these sorts of things. If you want something to change, going into it emotionally charged is starting off on the wrong foot more times than not.
Step two is just being conscientious of your phrasing. If you wouldn't say it to somebody in person the way you have your feedback typed, you probably shouldn't post it that way.
There's a huge difference between:
"I'm not the biggest fan of this feature, in the future maybe it could be handled this way, here's why and how."
and
"This is the worst feature in the history of Aetolia. You're actively trying to chase players away from the game with this and you must clearly hate the players or else you wouldn't have done this in the first place."
While the second seems super exaggerated, this kind of feedback (and, truthfully, much worse) happens on a regular basis, and can be one of the biggest contributors to burnout. When you get responses like this, it feels like it doesn't matter what you do, it's still not going to be good enough, and there's no actual solution. It's hard to reasonably respond to things like that.
In this same line of thought, if you're dissatisfied with something, having numbers, figures, or factual information to back you up goes a long way. It's hard for us to work with "I just don't like it," but if we have something tangible to work with, it's easier to come up with a solution and/or change the way it's done in the future. "Lol Aetolia's lore is so sloppy" vs "Maybe we can ask for elaboration on X facet of the lore that doesn't seem to make sense."
Finally, some give and take/tempering of expectations needs to be taken into consideration. What might seem like an easy ask/criticism/request to handle something differently might actually be a huge undertaking, and sometimes the resources simply just aren't there to make it happen at that exact time that the issue is raised. That's just an unfortunate reality. We're not a triple-A game studio with tons of paid developers cranking out content and features, but it'd be cool if we were.
Here's an example: My town's got this super awesome independent game shop in it with 5 employees. If I go in and make a request that they start carrying X product and I'm respectful about it, they'll probably hear me out and try to make it happen since I'm a regular customer and it's doable.
If I get mad at them for not having a hyped-up game in stock for me to pick up on release day, they're going to say, "Sorry, we don't have the resources that Gamestop or Walmart does and only got so many copies."
If I start repeatedly complaining about their store to them, or to my friends within earshot of the owner every time I go into it, they're going to end up asking why I keep shopping there if it's as bad as I say it is.
tl;dr
1. Be respectful, and frame your criticisms/requests accordingly
2. Come with specifics and/or facts to back your criticisms up for better chances at better solutions
3. Try to be cognizant of acknowledging the good as much as the bad
4. Understand that because this is a predominantly-volunteer setup, the solutions might be limited in scale to predominantly-volunteer sized solutions and timeframes
5. Keep in mind that you hear what the voices around you say the most. If you're in a circle that hates X feature and constantly berates it, you might think it's a huge thing that must be addressed. What you may not see is another group outside of your circle that absolutely loves it.
Brax
5
Re: Drawings of Aetolia
Malcanthet in Earthenform as drawn by the very talented @Qelres ! Very happy with how you captured her! 🥰
Minipet Requests
I've seen some discussions about minipets that people wish existed, and we're always on the hunt for new minipet ideas!
If there's a minipet that you wish existed in the game, let us know here, and maybe you'll see it end up in the game at some point.
OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: Dropping a minipet idea here does not by any means guarantee it'll actually make it into the game, or that you'll receive it.
OTHER DISCLAIMER: We also cannot help it if Tina acquires said new minipets before you do. Sorry.
If there's a minipet that you wish existed in the game, let us know here, and maybe you'll see it end up in the game at some point.
OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: Dropping a minipet idea here does not by any means guarantee it'll actually make it into the game, or that you'll receive it.
OTHER DISCLAIMER: We also cannot help it if Tina acquires said new minipets before you do. Sorry.
Brax
1
Re: Volunteer AMA!
I hate you for encouraging them to even consider it. Now I am in need of @Haelra's apple-green puppies.Saidenn said:Edit: In a simple numerical answer, how many ways can you imagine to murder @Elene's character, and how many of them do you think she would enjoy?
Also whoever loves the Kingkiller chronicles, I love you too. Those are one of my favourite series.
I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION.
I've been pretty fixated of late in the game about the different Elemental Planes and how they interact or exist apart from each other. Do either of you have a favourite Plane?
Elene
1