Vampire Townhall (Copy of Announce Post)

Dristin · December 2015

ANNOUNCE NEWS #2484
Date: 12/8/2015 at 23:00
From: Dristin
To : Everyone
Subj: Vampire Townhall

Hey Folks!

This coming Saturday (or Sunday, depending on where you live), we'll be
holding a townhall concerning vampires. This is solely about roleplay
and organization concerns and will have nothing to do with the class or
revamp concerns. You can find details in EVENTS INFO 106. If you have
any questions, please feel free to message me.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you are unable to attend, please feel free to post your questions here and I'll try to address them during/after the meeting. Or, PM me directly. I will provide some sort of log afterwards with what is pertinent.

Zsadist · December 2015

2 questions.... are the people who DONT play vampires allowed to attend/have a voice in this Townhall?

And 2) in the last townhall meeting when it was just a few of us city leaders, I had asked a few questions in regards to Dominion and Houses and was kind of told "We don't have a meeting long enough to discuss this." Can I re-ask those questions or is this org Townhall meeting more just for BL concerns?

Dristin · December 2015

For your first question, I answered you in-game. However, so everyone knows, anyone can attend. Some people have played vampires in the past, or have alts, so this opens it up to allow a variety of players to attend versus the Dominion-specific one we've had in the past.

To your second question, this would indeed be the type of meeting to bring up those points you had wished to discuss. This is a vampire-specific meeting.

Riluo · December 2015

I hope it brings some cool ideas out of the players. Sadly it is at 6am so not a time a few of us can attend. In this case is it ok to maybe post a few here if we think of anything?

Dristin · December 2015

Riluo said:
I hope it brings some cool ideas out of the players. Sadly it is at 6am so not a time a few of us can attend. In this case is it ok to maybe post a few here if we think of anything?

Yes.

Aryanne · December 2015

Other than make us feel good about having input and voicing opinions, what is the intended result of the meeting?

Knowing this would much better allow us to prepare what we want to bring up and what not to waste everyone else's time talking about.

Dristin · December 2015

There is no specific intended result, as with most townhalls. It is merely a time for us to gauge the playerbase on a particular topic and open the floor for general discussion. See what players feel are good things, bad things, or otherwise and answer any questions that we might be able to.

Zsadist · December 2015

So, I was unable to attend the townhall due to a very depressing, unwanted, and bribed attendance of a Xmas party. However, I still have a few questions:

1) Are there any future plans for Houses and actually make them mean something?? What I mean by this, is that Houses right now have no real individuality, no real purpose, no real anything. All a House is, is just a small clique of people running around and bowing/kowtowing to each other all because they share a name. Really? No. I understand that its a community of people who are SUPPOSED to have a Dominion driven role, but lets be honest. Dominion driven roles are complete and utter fucking crap. Nebre'seir is dead, Ve'kahi is nothing but a clique who all follow around Erzsebet and listen to her because her word is law, D'baen is all Asaraii driven (props to her for bringing it back from the dead (no pun intended)), and Bahir'an is just as dead as Nebre'seir. TLDR; Are Houses going to actually have ANYTHING happen to them to actually make them MEAN something or are we just keeping them because lore/rp/vampirism/abho said so??

2) Right now, all people care about are titles/blood ranks, which is nothing more than New Blood A seeking out a pretty little Prince(ss)/Emperor(ess) so that they too can become a fucking pretty little Prince(ss). Is there any way we can change this so that blood rank actually means something? Maybe have advancement levels so that people can rise through the ranks to obtain whatever rank they want? Or if not, can we completely nix blood ranks so that we don't have these 50 billion pretty little Prince(ss) roaming around, which would subsequently actually make the Sire/Childe process more important/permanent?

3) Bloodhunts.... I get that these are now able to be player driven to help drive conflict/rp. However, here's the issue. When someone DOES issue a bloodhunt, the people who issued said bloodhunt get BLASTED with bitches/gripes/complaints both IG/OOC/Forums (from both "vampires" and non-vamps alike) all because they are driving to push conflict/rp.... then again, as I write this, the Bloodhunts driven by Abhorash also get fucking blasted with said gripes. So my question is this.... are player-driven bloodhunts even a real viable way to drive conflict, due to the inherent nature of people just wanting to bitch/complain about conflict? If not, can we get more Abhorash involvement on said Bloodhunts so that we can be like "Stfu, our master said to kill you"?

Dristin · December 2015

1. I can't comment on what plans we have for houses. Unfortunately, a lot of things with houses are left to be done by the house leaders - just like with many other orgs - so most things you describe are issues that current leadership have done (either positive or negative). It also has to do with the community of vampires in general and has been an issue for years, not just recent times or since after the house shrinking.
2. People who care about bloodranks are people who will always choose it just because they want to, if that's all they are choosing a sire based upon rather than who is active/interesting to RP with. But, that's always going to be a thing so long as the house in question enforces bloodrank. Bloodrank is not meant to be anything beyond superficial flare. In years back, blood rank -did- mean something and it was complained about by the majority of those who played at the time because no one could get the highest bloodrank and it was hard to even get close to the highest by being their childe. We're definitely not looking to do that again.
3. Abhorash is not going to be more involved with bloodhunts because of your last statement. He shouldn't be an excuse to kill people so much. He should be used very rarely and when it is important. Bloodhunts are intended for the Dominion to call a hunt for a good reason or provide a place where you all can bash together exclusively for a bit or enjoy some PK. It's definitely not meant to drive a thing but add another component to things for occasional fun. Driving conflict is done in so many other ways and bloodhunts should not be considered a way to do that.

Neoma · December 2015

I was also unable to attend the townhall meeting because it is the season for staff parties and what not.
RL interfering with the game. Outrageous!

I had already messaged Dristin my question and got an answer.. not the one I wanted but "c'est la game" .
I was wondering if a transcript of the meeting could be made available for those of us unable to attend.

Dristin · December 2015

I'm not going to be providing an outright transcript, because it was a really long meeting (over 2 hours), but I'm putting together a list of items from it. It'll probably take me a few days.

Neoma · December 2015

@Dristin understandable, a list of just the main points is good. Thanks

Dristin · December 2015

I managed to go ahead and get it done while baby is sleeping. Here is a basic list of things brought up during the meeting:

http://pastebin.com/cGiq0sTD

Iselle · December 2015

Thanks for doing this! It was interesting hearing from everyone's perspective.

(Footnote-ish question: when is that dominion crest contest thing gonna conclude?)

Dristin · December 2015

Iselle said:
Thanks for doing this! It was interesting hearing from everyone's perspective.

(Footnote-ish question: when is that dominion crest contest thing gonna conclude?)

I heard that there were only a handful of entries, so I'll have to follow-up.

Draiman · December 2015

POLYGAMY

Aryanne · December 2015

from reading this, the take away I got was:

If players want more interaction, they need to create it.
Things that could be mechanically enforced / admin encouraged should be player-driven instead.
Good ideas aren't practical, or too much work to mechanically bother with trying.
There are ideas in the works to potentially change things that don't fall under those previous categories, but they can't be talked about with any specificity; however, we're listening to your ideas: the ones we aren't rejecting outright, anyway.

Riluo · December 2015

I thought the townhall was a nice gesture. I only wish it gave more definitive answers which I feel was a bit amiss. Overall it was still a good thing as it got people thinking.

Dristin · December 2015

In response to @Aryanne, let me touch on your points:

1. We are fine with doing things to add interaction, we already have been doing that and do it regularly. And when I say we, I primarily mean myself in most cases. What we're trying to get people to realize is that a lot of it, just like with any other organization, is in their own hands and people need to try to work together more.
2. I'm really not sure specifically which parts you are meaning here. If you mean adding in referendums/etc other coded features? It really is something dependent on what we do with the organizations going forward. We do want players to realize they have a lot more power than they realize, that was the main point of any related statements.
3. It's not that good ideas aren't practical. Some good ideas are - it's more finding ones that will fit the number of players we actively have. Some of the intense and large ideas thrown out are just not feasible with the amount of players we have.
4. There are a lot of things in the works. We've been bouncing ideas back and forth for months to try to figure out what we can do to improve vampire society. Any ideas being rejected outright are just to be honest and realistic.

The meeting was to see where players stand more than anything, and see if there were any additional ideas we have not already run through ourselves. It's good to get the playerbase involved and not have them feel as if they are not being heard at all.

Pypo · December 2015

I guess I tend to be too much of a Van Hellsing fanboy, but I am sorry but I simply must ask this. As we all well know, vampires cannot pro-create. They just dun got the juice anymore for such things. However, when vampires take a meal ((over the course of many years)) on a individual mortal ((like a moral wife or husband for example)) Is it possible in the creation of half-bred mortal-vampires? OR was this the intent of bloodborn sorcery?

I ask this because I have always felt curious about the proto-vampire night-terrors which had mortals with powers of corpus and mentis. Until bitten, they had no third skill. The night-terror is themed after a rabid monster type person and I have been wondering a very long time if it would be possible to have proto's who can be twisted in other means and forms like the conceptual of the beloved half human-half vampire. One who exists in neither mortal or vampiritic lifestyles but has minor access to both humanity and the power of a vampire.

That jackal in the light and the dark. Surfing between both planes to keep balance between both humans and vampires.